#they carried the season 5 Christmas episode

[mioakem]

It’s THEIR time of year

#no one does Christmas like them #they carried the season 5 Christmas episode #kurtcheltana #kurt hummel #rachel berry #santana lopez #glee

[samepisodebracket]

justice for sam

If the spnepisodebracket craze has shown us anything, it's that the supernatural fanbase is extremely divided, with the lowly sam stan seemingly at the bottom of the pile. sam is always last in polls, so this is a bracket for the 10% or so who always votes for him. because yeah, there's 327 episodes of Supernatural, but how many are popular because of a dean or destiel moment? how many good episodes are drowned out because they focus on sam?

i've chosen, with some crowdsourced peer review (special thanks to @spneveryseason, @suncaptor, and @ambersock!) 125 episodes that are Sam Relevant. Some are extremely sam-centric, some just have a shot where sam looks like he's being crucified that gives me brain worms -- i tried to be generous about it to keep a relatively even seasons distribution! matchups will be random and polls will last 24 hours each. in the tradition of @spnepisodebracket (who this is obviously inspired by and would not be possible without!) i'll try to rb a gifset for every episode in the poll!

a final note: no this is not that serious but the criteria for voting here should be how good the episode is as a SAM episode, not as anything else, so please vote accordingly! i am making this for people who actually enjoy sam and if that is not you, then this is not the poll for you!

with that out of the way, here is the compiled list of episodes! voting starts this sammy sunday, 3/26!

Season 1 Pilot (1x01) Bloody Mary (1x05) Home (1x09) Asylum (1x10) Scarecrow (1x11) Nightmare (1x14) Shadow (1x16) Provenance (1x19) Salvation (1x21) Devil's Trap (1x22) Season 2 Simon Said (2x05) Croatoan (2x09) Hunted (2x10) Playthings (2x11) Houses of the Holy (2x13) Born Under a Bad Sign (2x14) Heart (2x17) All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1 (2x21) All Hell Breaks Loose Part 2 (2x22) Season 3 Bad Day at Black Rock (3x03) A Very Supernatural Christmas (3x08) Mystery Spot (3x11) Jus In Bello (3x12) Time is On My Side (3x15) Season 4 Metamorphosis (4x04) It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester (4x07) I Know What You Did Last Summer (4x09) After School Special (4x13) On the Head of a Pin (4x16) It's a Terrible Life (4x17) Jump the Shark (4x19) When the Levee Breaks (4x21) Lucifer Rising (4x22) Season 5 Good God, Y'all! (5x02) Free to be You and Me (5x03) Changing Channels (5x08) Sam, Interrupted (5x11) Swap Meat (5x12) The Song Remains the Same (5x13) My Bloody Valentine (5x14) Dark Side of the Moon (5x16) 99 Problems (5x17) Two Minutes to Midnight (5x21) Swan Song (5x22) Season 6 Exile on Main St. (6x01) You Can't Handle the Truth (6x06) Family Matters (6x07) Clap Your Hands if You Believe (6x09) Caged Heat (6x10) Appointment in Samarra (6x11) Like a Virgin (6x12) Unforgiven (6x13) The French Mistake (6x15) The Man Who Knew Too Much (6x22) Season 7 Meet the New Boss (7x01) Hello, Cruel World (7x02) The Girl Next Door (7x03) Season 7, Time for a Wedding! (7x08) Plucky Pennywhistle's Magic Menagerie (7x14) Repo Man (7x15) Out with the Old (7x16) The Born-Again Identity (7x17) Season 8 We Need to Talk About Kevin (8x01) Hunteri Heroici (8x08) Trial and Error (8x14) Taxi Driver (8x19) Pac-Man Fever (8x20) The Great Escapist (8x21) Clip Show (8x21) Sacrifice (8x23) Season 9 Holy Terror (9x09) Road Trip (9x10) First Born (9x11) The Purge (9x13) Meta Fiction (9x18) Season 10 Black (10x01) Soul Survivor (10x03) Fan Fiction (10x05) Inside Man (10x17) Book of the Damned (10x18) The Werther Project (10x19) The Prisoner (10x22) Brother's Keeper (10x23) Season 11 Form and Void (11x02) Baby (11x04) Just My Imagination (11x08) Oh Brother Where Art Thou (11x09) The Devil in the Details (11x10) Into the Mystic (11x11) Ouroborus (11x14) Red Meat (11x17) Don't Call Me Shurley (11x20) Season 12 Keep Calm and Carry On (12x01) Mamma Mia (12x02) American Nightmare (12x04) Rock Never Dies (12x07) The Raid (12x14) Who We Are (12x22) Season 13 Lost and Found (13x01) Patience (13x03) The Big Empty (13x04) Various & Sundry Villains (13x12) A Most Holy Man (13x15) Funeralia (13x19) Beat the Devil (13x21) Exodus (13x22) Let the Good Times Roll (13x23) Season 14 Stranger in a Strange Land (14x01) Mint Condition (14x04) Nightmare Logic (14x05) Byzantium (14x08) Prophet and Loss (14x12) Lebanon (14x13) Peace of Mind (14x15) Game Night (14x17) Moriah (14x20) Season 15 Back and to the Future (15x01) Atomic Monsters (15x04) The Rupture (15x03) Golden Time (15x06) The Gamblers (15x11) Unity (15x17) Inherit the Earth (15x19) Finale: Carry On (15x20)

