#i know he won that emmy specifically for this scene i just know it!

[leupagus]

Live Gus Reacts! After a nap

So this one isn't going to be long because my carpal tunnel is acting up, but I loved this episode. Yes, there were some after-school-special elements, but I think Chuck Hayward knocked it out of the park, especially considering this was his only screenplay for this show (of course, he's won Emmys for Wandavision and is about to run his own show so dude knows what he's about). It felt much more interwoven than last week's, and certainly flowed a lot better.

I'm hilarified that Edyta Budnik's Polish background was used for Jade's character, similar to how most of the Richmond players' actual backgrounds are used on the show (and why I had her reading a book in Polish in the WifeGuy fic I'm writing). I will say that Rupert, specifically, clocking that was an interesting moment because there is a very real (and ugly) history of prejudice against Polish immigrants in England; Rupert was not being charming there, by any means. The whole interaction with Rupert and Nate in this episode was really fascinating, because Rupert's clearly alarmed at the fact that Nate is getting outside support — he was so effective at cutting Nate completely off from everyone at Richmond, but here Nate is, building his own network here (Roger's invitation suggests to me that this isn't the first time Nate's been out with the West Ham staff/team after a game). And for Rupert, that's unacceptable — Nate's become as much a "possession" to him as Rebecca once was, so he's going to try his best to keep Nate isolated. Unfortunately for him, Nate is still The Great and is learning to balance his newfound pride with his enduring kindness. So however that shakes out will be fun to watch, I think. (All the fingers crossed that it ends with Rupert getting struck by lightning, because really how could you improve on mardia's masterpiece.)

One thing I hate about this storyline, though, is that Nick Mohammed is still having to field abuse from racist fans who think he hasn't "atoned" enough to be allowed happiness or character growth; I love seeing more of Nate, but not at the expense of Mohammed having to deal with this bullshit.

Re: the Colin storyline, I can't really say whether or not it was handled well or poorly, because my personal reaction to it has overwritten that kind of objective analysis. I've read a few reactions, which run the gamut, and I can see how those scenes may have left people disappointed/elated/angry/satisfied. For me, knowing that this episode was written by a Black man my age, from my mom's alma mater (and uhhhh glad to see they changed the mascot from when she went there) and that he and Dylan Marron were the two writers "in charge" of Colin's storyline does make me more inclined to see the choices — Ted's ridiculous Denver Broncos analogy, Isaac's lashing out and somewhat remedial "how does gay work" questions — as deliberate explorations of how straight men can and do react to finding out their friend is gay: not perfectly or even well, but borne out of love and respect and desire to protect. I was very grateful that the entire team immediately accepted Colin, because the last thing I wanted in that moment was "realism." Ditto with Colin's playing improving in the second half of the game, now that his two lives are (at least partially) connected; that's likely not what would happen IRL but I didn't care, even a little bit.

I'll admit I VERY much dig Rebecca as Tough Mom character this season; she's been doling out some extremely good advice to people, and it's delightful to me. Yes, she's a main character who's not getting enough to do, but like Ted I think the show still works when she's not in the spotlight, and when she gets to be the one offering support rather than needing it. And I adore her and Roy's weird-ass relationship, it's just incredible to get these glimpses into how they see each other.

Other than that: Sam giving Jamie the middle finger AND a beautiful smile was amazing, Jamie being pleased to be clocked as queer was interesting, the Higgins And Rebecca Buddies Fun Time is still great, and I want every one of Trent Crimm's t-shirts. And a clementine.

#ted lasso #ted lasso spoilers #believe mothereffers #also did anyone else notice Michelle's absolutely exhausted 'please ted we gotta let the teacher go' tone #like god bless and I love Ted dearly #but Ted when he's in full Win You Over mode really is EXHAUSTING

[robert-deniro]

THE MORNING SHOW

1.10 // The Interview

#the morning show #tmsedit #themorningshowedit #usernastya #tvedit #bbelcher #cory ellison #fred micklen #mia jordan #sakshi does a thing #whomst else has watched this show pls interact....... #i forgot this was in my drafts :( #anyway #i know he won that emmy specifically for this scene i just know it!

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I’ve been listening The Bugle podcast, which started in October 2007 and now I’m about a year in, in September 2008. It’s a topical podcast that Andy Zaltzman and John Oliver recorded every week for a bunch of years, with Andy in London and John having recently moved to New York, to talk about whatever was in the news from the perspectives of both sides of the Atlantic. I’m still a bit amazed that I’ve spent the last year or so wishing something like this existed, and had never bothered to find out that it does actually exist.

I’m on episode 45, and I’m enjoying it so much. I should probably say more about what the show is actually like, because that’s the sort of thing I write about on this blog, but I keep getting so into listening to the episodes and then I just want to listen to the next episode rather than do anything else. I don’t have anything to say that’s funny or interesting enough to add on to anything they say.

But I do have one specific thing, on the episode I’m at now. John Oliver recorded this episode from Los Angeles, where he’d flown to attend the Emmys, since The Daily Show was nominated. John complained about how after the podcast, he’d have to go to the awards show, where he was nervous about all the very successful and attractive people who would be there, and where he would have to wear a full tuxedo for the first time in his life. Which, first of all, adorable. Today, John Oliver has now been nominated for 21 Emmy Awards and won 15 of them, mostly for his own show and not for working on someone else’s. But the one in 2008 was his first time going there and he sounded genuinely intimidated/vaguely amazed that it was happening.

Listening to The Bugle reminds me a tiny bit of listening to Russell Howard and Jon Richardson’s radio show, which I did last year. The two shows are very different in a bunch of ways – this one is topical and written beforehand (in that they write material for it and know exactly what they’re going to discuss, they’re not reading the whole thing off a script or anything) and edited afterward, while the other one is just several hours of live talking about whatever with only a vague plan and a few recurring segments. But there are some similarities, in that they’re both two male comedians who are friends in real life and are starting to get a bit famous but have not yet gotten as famous as they’ll go on to be, in 2007-2008, talking to each other in an unscripted audio format. So that creates a slightly similar feel.

There’s another similar circumstance, in that in both shows, one of those guys was getting famous faster/sooner than the other. Jon Richardson and Russell Howard had recently gone from guys who were both doing stand-up locally and trying to break into the wider comedy scene, to Russell getting a regular Mock the Week spot and other panel show bookings and shows overseas, while Jon stayed in their original position for a couple more years. This led to outbursts of panic and jealousy and resentment and general bitterness from Jon, expressed frequently enough on air so I can only imagine how bad he was off air.

During the first couple of years of The Bugle, Andy Zaltzman and John Oliver had recently gone from two guys who did live shows together in Britain and made BBC Radio 4 comedies together, to Andy still doing that while John got a job with The Daily Show and moved to New York. This is a much faster ascent to fame than Russell Howard had, and my brain, which has been wired from listening to that radio show last year, expected to hear resentment from his less famous friend.

Honestly, I’d resent John Oliver if I were one of his former peers. Especially because 45 episodes of The Bugle has been enough for me to see that of the two of them, Andy Zalzman is the one who does the long-ish rants that sound off the cuff but must have taken a lot of time and skill to write, and they make me laugh until I can’t breathe. I’m not saying Andy’s an overall better comedian than John. What John Oliver does on Last Week Tonight takes incredible talent that few people have. But it’s clear that in terms of just writing words that are really fucking funny and then saying them in a way that makes people laugh really hard, Andy Zaltzman is at least as good as John Oliver. John just happened to get a golden opportunity and suddenly he’s across an ocean wearing tuxedos at the Emmys. I’m not entirely sure how that happened, and to hear the way he talks about it on The Bugle, John doesn’t seem to be sure either. For some reason I think I’ve heard somewhere that Ricky Gervais was involved. I might look that up later.

John Oliver’s Daily Show job immediately made him much more famous than he’d been in England, but it didn’t immediately make him a world-famous celebrity. However, it did immediately put him in a position to regularly interact with world-famous celebrities, because The Daily Show gets a lot of high-profile guests. So in these episodes of the humble Bugle podcast, John Oliver sometimes drops some names. Will Ferrell, George Clooney, Bill Gates, a bunch of American politicians who are not well known now but were big deals at the time - John will occasionally throw in stories about how he was in a room with these people just a few days ago.

The weird thing to me is that Andy lets him get away with that. On their BBC 6 Music radio show, Russell Howard couldn’t slip in a casual reference to sharing a train with Jimmy Carr once without a full meltdown from Jon accusing him of being a name-dropping asshole. I wouldn’t expect that reaction from Andy Zaltzman, partly because it’s a little different when we know John Oliver has spent the last week sharing space with The Daily Show’s latest guests so it’s completely expected, and partly because Andy Zaltzman is a reasonable human being with a sense of professionalism and perspective, rather than just a mess of psychological issues stacked on top of each other in a trench coat.

But still… I’d expect something. Not fully freaking out about it like Jon Richardson. But some level of mocking, not just letting John Oliver get away with casually mentioning how he had a conversation with Bill Gates like that’s normal, and then moving on. Because while The Bugle is about discussing the news, it is also about, as the British say (I think this is a term used in North America too, just not nearly as often), banter. They make fun of each other for everything. For the way they talk and the way they look and the things that annoy them and for any mistake they make with their words. For being too British or not British enough or too American or not American enough, depending on the context.

At this point, it’s weird that I haven’t heard Andy Zaltzman make a single comment along the lines of “All right John, we know you’re a hotshot in New York who gets to hang out with proper celebrities all the time, and fuck you for that.” The disparity in fame is becoming such a large elephant in the room that it’s starting to feel like they’re intentionally avoiding it, which is, as I said, weird. Like… is Andrew Zaltzman made of stone? Is he such a gracious and jealousy-free good person that he’s genuinely not bothered by this, and in fact doesn’t even notice it so he doesn’t think it’s worth commenting on? Is it such a bothersome subject that he’s just too professional to bring it up on the podcast?

Anyway, I had been starting to think things along those lines, but fortunately, in the episode I’m on now, Andy just let John finish his story about how he’s recording this from Los Angeles and he recently got fitted for a tuxedo to wear to the Emmys and that was awkward because he doesn’t look good in formal clothes (yeah, imagine if John Oliver had to wear suits all the time, wouldn’t that be weird?), followed by a story about an awkward moment when he’d run into Tony Blair at a recent Daily Show taping, and responded with: “So, uh, John is in L.A. for the Emmys and just met Tony Blair. I had a really good pastrami sandwich on Thursday. So, big things happening for both of us this week.��

I have to say, hearing that joke was pretty reassuring, just as a way to let me know that Andy Zaltzman is in fact human and not made entirely of stone or grace or whatever you’d have to made of to never pick up on this situation at all. Surely there must be some normal level of human response to doing a show with a friend who’s much more successful than you are – something between being serenely completely fine with it and being a mess of psychological issues stacked on top of each other in a trench coat. Andy’s probably found it there, it probably lies in making a quip about pastrami sandwiches and moving on.

I get it, Andy. I had a good pastrami sandwich a few days ago too, and I haven’t won an Emmy or met Tony Blair either (not that I would want to do the second of those things, at least). But I also can’t write and then recite surrealist comedy monologues that are funny enough to make listeners fall apart with laughter, and consistently come up with fresh ones on a regular basis for years. So you’ve got big things going for you too. I’ve never heard John Oliver host The News Quiz.

[dornish-queen]

Pedro Pascal on Fame and ‘The Mandalorian’: ‘Can We Cut the S— and Talk About the Child?’

By Adam B. Vary

Photographs by Beau Grealy

When Pedro Pascal was roughly 4 years old, he and his family went to see the 1978 hit movie “Superman,” starring Christopher Reeve. Pascal’s young parents had come to live in San Antonio after fleeing their native Chile during the rise of dictator Augusto Pinochet in the mid-1970s. Taking Pascal and his older sister to the movies — sometimes more than once a week — had become a kind of family ritual, a way to soak up as much American pop culture as possible.

At some point during this particular visit, Pascal needed to go to the bathroom, and his parents let him go by himself. “I didn’t really know how to read yet,” Pascal says with the same Cheshire grin that dazzled “Game of Thrones” fans during his run as the wily (and doomed) Oberyn Martel. “I did not find my way back to ‘Superman.'”

Instead, Pascal wandered into a different theater (he thinks it was showing the 1979 domestic drama “Kramer vs. Kramer,” but, again, he was 4). In his shock and bewilderment at being lost, he curled up into an open seat and fell asleep. When he woke up, the movie was over, the theater was empty, and his parents were standing over him. To his surprise, they seemed rather calm, but another detail sticks out even more.

“I know that they finished their movie,” he says, bending over in laughter. “My sister was trying to get a rise out of me by telling me, ‘This happened and that happened and then Superman did this and then, you know, the earthquake and spinning around the planet.'” In the face of such relentless sibling mockery, Pascal did the only logical thing: “I said, ‘All that happened in my movie too.'”

He had no way of knowing it at the time, of course, but some 40 years later, Pascal would in fact get the chance to star in a movie alongside a DC Comics superhero — not to mention battle Stormtroopers and, er, face off against the most formidable warrior in Westeros. After his breakout on “Game of Thrones,” he became an instant get-me-that-guy sensation, mostly as headstrong, taciturn men of action — from chasing drug traffickers in Colombia for three seasons on Netflix’s “Narcos” to squaring off against Denzel Washington in “The Equalizer 2.”

This year, though, Pascal finds himself poised for the kind of marquee career he’s spent a lifetime dreaming about. On Oct. 30, he’ll return for Season 2 as the title star of “The Mandalorian,” Lucasfilm’s light-speed hit “Star Wars” series for Disney Plus that earned 15 Emmy nominations, including best drama, in its first season. And then on Dec. 25 — COVID-19 depending — he’ll play the slippery comic book villain Maxwell Lord opposite Gal Gadot, Chris Pine and Kristen Wiig in “Wonder Woman 1984.”

The roles are at once wildly divergent and the best showcase yet for Pascal’s elastic talents. In “The Mandalorian,” he must hide his face — and, in some episodes, his whole body — in a performance that pushes minimalism and restraint to an almost ascetic ideal. In “Wonder Woman 1984,” by stark contrast, he is delivering the kind of big, broad bad-guy character that populated the 1980s popcorn spectaculars of his youth.

“I continually am so surprised when everybody pegs him as such a serious guy,” says “Wonder Woman 1984” director Patty Jenkins. “I have to say, Pedro is one of the most appealing people I have known. He instantly becomes someone that everybody invites over and you want to have around and you want to talk to.”

Talk with Pascal for just five minutes — even when he’s stuck in his car because he ran out of time running errands before his flight to make it to the set of a Nicolas Cage movie in Budapest — and you get an immediate sense of what Jenkins is talking about. Before our interview really starts, Pascal points out, via Zoom, that my dog is licking his nether regions in the background. “Don’t stop him!” he says with an almost naughty reproach. “Let him live his life!”

Over our three such conversations, it’s also clear that Pascal’s great good humor and charm have been at once ballast for a number of striking hardships, and a bulwark that makes his hard-won success a challenge for him to fully accept.

Before Pascal knew anything about “The Mandalorian,” its showrunner and executive producer Jon Favreau knew he wanted Pascal to star in it.

“He feels very much like a classic movie star in his charm and his delivery,” says Favreau. “And he’s somebody who takes his craft very seriously.” Favreau felt Pascal had the presence and skill essential to deliver a character — named Din Djarin, but mostly called Mando — who spends virtually every second of his time on screen wearing a helmet, part of the sacrosanct creed of the Mandalorian order.

Convincing any actor to hide their face for the run of a series can be as precarious as escaping a Sarlacc pit. To win Pascal over in their initial meeting, Favreau brought him behind the “Mandalorian” curtain, into a conference room papered with storyboards covering the arc of the first season. “When he walked in, it must have felt a little surreal,” Favreau says. “You know, most of your experiences as an actor, people are kicking the tires to see if it’s a good fit. But in this case, everything was locked and loaded.”

Needless to say, it worked. “I hope this doesn’t sound like me fashioning myself like I’m, you know, so smart, but I agreed to do this [show] because the impression I had when I had my first meeting was that this is the next big s—,” Pascal says with a laugh.

Favreau’s determination to cast Pascal, however, put the actor in a tricky situation: Pascal’s own commitments to make “Wonder Woman 1984” in London and to perform in a Broadway run of “King Lear” with Glenda Jackson barreled right into the production schedule for “The Mandalorian.” Some scenes on the show, and in at least one case a full episode, would need to lean on the anonymity of the title character more than anyone had quite planned, with two stunt performers — Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder — playing Mando on set and Pascal dubbing in the dialogue months later.

Pascal was already being asked to smother one of his best tools as an actor, extraordinarily uncommon for anyone shouldering the newest iteration of a global live-action franchise. (Imagine Robert Downey Jr. only playing Iron Man while wearing a mask — you can’t!) Now he had to hand over control of Mando’s body to other performers too. Some actors would have walked away. Pascal didn’t.

“If there were more than just a couple of pages of a one-on-one scene, I did feel uneasy about not, in some instances, being able to totally author that,” he says. “But it was so easy in such a sort of practical and unexciting way for it to be up to them. When you’re dealing with a franchise as large as this, you are such a passenger to however they’re going to carve it out. It’s just so specific. It’s ‘Star Wars.'” (For Season 2, Pascal says he was on the set far more, though he still sat out many of Mando’s stunts.)

“The Mandalorian” was indeed the next big s—, helping to catapult the launch of Disney Plus to 26.5 million subscribers in its first six weeks. With the “Star Wars” movies frozen in carbonite until 2023 (at least), I noted offhand that he’s now effectively the face of one of the biggest pop-culture franchises in the world. Pascal could barely suppress rolling his eyes.

“I mean, come on, there isn’t a face!” he says with a laugh that feels maybe a little forced. “If you want to say, ‘You’re the silhouette’ — which is also a team effort — then, yeah.” He pauses. “Can we just cut the s— and talk about the Child?”

Yes, of course, the Child — or, as the rest of the galaxy calls it, Baby Yoda. Pascal first saw the incandescently cute creature during his download of “Mandalorian” storyboards in that initial meeting with Favreau. “Literally, my eyes following left to right, up and down, and, boom, Baby Yoda close to the end of the first episode,” he says. “That was when I was like, ‘Oh, yep, that’s a winner!'”

Baby Yoda is undeniably the breakout star of “The Mandalorian,” inspiring infinite memes and apocryphal basketball game sightings. But the show wouldn’t work if audiences weren’t invested in Mando’s evolving emotional connection to the wee scene stealer, something Favreau says Pascal understood from the jump. “He’s tracking the arc of that relationship,” says the showrunner. “His insight has made us rethink moments over the course of the show.” (As with all things “Star Wars,” questions about specifics are deflected in deference to the all-powerful Galactic Order of Spoilers.)

Even if Pascal couldn’t always be inside Mando’s body, he never left the character’s head, always aware of how this orphaned bounty hunter who caroms from planet to planet would look askance at anything that felt too good (or too adorable) to be true.

“The transience is something that I’m incredibly familiar with, you know?” Pascal says. “Understanding the opportunity for complexity under all of the armor was not hard for me.”

When Pascal was 4 months old, his parents had to leave him and his sister with their aunt, so they could go into hiding to avoid capture during Pinochet’s crackdown against his opposition. After six months, they finally managed to climb the walls of the Venezuelan embassy during a shift change and claim asylum; from there, the family relocated, first to Denmark, then to San Antonio, where Pascal’s father got a job as a physician.

Pascal was too young to remember any of this, and for a healthy stretch of his childhood, his complicated Chilean heritage sat in parallel to his life in the U.S. — separate tracks, equally important, never quite intersecting. By the time Pascal was 8, his family was able to take regular trips back to Chile to visit with his 34 first cousins. But he doesn’t remember really talking about any of his time there all that much with his American friends.

“I remember at one point not even realizing that my parents had accents until a friend was like, ‘Why does your mom talk like that?'” Pascal says. “And I remember thinking, like what?”

Besides, he loved his life in San Antonio. His father took him and his sister to Spurs basketball games during the week if their homework was done. He hoodwinked his mother into letting him see “Poltergeist” at the local multiplex. He watched just about anything on cable; the HBO special of Whoopi Goldberg’s one-woman Broadway show knocked him flat. He remembers seeing Henry Thomas in “E.T.” and Christian Bale in “Empire of the Sun” and wishing ardently, urgently, I want to live those stories too.

Then his father got a job in Orange County, Calif. After Pascal finished the fifth grade, they moved there. It was a shock. “There were two really, really rough years,” he says. “A lot of bullying.”

His mother found him a nascent performing arts high school in the area, and Pascal burrowed even further into his obsessions, devouring any play or movie he could get his hands on. His senior year, a friend of his mother’s gave Pascal her ticket to a long two-part play running in downtown Los Angeles that her bad back couldn’t withstand. He got out of school early to drive there by himself. It was the pre-Broadway run of “Angels in America.”

“And it changed me,” he says with almost religious awe. “It changed me.”

After studying acting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Pascal booked a succession of solid gigs, like MTV’s “Undressed” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” But the sudden death of his mother — who’d only just been permitted to move back to Chile a few years earlier — took the wind right from Pascal’s sails. He lost his agent, and his career stalled almost completely.

As a tribute to her, he decided to change his professional last name from Balmaceda, his father’s, to Pascal, his mother’s. “And also, because Americans had such a hard time pronouncing Balmaceda,” he says. “It was exhausting.”

Pascal even tried swapping out Pedro for Alexander (an homage to Ingmar Bergman’s “Fanny and Alexander,” one of the formative films of his youth). “I was willing to do absolutely anything to work more,” he says. “And that meant if people felt confused by who they were looking at in the casting room because his first name was Pedro, then I’ll change that. It didn’t work.”

It was a desperately lean time for Pascal. He booked an occasional “Law & Order” episode, but mostly he was pounding the pavement along with his other New York theater friends — like Oscar Isaac, who met Pascal doing an Off Broadway play. They became fast, lifelong friends, bonding over their shared passions and frustrations as actors.

“It’s gotten better, but at that point, it was so easy to be pigeonholed in very specific roles because we’re Latinos,” says Isaac. “It’s like, how many gang member roles am I going to be sent?” As with so many actors, the dream Pascal and Isaac shared to live the stories of their childhoods had been stripped down to its most basic utility. “The dream was to be able to pay rent,” says Isaac. “There wasn’t a strategy. We were just struggling. It was talking about how to do this thing that we both love but seems kind of insurmountable.”

As with so few actors, that dream was finally rekindled through sheer nerve and the luck of who you know, when another lifelong friend, actor Sarah Paulson, agreed to pass along Pascal’s audition for Oberyn Martell to her best friend Amanda Peet, who is married to “Game of Thrones” co-showrunner David Benioff.

“First of all, it was an iPhone selfie audition, which was unusual,” Benioff remembers over email. “And this wasn’t one of the new-fangled iPhones with the fancy cameras. It looked like s—; it was shot vertical; the whole thing was very amateurish. Except for the performance, which was intense and believable and just right.”

Before Pascal knew it, he found himself in Belfast, sitting inside the Great Hall of the Red Keep as one of the judges at Tyrion Lannister’s trial for the murder of King Joffrey. “I was between Charles Dance and Lena Headey, with a view of the entire f—ing set,” Pascal says, his eyes wide and astonished still at the memory. “I couldn’t believe I didn’t have an uncomfortable costume on. You know, I got to sit — and with this view.” He sighs. “It strangely aligned itself with the kind of thinking I was developing as a child that, at that point, I was convinced was not happening.”

And then it all started to happen.

In early 2018, while Pascal was in Hawaii preparing to make the Netflix thriller “Triple Frontier” — opposite his old friend Isaac — he got a call from the film’s producer Charles Roven, who told him Patty Jenkins wanted to meet with him in London to discuss a role in another film Roven was producing, “Wonder Woman 1984.”

“It was a f—ing offer,” Pascal says in an incredulous whisper. “I wasn’t really grasping that Patty wanted to talk to me about a part that I was going to play, not a part that I needed to get. I wasn’t able to totally accept that.”

Pascal had actually shot a TV pilot with Jenkins that wasn’t picked up, made right before his life-changing run on “Game of Thrones” aired. “I got to work with Patty for three days or something and then thought I’d never see her again,” he says. “I didn’t even know she remembered me from that.”

She did. “I worked with him, so I knew him,” she says. “I didn’t need him to prove anything for me. I just loved the idea of him, and I thought he would be kind of unexpected, because he doesn’t scream ‘villain.'”

In Jenkins’ vision, Max Lord — a longstanding DC Comics rogue who shares a particularly tangled history with Wonder Woman — is a slick, self-styled tycoon with a knack for manipulation and an undercurrent of genuine pathos. It was the kind of larger-than-life character Pascal had never been asked to tackle before, so he did something equally unorthodox: He transformed his script into a kind of pop-art scrapbook, filled with blown-up photocopies of Max Lord from the comic books that Pascal then manipulated through his lens on the character.

Even the few pages Pascal flashes to me over Zoom are quite revealing. One, featuring Max sporting a power suit and a smarmy grin, has several burned-out holes, including through the character’s eye. Another page features Max surrounded by text bubbles into which Pascal has written, over and over and over again in itty-bitty lettering, “You are a f—ing piece of s—.”

“I felt like I had wake myself up again in a big way,” he says. “This was just a practical way of, like, instead of going home tired and putting Netflix on, [I would] actually deal with this physical thing, doodle and think about it and run it.”

Jenkins is so bullish on Pascal’s performance that she thinks it could explode his career in the same way her 2003 film “Monster” forever changed how the industry saw Charlize Theron. “I would never cast him as just the stoic, quiet guy,” Jenkins says. “I almost think he’s unrecognizable from ‘Narcos’ to ‘Wonder Woman.’ Wouldn’t even know that was the same guy. But I think that may change.”

When people can see “Wonder Woman 1984” remains caught in the chaos the pandemic has wreaked on the industry; both Pascal and Jenkins are hopeful the Dec. 25 release date will stick, but neither is terribly sure it will. Perhaps it’s because of that uncertainty, perhaps it’s because he’s spent his life on the outside of a dream he’s now suddenly living, but Pascal does not share Jenkins’ optimism that his experience making “Wonder Woman 1984” will open doors to more opportunities like it.

“It will never happen again,” Pascal says, once more in that incredulous whisper. “It felt so special.”

After all he’s done in a few short years, why wouldn’t Pascal think more roles like this are on his horizon?

“I don’t know!” he finally says with a playful — and pointed — howl. “I’m protecting myself psychologically! It’s just all too good to be true! How dare I!”

#pedro pascal #jose pedro balmaceda pascal #variety magazine

[entertainment]

Entertainment Spotlight: Will Vought, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Actor, comedian, and writer Will Vought stars in the most recent season of the critically acclaimed dramedy series, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Additional television credits include The Good Wife, The Good Fight, both Lipstick Jungle and Love Bites, Bones, and Wilfred. Will is also an accomplished comedian, having toured the country opening for Wayne Brady. He got his start in the entertainment industry by contributing to Scott Shannon’s #1 morning show on 95.5 WPLJ, offering David Letterman updates and recaps, which opened the door for him to work for Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Following his work with Conan, Will was offered a position in the West Wing of the White House, working for former President Bill Clinton, where he still continued his radio work on the weekends as the youngest morning show host in the country at just 22 years old. Will went on to serve as head writer for Wayne Brady during his time hosting the The Late Late Show prior to James Corden in 2014 on CBS, and he continues to collaborate with renowned actor and comedian Paul Reiser, including shopping a television pilot they wrote together with Julie Bergman. We got the chance to ask him some questions. Check it out:

Do you have a favorite character arc from season 3 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel?

For Season 3, I’m finding myself really interested in Susie and her journey. I don’t want to spoil it for those getting ready to start the new season or binge the series; however, in the first two seasons, Susie’s been hustling and primarily being of service to Midge while her personal life hangs on by a thread. In season 3, there are so many more layers introduced and opportunities that will ripple into not only her clout as a comedy manager but also her personal life. Also, I’m really invested in Lenny Bruce. Having read so much about him to see his plight on screen told through Amy’s lens is incredible. I don’t know anyone in comedy that doesn’t appreciate what Lenny Bruce did for comedians. The end of the Season 3 premiere is absolutely priceless seen thought the eyes of Tony Shalhoub’s Emmy Award-winning performance as Abe Weissman - Midge’s father.

If everything that you did was narrated, whose voice would you want narrating your life?

HA! That is a great question, and I’ve had to think about it. At first, I thought of the late great voice-over artist Don LaFontaine who moviegoers would remember as the “In A World…” guy who made millions voicing almost every movie trailer ever! BUT…truth be told I think that I would love Seinfeld's voice and lens, and I think it would make my day to day activities far more entertaining to listen to, especially when on the phone with my therapist.  

Can you tell us about a time you bombed (on stage or in an audition)?

Well…the thing that pops to mind was an audition for NBC’s series called Lipstick Jungle. At the time, I was living on Long Island and decided to make the mistake of driving into Manhattan for the audition. Traffic was abhorrent, and you would think that there were mass casualties on the Long Island Expressway resulting in me being almost an hour and forty-five minutes late for the audition. The director of that episode was the one and only Timothy Busfield, whom I loved on Arron Sorkin’s The West Wing. Tim played reporter Danny Concannon - Senior White House Correspondent.

I had no idea that Timothy was going to be at the audition and was mortified when I showed up and saw him in the room because I was so late. It’s not unheard of to not be seen at all if you are late, let alone hours late. I read for the part and left. Tim was gracious. A month later, I got a call saying that I didn’t book that role; however, they were writing me another role and wanted to hire me for it. While on set shooting, Tim told me that when they asked him if he had any ideas for the part and he said, “That guy who came in 2 hours late. He was great. Hire him.” So I thought I bombed — but it worked out in the end.

The USO Tour scene from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel broke the record for the most number of background actors used in a scene for tv in the state of New York (850). What was it like being a part of such a huge production?

I’ve never worked on Star Wars, but that’s what I was thinking of when we were filming that. It was by far the largest set I’ve ever been on, and yes there were almost 1000 background actors there for almost an entire week, who made up the audience of the USO show that you see in the season 3 premiere. When I met with Amy and Dan for the final audition for the role of Major Buck Brilstein, it was at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn in a small room that’s not much larger than a small studio apartment in Manhattan. It was the three of us and Emmy award-winning casting director Cindy Tolan. We did all the material from the episode, and to juxtapose that to being in an actual hanger with 1000 extras essentially filming a USO show that’s scripted — it was a historic moment in television that wasn’t lost on me.  

What was the audition experience like for your role on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel?  

I kind of talk about that above. I had a great experience. As with anything, you have to go in a number of times, and then the final callback is with Amy and Dan Sherman Palladino. You are 2 feet away from her, there is a camera, and Cindy Tolan, the casting director, and you create the world and do the scenes — WORD PERFECT! That is a huge thing, and something I was told going in. Be word perfect every time. Their words are like notes on a page. Each one carefully picked and placed, and my job is to take them off the page and bring them to life with a sensibility of 1959 and a guy that’s a major in the army who always wanted to be a comedian but never really got the chance. So, my character is literally living his dream in this episode. Beyond that, you bring your A-game, nail it, and it’s up to Amy and Dan. It happened to go my way, and as I told Amy, I was grateful to get the invitation to play in her world. She wrote and directed this episode, so it was extra special.

Is there a specific role or moment that you feel has defined your career up to this point?

We’ll — this is pretty significant re: working with the Palladino’s.  I thought that The Good Wife was a big deal at the time — as I was part of Bob and Michelle King’s storyline that revealed Josh Charles’ character was murdered.  

It seems that I’m only allowed to act opposite actresses that have won 2 Emmy’s and 2 Golden Globes for Best Actress. LOL.  It’s truly a hard question to answer as each project is different, and as an actor, you hope that one job will open a door or opportunity to another.  That’s what I’ve found, at least over the past few years, so it’s certainly a slow burn.

Years ago, I was the low man on the totem pole at NBC’s Late Night with Conan O’Brien. I was an intern in the writing department under John Groff and often got the chance to appear in sketches on the show. This was an invaluable experience. There was an afternoon where I asked Conan (as I was cleaning his office) if he knew this was what he was going to do from the beginning. I’ll never forget what he said. He told me that, “In his wildest dreams he never thought he would be hosting a late night show.” He described show business as being on a highway. He was a writer in college, wanted to be a writer and set off on the highway with the goal of writing in mind. Along the trip, there were exits: Mad Magazine, The Simpsons, SNL. After each exit, he gets back on the journey. If you want to be a teacher or doctor or lawyer, you know exactly what to do. Go to X school for X years, and then they declare you as such. Boom. You’re it. Hollywood is not like that. Everyone’s path is so different, and how we get to where we are is almost inconsequential when compared to the culmination of the journey. I’ve been blessed to do a lot of different things so far and work with incredible talent that truly moves the needle in this business, and I hope for more opportunities.

What’s your favorite bit or joke from one of your stand-up sets?

I have a new bit I’m working on that’s fueled by my natural anger toward this situation.

I hate paper straws.

If this makes me a horrible person, so be it. If “they” think I don’t care about the EARTH or ENVIRONMENT and support the extinction of humanity because of this — so be it.

Paper straws? Really? Who did this make sense to? Who thought it was a good idea to combine PAPER and WATER?

I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time — but it doesn’t work. Three sips into my iced coffee and the thing has disintegrated, and I’m now drinking iced coffee and paper!

If you think paper straws are a good idea, let me ask you one question. Would you like to use a paper condom?

In the future, you’ll be standing in the rain telling your friend you can’t understand why she’s pregnant and soaking wet from holding the paper umbrella.

I will say that if we do switch to paper condoms …. I don’t know about the environment, but we will absolutely ensure the survival of humanity.

Lighting round! Describe each of the following in one word: Who you are, what you value the most, and what you’d be if you were a food item.  

I AM WILL VOUGHT.

I VALUE MOST: MY SON.

IF I WAS A FOOD ITEM, I’D BE A BEYOND BURGER!

What are you working on right now?

Right now, I’m working on sending out subliminal messages via Transcendental Meditation to Adam McKay for a coffee meeting that would result in being cast on the 3rd season of Succession on HBO.  I’d text him, but I don’t have his cell. Do you?

Thanks for taking the time, Will! Catch Season 3 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Prime Video. 