Edits: Bugs (1x08) will be added, polls will not be completely random bc im not doing this for science im doing this to see a good episode win and my randomizer pit when the levee breaks against swan song in round 1

#samepisodebracket #sam winchester #polls #spn #spn polls

[horsetailcurlers2]

a rough, addison-centric timeline of grey's anatomy/private practice

an anon sent me an ask about when greys/private practice took place and a rough timeline for addison. then i went to edit the draft and accidentallly deleted it. so, i'm sorry, anon! i hope you find this post lol.

okay, so, the grey’s universe contradicts itself multiple times when it comes to the timeline so this is my best approximation/what makes the most sense. i’m putting this in bulleted list format lol bc initially i had a long rambly paragraph that was me basically doing the math as i went. i also got way too carried away and this may be more detailed than you needed. 

Pre-show/establishing age

addison is 39 by the end of season three. this makes absolutely no sense considering her extensive credentials but shhh dont worry about it. in my head i justify it bc she canonically graduated college early, and in my head she skipped a grade or two

she and derek are heavily implied to have met their very first semester of med school. they married in 1994. So there is no official timeline on what years she completed her undergrad, when she graduated med school, or when she completed her residencies and fellowships. 

GA seasons 1-3 

the first three seasons of greys are all one year (they span meredith & friends' intern year)

i initially thought season one took place in 2005 (when the show airs) but in order for everything else to fit it must be 2006. the show contradicts itself about this a few times. personally, i think 2005 makes more sense because addison and derek were married in 1994 and they were married for 11 years at this point. but, they must have made allowances for the fact that three seasons spanned one year.

season one runs from summer to fall 2006. meredith spends two months with derek before addison shows up. addison spends those same two months with mark in new york. so her whole pregnancy/abortion/blonde-hair-for-a-minute all happens in late summer/fall, then she shows up in seattle at the end of season one and by her fabulous fur lined coat, we can gather that it’s fall.

season two picks up directly after season one with no time gap. We get christmas and thanksgiving episodes, and it stretches into spring 2007 (the hospital prom takes place during actual prom season for richard’s niece)

season three once again picks up directly after season two with no gap. addison and derek’s divorce is finalized pretty quickly into the season but i couldnt get the date. the season ends definitively around mid june, because that’s when cristina and burke’s wedding was meant to take place. the two part backdoor pilot for private practice spans the two episodes directly before the wedding/finale, so addison presumably visited L.A around late may/early june 2007 and then came back before the wedding

PP season 1 (+GA season 4)

season one of private practice aired concurrently with grey’s season 4 and the timeline runs directly parallel. there are only nine episodes and they make very very few references to time, so we have to extrapolate from grey’s.

they say that there's a short gap between cristina’s wedding and the start of their second residency year so, season four picks up around early/mid july, meaning private practice also starts around this time. 

grey;s has a halloween episode early on (episode five or six) and presumably runs through the rest of fall and winter. PP season one ends after the ninth episode, which aired before the ninth episode of grey’s. then, addison comes to seattle in GA S4 ep 13. in the episode directly after this, the article comes out about burke winning the “2008 harper avery award”, so i believe this visit is already early 2008. 

PP season 2 (+GA season 5)

seasons 4 and 5 of GA take place over one year, so pp seasons 1 and 2 must also be one year. there are very few time references, so we have to extrapolate from grey’s again. there is a few months long gap between seasons 1 and 2 (bc of the time during which grey's was airing but pp was not)

episode five of grey's takes place in october (so ep 5 of pp must also be around october)

GA 5x14 and PP 2x15 run parallel to eachother. addison calls derek at the end of these episodes. i'm pretty sure this is meant to take place in january or february 2009 (at this point the air dates are closely lined up with the in universe dates). this whole crossover arc spans two episodes of PP and one episode of GA and i’m pretty sure its meant to take place over just a few days.

2x18 of PP takes place over three months so im guessing its at least early summer 2009 by the time the season ends

PP season 3 (+GA season 6)

season three picks up directly after season two (violet’s attack). season 6 of GA also picks up directly after their previous season (george's death). but then GA 6x1 and 6x2 take place over forty days and PP 3x2 picks up a month after 3x1. So theres a lot of futzing and messing with the timeline to make up for gaps and cliffhangers between seasons already. 

they mention that seattle grace mercy west is established in 2009

PP 3x3 is a direct continuation of GA 6x5, for reference

the grey's holiday episode this season (6x10) spans from november 2009, to january 1st 2010. and then PP 3x11 is a direct continuation of GA 6x11. i am assuming it's still january 2010 at this point. (this is also directly after addison finds out the truth about bizzy and susan)

there's a valentines episode of greys (ep 14), so pp 3x14 is probably also february 2010

3x16 to 3x19 take place over two months but then i'm not entirely sure on the timeline of pete and violet’s custody battle

the two part grey's finale/shooting episode takes place some time in late spring or summer 2010 (the next residency year starts in july)

PP season 4 (+GA season 7)

i couldn’t catch the date on dell’s headstone but his death was definitly late spring 2010.