Photography: Emily Assiran | Grooming Laila Hayani | Styling: Natalia Zemliakova

#entertainment spotlight #will vought #the marvelous mrs. maisel

[nobody-wants-ice-cream]

Everything Wrong With The Umbrella Academy. Episode 1, We Only See Each Other At Weddings and Funerals.

Some context before the cut: This is all in good fun! I wanted to do a really nitpicky re-watch of the series and found some really cool and interesting things I didn’t notice before. This is meant to have a Cinema Sins-esque tone. However, I did take off a lot more sins than Cinema Sins would have because I do genuinely like the series and the people that made it possible. So all of the good things got one sin off and all the bad things got one sin added. This is a really long post, so grab some popcorn. If there’s anything that I missed, feel free to add it!

We Only See Each Other At Weddings And Funerals

The story opens with a random scene. I know why this is important now, but for a first time viewer this is a strange Russian show with no subtitles. Sin for the fact that this opening scene could drive away audiences when they could have opened with Pogo’s monologue or the sudden birth scene. +1

Sudden birth. I know that this is what starts the whole series, but not once do these assholes discuss the implications of sudden birth. That shit is traumatic and must have induced a lot of trauma in the mothers. Sinning for trauma. +1

The russian ladies all help this poor girl. Teamwork and togetherness gets a sin off. -1

How did they get her swimsuit off enough for her to give birth without just taking the whole thing off? Did one woman happen to have a pair of scissors on her so they could cut the crotch? Because one piece suits are not that flexible downstairs. They didn’t take it off her, it’s still covering her. Sinning for lack of realism or explanation. +1

This narration should have happened much sooner. +1

Buying children. Literally buying children. And he gets seven so he buys them wholesale. Seven sins because Sir Reginald Hargreeves is a dick that bought seven children. +7

One sin off for the soundtrack now. All the songs used in this show are bops! -1

Ellen Page starts playing the Lindsey Stirling Phantom of the Opera piece on the lowest string when the piece starts on a high note. One sin for lack of musicality. +1

Minus one sin for Ellen Page’s vibrato. Not many people pretending to play the violin get that so accurate. That or this was the talented body double. Either way one sin off for musicality. -1

“Please send more food” Reginald Hargreeves is a dick to his adopted children. He didn’t feed Luther enough, so who knows what he did to the ones he didn’t like as much. +7

Also, Luther has presumably spent four years in this base on the moon. Did he hit his head every morning? You would think that he would learn to duck. +1

One sin off for the moon plant. -1

I’m taking 10 sins off for the special effects of this entire series. -10

That car transition between Diego’s and Allison’s entrances was out of place. I know it’s meant to show that Allison is far away from the action. But did we really need that? It’s not shown when transitioning from the red carpet to Klaus in rehab. +1

What is keeping the lawnchair that Luther has on the moon down? It looks lightweight. Does he have it nailed to the moon? Is there now a lawnchair on the moon forever? +1

Tom Hopper is an excellent actor. He nailed the “just got the news that my father is dead” without saying a single word. -1

Diego doesn’t bother to untie the family he saves. He caused property damage and severely injured the thugs that broke in. No wonder Patch has a problem with him being a vigilante. +1

“Allison, will you wear Valentino to the funeral” +1

One sin off because Robert Sheehan has already won my heart as Klaus and he hasn’t said a single word yet. And for the little jig he does when he gets the drugs. Interesting choice, but I like it. I could be biased because I’ve watched the series already, but I don’t care. One sin off for Robert Sheehan. -1

Why was Vanya allowed to be playing to this empty theatre with spotlights on her? Does she have an arrangement with maintenance? Is that why the orchestra isn’t set up? +1

One sin off for the Hargreeves mansion. The set designers did an amazing job.-1 

Creepy shrine portrait of Five is creepy and somehow manages to not look like Aidan Gallager. This could be a stylistic choice to show that Reggie didn’t care about Five, in which case, another sin for child abuse. +1 

Creepy statue of Ben is creepy. And it doesn’t look like Justin Min or Ethan Hwang. Who is this statue honoring? +1

It has been stated that Ben’s death broke up the academy. Yet, the other four assholes stuck around for one more portrait after his death? +1

Vanya doesn’t close the doors behind her when she walks into the mansion. +1

Diego’s outfit is central to introducing his character. However, it is dumb as hell and he probably stabbed himself with the knives in the harness multiple times. Especially the ones on his back. +1

Diego is a dick to Vanya at their father's funeral. I know Reggie was a jackass, but Jesus Christ, Diego. Have some tact. I know this is meant to show that Diego doesn’t have any tact, but this is such a severe line. +1

In the first shot of Reggie’s bedroom there are 6 freaking lamps. What is he, Bella Swan? And later, there are three more. +1

David Castaneda really brings Diego to life with his interaction with Luther in Reggie's bedroom. -1

I know I already took sins off for the special effects, but Pogo deserves another two off. Special Effects team, you did good. -2

“How long has it been since Five dissapered” is the most obvious bit of exposition/foreshadowing. To the point where it reads lazy. Another option would be Vanya asking “How long has it been since” and trailing off from there. Pogo knows what happened. This is a crucial reveal, let the audience wait for it a bit. +1

One sin off for Vanya being a good sister to Five. Fluffernutter sandwiches and leaving the lights on is heartwarming.  -1

Props to these child actors for being able to portray the way Reggie treats them and how that affects their emotions in the scene where they wanted to say goodnight to Reggie. -1

However, Reginald Hargreeves is a dick to his adopted children. I will keep sinning this. +7 

After Reggie shuns and ignores his children, Luther’s hand on Ben’s shoulder is a subtle way to show that Luther and Ben were sort of close, which is what an excerpt from Vanya’s book implies in the comics. Good job directors or actors for making that choice! -1

Robert Sheehan in the office scene. This is where we meet Klaus as an audience for the first time with dialogue, and he fucking nails it.  -1

“Thank God he’s not our real father so we couldn’t inherit those cold dead eyes! Ahh! Number Threee-” The delivery on that line is excellent. -1

Klaus’s dangly necklace that looks kind of like dog tags foreshadowing the real dog tags he wears later on in the show. -1

No way in hell Klaus’s skimpy outfit provided enough concealment for that massive box. In fact, in the shots we do see of his back, we should have seen the outline of the box. +1

Sir Reginald Hargreeves is as obsessed with lamps as he is with collecting children. His office is full of them! +1

“Do you think he wears that thing in the bathroom” “Like in the shower” “Yes, absolutely” Allison and Luther have some good interactions. This is where they really act like siblings making fun of another sibling. -1

A woman who told bedtime stories to her kid about her uncle on the moon forgets that said uncle has been on the moon and judges him when he doesn’t know about her divorce.+1 

“Rumor thing” Way to be specific, Luther. +1

Allison’s expression at the family meeting when she takes a sip of her drink. Emmy Raver-Lampman is what makes this character likeable. -1

Reginald Hargreeves was a dick to his children. The whole favorite spot thing? Yeah that. Golden child abuse victim. +7

Sir Reginald playing tennis with Hitler line. -1

Luther accuses his siblings of killing their father. Have some tact man, not at the funeral. This makes sense for the character and his circumstances, but I am still sinning it because Luther doesn’t think he did anything wrong. +1

I feel kind of bad for Luther after his siblings leave the room. Great acting on Tom Hopper’s part. -1

How did Allison get into the bank? +1

Luther straight up throws this man out of a building! That guy is 100% dead. And then he admonishes Five for being a killer later! +1

“Guns are for sissies, real men throw knives!” is a line that would only be spoken by a twelve year old that has never faced the judgement of people he isn’t related to. Also, Diego practiced this line in front of a mirror. +1

But that throw was badass, so... -1

Also, how did Klaus, Diego, Five, and Ben get into the bank as well? We only see Luther enter. And presumably Five teleported in. So were the rest already in there? +1

Five manages to jump faster than a bullet here, but in episode two he’s a lot slower when jumping from one side of the table to the other. You could make the argument that the table is in the way, but there was a human being and a bullet in the way here. +1

“Woah! That’s one badass stapler!” This is the first sin off because Aidan Gallagher can act, and it will not be the last. For all his grumpy 58 year old man, he also manages to shine while playing a young version of said grumpy 58 year old man. You would think that one or the other would be a little weak, but no he nails both performances. -1

But, how did Five switch the gun and the stapler? And why do we never see him do this again with more useful items like a briefcase or one of the machine guns used by the local commission hires? Can he only switch items with a similar mass? How does this power work? +1

Luther is the one that tells Ben that there's more guys in the vault to kill. Not Klaus who could have been like “a ghost said there's more guys in the vault”. What exactly did Klaus do on missions? He isn’t shown helping the hostages or fighting in any way. +1

“I didn’t sign up for this.” yeah Ben, like it’s a summer camp and not your abusive father buying you as an infant and then forcing you to kill people. +1

Kenny’s mom appearance. Also, the woman mixes leopard print leggings, a black dress, a square pattern cardigan, and a hat with stripes and a pom-pom. +1

“Can we go home now” Ethan Hwang had great delivery on that line. -1

Sir Reginald Hargreeves is a dick to his children. He forces 6 of them to kill, and then makes it seem like it’s all fun and games to the one he isolates. +7

When did they get coats and scarves? Did Reggie bring them coats and scarves while coming down to address the crowd? +1

Also, Reggie was on the roof of a different building with vanya! What did the kids do while they were waiting for him? Stand around and look pretty? Not likely, Ben was covered in blood. +1

Also, when did Ben have time to clean up? He is significantly less bloody in the scene where Reggie talks to the press. Yet his mask, uniform, and a bit of his jaw still have blood. This suggests he had time to wipe down. What kind of magic wipes are these that soak up and remove blood quickly and where can I get them? +1

The way the children wear their scarves show their personality. Luther has it done properly, Diego has his flapping around, Allison and Klaus have tied it fashionably, Five has it done well, but not as proper, and Ben has it done like Luthers. Well done costume people or actors who made that character choice. -1

The entire scene when Klaus attempts to summon Reggie from the afterlife. -4

I forgot that Klaus actually calls him Reggie in this scene. I thought it was just a fandom thing lmao. -1

How did Klaus clean up the ashes without leaving evidence on the bar? Did he vacuum it? +1

The cutesy fighting posters are a great set design choice. -1

Allison had her trauma tattoo refreshed at some point. It’s faded on Klaus, but on her it’s perfectly visible and stark. I’m sinning because they don’t show or tell why Allison might want to do this. +1

Also, that guitar Klaus was cuddling in a later scene, was just in the kitchen for some reason. Why? +1

Five and Ben are not part of the I Think We’re Alone Now dance party. I know it’s for plot, but come on! They don’t even have another dance party later to make up for this. +1

Diego and Vanya totally saw each other when Diego went to close the door between the foyer and the living area. +1

Luther and Vanya’s dance moves. No hate on either though because I dance like them if it isn’t swing or any other partnered dance +1

Diego, Klaus, and Allison’s dance moves. -1

Also, the song is heard all the way in the kitchen. There is no soundproofing in this mansion. +1

Luther punching down the airplane is funny. -1

David Castaneda doing those amazing dance moves in character. -1

Oh hello Five. Nice of you to show up and kickstart the plot into being something other than washed up superheroes are really sad and abused. +1

“Daddy!” -1

Why were Five’s powers affecting random objects? +1

Klaus is the only one with self preservation. “I vote for running” +1

“Does anyone else see little Number Five, or is that just me” is a great line because Klaus can see the dead. However, the dead don’t show up in massive portals, otherwise something like that would have happened when we see Dave in The Day That Wasn’t. +1

Five asks for an exact date and then Vanya gives him “the 24th” real specific, Vanya +1 

Five doesn’t close the fridge properly because that doesn’t matter in the apocalypse -1

“In the end I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time” “That makes no sense” “well it would if you were smarter” the mark of someone being smart is being able to explain concepts like this in layman's terms. If Five were as smart as he said he was, then he could have been able to come up with an analogy. That or the showmakers have no clue what they’re talking about and wrote a bunch of science-y bullshit to make Five sound smart. +1

Diego was ready to throw hands with Five, someone who looks thirteen and was thirteen until Five explained otherwise. +1

“Dolores kept saying the equations were off” so in other words, Five knew that his equations were off, but he still risked it. +1

But also, Five knew his equations were off, but he was so desperate to see his family that he risked it anyway. -1

Nations Gazette paper has articles that look like they’re actually about the headline. -1

“What part of the future do you not understand.” -1

Aidan Gallagher’s delivery in that scene really set the tone for his character. Impressive. -1

Five decides to dress in the full on school boy getup. Complete with the tie and the blazer when those items aren’t necessary. +1

Aidan Gallagher and Ellen Page are two kick ass actors. They play off each other surprisingly well. -1

“You mean like what happened to Ben” “Was it bad?” What happened to Ben? This remains a sin until they explain it. +1

“May the darkness within you find peace in the light” that sounds really bad. What a horrible thing to have on your statue. +1

Jordan Claire Robbins’s performance of Grace -1

Luther and Diego are so emo that they don't need umbrellas. You’re in The Umbrella Academy! This had to be a personal choice to not carry one. +1

Klaus’s face when Luther dumps out the ashes. -1

The camera cuts to Five when Diego says that Mom gave them actual names. -1

The fight between Luther and Diego is stupid. +1

Klaus and Five fight over who is going to protect who. +1

“Stop it!” “Hit him! Hit him!” -1

The detail on Ben’s statue. It shows his toe and knee have been touched many times by people who presumably miss him and love him. -1

Luther punches Ben’s statue in the crotch, which makes Klaus’s face 10x funnier once you remember that Ben was probably there too. -1 

Luther punches Ben’s statue in the crotch and beheads it, suggesting that Luther had something to do with Ben’s death. -1

Luther punches Ben’s statue in the crotch. +1

Klaus puts his cigarette out in reggie’s ashes. -1

Reggie narration +1

Reggie is a dick to his kids +7

The stupid, bright green jumpsuits +6

What is the point of this exercise? How does running up the stairs make them better heroes? +1

Young Diego either practiced “That’s not fair, Five’s cheating” or his stutter is only there when the plot calls for it. +1

Child Abuse tattoos +12

The fact that Vanya feels left out because she didn’t get a child abuse tattoo. Reggie, you fucked up these kids real bad. +2

We think that Reggie is comforting Luther after he got a child abuse tattoo, but no, he’s actually just attaching monitors to his head. +1

Reginald Hargreeves likes to watch young children sleep. +7

Vanya foreshadowing. Her monitor showing more activity then the cut to her taking one of the pills is brilliant. -1

Vanya still doesn’t close the academy door behind her when she leaves. +1

“An entire square block, 42 bedrooms 19 bathrooms” Five are you a real-estate agent now? +1

“Dad hated children too, but he had plenty of us!” Klaus would be excellent at cinema sins. Seven more for child abuse +7

What are the rules to Five’s jumps? We only really see him jump to places he can see unless he is time traveling or in the instance where he jumps to the car. Speaking of, the car had the keys in it. Reggie, are you trying to get it stolen  +1

Diego is a dick to Allison about her divorce. +1

Klaus and Diego’s interactions make me happy. -1

The Klaus theme is a wonderful piece of music. -1 

Robert Sheehan making David Castaneda laugh. -1 

We get our first glimpse of Luther’s arm here. It’s super weird and vague and only teases the reveal. This is where the ape reveal should have been for the audience and where it would have made sense. Doing the reveal in a later episode is weird. +1

Five doesn’t know how to break correctly, which contradicts “I know how to do everything” +1

Something I just noticed, Five completed the uniform not only with the tie and blazer, but with the hair gel too. +1

The towing guy chooses to sit next to Five at an empty counter. +1

Five looks so offended when Agnes refers to him as “the kid” -1

The creepy smile Five pulls in an attempt to look innocent doesn’t make Agnes scream in terror. Seriously Aidan Gallagher, what the fuck was that that was absoulutely terrifying. +1

+1

Five attempts to relate to a man that looks the age that he should be, but it ends up exceedingly awkward because Five looks 13. +1

The tow truck driver helps him out, but how was Five going to pay for his coffee? We don’t see him with money. Was he just going to jump out to the car? +1

Five never gets his cup of coffee :( +1

“Istanbul was Constantinople/ Now it’s Istanbul not Constantinople”. This whole scene is great. Five plays with them like he did in the bank scene which shows that even if he did age, he didn’t do it around people so he doesn’t have maturity. -1

Five stabs a guy with a mop and kills him. -1

Five stabs a guy in the crotch with a pencil, then uses the same pencil to stab him in the eye. In between he throws a plate at another guy. This is badass. -1

Five jumps in a way that actually does make two of the idiots shoot each other. Which means that technically, Patch was right. -1

Five kills a man with his bare hands. -1

But he stops to put his fucking tie back on. +1

And yet after all that, the goriest thing is when Five pulls the tracker out of his arm.  Props to the makeup department  and Aidan Gallagher’s acting skill for making that look so real. -1

Five should be way sweatier when he walks out of Griddys. Unless he moped that up with some napkins? What are these super absorbent napkins and where can I buy them? +1

Agnes should be far more traumatized. And definitely shouldn’t have survived that. +1

Diego is emo with the monocle. +1

Luther flashback narration. +1

Klaus, thankfully interrupts this. -1 

“Number 6 “Ben” (deceased)” -1

We can see Ben depending on if it’s Klaus or Diego talking. -1

The vigilante mask Diego wears +1

Five jumpscare in Vanya’s apartment. +1

“Rapists can climb” yes Five. Continue with the criminals that can climb. Including you. +1

This whole scene is the best ending to an episode in the entire season. -1

Aidan Gallagher and Ellen Page play off each other with subtle expressions. This acting talent is amazing. -2

“The world ends in eight days and I have no idea how to stop it” “I’ll put on a pot of coffee” roll credits. I love this ending for many reasons. It’s a total mic drop moment. -2 

Overall review:

While actively looking for nitpicky things, I got to see the first in a whole new light. Both the great parts and terrible parts stood out in a way that they didn’t when I wasn’t looking for them. Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, and Ellen Page were the stand out actors in this episode. All three contributed something significant that didn’t heavily rely on the script writers. 

The child cast also really stood out to me. All seven of them had very limited screen time (I am counting Gallagher playing a child version of his character in this assessment) and they absolutely made the best of it. Out of all of them, Ethan Hwang stood out to me because of his overall great delivery. I hope that we see him play Ben in a more in-depth way in season 2. 

Don’t get it twisted, I genuinely like this series and I think that it tells a great story. I just think it’s fun to nitpick and look deeper. After over analyzing everything else, it’s time to get back to basics. Especially because the season 2 trailer could drop any day now. 

Total: 82 sins

Sentence: Tennis with Hitler and Sir Reginald. 

#The Umbrella Academy #all in good fun #luther hargreeves #diego hargreeves #Allison Hargreeves #five hargreeves #ben hargreeves #vanya hargreeves #i worked really hard on this

[lesbiancolumbo]

Ik this isn’t TV Show related but I’d love to see you rank your top 10 favorite Peter Falk roles or the Peter Falk roles that you’ve seen one day 😄

(buckle up, fuckleheads! this is going to be a certified #long post)

i thought about this long and hard. i want you to know this because i take peter falk very seriously. he is, after all, one of the loves of my life. i’m not going to rank every role i’ve seen because we don’t have five days, but i will do a top ten, and because it feels wrong not to, i will be including his television roles in the running for this.

i should also note, because i really don’t want to see any funny business here, that this is a completely subjective list, and i am going off of peter’s performance more than the actual movie/tv show or movie itself. if you feel very strongly about it, you can and should make a list of your own! okay, here we go:

honorable mentions: cookie, luv, murder inc.

10. “the price of tomatoes” from the dick powell theatre (1962)

this is a deep cut, but i wanted to include it on this list because i think it’s amazing. peter won his first emmy for this tv movie. peter plays a long-distance truck driver who is on a very tight schedule when he encounters a pregnant hitch-hiker with a secret. his life, and hers, become very complicated over a long night on the road. i love this tv movie. i think it’s remarkable, and i think peter is wonderful in it. he had just came on the scene by the time he made this and already had oscar and emmy nominations under his belt. it’s a star making performance from one of our brightest stars and it’s on youtube to watch right here!

9. penelope (1966)

i love this movie. peter is in a supporting part here, a detective who is suspicious of a banker’s wife who is a little too invested in the recent robbery of his newest branch, but can’t help falling in love with her anyway. penelope is not the best movie.... it’s full of men who project on, ignore, belittle, and harass penelope, but peter’s lieutenant horatio bixbee is the one man who seems to see and love her for who she really is: a whip-smart and neglected wife-turned-bank robber. peter and natalie wood’s scenes crackle with a chemistry the rest of the film lacks. i wish they could have ended up together. i think they would have been very happy.

8. the great race (1965)

the great race is so funny. i’m gonna keep this one brief because i might have a prompt to elaborate on him in this film specifically coming down the pipeline but peter is an amazing straight man to jack lemmon’s crazy energy here. i think about him rushing into the pie scene, yelling HEY PWOFESSAH! and getting absolutely demolished with pies so much.

7. wings of desire (1987)

this one feels like cheating to me because it isn’t really a performance - he’s playing himself! or a version of himself. but his “i’m a friend” speech is an all-timer. this is the first thing i ever saw peter falk in, before i ever knew who he was. i hadn’t known about columbo yet - peter falk is and always will be known to me first and foremost as an angel who once walked amongst the living.

6. pocketful of miracles (1961)

peter was nominated for his second oscar for this movie, playing a long suffering gangster to glenn ford’s superstitious mob boss, and he is the highlight by far. he’s just trying to make the deal go down! he’s had ENOUGH with all the funny business! he is a man with a short fuse just waiting to explode and pocketful really is one long and beautiful face journey for peter. he goes toe to toe with industry legends (glenn ford, bette davis, thomas mitchell, edward everett horton) and not only holds his own but out-dances them all. frank capra wrote later that he saved this picture, and he was right!

5. husbands (1970)

this isn’t a flex but i watched this movie on a date once and it was not a fun experience for either of us, so don’t do that lol. husbands is a movie i know i need to revisit but i’m not particularly eager to. it’s a hard watch, and peter’s character has some really excruciating scenes, but i think he toes the line really gracefully. his character isn’t an angel, but he isn’t evil. he’s troubled and repressed and grieving and angry and peter hits all the notes. i’m sad this is the only movie he made with both john and ben.

4. the in-laws (1979)

SERPENTINE! i love watching peter do physical comedy, and it is so funny to watch him bowl over alan arkin, a man who is taller and bigger than him. apparently peter didn’t think this film would work and alan told him he was the dumbest man in the world. 

3. a woman under the influence (1974)

if this were a ranking of movies this one is number one. i’m still so wrecked by it that i can’t even articulate what it is about this movie that gets to me. nick longhetti is like archie black turned up to eleven - he is a really..... difficult man. a lesser actor would have made him purely sympathetic. an even lesser actor would have just made him a villain. peter recognized all of the contradictions and complexities in this character and refused to make nick easy to understand or connect with. he’s a man that no one will ever fully understand. it’s one of his best and most understated performance. i am crying as i type this, so i want to show you what i mean.

a thousand words couldn’t even touch what nick is saying in this once glance.

2. columbo (1968 - 2003)

i mean, jesus, what is there to SAY about columbo???? it’s his most iconic and recognized role. it’s the role of his career. the most fascinating and entertaining character. universally beloved. it should be number one, and i really wrestled with this. i want you to know that. but when i close my eyes and think about..... THE peter falk performance......

1. mikey and nicky (1976)

yeah, i just. this is the one. i firmly believe that we’re never going to get a performance like this from anyone ever again. between you and me, i think mikey is the harder role of the two. he’s a man who can barely articulate anything - no one ever gave him the chance to - and a man who loves and hates his best friend in such ever-rotating frequencies that even he isn’t sure if he’s supposed to love nicky with all his heart or hate him and wish him dead. maybe it’s both. maybe it’s neither. mikey is the most dynamic character peter ever played. it’s when i watch this film that i mourn his passing - it’s my firm and unwavering belief that he was one of our very best actors, and i feel his loss whenever i watch him express all of mikey’s grievances, anxieties, hatred, and heartbreak. he only had one fucking eye, and look at him.

there will never be another.

#asks #blanketsareus

[tblpress]

The day before James Spader won an Emmy for his portrayal of Alan Shore, the morally dubious lawyer on “The Practice,” the actor was at the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden at UCLA, admiring the statues -- especially the female forms. “Look at the beautiful curve of her back, right at the base of her spine,” he said, noticing a dancer at the top of Robert Graham’s “Dance Columns.” “It’s the most perfect curve in nature.” Then Spader felt a breeze and started ambling in the other direction. “I just want to walk into it,” he explained. “Oh, my God, that is nice.”

The sculpture garden, a favorite hideaway of Spader’s, brought out in him a charming mix of formality and earthiness. When Gaston Lachaise’s bronze powerhouse “Standing Woman” caught his eye, the memories rushed out. “My sons, when they were growing up, always enjoyed her rather ample” -- here he used a word not proper for this newspaper but that means “derriere” -- “and her rather ample breasts,” he said. The boys, Sebastian, now 15, and Ellijah, 12, would come here with their scooters. “So you come around,” Spader explained, “and lo and behold, you have that beautiful” -- that word again -- “over there. You can hardly resist scootering by and giving her a poke. She has nice calves too. She’s ample everywhere. She’s spectacular.”

James Spader, network TV star: To anyone familiar with the 44-year-old actor and his work, it sounds almost absurd. With the outre air of highbrow naughtiness and deep but slightly distracted intelligence he’s been known for since his 1989 big-screen breakthrough in “sex, lies, and videotape,” Spader could hardly have cooked up a more improbable career move. And yet starting tonight on “Boston Legal,” the new David E. Kelley show spun off from “The Practice,” TV viewers will get a weekly taste of the actor who has specialized in finding an endearing human side to wealthy school bullies, creepy cocaine dealers and sensuous sadomasochists.

Spader headed toward a section of the UCLA campus blanketed by California sycamores that he and his sons, he said, often climb and swing from. “See that?” he asked, pushing a branch down. “This is a perfect perching spot. I’d do it more aggressively, but there’s people around and it makes them nervous.”

Making people nervous is, of course, a Spader trademark.

“When we first went to the network about James, they shrieked in horror,” Kelley said. “James Spader is not a network face. They didn’t think he was the kind of persona American audiences would want to welcome into the living room on a weekly basis. But once we began to focus on him, he was the only choice. What James does so well is there’s a nucleus to this character that is humane and decent. He manages to let that nucleus shine through even when he’s committing egregious, contemptible acts. You don’t know if you like him or not, but you can’t wait to see him next.”

Kelley hired Spader to play the brilliant agitator whose dirty ways forced the firm of Young, Frutt and Berluti on “The Practice” to close its doors last year, after ABC slashed the show’s budget, forcing Kelley to fire half his cast. Spader, whose most recent television appearance had been a guest spot on “Seinfeld” in 1997, was supposed to play Alan Shore only long enough to shake things up.

“The goal in the beginning was to bring new life to the show, and the luxury we had as storytellers was that we didn’t have to protect the character for the sake of a long series run,” Kelley said. “You can only do so many things with a character that are overtly unlikable and still keep him redeeming and a character that people want to tune into and cheer for. Since we didn’t have that burden, we could swing away with him.”

The high-end firm of Crane, Poole and Schmidt might prove a better fit for Shore, who will be surrounded by other conniving legal eagles, including William Shatner as his boss, Denny Crane, and colleagues played by a cast including Rhona Mitra, Lake Bell, Monica Potter and Mark Valley. Alan Shore, Kelley promised, will “defy this law firm as he defies the conventions of regular characters on television.”

“When we watch James, there’s a lot of unknown complicated stuff in his mind, but we don’t know what that stuff is,” said Steve Shainberg, who directed Spader in “Secretary” (2002). “There’s something very unusual about him we can’t put our finger on, but that makes it more intriguing and exciting -- God help us.”

Yet for all the unpredictability that comes across on screen, Spader’s “Boston Legal” co-stars described him as meticulous, exact and particular on set.

“He’s always looking for the truth of the moment, and he gets fidgety when it’s not there,” said Shatner, who won a guest actor Emmy for his portrayal of Crane on “The Practice.” “He becomes as recalcitrant as a donkey until he can find the right way to deliver a line. He never says a word that doesn’t seem to come from the organic character. That’s because James himself is a little weird. But we love him for it.”

The Un-Brat Pack career

Two days after Spader nabbed the top acting award for a drama series, beating out television heavy hitters James Gandolfini, Martin Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland and Anthony LaPaglia, he was on the “Boston Legal” set at Raleigh Studios in Manhattan Beach. Three episodes of the show were being shot simultaneously, and he had found no time yet to contemplate his win. The Emmy, he said, was tucked away in a corner full of boxes as Spader, who recently separated from his wife, Victoria, waited to move into a new house.

“I was surprised at how quickly I lost the feeling of stunned confusion and ignorant bliss and how quickly it turned into work and pragmatism,” Spader said. “The award doesn’t mean anything to me -- and I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense. I just haven’t had time to go there yet. Even when my older son called to congratulate me, we moved rather swiftly on to the subject of an upcoming concert” -- the Pixies at the Greek Theatre -- “and the best way to score tickets, which is a much more constructive conversation for us.”

Like other actors who started taking shape in the ‘80s, Spader could easily have cultivated a Brat Pack aura. Instead, he went for a more original brand of alienation, playing seemingly WASPY characters with a devious air and an anti-WASPY erotic charge to them. The roles he took in movies such as “White Palace” (1990), “The Music of Chance” (1993), “Stargate” (1994) and “Crash” (1996) didn’t always hit big but always set him apart -- none more so than “Secretary,” in which Spader played E. Edward Grey, a lawyer who draws his self-mutilating young secretary into a joyful S&M; relationship.

“James is very formal and specific and respectful,” said Maggie Gyllenhaal, his costar. “I remember when we shot a five-page scene in which Mr. Grey asks me not to cut myself anymore, James noticed and responded to everything I did: every breath I took, every shift of my gaze, every movement of my hand. His work is very specific.”

And that, according to Camryn Manheim, who starred on “The Practice” for eight years, can be intimidating. “After you saw ‘Secretary,’ wouldn’t you be scared to go on a date with him?” Manheim said, laughing.

“I was scared of him,” she added. “He’s weird and strange and eccentric, and I mean a lot of that in the very best way. He plays all of these sexually charged characters. He looks at you too hard, like he’s got your number. But behind all of that, he’s a very simple man who is very thoughtful and insightful about the world and humanity.”

Confronted with the praise of his colleagues, Spader took a deep breath and looked skeptical. “Maybe this thing they are describing is just obsessive-compulsive. It just seems to be what the job is, to just try and get the right intention of whatever ... you’re saying. Who is to say if whether what you end up tumbling toward is the right place when you’re standing on your feet in the middle of it? I’ve had a lot of fun acting, and that’s been the only reason to continue doing it.”

Spader, who dropped out of the 11th grade to pursue acting in New York, attributes his interest in acting to the love of storytelling he inherited from his family. The son of teachers Todd and Jean Spader, the actor grew up with two sisters on the campus of Phillips Academy, a fancy Massachusetts prep school. “My father was an English teacher and he taught literature and poetry, and my parents would read aloud and my grandparents read aloud,” Spader said. “My grandfather would write stories and we would make up little plays to read and perform during the holidays. There was always a tremendous amount of humor in all the households I spent time in.”

But there were other reasons for wanting to become an actor. “I started doing theater when I started thinking of nothing but girls,” he said. “I can’t imagine that the two don’t relate. I don’t mean to be glib. In sports and in many other areas, girls and boys are separated. But in theater, you’re all mixed in together. How can it get any better than that?”

Being an actor, for Spader, has never been about celebrity. The press tent for interviews with winners at the Emmys came as a surprise and an “indignity,” he said jokingly. When someone at the Governors Ball on Emmy night remarked how rare it is that Spader has succeeded at being famous and simultaneously living a private life, the actor was incredulous.

“I don’t try to be mysterious,” Spader explained later. “I just protect my private life very carefully. I don’t go out a great deal. To see and be seen I could care less about. I don’t go to see movies at big premieres. If I go out, I go to a quiet place for a meal or I might go to listen to live music with a whole lot of people who are more interested in listening to the music than who is sitting next to them at the show.”

His new TV world

Spader may be on his way to television stardom, but he has never followed a television show from beginning to end -- the way he hopes viewers of “Boston Legal” will.

“That’s something I had no concept of,” Spader said. “Working on the show, I was experiencing the same anticipation for what was going to happen from week to week as the people who were watching it. When you do a film, you know what is going to happen to your character from start to finish. I knew very little about Alan Shore at the end of last season, and I still don’t. I like that constant shift because what I like the most about all of this is the telling of the story.”

What he likes the least is the fuss. He refused to hire a stylist for Emmy night, picking out his tuxedo and shoes himself. He did not prepare a speech. When his name was announced, Spader charmed the crowd by complimenting the women in the room: “You’ve all made wonderful choices in shoes and dresses tonight, and you all look absolutely beautiful.”

“I realized I was going to have to put together some sentences quickly and I wasn’t going to be yet another person to make a music joke,” Spader said. “It worked so well when the gentleman from ‘Arrested Development’ made the singing reference, but I knew that that couldn’t be used again, and certainly not by me. I really don’t have any idea what ... I was saying. Certainly, during the course of the four hours that I was there I had spent enough time admiring women’s shoes and dresses and how well they filled them.”

But as offhand as he may be about that trophy, it’s fitting somehow that Spader will be in the rare position of starting his new gig already having won an Emmy for the role. To his surprise as much as anyone’s, the TV gods have smiled on him. “Does anybody have any illusions about the fact that the Emmys come at the beginning of the television season? The timing seems precise to me,” he said. “And I think it’s grand.”

#james spader #interview #2004 #james spader quote #la times #boston legal #the practice #alan shore #james spader press #link #article

[leepace71]

When Pedro Pascal was roughly 4 years old, he and his family went to see the 1978 hit movie “Superman,” starring Christopher Reeve. Pascal’s young parents had come to live in San Antonio after fleeing their native Chile during the rise of dictator Augusto Pinochet in the mid-1970s. Taking Pascal and his older sister to the movies — sometimes more than once a week — had become a kind of family ritual, a way to soak up as much American pop culture as possible.At some point during this particular visit, Pascal needed to go to the bathroom, and his parents let him go by himself. “I didn’t really know how to read yet,” Pascal says with the same Cheshire grin that dazzled “Game of Thrones” fans during his run as the wily (and doomed) Oberyn Martel. “I did not find my way back to ‘Superman.'”