7x1 of GA takes place two months after the season six finale. The episodes where they have to treat the casualties from a college campus shooting (7x10 and 7x11) take place around christmas 2010

4x6 of PP takes place before halloween (pete and violet talk about lucas’s costume) so its october 2010

the musical episode (7x18) is sofia's birthday, which is in may 2011. the PP episode 4x18 runs exactly parallel to it.

callie and arizona’s wedding is 7x20 and its stated that sofia is 3 months old, thus this is three months after both GA 7x18 and PP 4x18

So to recap: private practice season four takes place from around late spring/summer 2010 to spring/summer 2011

PP season 5 (+GA season 8)

here where it gets more tricky bc they do some time jumps around amelia’s pregnancy 

the first episode of season 8 of greys takes place on july 1st 2011. the three episode arc in which teddy’s husband dies (eps 8, 9, 10) take place around mid january i think, based on what she says in the valentines episode (ep 14). the plane crash (the final ep of the season) takes place around mid may 2012.

season five of pp picks up right after season four (pete’s heart attack). the second episode jumps to a month later

episode 5x8 (amelia’s intervention) takes place 12 days after 5x7. assuming this lines up with greys, her intervention, ryan’s death, and her admission to rehab probably take place in late december 2011. then her episode in rehab (5x9) spans the course of fifty days, so the next episode (5x10) likely takes place in mid february

amelia is 20 weeks pregnant in 5x16. i’m going to assume that christopher was conceived very close to the night of ryan’s OD, so i’m guessing it's late spring at this point

5x19 is the episode where amelia gets the horrible news about her baby. There is a time jump. she is six months pregnant at the beginning and seven months pregnant at the end. She gives birth in the season finale. i'm guessing it's already late summer at this point, though somehow addison and amelia did not know about the plane crash. 

so based on the timeline of amelia’s relapse and pregnancy, plus the grey’s timeline, i'm fairly certain season five of private practice take place summer 2011 to summer 2012.

PP season 6 (+GA season 9)

this one's gonna piss me off bc they do so many time jumps in an attempt to tie up loose ends before the show ends

there is a bit of a time jump before season 6, but in the season premiere, amelia celebrates one year of sobriety. so it must already be late 2012. i’m leaving wiggle room with my guesswork for last season, because imo the canon timeline they’re establishing of the last season is a little iffy.

its implied that addison and jake have been together for these past few months between seasons

pete’s memorial happens in 2x2. addison gets the call that mark has been taken off life support, so this episode must run parallel to greys 9x1. there has also been a time jump between GA seasons. it’s unclear whether or not addison visited mark while on life support, but it had likely been a few months so it's possible. they state that mark died in 2012 so it's not yet 2013.

they jump back and forth in time too much over the course of charlotte's pregnancy, henry’s adoption, and vivian carlsmith’s death. the entire season was meant to be a finale, so a lot of episodes focus only on one or two characters and have events that happen concurrently with the events of other episodes and it gets all muddled. but i'm pretty sure episodes 1-12 span a little under nine months (charlotte discovers she's pregnant at the beginning of the season and gives birth in ep 12). so her pregnancy serves as a backdrop to all these other storylines that overlap in these 12 episodes.

there is some kind of time jump between the triplets birth in 6x12 and addison’s wedding in 6x13 but not a very long one.

there is a thirteen week time jump between addison’s wedding and naomi’s ultrasound, then a little longer before sam and naomi’s second wedding.

so from what i can gather, season six took place over the course of around a year, starting in late 2012 and ending in late 2013 (potentially early 2014?? at some point this season the timeline diverges from greys so that they can utilize all the time jumps)

#greys anatomy #phew #you guys i got carried away #was this even helpful or was it just rambly #addison montgomery #private practice

[mayakern]

now i’m curious what were ur fav MP goofs !!! :0

ok i have a 10 image limit and some of these are multi-image jokes so i’ll try to distill these as best i can. also these jokes are all from i think chapter 4 and later, where i really flourished my sense of humor more

1. marina’s high school crush/bff sharkwanda being a highly contentious contestant on a spoof of top model

this is specifically a spoof of the early seasons, which usually had an assessment within the first 2 or 3 episodes, including a weigh in. as much as i loved trashy tv, i always hated these moments so i thought it would be funny to have a literal shark and to have her be weighed against mostly average-sized humanoids because it would be ridiculous for anyone to expect a healthy shark to weigh the same amount as a human.

there were a couple other layers to this: george idolizing her as a strong, independent woman. george’s brother freaking out because sharkwanda just ate a man on camera and no one’s overly bothered by this. george chastising him for not realizing it was obviously fake/over dramatized for the ratings (and not examining that then this moment of “self empowerment” would also be fake). and then also i named her after a fish named wanda. except she’s a shark named wanda. she’s also the most beautiful and popular girl in the world and she wins her season and becomes a very successful model.

2. the tinsley family thanksgiving outfits. actually their themed outfits in general. i think shit like this is super cute and funny. i also just enjoy writing siblings who rib each other lovingly.

also the part of this where george’s mom has three eyes (she’s psychic) and her dad has no eyes, so her brother has two eyes and for all intents and purposes looks human, but he is a full blooded monster. early on i had some ideas for an off shoot chapter about eli and his struggles with his identity (being a monster but not looking like one and not feeling at home in either community), but it got scrapped for time and also because it felt like too close a parallel to mixed race people who pass as white and that’s not my story to tell.