Instead, Pascal wandered into a different theater (he thinks it was showing the 1979 domestic drama “Kramer vs. Kramer,” but, again, he was 4). In his shock and bewilderment at being lost, he curled up into an open seat and fell asleep. When he woke up, the movie was over, the theater was empty, and his parents were standing over him. To his surprise, they seemed rather calm, but another detail sticks out even more.

“I know that they finished their movie,” he says, bending over in laughter. “My sister was trying to get a rise out of me by telling me, ‘This happened and that happened and then Superman did this and then, you know, the earthquake and spinning around the planet.'” In the face of such relentless sibling mockery, Pascal did the only logical thing: “I said, ‘All that happened in my movie too.'”

He had no way of knowing it at the time, of course, but some 40 years later, Pascal would in fact get the chance to star in a movie alongside a DC Comics superhero — not to mention battle Stormtroopers and, er, face off against the most formidable warrior in Westeros. After his breakout on “Game of Thrones,” he became an instant get-me-that-guy sensation, mostly as headstrong, taciturn men of action — from chasing drug traffickers in Colombia for three seasons on Netflix’s “Narcos” to squaring off against Denzel Washington in “The Equalizer 2.”

This year, though, Pascal finds himself poised for the kind of marquee career he’s spent a lifetime dreaming about. On Oct. 30, he’ll return for Season 2 as the title star of “The Mandalorian,” Lucasfilm’s light-speed hit “Star Wars” series for Disney Plus that earned 15 Emmy nominations, including best drama, in its first season. And then on Dec. 25 — COVID-19 depending — he’ll play the slippery comic book villain Maxwell Lord opposite Gal Gadot, Chris Pine and Kristen Wiig in “Wonder Woman 1984.”

The roles are at once wildly divergent and the best showcase yet for Pascal’s elastic talents. In “The Mandalorian,” he must hide his face — and, in some episodes, his whole body — in a performance that pushes minimalism and restraint to an almost ascetic ideal. In “Wonder Woman 1984,” by stark contrast, he is delivering the kind of big, broad bad-guy character that populated the 1980s popcorn spectaculars of his youth.

“I continually am so surprised when everybody pegs him as such a serious guy,” says “Wonder Woman 1984” director Patty Jenkins. “I have to say, Pedro is one of the most appealing people I have known. He instantly becomes someone that everybody invites over and you want to have around and you want to talk to.”

Talk with Pascal for just five minutes — even when he’s stuck in his car because he ran out of time running errands before his flight to make it to the set of a Nicolas Cage movie in Budapest — and you get an immediate sense of what Jenkins is talking about. Before our interview really starts, Pascal points out, via Zoom, that my dog is licking his nether regions in the background. “Don’t stop him!” he says with an almost naughty reproach. “Let him live his life!”

Over our three such conversations, it’s also clear that Pascal’s great good humor and charm have been at once ballast for a number of striking hardships, and a bulwark that makes his hard-won success a challenge for him to fully accept.

Before Pascal knew anything about “The Mandalorian,” its showrunner and executive producer Jon Favreau knew he wanted Pascal to star in it.

“He feels very much like a classic movie star in his charm and his delivery,” says Favreau. “And he’s somebody who takes his craft very seriously.” Favreau felt Pascal had the presence and skill essential to deliver a character — named Din Djarin, but mostly called Mando — who spends virtually every second of his time on screen wearing a helmet, part of the sacrosanct creed of the Mandalorian order.

Convincing any actor to hide their face for the run of a series can be as precarious as escaping a Sarlacc pit. To win Pascal over in their initial meeting, Favreau brought him behind the “Mandalorian” curtain, into a conference room papered with storyboards covering the arc of the first season. “When he walked in, it must have felt a little surreal,” Favreau says. “You know, most of your experiences as an actor, people are kicking the tires to see if it’s a good fit. But in this case, everything was locked and loaded.”

Needless to say, it worked. “I hope this doesn’t sound like me fashioning myself like I’m, you know, so smart, but I agreed to do this [show] because the impression I had when I had my first meeting was that this is the next big s—,” Pascal says with a laugh.

Favreau’s determination to cast Pascal, however, put the actor in a tricky situation: Pascal’s own commitments to make “Wonder Woman 1984” in London and to perform in a Broadway run of “King Lear” with Glenda Jackson barreled right into the production schedule for “The Mandalorian.” Some scenes on the show, and in at least one case a full episode, would need to lean on the anonymity of the title character more than anyone had quite planned, with two stunt performers — Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder — playing Mando on set and Pascal dubbing in the dialogue months later.

Pascal was already being asked to smother one of his best tools as an actor, extraordinarily uncommon for anyone shouldering the newest iteration of a global live-action franchise. (Imagine Robert Downey Jr. only playing Iron Man while wearing a mask — you can’t!) Now he had to hand over control of Mando’s body to other performers too. Some actors would have walked away. Pascal didn’t.

“If there were more than just a couple of pages of a one-on-one scene, I did feel uneasy about not, in some instances, being able to totally author that,” he says. “But it was so easy in such a sort of practical and unexciting way for it to be up to them. When you’re dealing with a franchise as large as this, you are such a passenger to however they’re going to carve it out. It’s just so specific. It’s ‘Star Wars.'” (For Season 2, Pascal says he was on the set far more, though he still sat out many of Mando’s stunts.)

“The Mandalorian” was indeed the next big s—, helping to catapult the launch of Disney Plus to 26.5 million subscribers in its first six weeks. With the “Star Wars” movies frozen in carbonite until 2023 (at least), I noted offhand that he’s now effectively the face of one of the biggest pop-culture franchises in the world. Pascal could barely suppress rolling his eyes.

“I mean, come on, there isn’t a face!” he says with a laugh that feels maybe a little forced. “If you want to say, ‘You’re the silhouette’ — which is also a team effort — then, yeah.” He pauses. “Can we just cut the s— and talk about the Child?”

Yes, of course, the Child — or, as the rest of the galaxy calls it, Baby Yoda. Pascal first saw the incandescently cute creature during his download of “Mandalorian” storyboards in that initial meeting with Favreau. “Literally, my eyes following left to right, up and down, and, boom, Baby Yoda close to the end of the first episode,” he says. “That was when I was like, ‘Oh, yep, that’s a winner!'”

Baby Yoda is undeniably the breakout star of “The Mandalorian,” inspiring infinite memes and apocryphal basketball game sightings. But the show wouldn’t work if audiences weren’t invested in Mando’s evolving emotional connection to the wee scene stealer, something Favreau says Pascal understood from the jump. “He’s tracking the arc of that relationship,” says the showrunner. “His insight has made us rethink moments over the course of the show.” (As with all things “Star Wars,” questions about specifics are deflected in deference to the all-powerful Galactic Order of Spoilers.)

Even if Pascal couldn’t always be inside Mando’s body, he never left the character’s head, always aware of how this orphaned bounty hunter who caroms from planet to planet would look askance at anything that felt too good (or too adorable) to be true.

“The transience is something that I’m incredibly familiar with, you know?” Pascal says. “Understanding the opportunity for complexity under all of the armor was not hard for me.”

When Pascal was 4 months old, his parents had to leave him and his sister with their aunt, so they could go into hiding to avoid capture during Pinochet’s crackdown against his opposition. After six months, they finally managed to climb the walls of the Venezuelan embassy during a shift change and claim asylum; from there, the family relocated, first to Denmark, then to San Antonio, where Pascal’s father got a job as a physician.

Pascal was too young to remember any of this, and for a healthy stretch of his childhood, his complicated Chilean heritage sat in parallel to his life in the U.S. — separate tracks, equally important, never quite intersecting. By the time Pascal was 8, his family was able to take regular trips back to Chile to visit with his 34 first cousins. But he doesn’t remember really talking about any of his time there all that much with his American friends.

“I remember at one point not even realizing that my parents had accents until a friend was like, ‘Why does your mom talk like that?'” Pascal says. “And I remember thinking, like what?”

Besides, he loved his life in San Antonio. His father took him and his sister to Spurs basketball games during the week if their homework was done. He hoodwinked his mother into letting him see “Poltergeist” at the local multiplex. He watched just about anything on cable; the HBO special of Whoopi Goldberg’s one-woman Broadway show knocked him flat. He remembers seeing Henry Thomas in “E.T.” and Christian Bale in “Empire of the Sun” and wishing ardently, urgently, I want to live those stories too.

Then his father got a job in Orange County, Calif. After Pascal finished the fifth grade, they moved there. It was a shock. “There were two really, really rough years,” he says. “A lot of bullying.”

His mother found him a nascent performing arts high school in the area, and Pascal burrowed even further into his obsessions, devouring any play or movie he could get his hands on. His senior year, a friend of his mother’s gave Pascal her ticket to a long two-part play running in downtown Los Angeles that her bad back couldn’t withstand. He got out of school early to drive there by himself. It was the pre-Broadway run of “Angels in America.”

“And it changed me,” he says with almost religious awe. “It changed me.”

After studying acting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Pascal booked a succession of solid gigs, like MTV’s “Undressed” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” But the sudden death of his mother — who’d only just been permitted to move back to Chile a few years earlier — took the wind right from Pascal’s sails. He lost his agent, and his career stalled almost completely.

As a tribute to her, he decided to change his professional last name from Balmaceda, his father’s, to Pascal, his mother’s. “And also, because Americans had such a hard time pronouncing Balmaceda,” he says. “It was exhausting.”

Pascal even tried swapping out Pedro for Alexander (an homage to Ingmar Bergman’s “Fanny and Alexander,” one of the formative films of his youth). “I was willing to do absolutely anything to work more,” he says. “And that meant if people felt confused by who they were looking at in the casting room because his first name was Pedro, then I’ll change that. It didn’t work.”

It was a desperately lean time for Pascal. He booked an occasional “Law & Order” episode, but mostly he was pounding the pavement along with his other New York theater friends — like Oscar Isaac, who met Pascal doing an Off Broadway play. They became fast, lifelong friends, bonding over their shared passions and frustrations as actors.

“It’s gotten better, but at that point, it was so easy to be pigeonholed in very specific roles because we’re Latinos,” says Isaac. “It’s like, how many gang member roles am I going to be sent?” As with so many actors, the dream Pascal and Isaac shared to live the stories of their childhoods had been stripped down to its most basic utility. “The dream was to be able to pay rent,” says Isaac. “There wasn’t a strategy. We were just struggling. It was talking about how to do this thing that we both love but seems kind of insurmountable.”

As with so few actors, that dream was finally rekindled through sheer nerve and the luck of who you know, when another lifelong friend, actor Sarah Paulson, agreed to pass along Pascal’s audition for Oberyn Martell to her best friend Amanda Peet, who is married to “Game of Thrones” co-showrunner David Benioff.

“First of all, it was an iPhone selfie audition, which was unusual,” Benioff remembers over email. “And this wasn’t one of the new-fangled iPhones with the fancy cameras. It looked like s—; it was shot vertical; the whole thing was very amateurish. Except for the performance, which was intense and believable and just right.”

Before Pascal knew it, he found himself in Belfast, sitting inside the Great Hall of the Red Keep as one of the judges at Tyrion Lannister’s trial for the murder of King Joffrey. “I was between Charles Dance and Lena Headey, with a view of the entire f—ing set,” Pascal says, his eyes wide and astonished still at the memory. “I couldn’t believe I didn’t have an uncomfortable costume on. You know, I got to sit — and with this view.” He sighs. “It strangely aligned itself with the kind of thinking I was developing as a child that, at that point, I was convinced was not happening.”

And then it all started to happen.

In early 2018, while Pascal was in Hawaii preparing to make the Netflix thriller “Triple Frontier” — opposite his old friend Isaac — he got a call from the film’s producer Charles Roven, who told him Patty Jenkins wanted to meet with him in London to discuss a role in another film Roven was producing, “Wonder Woman 1984.”

“It was a f—ing offer,” Pascal says in an incredulous whisper. “I wasn’t really grasping that Patty wanted to talk to me about a part that I was going to play, not a part that I needed to get. I wasn’t able to totally accept that.”

Pascal had actually shot a TV pilot with Jenkins that wasn’t picked up, made right before his life-changing run on “Game of Thrones” aired. “I got to work with Patty for three days or something and then thought I’d never see her again,” he says. “I didn’t even know she remembered me from that.”

She did. “I worked with him, so I knew him,” she says. “I didn’t need him to prove anything for me. I just loved the idea of him, and I thought he would be kind of unexpected, because he doesn’t scream ‘villain.'”

In Jenkins’ vision, Max Lord — a longstanding DC Comics rogue who shares a particularly tangled history with Wonder Woman — is a slick, self-styled tycoon with a knack for manipulation and an undercurrent of genuine pathos. It was the kind of larger-than-life character Pascal had never been asked to tackle before, so he did something equally unorthodox: He transformed his script into a kind of pop-art scrapbook, filled with blown-up photocopies of Max Lord from the comic books that Pascal then manipulated through his lens on the character.

Even the few pages Pascal flashes to me over Zoom are quite revealing. One, featuring Max sporting a power suit and a smarmy grin, has several burned-out holes, including through the character’s eye. Another page features Max surrounded by text bubbles into which Pascal has written, over and over and over again in itty-bitty lettering, “You are a f—ing piece of s—.”

“I felt like I had wake myself up again in a big way,” he says. “This was just a practical way of, like, instead of going home tired and putting Netflix on, [I would] actually deal with this physical thing, doodle and think about it and run it.”

Jenkins is so bullish on Pascal’s performance that she thinks it could explode his career in the same way her 2003 film “Monster” forever changed how the industry saw Charlize Theron. “I would never cast him as just the stoic, quiet guy,” Jenkins says. “I almost think he’s unrecognizable from ‘Narcos’ to ‘Wonder Woman.’ Wouldn’t even know that was the same guy. But I think that may change.”

When people can see “Wonder Woman 1984” remains caught in the chaos the pandemic has wreaked on the industry; both Pascal and Jenkins are hopeful the Dec. 25 release date will stick, but neither is terribly sure it will. Perhaps it’s because of that uncertainty, perhaps it’s because he’s spent his life on the outside of a dream he’s now suddenly living, but Pascal does not share Jenkins’ optimism that his experience making “Wonder Woman 1984” will open doors to more opportunities like it.

“It will never happen again,” Pascal says, once more in that incredulous whisper. “It felt so special.”

After all he’s done in a few short years, why wouldn’t Pascal think more roles like this are on his horizon?

“I don’t know!” he finally says with a playful — and pointed — howl. “I’m protecting myself psychologically! It’s just all too good to be true! How dare I!”

x

#pedro pascal #variety #interview

[agentmanatee]

AOS 30 Day Challenge

Since I'm late to the party, I will be using this post to catch up.

Day 1: Favorite Season: S4 had the tightest story-telling with the pod structure. For a 22 episode season not to have a filler episode is quite a feat. Aida/Ophelia/Madame Hydra is my favorite Marvel - not just AOS - villian. Mallory Hansen's ability to play 4 different characters in one season in one show (sometimes multiple characters in the same scene) should have won her an Emmy hands-down. All of the cast should have won Emmy's for the performance in Self-Control (Everybody was on their A-game). My love for Robbie Reyes knows no bounds, and Gabriel Luna has mad chemistry with everyone (I pretty much ship Robbie with everybody he's not related to).

Day 3: Favorite story-line: Maveth. When I told my niece the story of FitzSimmons, she declared it "too much!" when I got to Maveth, specifically Hive and we stopped there. In a lot of ways it was the writers dipping their toes in adding more focus to Fitz and Simmons, who are portrayed by the show's strongest actors. I know a lot of people don't like the Will Daniels twist, but other than some hand-waveable plot holes, it really wasn't that bad. It was literally a "only two people on a planet" situation, and they thought that they would never see another human being again and that they were effectively dead to anyone on Earth; so their actions were understandable. Jemma didn't show interest in Will until she gave up seeing Fitz again, and Will initially did not act on his attraction because he respected and even appreciated Jemma's feelings for Fitz; he knew - even if Jemma didn't - that if given the opportunity to choose she would ultimately choose to Fitz ("No wonder Jemma loves you" was Hive channeling Will). If he survived and wasn't a villain I would ship him with either Joey or FitzSimmons (Fitz is canonically bi, Jemma deserves all the love, and the way Will talked about Fitz could be interpreted as romantic interest. He couldn't help falling for Fitz with the way Jemma talked about him), but I never submit prompt requests because I know how people feel about the character.

Also the planet of Maveth was a character unto itself, which is so cool. I really want to know what the light under its surface is; I don't but that it was a only heat source. Since sandstorms turned out not to be one of Hive's powers, Maveth or the cloaked figure (the personification of the planet a la Ego?) Jemma saw had to be the source of those. I suspect the civilization they saw evidence of were tied to the Confederation in season 5. Did they try to settle down and it backfired due to their culture? It very likely was how they knew there were Hydra leaders on Earth for them to manipulate. Will they ever confirm this? Doubtful. Finally, the mystery of Hive and what he was worked and exceeded expectations (his power set of terrifying!).

Day 2: Favorite episode: Inescapable. I was so excited for this episode I paid for it because Hulu was taking its time posting the episode. Of course a FitzSimmons episode would be amazing. The mind prison forced FitzSimmons to deal with issues they've avoided and together to boot. Seeing the turning point in their friendship at the academy and Coulson Recruiting them prior to season 1 was a hoot. I love how they revealed the other Fitz's death to him; he needed to see how the team mourned for him, to understand how much they loved him. Of course the whole scene was painful from him opening the bodybag to seeing the wedding ring to learning of Coulson's passing, but it was necessary and reflected how everything happens at once irl. Seeing their trust and loyalty in their bffs was heartening. And there is no doubt how much they are meant for eachother than when their darksides fall for and on eachother. They certainly learned some things there.

Honorable mention to Self-Control. That was the first episode I have ever purchased. It felt like a movie, and the story is insulated enough I think I may suggest it as the episode to watch when trying to get people to watch the show (either this or Orientation). The entire episode was so gripping I held a pillow to my chest the whole time once it was revealed that either Jemma or Fitz was an LMD. It was such a good Daisy and Jemma episode team-up and jump-started a whole arc of them supporting eachother. It was also a phenomenal Daisy episode. She showcased her powers, and Chloe knocked it out of the park. The scenes between May and Coulson's LMD-selves were so very moving. Ming did such a good job of portraying how May's LMD differed from the others. The episode also revealed what Fitz and Coulson would change if given a choice (not that AIDA gave Fitz such courtesy).

I just realized I switched Days 2 and 3, but don't want to bother with copying/pasting on my phone

Day 4: Favorite male character: Leopold James Fitz. Fitz was my favorite early on and hands-down my favorite character after FZZT. I saw myself in his mannerisms and could relate to his hesitancy to throw himself in the field but doing so because it is the right thing to do. His passion and loyalty to his friends is unparalleled. I also wanted to give Ward a chance. And it's interesting that Fitz was the first of the bus kids to understand how "No one is born evil." It took the Framework arc for Daisy to really understand that. He even has a leg up on Mack here since Mack's first instinct with anything alien is to kill it ("I'm the guy that kills Gordon" is not something someone who values all life, whether he views it as human or not.), which is understandable given his experiences. Fitz was the first person to show Daisy acceptance after terrigenesis, even if he was mistaken to hide it. I didn't realize it the time season 2 aired, but I get a similar aphasia during migraines (it's actually the first and last symptom when it happens). Seeing any appearance by the Doctor makes me feel sick to my stomach because I know how frightened and sick Fitz feels to have that as a part of himself. Fitz loves with his whole heart and he is always driven to do what he believes is the right thing, which is unfortunately what made the Doctor such a formidable villian. He also is always willing to give second chances but not third. He was the first person to joke around with Daisy after the Miles fiasco: he forgave Mack and Bobbi for the real Shield thing; he accepted Daisy back into the fold in seasons 2 & 4 despite how much her abandoning the team felt like betrayal; he formed a father-son relationship with Radcliffe after what he did for Hive; he trusted and befriended Enoch, knowing he kidnapped and sent his closest friends to a freakin future hellscape. Fitz is such a good person. Of course, all my love for Fitz doesn't mean I don't love the rest of Shield's men + Robbie Reyes.

Day 5: Favorite female character: Jemma Anne Simmons. Jemma is a close second for all around favorite (I just don't relate to her as much as Fitz). On a superficial note, Elizabeth Henstridge is so beautiful and hilarious, I have a giant girl crush on her (her smile is dang radiant). I love how they flipped gender stereotypes by making Fitz the emotional one who wears his heart on his sleeve and Jemma the practical one, who shoves her feelings in a box rather than express them. Jemma's cockiness is more real than Fitz's cocky front, too. I wish I had her confidence. Jemma also loves with her whole heart, as much as she has to hide it to function sometimes, and does what she believes is the right thing. She even revealed herself in the future dystopia because she could not stand aside when a stranger was hurt and she knew how to help/save him. Jemma jumped out of the Bus to save her team and jumped at a grenade to help them not thinking she would survive either occasion. She blamed Lash's murdering of inhumans on herself as she has the tendency to hold herself accountable for things that aren't her fault (she shares this trait with both Fitz and Daisy). She doesn't get lost exploring the details within the big picture, which is why she's so good at problem solving. She learned to kickass physically and has always done so mentally. She knows how to let her foes know to fear her. She has the self-awareness to know what traits she needs to work on to complete any mission. She does and would do anything for her team. She's also an incredible leader whether in the field, in the lab, or for the entirety of Shield. She is incredible.

Daisy Johnson is a very close second. And I can't rank May, Bobbi, and Elena. I also have girl crushes on all four of these ladies.

Day 6: Favorite relationship: S3 Shield Team (Coulson, May, Daisy, Fitz, Simmons, Mack, Bobbi, Hunter, Yoyo, Joey, Lincoln and Andrew). OK so I cheated here; we didn't even see everyone be in the same episode. So what? Season 3 had some of the best dynamics from the main team to Daisy's Secret Warriors it's no wonder people love season 3 so much. How can I pick just one? You have Coulson interacting with everyone (except for Joey), Lincoln's fear of May, Her mentorship of him, Fitz and Bobbi, Fitz and Hunter, FITZSIMMONS, Jemma and Andrew, Daisy and Mack, Mack and Huntingbird, MACKELENA, Doug, Fitz meeting his dad Holden Radcliffe, Radcliffe and Hive's "children"...Now I'm getting into characters that weren't on a Shield team. The characters and their relationships with eachother is what this show does best and what makes it such a good and beloved show, not the action or plot twists.

#aos 30 day challenge #leo fitz #jemma simmons #daisy johnson #aida #madame hydra #phil coulson #melinda may #bobbi morse #lance hunter #alphonso mackenzie #aos s4 #maveth #aos s3 #shield team #team as family #found family #inescapable #self control #aos #agents of shield #yoyo rodriguez #huntingbird #fitzsimmons #too many tags #30aos

[tyrionsnose]

I read this post about revolutionary villains and it got me thinking about what is so weird and unsatisfying (besides generally awful writing) about Tyrion’s ending in GOT, even though he ostensibly “won the game.” And yeah, yeah, I’m not really interested in hearing about how him surviving is an example of the writers letting privileged men off the hook because...it isn’t. Despite ending as hand of the king, Tyrion is also punished by the narrative in some weird ways and ones that are specifically designed to de-emphasize those aspects of his character that do make him a revolutionary figure in the books.

They couldn’t kill Tyrion because he’s a popular character, he drinks and he knows things, he’s played by Emmy winning Peter Dinklage, and he provides a lot of the show’s comic relief (although it stopped being a relief a while ago because again, poor writing). But they did something worse to the character, imho, they neutered him.

If Daenerys is a revolutionary and a kind of well-intentioned extremist, Tyrion’s character has always been a deconstruction of another villain trope that sort of goes hand in hand (no pun intended) with that archetype: that of the evil advisor.

I’m thinking about this in part because I just went to see the new live action Aladdin, in which the villain, Jafar, frequently rants about how being second isn’t enough for him, he has to rule everything. He even compares himself to the title hero, implying that he too started from nothing and worked his way up. It’s another story about using magic to upset the social order, and it’s interesting to look at since, at least for me, the original movie provides one of the most recognizable pop culture examples of the evil chancellor who is motivated by naked ambition. It’s also a trope rife with ableist and racist implications.

What’s sort of interesting about Tyrion is that he plays the role of the evil chancellor in different ways at various points in the narrative. In the asoiaf books he is a clear deconstruction of the role, and this is actually made explicit in A Clash of Kings, when he is labelled a “demon monkey” and blamed for Joffrey and Cersei’s crimes. His later motivation for joining Daenerys’ revolution in the books is initially a desire for personal revenge, but it’s also something that comes about because he himself has been booted by the system and blamed for other people’s crimes because of his vulnerability as a disabled person, and his own family helps to let him take the fall for this because he’s a convenient scapegoat. A revolution is what Tyrion needs to help him get back his birthright, and by the end of ADWD he is already starting to believe in Daenerys’ cause despite himself.

In the show, Tyrion is motivated to aid Daenerys because he believes in her cause, because he believes that she can change the world for the better. He is explicitly told in season five that he himself cannot hope to rule because of who he is, but he can aid another in creating a world where people like him are not abused and used as scapegoats. He comes to believe in Daenerys not only for what it means to him personally but also because he genuinely believes that she can make things better for everyone. In the scene where Tyrion is made Daenerys’ hand, he gives a speech about how she restored his belief in justice. It’s interesting to note that the way this scene is filmed, Tyrion is standing a step above Daenerys so that the height difference between them is minimized. They are on equal footing, and Daenerys treats Tyrion as an equal where previously other characters saw him as lesser because of his disability. As Joffrey’s hand, he is constantly belittled and undermined, and then disposed of when he is no longer useful to the Lannister regime. Here, Dany has purposefully made him her equal, and also defends his right to sit in her council when others attempt to belittle him.

A big problem on the show is that the writers did not really know what to do with Tyrion once he joined Daenerys, though, so he spent a long time treading water. As I said above, the show could not kill him, but they couldn’t let the Tyrion from the books be portrayed onscreen, either. He had to be stripped of all of his ambition and made largely a passive actor, lest he be accused of the same thing the characters in A Clash of Kings accused him of. And indeed, he becomes the scapegoat for Daenerys when she needs someone to lash out at. When the narrative calls for it, he gives bad advice - because revolutions are not supposed to work out - and when the narrative calls for someone to give lip service about Dany’s “madness,” he becomes Exposition Guy, because he drinks and he knows things and he’s there to give information but doesn’t really have any personal interests anymore, he’s just an advisor to everyone else. This was contradictory because the show ALSO seemed to be promoting the narrative that he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was - which is a common narrative aimed at marginalized people that dare to be competent. The show also seemed to be characterizing him as someone who is “easily offended,” who “can dish it but can’t take it,” also stereotypes about marginalized groups. Meanwhile the show has characters remark and point out how stagnant he is. In season 8 he spends a lot of time waffling between Varys, Jon Snow, Sansa, and Dany, but then when the show needs someone to do the dirty work and explain to Jon Snow the hero why he has to kill Daenerys, it’s Tyrion who does that, because he can do all the manipulative and less savory stuff that our heroes can’t do. As he tells Jaime, he can do this because is a “bad person,” and specifically invokes his dwarfism when he explains this. “Tens of thousands of innocent lives, one not-particularly-innocent dwarf. Seems like a fair trade.”

And yeah, he’s made hand to king Bran at the end, but he’s also right back where he started. Tyrion’s learned his lesson about trusting in revolutionaries, he’s back in a role of servitude, and the social order has been maintained. He doesn’t even get a mention in the “Song of Ice and Fire” because he doesn’t get his own story, he’s literally there to give advice to and serve others. The fact that he’s technically lord of Casterly Rock and the Westerlands now doesn’t even get a mention, just like he doesn’t get a mention in the “book of the book.” I guess he really does just drink and know things, after all, but what he should have known is that this story was never about him. I saw a lot of criticism of the finale along the lines of Tyrion talking too much, and he does, but hardly any of what he actually says is about himself, it’s all about others and “the realm,” and explaining the story to the audience so that the writers can make sure we draw the right conclusions. Book Tyrion is a character of deep longings and rage against the way things are, a perfect pair for Dany’s revolutionary spirit. Show Tyrion doesn’t even really seem to want things anymore, his appetites dulled. Dying for his own ideals would have been a better ending than having his edges gradually sanded off and whittled away until he’s literally just a hand and a voice for whoever is in charge.

#tyrion lannister #game of thrones #got for ts #daenerys targaryen #asoiaf meta

[wecouldstillbegreat]

im so glad it's over

I am too, anon. I never thought I’d feel this way about the show, but here we are. I’ve had enough of Mandel and Veep 2.0.

Every time I think of season 7, all I see is him going out of his way to throw everything back in the faces of Dan and Amy fans. Every single scene relating to Dan and Amy was written specifically to do just that.

That Uproxx article of him talking about writing for himself, his high school friends, and college roommates, and how if he did what the fans wanted Dan and Amy would be married being the case in point. 

What about considering the fact that as this post mentioned, there is a middle ground between them being married and completely destroying them?

What about writing to uphold a critically acclaimed television show that was handed to you when clearly there were others who could have taken up the mantle and done a better job? What about writing to further the characters and storylines instead of writing around gags. 

That’s the main problem I have with the season. If he can’t respect the original source material and Armando’s vision, or the fans, I don’t know if I can take this as a continuation of seasons 1-4, even if it’s considered canon. No matter how many threads there are to the earlier seasons.

I just find it to be extremely condescending and insulting.

I’m so glad the The Hollywood Reporter Oral History exists. It just makes me wish they would have chosen someone else once they were having trouble with the table reads. I feel like that should have been the red flag. Or maybe they shouldn’t have continued at all.

Maybe this should serve as a cautionary tale about switching show runners. The only problem is that there are many, many fans I’m sure, who have loved seasons 5-7. And he has gotten so much praise from major publications and won Emmys for the show.

I really do wonder what the cast thinks now that the show is over. They all seemed to like the finale, they seemed to like the direction the show went in despite it being broad. I thought they might not be saying how they really felt since it because it was their job to do promo, but now, I’m not so sure.

#anon #asks #answers #replies #d**** m*****

[laoyangtutor]

老Yang教员组今天为大家整理一篇优秀的essay代写范文 -- Ellen DeGeneres' reflections on reality，文章讲述电视节目始终被视为普通百姓生活的重要组成部分，也是社会文化的必要组成部分。然而，各种电视节目是否反映了现实，引起了公众的热议。如果这样做的话，它们在多大程度上反映了人们的生活，文明的发展仍然模糊不清。同时有需要essay润色查重、辅导代写、托福GRE考试保分、网课全方位包课的家人们可以联系老Yang微信（Wechat ID: ymf2531）进行咨询喔~

Ellen DeGeneres' reflections on reality

 I. Introduction

Television shows are always considered as a major part of the lives of ordinary people, as well as an necessary component of a society’s culture. However, whether various television shows reflect reality or not stimulates a hot debate among public. And if they do, to what extent they have reflected people’s lives and the development of the civilization is still in a blur. Here, one television show will be analyzed to indicate the fact that televisions shows do reflect a certain degree of reality and the extent to what they reveal reality depends on much more sophisticated terms. Television shows, just like the television itself, created to inform people and developed into entertaining the viewers. On the one hand, they take the responsibility of summarizing the reality and delivering it to people in different places leading different lives; on the other hand, they are in charge of creating dramatic scenes in order to attract people’s attention and provide them with a free space for imagination.

More specifically, television shows usually reflect reality in several aspects such as economy, relationship, social concerns, fashion staff and etc. All the reality in real life has paved way for a great variety of television shows, and in return, all the shows on the screen influence how the society thinks and acts in a subtle way. In this essay, Ellen Show will be analyzed to show how they reflect reality and influence the society.

II. Introduction of Ellen Show

Ellen Show is a mix of celebrity interviews, musical performers, audience participation games, and segments spotlighting real people with extraordinary stories and talents, hosted by comedienne Ellen DeGeneres. This show receives great welcome all over the world. The atmosphere of the show is relaxing and active. Ellen has a good sense of humor and unbelievable affinity to her audience. DeGeneres launched this daytime television talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show in September 2003. Amid a crop of several celebrity-hosted talk shows surfacing at the beginning of that season, such as those of Sharon Osbourne and Rita Rudner, her show has consistently risen in the Nielsen ratings and received widespread critical praise. The show has won 25 Emmy Awards in its first three seasons on the air. DeGeneres is known for her dancing and singing with the audience at the beginning of the show and during commercial breaks. She often gives away free prizes and trips to be in her show's studio audience with the help of her sponsors.

III. Ellen Show&Reality

In an episode presented on 6 November 2014, Ellen started the show by introducing a popular app-Dorothy. In her words, this app “can help you to get out of a bad date”(Ellen Show). If a person is not satisfied with his or her date, he or she can click the heel in which a small device hide three times, and the app will send a text to your friend to help you get away. This small start-up won active response from the audience, most of whom were young ladies. Cecily Geller, one of the female audience on that day’s show, said that she has escapes from a bad blind date by tell the guy she had morning sickness. This is a reflection of ambivalence of young people right now. On the one hand, they are eager to find someone to date; on the other hand, they are afraid of dating someone they can’t get along with. Blind dates are more like a forbidden fruit. People want to try it because they expect something new and great but they really don’t know the consequences. Therefore, some brave people take the risks and prepare a backup plan in case things go wrong. Others just give up. This is a typical thought of people. Then come the various apps to help people do that in a more technological way. And this is just a small part of reality reflected by the show.