3. sharkwanda’s cover (up) girl ad campaign during the superb owl half time show. some of this stuff was a bit on the nose, but there’s a line about sharkwanda finally having makeup that doesn’t melt off her face like hot cheese that i still like

4. this multi-strip joke where franny’s dad pulls a turkey out of a hat. just read it there’s nothing to explain lol

5. basically every part of the magic shop scene, but especially the part where percy meets franny’s dad for the first time during a very tense situation and franny’s dad is wearing a skeleton (this is a reference to ranma 1/2). and then also percy sits and there’s a whoopee cushion. it’s incredibly awkward and not exactly haha funny, but it simultaneously cuts and adds to the tension in a way that is very monsterpop.

6. human!franny getting ben a dog toy as his secret santa gift (he doesn’t own a dog) and then dropping it and then it making a horrific, shrill squeak when it bounces

7. the whole situation with chadler, his horrible christmas outfit, the marshmallow gun, and him taking sexy santa ben as prisoner.

8. ben, killed by glitter, soon to be avenged by his crush comrade (or not)

9. george being gifted a framed painting of a photo of herself, asleep during class, which she later carries into an actual museum and gets in trouble for because a guard thinks she stole a piece of art

10. the brotebook

this has been very long but i hope u enjoyed it

#ask #monsterpop #mpask #long post

[anotheruserwithnoname]

Less can be more (if a bit frustrating)

One thing I always find remarkable is that Steven Moffat managed to bring the amazing romance between the Twelfth Doctor and Clara to something of a climax in Series 9 despite the two being separated for so much of the season. A quick recap to show you what I mean (spoiler warning for people still working their way through the season - I'll put a break here too):

Prologue minisode (I still believe this was a deleted scene from Magician's Apprentice): Clara absent

Doctor's Meditation minisode: Clara absent

Magician's Apprentice: Clara spends a good chunk of the episode with Missy searching for Twelve.

Witch's Familiar: Clara and Twelve are separated until near the end with Clara as technically Missy's companion (hence the title).

Under the Lake: Clara and Twelve together

Before the Flood: Although in communication ("that" video call!), Twelve spends most of his time in the past with Clara taking on the Doctor role with the people remaining in the base as her companions.

The Girl Who Died: Clara and Twelve together, even though Clara has a "mini-adventure" with Ashildr as her companion (the Mire sequence).

The Woman Who Lived: Clara absent until the last scene as Ashildr/Me becomes the companion for the episode. I recall this was to allow Jenna to film Me Before You.

The Zygon Invasion: Bonnie replaces Clara for nearly the whole episode, though no one realizes this at first.

Zygon Inversion: Even if Bonnie wasn't still taking Clara's form, the Doctor is with Osgood as his companion for most of the episode, except for the war speech scene where he reunites with the real Clara.

Sleep No More: Clara and Twelve together.

Face the Raven: Clara and Twelve together.

Heaven Sent: Twelve alone except for Clara's "spirit" appearing a few times and him "talking" to her throughout.

Hell Bent: Twelve and Clara don't really reunite on Gallifrey until nearly the halfway point of the episode. Yes, he's with Clara in the diner the whole time, but he doesn't realize it's Clara until the very end (and even that could be open to interpretation).

(Some episode guides also include Husbands of River Song as part of Series 9 since there were only a few weeks between them - obviously no Clara in that one).

So, of the 12 proper episodes of Series 9 (not counting the minisodes and Christmas special), Clara and Twelve are only truly together for 4 (5 when the special circumstance of Hell Bent is included). That's well under half no matter how you divide it.

Compare with Series 8 which had only one episode - Flatline - in which Clara and the Doctor were separated for most of the story (albeit she was essentially carrying the TARDIS around in her handbag the whole time and was in constant communication with him; they just weren't standing next to each other very much). They were also separated in Robot of Sherwood and Mummy on the Orient Express, but only for a few scenes, not to the degree of Woman Who Lived. We also have to factor in Danny Pink playing a major role in several too, of course (Caretaker, Listen), but even then the Doctor was the dominating presence (and Moffat did decide not to make Danny a travelling companion for a reason, despite clearly setting up the ex-soldier to become the next Ian Chesterton).

And yet what we had in S9 was amazing and left us wanting more. I certainly would would have loved to see the show go back to 13-episode seasons (which was the format in the first few RTD seasons) so we could have had just a little bit more.

#whouffaldi #whouffaldi meta #twelfth doctor #clara oswald

[closetsof-backlogged-dreams]

what are ur feelings on the execution of the magic reveal??

ok so i have manymanyMANY feelings on in which ill try to wrap up as cleanly as possible so lets just get into it

the way they like speedran the magic reveal??

to paint you a picture: i was super impatient when i first started the series lmao, and so i had watched maybe 4-5 episodes of the first season when i googled "when does arthur find out about merlin's magic"💀💀 i ended up getting the wrong answer because im stupid as shit so i was just surprised as everyone else when it ACTUALLY happened, but thats besides the point.

the point? this was a SUPER important plot point. everyone was waiting on the edge of their seat, every single episode, for merlin to finally pop arthur's bubble and reveal his magic. but five seasons passed, and we didn't get it until the last episode?? are you kidding me?? and because we only got it on the last episode, where arthur was dying, arthur was robbed of any true explanations or declarations or apologies like he—we—deserved. instead, arthur's reaction to it was brief and just not enough. he was disbelieving, then shocked, then angry, then sad, then accepting, all within what, like a day and a half? forty minutes of screen time? im sorry, after spending around 46 hours watching this series and waiting for the magic reveal, that just doesn't cut it.

2. we have to admit, the magic reveal in the last episode felt so NATURAL

sometimes i really struggle to hate the magic reveal, because no one can deny how perfectly everything fell into place. he got trapped in the cave, his father spoke to him, he escaped the cave and transformed himself into that old guy, he single-handedly wiped out the Saxons, arthur was struck, merlin found him and carried him away from the battlefield, merlin turns back into merlin, and then the fucking "I defeated the Saxons. The dragon, and yet— and yet I knew it was Mordred that I must stop." / "The person who defeated them was the sorcerer." / "It was me." / "Don't be ridiculous, Merlin. This is stupid. Wh—why would you say that?" / "I'm—I'm a sorcerer. I have magic. And I use it for you, Arthur. Only for you." (Your welcome for that, day after Christmas<3)

like, you CANNOT TELL ME that doesn't flow perfectly!! that everything that happened in that episode didn't flow perfectly!! the magic reveal was always going to be impossibly difficult to get right, but they got it right in the finale!! that is one thing i will always give the writers—I may have not liked the circumstances of the magic reveal, but the magic reveal itself was beautifully executed.

3. too little, too late

i read an article recently that really pointed this out, and while i disagree with most of what they said in the article, i agree with one thing: the ending was so, so unsatisfying. the magic reveal was so, so unsatisfying. what was the point of him even revealing his magic? the magic reveal was great, sure, but nothing actually came out of it. oh, for the next 24-48 hours of life, arthur can accept him!! but that's it.

there's the implication that gwen will legalize magic after the series, but merlin and gwen don't even get a final scene together! all in all, the magic reveal just wasn't enough. we ended so much more time for arthur to sort out his feelings, for there to be good days and bad days, to watch them relearn trust and love again. we deserved that kind of ending. we deserved the magic reveal to be in, imo, The Death Song of Uther Pendragon, or s5e3. give them an entire season to get through everything. you can still kill arthur!! but let them have that animosity. if anything, have them start out those last two battles on bad terms. let the travel to the lake be them relearning trust and love. let that be the emotional baggage they have to unpack in the finale.

just overall, do anything except what you actually did lmao.

alright!! i think those are the main three points? i think that wrapped everything up pretty nicely, so ty sm for the ask!! these are always the highlight of my month lol.

#merthur #merlin #bbc merlin #bbcm #arthur pendragon #merlin bbc #merlin meta #merlin thoughts #merlin emrys

[archerygun]

Wowee. This is a bit of an emotional one. Just warning you now.

I’ve been watching Ghosts pretty much since it came out. My dad surprised me with the first episode and refused to let me know what we were watching until I saw Ben Willbond’s face and was like “HOLD ON.”

(Nobody asked, but my favourite has always been the Captain because I’ve been obsessed with the Second World War since I was 7. My dad’s favourite is Robin, my mum’s is Kitty and my sister likes Pat).

It wasn’t niche then by any stretch of it. It’s always been popular, but it certainly wasn’t something your teachers plus the whole internet were cracking out the good wine for. (I proceeded to annoy everyone in my life by talking about it, little did they know that 3 years later they’d become equally obsessed by it).

And that doesn’t sound too special, but like. When Ghosts came out, I was in Primary School. Now I’m sitting my GCSEs. That’s fucking insane. Not even mentioning how it singlehandedly carried me through lockdown when I was dealing with a bigger workload than ever (online school just means strictish parents get to cross over into actually strict) and only had one friend to communicate with.

The first (and last) time I read proper fanfiction was when I was like 12 and looking through the Ghosts fandom because I was having a really, really bad time with paranoia and couldn’t sleep.

When we had our Year 10 mocks, my friend showed up half an hour late to our Chemistry exam after doing zero revision because she was bingewatching every episode of Ghosts to cope with exams. She gave me a rose for valentine’s this year with “I’m from Yorkshire mate, I’m practically made of tea.” on it. Her Yearbook quote is gonna be “I’m going to drown myself in the lake! I mean it!”

My Media Studies teacher found out I watched the show and started enthusiastically taking me through all of her theories about it before Season 4 came out. (She’s like sixty and her favourite show is Line of Duty by the way). Before Season 5 came out I asked her how she felt and she gave me a very excited “We’re getting out the good wine!!!”

So. My grandad died in 2022. Just before Christmas. They thought he’d make it to celebrate Christmas with us, but they’d overestimated. He had lung cancer, caused by working around asbestos as an industrial electrician. I genuinely cannot describe how much of a wonderful man he was. He was the best person I ever met, and more of a second dad than a grandad.

The last thing my grandad watched with us (we put a lot of importance on watching things as a family, at least in my family. Not sure if this is the same for everyone) was an episode of Ghosts. We thought it would be a laugh, because his end of the family are all from Sheffield and they’d introduced Maddocks. He was very out of it, and on an oxygen drip. He couldn’t really pay attention but he insisted on trying because he wanted to make us happy.