In one episode, Ellen interviewed Madonna about the bullying problem. Madonna confessed that she was bullied in childhood in Michigan. When she recalled the horrible past, she said, “ I still feel different. I can totally relate to the idea of feeling isolated and alienated. I was incredibly lonely as a child. And I have to say, I never felt I fitted in school......” (Ellen Show)Without doubt, Madonna is a complete queen in most people’s eyes so it may be not easy to picturing her as a victim of bullying. However, it exactly shows us how serious the bullying problem is. Bullying is becoming more and more serious and rampant, therefore, plenty of celebrities stand up to support the bullied party and to arouse the society’s attention to this problem. Recently, an overwhelming number of teenage suicides have been reported. It just rings the alarm bell for the parents, the schools and the society.  17-year-old Katlin Loux of Bossier Parish in Louisiana fatally hangs herself because the cruel and chronic bullying at school became just too much to bear.  12-year-old Rebecca Ann Sedwick of Lakeland, Florida, throws herself off a tower, dying on impact, after being bombarded day after day by online bullies with taunts like "You should die" and "Why don't you go kill yourself."(MarloThomas) Bullying is pretty common but schools and parents are not adept at dealing with it; besides, plenty of kids being bullied refuse to tell others about what they have experienced. Some are afraid of the bullies to torture them again; some are feel ashamed about themselves. Most of the bullied choose silence. This is why this bullying problem is getting serious but parents and schools are not aware of it. Therefore, on this side, it is meaningful to have celebrities tell their dark bullied past on the screen. When children see it, they will regard it as a serious problem and realize it is not their fault. Those celebrities encourage the bullied to tell the truth. No matter how horrible the bullying is, it will be over. Parents and schools, on their parts, should communicate with the kids more often and pay more attention to their abnormal behavior. More than 32 states in the U.S., including California, have varied legislation on bullying, from definitions to mandating bullying policies for schools, but usually with no money to back it up. The states should allocate more money and other necessary sources to implement all the legislation and regulation. Back to the Ellen Show, as a popular talk show viewed by millions of people, having a superstar talking about bullying experience is a great move. First off, it draws more attention from the public. Second, it gives the bullied courage to tell the truth and seek for help. Ultimately, through the wide and deep influence of the star, money can be funded to help children who are in the horror of bullying.

As is known, the host of the show, Ellen DeGeneres is a lesbian. Instead of hiding the secret from the audience, Ellen is incredibly honest and brave to tell the world her sexual orientation. And in return, Ellen also win plenty of fans for her honesty and bravery. That is a great reflection of people’s attitude toward gay or lesbian people. Considering the popularity of the show and the host, a high level of acceptance of gays or lesbians is obvious. This is a huge step for the human history and a big change of the society. In the past, gays and lesbians were loathed by the whole society. If a person had problem with his or her sexual orientation, he or she must keep it as a dirty secret for the whole lifetime or ended up in vicious torturing. However, this show just opened a door for the homosexual people and justify their rights as a human just like the rest of us. in the interview with Madonna, the superstar showed her thanks to her gay fans by saying “ The gay community has been incredibly supportive of me. I would not have a career if it weren’t for the gay community.”(Ellen Show) Just like Madonna, more and more celebrities are standing up for the gay community and trying to lead the public to treat them with respect. With more people accepting the gay love with respect, many movie stars, actors and singers are coming out of the closet. Instead of being loathed and alienated like their counterparts did in the past, they now are treated with respect and live with dignity. Even though there are still some extreme anti-gay groups, the main stream is being absolutely supportive. People both on the screen and off the screen are keeping an open heart to this.

IV. Conclusion

Television shows nowadays do more than informing the audience about the latest news events or knowledge in a certain field, they win their loyal viewers by sharing information, entertaining them in the way they like and inspiring them to be better. Just like Ellen Show, after all the discussion above, it is obvious that it do reflect reality and it influence how the audience thinks and acts. The viewers start to conceive things in a different perspective and change their attitudes toward certain things. This is exactly the magic of television shows- get the inspiration from the audience and in return, change the audience’s lives.

V. References

Ellen Show, episode on 9 November 2010 (Madonna). Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

Ellen Show, episode on 6 November 2014 (Anne Hathaway). Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

Thomas, Marlo. “A Silent Scream for Help: Bullying in America.” The Huffington Post. 10 October.2013. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

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[evenstevensranked]

#5: Season 3, Episode 1 - “The Kiss”

Season 3 begins with a bang -- bringing us one of the best, most memorable episodes the show has ever produced! Louis and Tawny accidentally kiss at lunch and the two decide to start dating!!! AHHHH! Everything's great until Tawny has to kiss Zack Estrada (yes, the saga continues once again) in the school play. The subplot is all about Donnie, who feels like a broken human because he never cries.

This is it, guys. The Top 5. The home stretch. The crème de la crème. Let’s go. 

This episode was a really big moment in my childhood. I was going through some old VHS tapes I found not too long ago, and came across one with this episode on it! That’s how you know it was a major deal. The first minute or so was cut off on the recording, and this was before all of our TVs had in-depth guides at our fingertips -- so I had no idea what episode was going to be airing. All I knew was “Even Stevens is up next!” So as soon as I saw it was the kiss episode, I popped in that tape and recorded this thing ASAP. I was a tweenage hopeless romantic with a crush on Shia LaBeouf. Of course I had to record the episode where Louis gets a girlfriend. 

It opens with Louis and Tawny at lunch together being adorable, trading snacks and sides until each of their lunches are completely different from what they started with. When suddenly, Tawny ~gets something in her eye.~ The oldest cliché in the book! I love it. Louis gets reaaal close to Tawny and goes diggin’ for gold in her eye, eventually identifying the “thing” as a soy cookie crumb. That’s when some person bumps into Louis and thankfully Tawny’s lips are there to break his fall.

The two are in absolute stunned silence once they break apart. It was a magical moment, clearly, as you can see. Ren interrupts their mutual daze by walking over with Zack Estrada and Tom in tow, reminding Tawny that she has a fitting for the school play. This does a hard cut to Louis’ room after school that day. Twitty dramatically spits out his drink when he hears the news: “DUDE! THIS IS HUGE YOU KISSED TAWNY?!?!” 

I’ve mentioned before that Even Stevens comes across as more of a ~bro show~ in comparison to the majority of Disney Channel shows which typically follow a teen girl as the lead. This is why I love rare moments like this scene between Louis and Twitty. Two guy best friends freaking out about one of them kissing a girl for the first time. I feel like we never see this on Disney Channel anymore. It feels so real and genuine too, especially for these characters. Louis isn’t entirely sure if it counts as a kiss though, so Twitty demands to get the facts straight. (“Kissing is like basketball, either the ball went in the hoop or it didn’t!”) He asks Louis how long he kissed her for and Louis guesses it was a “one-Mississippi” length. Twitty rejoices. 

“SWISH, DUDE! You kissed her!”

Louis is elated. Both of them agree that Louis + Tawny = Beautiful. (Can’t argue there!) So much so, that Louis starts to skip around with happiness. One of my favorite parts of the whole episode is here, when Louis takes a moment to think about how Tawny might be feeling. He has a mental breakdown when he realizes “Wait, whoa. There she was... Eating her lunch... and I, like... JUMPED on her! For all I know, Tawny’s disgusted by me!” Louis Stevens is the kind of guy we all deserve. I know it’s such a small thing, but it’s something that has aged amazingly. This line stood out like a sore thumb to me given today’s political climate and the Me Too era. I’ve said a million times that this show has aged super gracefully because it really has. It’s not entirely perfect though. No show is without its blemishes. There are some things we haven’t made it to yet in the countdown that have definitely not aged very well, but we’ll get to that later. Let’s just say, this one little line shows that Louis has grown exponentially as not only a character, but a guy in general, and sets a good example. Twitty vows to go on a “fact-finding mission” for Louis to figure out how Tawny feels about the situation. 

Tawny is still back at school rehearsing for the play which was written by... you guessed it! REN STEVENS! This woman does everything. How does anyone else even have a job at LJH? Ren is in charge of everything ever. Ren’s brilliant and totally not boring play is about Abigail Adams, played by Tawny, and her relationship with John Adams, played by none other than Zack Estrada! Knowing these characters and their history, it’s clear that Zack is still into Tawny to some degree. Coach Tugnut is there because they apparently pay him $92 to be the theater advisor. I love how specific that amount is, lol. He has no problem telling Ren that her play is a pile of trash and needs to be spiced up if she wants to sell any tickets.

I love how Tom is playing the “lowly manservant.” He’s ridiculously dedicated to staying in character at all times throughout the episode. Tom’s the best. Tawny’s pattern mixing though. A plaid dress with red and black striped tights and Docs? She was so ~alternative.~ I love it. 

Zack is trying to ask Tawny out for a root beer when Twitty crashes the rehearsal and not so subtly tries to ask Tawny about the kiss, skirting around the issue by nervously asking stupid questions instead like “where are your parents from originally?” But of course, Tawny is freaking awesome and has no time for anyone's bs as usual. She literally says “I’m gonna stop you. Because eventually, you’re going to ask me about the kiss Louis gave me today at lunch. If he wants to talk to me about it, he can talk to me without your help. Tell him to meet me at his locker 10 minutes before first period,” YAAAASSSSSS! TAWNY IS NO NONSENSE AND ONE OF THE GREATEST FEMALE CHARACTERS ON DISNEY. Praise. 

The next morning Louis is waiting for Tawny at his locker and you’ve undoubtedly seen this screenshot of when he notices her walking his way: 

Smooth. For whatever reason this is one of the main images that comes up as a “Louis Stevens” search result, therefore nearly every single nostalgia article uses it. It’s kind of annoying. 

Louis and Tawny have a preciously awkward conversation, talking about how they both couldn’t sleep because they were up thinking about what happened. They’re also sort of skirting around the issue until Tawny puts her foot down once again: “Look, Louis, I like you. I always have. Since the first day I met you.” I am melting. Louis is so freaking happy and says “WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?! WE COULD’A BEEN KISSIN’ UP A STORM!!!” Oh, wow. They immediately start dating and I’m a puddle of goo. Also, this happens. Which... yeah, lol. 95k notes. Wow. 

The first gif tho. Louis when Tawny was saying “I like you.” HOW GENUINE IS THAT FACE?! Shia won an Emmy for this so there is justice in the world. But yeah. They are so pure. :’)

This leads into a montage that spans possibly 3 days or so, showing us Louis and Tawny interacting as a couple. I hate that this is all we get. They should’ve stretched this montage into 3 episodes instead tbh. I live for this crap. 

“Hey, babe. Want some celery?” 

“Only 15 more hours ‘til I see you!” 

"Thanks for walking me to rehearsal.” “Oh, anything for my beautiful lady.” 

QUALITY CONTENT. Also, gotta love how polite Louis is being by wearing that hideous sweater Tawny knit for him. 

I love this episode because we get to see actual ~Boyfriend Louis~ for the first and pretty much only time, and man is it something. Once again this show nails the awkwardness of Junior High relationships. It’s so intense when you’re 14, right?! There’s no such thing as casually dating. You have to be all in, 24/7. It takes over your life because you’re not really equipped to mentally handle a serious relationship at 14. This is why I never get tired of watching TV teen relationships. They’re always endlessly entertaining to me. 

After watching a cheesy 1940s “Casablanca” knock-off romance movie with the fam, Ren realizes the “spice” her play needs is the passion of two people in love. She rewrites the play to make it more exciting and even adds in a passionate kiss between Abigail and John... a.k.a. Zack and Tawny... for the big finale. UH-OH! We’re introduced to Donnie’s little subplot there because Steve, Eileen, and even Beans -- bawled their eyes out at the movie but all Donnie could do was burp after stuffing his face through the whole thing. He starts to question “what’s wrong with me?!” because he felt no emotion whatsoever.  

Ren announces the script changes at the rehearsal Louis walked Tawny to a few screenshots above. Coach Tugnut observes Louis and Tawny’s obvious couple-y vibe and tells Louis “First girlfriend? Get ready for a lifetime of pain.” Oh, god. That’s the last thing you should tell Louis Stevens. He starts freaking out and it only gets worse when he hears Ren tell everyone about the addition of the big kiss and Zack cheers “YEEEEEAHHHH!!!!!! *transitions into a cough to cover his excitement*” Because as I mentioned, it’s clear that he’s still into Tawny. I feel like if it was anyone other than Zack, Louis might be okay with the kiss. There’s just something about this guy that he absolutely cannot deal with. We first saw Louis' jealousy over Zack and Tawny way back in Season 1 with "Easy Way" and then "Strictly Ballroom." We also see Louis become super jealous over Twitty's friendship with Zack towards the end of the series. Also... I swear, I did not plan for 3 out of 4 episodes in The Zack Estrada Saga to end up in the Top 10 and be counted down in serial order. Pretty cool that it worked out that way though, haha.

Louis feels that Ren’s rewrite is “too predictable” so he decides to write his own ending for the play and presents it to Ren at home that night. He envisions the story concluding with Abigail running to her husband and giving him a haircut. HAHAHA! Anything but a kiss! “I’ve never seen it before!” he says. Welp, he’s definitely right about his idea being unpredictable! lol. Imagine?! Of course, Ren can tell that Louis is actually just freaking out about Zack kissing Tawny and Louis is like “Are you trying to embarrass me in front of the whole school?!” -- But, would it really be that bad though? Would people taunt him like “lol ur girlfriend kissed another guy” or something? Because, like... It’s just a play. But then again, it is middle school. So. 

Louis is super down about the whole thing and Tawny finds him sulking on a bench the next day. She’s all “Hey, Cutie Pants! I’ve been looking all over for you!” -- ‘Cutie Pants’ is a little too far, lol. She brought Louis her “Tater Slabs,” which he declines. Side note: Are those supposed to be a form of Tater Tots? Because I feel like Disney Channel has a million different names for Tater Tots. They call them Tater Slabs here. These days, they’re calling them Baby Taters on Andi Mack. It’s just a constant reminder that “Tater Tots” is a registered trademark that Disney can’t say without coughing up the cash, lol.

Tawny asks Louis if something’s the matter and he’s like “I think you should quit the play” and pulls a bunch of bogus excuses out of his butt as for why. Tawny being Tawny cuts right to the chase: “Does this have anything to do with me kissing Zack?” I love this bit. She reassures him that all they’re doing is acting, it’s not real -- and there’s only one person she really wants to kiss. She asks Louis to promise he’ll be okay with it and Louis’ response of “Alright. I promise,” is the softest, most sincere thing I’ve ever heard this character say. It warms my heart every time. Tawny heads off to rehearsal and Louis is feeling prett-ay swaggy knowing he’s ~the only man in Tawny’s life~

I CAN’T DEAL WITH THIS. I also never knew what he was saying here, but I think I just realized he’s mouthing to himself “I’m the only one she really wants to kiss” 

Louis was just accepting the fact that it’s ONLY ACTING until he sees the newly unveiled poster for the play that features a cozy picture from dress rehearsal. 

CUT TO THE PLAY! It starts with a bit where Tawny/Abigail calls Tom’s character Renee “a loyal and faithful manservant.” Tom originally had a speech, but Ren cut it in her rewrite. So he milks his time on stage by saying “Thank you, thank you, thank you” repeatedly to Abigail. It’s great. Tawny and Zack are up there acting really well together! Louis’ whole family is whispering about how great their chemistry is and Louis is quaking. 

One of John’s lines in the play is that he will think of Abigail “on two occasions... when my eyes are open, and when they are closed,” -- Is that a Babyface reference?! HAHA. Louis can’t take it anymore so he goes running backstage and I’m not sure what he was planning to do, but he ends up going completely insane. He somehow managed to steal Tom’s costume right off his back and goes running on stage demanding for John to leave before kissing his wife goodbye. It’s so cringeworthy. I can’t help but laugh though when Louis says “You must come with me at once! You gotta send her a postcard, email, or something! We gotta miss rush-hour traffic!” LOL. 

Ren: “How did Louis get your clothes?!”

Tom: “He can be very persuasive...” 

What could Louis possibly have said to get Tom to strip?! Omg. 

Tom goes running on stage like ^ that in an attempt to save the play somehow and says “Excuse the undergarments, m’lady! I was under the cherry tree napping!” which was always one of my mom’s favorite lines, haha. Tom tries to drag Louis off stage but the entire play officially goes down in flames when Louis starts fighting Tom off of him. He goes rollin’ all over the stage, knocking down everything in his path -- completely ruining the set. It’s funny, but I also feel so bad for Tawny. Ugh. 

After Louis destroys the whole shebang, he tries to play it off by doing this... which is truly hilarious: 

Louis meets up with Tawny outside after the play and the two have such a dramatic conversation. I love it. Louis apologizes: “You gotta understand... I tried to be mature and cool. And the next thing I know, I’m up on stage wearing Tom’s pants! I’m really sorry.” It’s way more sincere than it sounds. Louis decides that he’s not ready for a relationship. This is actually such great character development for him. Interestingly, he’s mature enough to realize he’s NOT mature enough to seriously date someone. As upsetting and frustrating as it is to see the two break up, it’s also really satisfying to see him own up to his immaturity. This creates a true arc for when they finally get together in the series finale. It feels earned. Like they’re actually ready that time around. They decide to go back to being just friends for the time being. Before they part ways, however, Louis decides to leave Tawny with a super suave kiss?! What the heck?!

This was the biggest kiss of my entire childhood between two TV characters aside from Lizzie and Gordo at the end of The Lizzie McGuire Movie tbh. Everyone was expecting that Lizzie/Gordo kiss though. THIS one was outta left field here! This is so weird to me! He’s super smooth with Beans’ cousin later on and here he’s kissin’ Tawny like a pro. Idk, man. 

The episode ends with Donnie finally crying over that Babyface lyric: “When his eyes are open, and when his eyes are closed......... THAT’S ALL THE TIME!”

And that’s it! 

Gaaad, this episode is a classic. Like I said, it was a pretty big deal for 10 year old me, let me tell ya! I feel like it’s definitely one of the most memorable episodes ever. Not to mention, it technically has 3 plots (Louis/Tawny, Ren writing the play, and Donnie) and ALL OF THEM ARE INTERTWINED FLAWLESSLY! I gotta commend that. The only department I’d say this episode is lacking in is quotable dialogue. But that’s it really! It checks every box for me otherwise! This episode and the finale probably had a lot to do with Season 3 being my favorite as a kid, haha. 