He died that week, on the day we had to leave. We were in the house when he started failing and all we could do was drive back down to London.

(Ghosts actually got a shoutout in the funeral. We’re a family with a sense of humour, and my grandad was the kind of man that results in a family debate about whether Ça Plane Pour Moi is an appropriate song for a funeral).

The Christmas episode that year broke me. In a good way. When they played Pat’s video tapes, I saw every photo of my dad’s family in the eighties in Yorkshire. It can’t be too hard to capture the energy, I’m sure, but I’ll tell you this. There wasn’t a dry bloody eye in the sitting room. My aunt even got their Christmas pictures out afterwards. My Sheffield family saw their childhoods on the screen and my London family saw my grandad.

It’s funny how things can end up being an accidental allegory or feel cosmically intentional.

I’m not saying this for pity, or to one-up anyone about my connection to the show. I just feel like if I don’t describe every detail, Ghosts’ impact on my life is going to be understated. And I’m more than happy that it will impact so many more people.

So, yeah. Thank you, Ghosts. I can’t think of a single piece of other media that’s been as impactful on my life. Thank you for being made with care and love and attention to detail and terminal levels of Britishness. Thank you for dealing with death and grief and healing in an entertaining way.

Thank you. For everything.

#flipping heck how do i tag this #bbc ghosts #thank you #pat bbc ghosts #maddocks bbc ghosts #pat butcher #sheffield #mourning #grief #pat butcher ghosts #1980s #uk #british #british tv

[dragonofdarknesschaos]

Hi there,

I have a question about Jack Spicer.

1- What was his life like before the Xiaolin Showdown?

2- What do his parents look like & their color scheme?

3- Did Jack have friends in his childhood past?

4- Is Jack good at playing a musical instrument?

5- How was Jack's relationship with his parents when he was a young child

6- Is Jack's hair naturally red or has he dyed it? Because I saw a lot of fan art and fan stories that say Jack dyed his hair red Is that true or not?

6- Was Jack's grandmother evil or was she just a genius Its inventor woman?

7- What are the things that Jack likes and what are the things that Jack does not like?

8- How Jack dresses when he's not taking over the world.

Like casual clothes Instead of a black trench coat.

9- What is Jack's level of intelligence and genius?

10- I want to know his back story & His life

11- How many people are in the Spicer family?

I know A little about Megan is Jack's little cousin

I'm going to do my best to answer these, but ultimately, there are no right or wrong answers, as canon doesn't provide any information.

We do not know what Jack's life was like before he released Wuya. Furthermore, some of the details in season one (e.g. the party that's going on in "Katnappe!" that Jack claims to hate) do not get carried over to season two and beyond (e.g. Jack seems to be alone in the entire estate at all times). Most headcanon that he is an only child, his father is able to work abroad and is wealthy, his mother is a socialite or trophy wife (possibly both) and both are too busy to give Jack the attention he desperately needs.

Nothing is known about Jack's dad. The only time he is mentioned is in episode one when a Jackbot delivers the puzzlebox containing Wuya's mask in it, saying, "A gift from your father in Hong Kong." Jack's mother is Caucasian or white-passing, extremely slender, and seems to embody the ideals of a 1950s American housewife from the two "appearances" she makes as an arm and legs. The only major detail is her square, red manicured nails.

Jack never makes any mention of friends, or to his "past," unless it's about himself. ...I'm starting to think he's neuro-divergent.

This is unknown. His voice actor in Xiaolin Showdown, Danny Cooksy, was part of a band called Bad 4 Good, so Jack can at least sing. One's own voice can count as an instrument. Jack goes on to rap in Chronicles. Outside of that, there is no further information in canon.

Showdown alludes to Jack having a coddling relationship with his mother. She encourages Jack to do enriching activities, even if he doesn't want to do them. He acts out and breaks makes robots out of her things when he doesn't like what she forces him to do. Occasionally she will bake Jack cookies. Because Jack never mentions his father, he likely wasn't around for Jack's upbringing, but he is at least alive... probably. Jack may have estranged himself from his father for some reason. Chronicles revealed in the 21st episode that does not exist, a short flashback to Jack as a child. He was waiting for both of his parents to come home for Christmas with presents, but they couldn't make it home in time for whatever reason (work or they had an arbitrary excuse not to go home). This is all Chronicles gives us on Jack's past.

Only Hui knows if Jack dyes his hair or not. Because his brows are black, he at least does makeup on them, or dyes them separately.

There is no information about Jack's granny other than he mentions her often, and seems to have a close relationship with her; he likes her gifts. Off hand I can't remember what those gifts specifically were, but they were standard, "You might need this, so here," type of gifts.

This question is too broad, so I cannot answer it. He likes his evil idols and Evil ™️, and thus hates "good" by extension.

Jack can wear whatever he wants. The animators and production designers seemed to have fun with his costume changes (see "Sands of Time" episode).

Jack would need to have at least 140 IQ to be considered a genius. He never mentions being contacted by MENSA, so he's not a super genius (but he still invented a time machine, go figure). He also mentions in season two, when Wuya calls his genius status into question, Jack says, of course he's a genius, "Who else would be smart enough to cheat on an IQ test?"

I don't know how to answer this one. Just watch the show???

It is unknown how many people are in the Spicer family. Jack's immediate family consists of at least his mother, father, and likely a maternal grandmother. Cousin Megan would be from an aunt or uncle. Most likely Megan's parent is related to Mama Spicer, as she's dressed and styled in a way reminiscent of 1950s or 1960s children's fashion.

I hope that covers everything. Again, the questions you're asking don't have any actual answers in canon. Which is nice, because it leaves it open to interpretation for fan fiction purposes. But it can also be frustrating if one really wants to drill into what is concrete in canon.

#Chaos replies #mysterybooks-world #Jack Spicer #headcanon #fanon

[sourcreammachine]

Doctor Who episodes ranked let’s go

(o’th’ revived era. and eight’s movie because i’ve seen it)

and two-parters are counted as one, but i get to define what a ‘two-parter’ is. this is because i’m in charge not you

9.11 Heaven Sent aka the stars align and somehow Moffat manages to pull an incredible script out of his arse after being stuck up there for so long aka Capaldi is the new Atlas from carrying his entire era aka now you understand why i’m splitting up some two-parters and not others aka ahaha 9.11 lol

3.8/9 Human Nature / The Family of Blood

1.9/10 The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances

3.10 Blink

2.4 The Girl in the Fireplace

4.12/13 The Stolen Earth / Journey’s End

1.6 Dalek

6.i A Christmas Carol

3.11 Utopia

4.8/9 Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead

7.v The Time of the Doctor okay hear me out first thing is i’m an absolute sucker second thing is why couldn’t season 7 have actually seeded any of this with actual thought and subtly rather than mystery-box hackery it literally makes me think of how much better his era could’ve been if Moffat wasn’t so up his own arse

2.8/9 The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit

7.iv The Day of the Doctor

4.11 Turn Left

3.4 Girldick

1.12/13 Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways

7.iii The Night of The Doctor aka my boi Eight finally gets done justice

4.10 Midnight

4.6 The Doctor’s Daughter

3.2 The Shakespeare Code

3.i The Runaway Bride

2.12/13 Army of Ghosts / Doomsday

2.3 School Reunion

6.11 The God Complex

4.1 Partners in Crime

10.11/12 World Enough, and Time / The Doctor Falls (look, i’m a sucker i know, and i couldn’t give a shit about Gomez and Simm, but fuck you Moffat actually figured out how to write human emotions. Talalay’s finest hour. Lucas’ finest hour. Moffat did not deserve a swan song but he got himself one somehow)

5.2 The Beast Below

8.8 Mummy on the Orient Express (despite the awful, horrible ending, see below (very far below))

4.7 The Unicorn and the Wasp

4.2 The Fires of Pompeii

7.12 Neil Gaiman’s Good Episode

1.1 Rose

5.1 The Eleventh Hour

2.7 The Idiot’s Lantern

10.1 The Pilot

5.10 Vincent and the Doctor

4.i Voyage of the Damned

6.4 The Neil Gaiman Fanfic Hour

3.1 Smith and Jones

4.4 The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky

6.10 The Girl Who Waited

1.2 The End of The World

5.12/13 The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang

2.i The Christmas Invasion

6.7 A Good Man Jumps The Shark

5.6 The Vampires of Venice

4.3 Planet of the Ood

7.ii The Snowmen

1.11 Boom Town

3.12 The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords

1.7 The Long Game

7.7 The Rings of Akhaten

8.6 The Caretaker

5.7 Amy’s Choice

9.7/8 Zygons. you can basically hear Capaldi’s back cracking from him carrying it

4.v/vi The End of Time, Parts 1 & 2

10.6 Extremis, the most underrated episode fuck you

4.ii The Next Doctor

8.5 Time Heist

6.1/2 The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon

2.1 New Earth

10.3 Twelve Decks a Racist

9.ii The Husbands of River Song (yeah i’m a sucker, the ending gets me)

6.3 Curse of the Black Pearl spot, fuck

11.1 The Woman Who Fell To Earth (based on how it made me feel in 2018, looking back yeah the warning signs were all there)

5.4/5 The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone

5.11 The Lodger

1.3 The Unquiet Dead

7.4 The Power of Three aka Chris Chibnall Shits Himself on Live Television

2.5/6 Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel

7.9 Hide

10.5 Oxygen aka La Problema Es Capitalismo

8.1 Deep Breath

2.2 Tooth and Nail claw, fuck

1.8 Father’s Day

11.3 Rosa (bring back Blackman as an episode writer, she wrote Noughts & Crosses, she can do it)

7.11 The Crimson ‘Orror

6.8 Let’s Kill Hitler

6.5/6 The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People

4.iv The Waters of Mars

7.6 oh no it’s clara

9.10 yaay clara’s dead

5.8/9 The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood

12.5 Fugitive of the Judoon (again, based on how i felt watching it for the first time. it was a good episode and an interesting mystery box, just one filled with shit)