What are your thoughts on this wonderful season opener?! Please add to the conversation via Disqus belowwww!

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#rank #even stevens #season 3 #shia labeouf #louis stevens #christy carlson romano #tawny dean #louis and tawny #louis x tawny #tom gribalski #alan twitty #the zack estrada saga #ren stevens #donnie stevens #beans #tv review #tv #tv shows #lizzie mcguire

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - “Who is Gizmoduck?”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Bob Snow

Written by: Christian Magalhaes

Directed by: Tanner Johnson

Storyboard by: Emmy Cicirega, Ben Holm, Jason Reicher

It’s Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera, right? Well, it's a little more complicated than that.

The episode starts with Donald Duck trying to get a loan from the bank for the repairs for his houseboat. I'm assuming this is due to all that damage that shark did to it. This would be the perfect job for Donald, as he was able to take them on in a previous episode. If only he wasn't all tied up with one of those pens on a string.

Thankfully for everyone, at least at first, Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera was also in the bank trying to open an account. Right from the beginning, we're hinted at Fenton's financial situation: since he's an unpaid intern, he has to ask the bank if he can open an account with no money. After he accidently says his catchphrase while failing to hide from all of this, the suit activates. Sadly, there's no repeat of the amazing magical girl transformation sequence here.

Gizmoduck still pretty much beats everyone out of sheer luck, due to not having total control over his suit. The one time he tries to hit Bouncer Beagle with a pie, the hand just throws it on the ground.

It's not just incompetence: there's an internal Processor Core, represented on his interface as a Little Bulb. When he uses too many of his powers, it overloads and makes him spin around shooting lasers and pies everywhere. While this succeeds in making the Beagle Boys run off before getting a single dime out of the bank, this does destroy it.

Huey was there, and he was enamoured by all of this, as shown here. Not everyone else is happy, though. Because of this kind of destruction, Gizmoduck has a Spider-Man-like reputation when it comes to the media. Huey tries to tell Roxanne Featherly, the recurring anchorwoman, about how Gizmoduck is a hero and that he saved him, but this doesn't stop the news from calling him "Robo-Crook". Not a recurring theme.

This episode does not focus on Scrooge and the nephews, or even Donald as he just disappears into the "far more interested in repairing his houseboat than participating in adventures" void. Instead, the vast majority of this episode's focus is on Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera. It's a neat change from the usual.

Another hint at the financial situation is that he still lives with his mother; this reboot’s version of M'Ma Crackshell, who, according to the credits, everyone else calls Officer Cabrera. She's a police officer in this version, constantly carrying her badge. She speaks a few Spanish words, and is addicted to telanovelas, continuing from the original's addiction to soap operas.

This episode has a lot of slapstick even when he doesn't have the suit on. He has to juggle around a missile while talking to his mom, and having to use a stretchy arm to stop a pie from hitting her in the face. The pies are a running gag throughout the episode.

We cut to Mark Beaks, talking to one of his interns about how much he wants Gizmoduck. Okay, maybe that's not the best way to word that, but I'm keeping it. Because it wasn't hinted enough that this guy is a villain, he does all of this in the dark. Mark Beaks also builds an emblem with Waddle's logo on it. That may be the first thing he's ever built that isn't a smartphone app and/or stolen from someone in a while.

If you don't pay attention to the background, you'll miss out on some excellent foreshadowing. That's something that happens in this series a lot, and I appreciate it.

After that, we see Gyro training Fenton in the ways to use the suit. This only consists of reflex tests, which doesn't really excite Fenton. Unlike Fenton's dreams of being able to use Gizmoduck to save the world, Gyro only wanted him to do mundane tasks like lifting boxes to high places.

Gyro warns Fenton that he better not use the suit in a way that would make it go haywire, and make him lose all of his funding. Yeah, Gyro doesn't have any idea about the bank incident. The news crew didn't get a good shot at who this robo-crook looks like, but I would think this genius would be able to put two-and-two together. Fenton can hope that someone won't tell him about this amazing robotic hero who has tons of gizmos at his disposal...

...especially not when Gyro is having trouble with the Pep machine. That running gag will be as present as that guy from Lilo and Stitch’s ice cream falling to the ground. Gyro goes to the junkyard and finds Gizmoduck in the middle of a slapstick montage of him figuring out which gizmos are malfunctioning, and he's not too happy.

In the middle of all this, he accidentally fires a missile, which he has to chase after. Even he laments that this isn't a continuation of the pie joke, possibly caused by Gyro turning those down earlier in the episode. End scene, cut to commercial.

This missile almost ends up hitting a helicopter piloted by a certain someone everyone seems to know. This stranger he saves happens to be really excited about this, and says "yay" with glee as he is flown to safety. No surprise, since he happens to be...

...the memelord himself, Mark Beaks. As a thank you for saving him from the destroyed helicopter, he offers Gizmoduck a job opportunity. He tells him that the city doesn't exactly like him, and with his help, he can become the beloved hero of Duckburg he wanted to be. Or, in his exact words and convienent smartphone app...

Mark Beaks: See, right now, you're a bad meme.

Yeah, have you seen his new Gizmoduck Meme Generator? I will say this; this episode is by far his best appearance in my opinion. It is apparent in that earlier scene, but it will be even more apparent later in the episode.

Despite the huge job opportunity, he decides not to accept it, and flies away. I would almost think he would have taken it immediately after Gyro got angry at him, but it would seem a little out of character for him to immediately turn his back on.

However, it's not too out of character for the reboot's Gyro to turn his back on Fenton. Gyro and Little Bulb respond the best way they know how: by firing him and literally setting the suit on fire to start again on a suit that doesn't have gizmos. How he managed to know about the helicopter incident but not the bank incident is not really explained. Maybe Huey told him about it, too. That rascal.

The Headless Man Horse is there, too, still doing his one joke while wearing the Scrooge head. I think they're trying to make him a meme. Eh.

He says Blathering Blatherskite, and crashes through the walls and flies off to Waddle. A very disappointed Huey looks on, hinting at a future scene. Gyro apparently doesn't notice his suit he was going to incinerate just flew out of the building.

He comes back to Mark Beaks to seal the deal, as he doesn't have a job any more. Mark Beaks even rebrands him as Waddle Duck, as shown in a PowerPoint presentation. Things are looking up, not only can he be a hero, but he even gets some love from his M’Ma. She's glad that he is working at a real job at Waddle instead of an unpaid internship with Scrooge.

We get a true montage: not only does Waddleduck help out a variety of people with various mundane problems, it is all backed by a Waddle Duck theme that feels like it's straight out an 80's movie. This is even repeated at the end credits, giving us an alternate credits theme for the first time.

Ironically enough, this is pretty close to how Gyro wanted the suit to be used in the first place, and the simple tasks aren't complicated enough to make the suit go haywire.

One of the customers is Huey, who isn't too happy with Fenton's business decision. He uses the app to tell Waddleduck to throw away a piece of paper that represents his faith in him. Huey has every reason to not be a fan of Mark Beaks, either, as he experienced first-hand that he's a crook. He still uses their products, but that's pretty accurate to real life. There's a lot of reasons to not like Wal-Mart, but dammit, some businesses need cheap soap!

Eventually, he’s going to have a problem. While he's lifting up a car to help someone parallel park, Waddleduck notices that the Beagle Boys are robbing a poor family. Much like RoboCop, Waddleduck has some new directives: he can't save anyone unless they install the app and give all their details.

He goes up to Mark Beaks' office, clearly angered by the situation, to turn off the directive. His office happens to be in darkness in this scene, which hints that this is going to be the huge twist!

While I’m not going to delve too much into the big plot twists in this episode, I really need to talk about this particular one. Much like the last time I had to do this in the Goldie O'Gilt episode, it wasn’t even a matter of if, but when and how Mark Beaks’ plan is going to happen, but it's still a delight to see without me spoiling it to you. Watch the episode, it's good.

← From the Confidential Casefiles of Agent 22! 🦆 The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck! →

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Ultimately, Mark Beaks decides that it wouldn't be great if someone else was the beloved hero, and taps a few things on his phone. He removes Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera as the owner of the suit, and puts himself in his place. He doesn't even have to say the codeword to take off Fenton's suit, that's the power of the Waddle emblem. Yeah, that's definitely not the best way to word that, but I'm keeping it.

He even gets his own transformation sequence, which is even more Sailor Moon than Fenton’s from Beware the B.U.D.D.Y. System! I guess two transformation sequences would have been too much.

The real Robo-Crook shows up at a press conference, and his first course of action is to show off his secret identity as Mark Beaks. He hasn't even done anything, and he's already a terrible superhero. Maybe he's just that confident in his guards. Huey doesn't buy it at all. He never does figure out who Gizmoduck is, which I was a little confused by until I realized he didn't even appear in Gizmoduck's debut episode.

One can probably guess how this will mess up for Mark Beaks. Even with all of his experience with it, Fenton Crackshell could barely control his super-suit. Mark Beaks got this suit a minute ago. He also decided to get rid of the directive that prevented the suit from using its gizmos to help anyone except people who have the app, so he has no restriction on how he uses its powers!

Sure enough, the same going haywire that happened to Fenton in the beginning happens to Mark Beaks here, minus the whole "stopping a bank robbery" thing. He was just showing off by firing lasers randomly and not really caring that its causing destruction, which is fitting for his character. They actually stop to show a scene where the smartphone he used to steal the suit gets run over by him bumbling around, causing the Waddle logo emblem to fall off of his chest. Without this scene, there would have been a plot hole later in the episode.

They have to resolve another issue, as well: that pesky Processor Core that's causing all of this. It's Huey that helps out in this situation, I won't spoil exactly how, but not before he gets into danger due to the malfunctioning suit. One of the lasers hits a billboard that he and Fenton's M'Ma happened to be under. In a heroic move, Fenton leaps towards the falling billboard, and, with intention this time, says the magic words.

It turns out that emblem was the only thing keeping Fenton, or anyone else who knows the secret passphrase, from stealing back the suit. I would have questioned how he was able to do this after getting hacked, but that scene I mentioned earlier does explain it quite well. Mark Beaks just kind of disappears after this; it's more than likely he'll get away with what he did being that he's rich. There's some nice development there. I will say that a scene at the end reminds me of a certain Batman movie to the point where it could be a reference to it.

Thankfully, it is not played straight, and it does end well for Fenton and anyone who wants to see more Gizmoduck. This is helped by an appearance of a character who you expected to see, swooping in at the last minute. Who is this sort-of Deus Ex "Machina" helping out the machina? Watch the episode to find out.

How does it stack up?

My expectations were simply to see more Gizmoduck, and this pretty much delivered. It's a good slice of the life of a superhero.

Another day, another bin, another Lena episode. Can't wait.

← From the Confidential Casefiles of Agent 22! 🦆 The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck! →

#fpb dt 2017 #ducktales #ducktales 2017 #disney #fpb reviews

[honestlysuchamess]

The Script - Scene 1

The Script

Summary: Shawn stars in the hot new TV spin-off of the Harry Potter series.  It’s all there - wizardry, teenage romance, drama, and humor. But falling in love with his co-star? So not in the script.

Season 4, episode 4 (Unreleased)

I was going to die.

I was sure of it.

The stone wall was rough against my back. Maddy’s lifeless head rested against the curve of my collarbone, her body cradled in my lap. My arm was wrapped tightly around her waist, the other hand cupping her neck as my thumb ghostly over her jawline, leaving sticky red fingerprints against her skin. Whether it was her blood or mine, I couldn’t tell.

God, there was so much blood. The coppery smell tainted my nose every time I inhaled.

Hers or mine?

Mostly hers.

But I was desperately trying to ignore the fact that my part of my femur was sticking out of my leg.

“Maddy.” I whispered brokenly, closing my eyes and pressing my chapped lips to her hair. “Please don’t leave me.”

I could barely hear the shouts and screams now. The war seemed far away; the fighting had moved onwards. Or maybe that was just my busted eardrum.

We were winning?

The good guys always won. We had to be winning.

But right now, gripping my best friend and the love of my life – not that she knew, of course – as she lay dying, it didn’t feel like winning.

“I am… so, so, sorry..” I choked out, trying unsuccessfully to swallow the thick lump centered in my throat. The corners of my eyes prickled with tears.

That all-too-familiar wave of hopelessness washed over me. I clenched my teeth in frustration, remembering briefly how hopelessness and doubt used to be a stranger to me. God, that life I led – that Maddy and I had both led – even just a couple months ago, seemed so far out of reach.

How had we fallen so far?

The corners of vision began to darken, and I felt the excruciating pain of my broken leg finally catching up to me.

I fell into the abyss.

Yeah.

Didn’t feel like winning at all.

-------------------

“CUT.”

I blinked my eyes open and was immediately blinded by the set lights flashing on. Giving an irritated grunt, I raised my hand to block out some of the brightness.

I could feel Sebastian’s consciousness slip away.

“Gah.” A voice grumbled against my chest. I looked down, meeting the annoyed gaze of my co-star. “Those damned lights. Every fucking time.”

I gave a soft chuckle, my lips widening into a smile. Faye was irresistibly funny like that.  “We should tell them off.” I offered, reluctantly releasing my grip on her and carefully untangling my hand from her hair. 

“Ted would have a heart attack if he thought we were unhappy.” She teased back, sliding from my lap to sit down next to me.

I immediately missed her warmth.

“He sure would.” I agreed.

I glanced across the set, where Ted stood surrounded by the set staff. His hair was messy, a sure sign he was either frustrated or pissed, and judging by the color in his cheeks and the way his hands were gesturing wildly, I opted for the later.  

“Ted looks angry.” I murmured, shifting slightly before drawing my ‘unbroken’ leg up to my chest and resting my elbow on my knee.

Faye followed my gaze before she snorted, unsurprised. “Ted’s always angry.”

Ted was our ‘brilliant’. While his work always turned out extraordinary (our show had been nominated for Emmys almost every year), his day-to-day directing methods were a little… unusual. Lucky for Faye and I, his golden rule was always something along the lines of “keep the actors happy”, so his mood swings and normal displeasure were never directed towards us.

I searched the cluster for a specific face. I spotted him, standing slightly away from the grouping staff. His nose was scrunched, his thick eyebrows pulled downwards as he frowned. Apparently Benji wasn’t happy either.

Benji was our completing one-third; His character that completed our golden trio. His real name was Faris (pronounced FAR IS) but nobody I knew called him that. Something about his character’s nickname had stuck, so that’s what we called him.

“EVERYBODY TAKE FIVE.” Ted bellowed, storming towards the exit. The staff behind him looked thoroughly disgruntled, but slowly began to disperse.

Benji headed in our direction, picking his way cautiously through the rubble that was our ruined castle set. He sat down rather ungracefully next to me.

“Why’d Ted fly off the handle this time?” Faye asked. She was picking at her split ends – that is, if she had any split ends. I knew for a fact she didn’t, but she still reverted to the habit when she was bored.

Benji shrugged. “Scene doesn’t feel right. Normal stuff. I think he’s gone to call up Joanne again.”

Faye threw a rock, watching it bounce harmlessly off the tiled floor. She heaved a frustrated sigh, leaning her head back against the wall.

My hand slipped from my lap, finding hers. I gave a gentle squeeze, before pulling away.

Benji absentmindedly picked at his blue and cranberry sweater. “I know guys. We just have to trust him. He’s never let us down before. The stakes for this season are higher than ever.”

“As opposed to, you know, all the high stakes of the previous three seasons.” Faye muttered sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

“We’ve spent days on this exact scene.” I said, carefully trying not to let my annoyance color my voice.  

It was getting harder and harder to slip into Sebastian’s head. I was becoming worried.

“It’s an uphill climb from here. We’ve barely started the battle storyline, much less filmed any of the action sequences. Who knows how long that is going to take.” She grimaced.

“Studio’s put us on a three-month time crunch.”

“Seriously? They expect everything to be done in three months?” I asked, incredulous.

No wonder Ted was throwing a fit. I wondered when they had told him. I tried recalling his rants from the past week, noting that most of them seemed to blend together as I surfaced with nothing.

“Just for filming I think. Can you blame them? The fans have been waiting for this season for over a year now.”

Benji always was the rational one.

A door slam signaled Ted’s apparent return. Whatever his spoke about with J.K Rowling seemed to have soothed him.  He was calmer, the angry look had faded, and the tension he carried lessened. He motioned to us as he returned to behind the camera.

“From the top again please, Shawn and Faye.”

“Here we go again.” Faye said, as she hauled herself back into my lap as Benji got up to remove himself from the scene. My arms instinctively snaked around her, gently pressing her to me. My hand traced the delicate curvature of her spine as it found its’ way to her neck.

She closed her eyes, letting her body go limp against mine.  

I inhaled deeply, following her lead by closing my eyes as I delved back into my mind, seeking Sebastian’s persona.

“Scene #42, Take #108.”

The snap of the clapperboard. The release of breath.

Sebastian’s thoughts and memories overriding my own. Ilvermorny materialized in front of me.

“ACTION.”

#shawn mendes fic #Shawn Mendes Imagine #shawn mendes #shawn mendes fanfic #shawn mendes writing