1.4/5 Aliens of London / World War Three

7.5 The Angels Take amy lol

2.11 Fear Her

8.4 Listen, aka the first episode that Capaldi carries, despite Moffat being himself again

10.ii Twice Upon a Time (ugh we could’ve had a brilliant trilogy to see out Capaldi, but instead we get Moffat masturbating on live television for an hour. look, The Doctor could have had an actual character arc - they feel like they’re on borrowed time after their resurrection on Trenzalore, after the events on Gallifrey they feel like any sort of feelings of ‘duty’ as last of the time lords (as errant and fleeting as such feelings might’ve been) are resolved, and after failing their BIG MASSIVE SEASON 10 ARC with Missy and getting stabbed in the back, and BILL [redacted for spoilers], they’re happy to accept their death - and that’s where the season ends. yuletide 2017 could’ve ended this arc, they’re taught the love of the universe again, they see the goodness they bring to all life - Clara, i am a good man. and when they sit down to die, those words ‘maybe just one more go’ could’ve had the weight of the universe behind them, it could’ve been the greatest who line ever written, had that line actually had weight on its shoulders. Moffat is a hack. mystery-boxing is hacking, end of story. Capaldi, the finest actor ever in the role, was done dirty by scripts with no weight and planning. Grand Moff lives up his own arse - that power gives him the ability to write incredible episodes such as Heaven Sent and everything he ever touched under Davies - but it makes all series, arcs and continuity fall apart into a pile of shit. this episode is the finest example - a universe of potential, reduced to one hour of self-congratulatory masturbation)

6.9 Night Terrors

11.9 It Takes You Away (the one with the frog god)

7.10 Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS

9.12 Heaven Sent Part II: Whoops

8.9 Flatline

7.3 A Town Called Widowmaker

4.iii Planet of the Dead

9.1/2 The Magician’s Apprentice / The Witch’s Familiar

6.12 Closing Time

3.7 42

13.i Eve of the Daleks (the aisling bea one)

8.3 Robot of Sherwood

9.5/6 Maisie Williams

6.13 The Wedding of River Song

5.3 Victory of the Daleks

8.11/12 Dark Water / Death in Heaven aka i’m sorry Gomez but not even you can carry this

3.6 The Lazarus Experiment

11.i Resolution (…of the Daleks)

10.2 Emoji Robots

8.2 Into the Dalek

10.5 Knock Knock. Who’s There? Yer mum

7.13 The Name of the Doctor aka the Biggest Waste of Richard E. Grant until Rise of Skywalker

7.2 Dinosaurs on a Plane

10.8/9 The Pyramid at the End of the World / The Lie of the Land

Doctor Who: The Movie!

11.6 Demons of the Punjab

7.1 Asylum of the Daleks

7.8 Cold War aka i’m starting to think Mark Gatiss might be a bad writer actually

3.4/5 Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks

11.5 P’ting

9.3/4 Under the Lake / Before the Flood aka the Biggest Waste of Peter Serafinowicz since the Clone Wars didn’t bring him back. also a deaf person falling in love with their interpreter is the most toxic thing ever. and it’s 90 more minutes of season 9 tedium ugh

2.10 Love and Monsters. yeah this high up

8.7 The anti-abortion episode. and it’s not just for that fact alone nonono, The Doctor is such an unbelievable unforgivable cunt this time. at least Clara calls them out in that brilliant final-ish scene BUT they’re still unforgivable AND they get forgiven anyway next week?? literally they take the way Clara’s character arc was going and throw it all in the bin

8.10 In The Forest of the Shite

11.7 Kerblam!

10.9 Empress of Mars aka i’m starting to think Mark Gatiss might be a bad writer actually

9.i Last Christmas aka remember how they reset Clara’s character arc after Mummy for literally no reason???? THEY FUCKING DID IT AGAIN!! she’s literally put in limbo for an ENTIRE SEASON, after they gave her TWO good offramps and apparently chickened the fuck out from using them?? and expected me to care when she (spoiler)? also the episode’s like really boring. bonus points for the absolutely perfect casting of Nick Frost tho, very nominative determinism

10.i is my hatred of Doctor Mysterio unwarranted? probably. but i still hate it

12.8 The Haunting of Villa Diodati, the most overrated episode fuck you. no it is not ‘the only good episode of season 12’ - it’s just as bad as the rest. The Doctor is unnecessarily unlikeable. the villain boy is nonsense, uninteresting and unlikeable. and worst of all - i don’t want to have violent sex with any of the people in this villa

12.4 Nikola Tesla’s Tower of Terror

11.8 The Witchfinders

9.9 Sleep No More aka i’m starting to think Mark Gatiss might be a bad writer actually

13.2 Flux Part 2: War of the Sontarans (oh yeah like they don’t do war normally, that’s like saying the fucking ,, toasting of the toaster or something)

7.i The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe (it’s only Chibnall from here on out let’s goo)

12.1/2 Spyfall. literally how the FUCK do you waste both Stephen Fry AND Lenny fucking Henry how the fuck. also The Doctor basically committed a nazism right

12.3 Orphan 55, the second most underrated episode - a lot of people say it’s Chibnall’s worst but i think there’s worse

12.i Revolution of the Daleks (the priti patel one)

11.2 The Ghost Monument

13.4 Flux Part 4: Village of the Angels

11.10 The Battle of Rashhcjxjshog s Kjalapados

12.7 Can You Hear Me? (that was the one with the finger guy. no i don’t mean jonathan banks)

11.4 Spiders in Sheffield

12.6 Praxeus

12.9/10 how did they let chibnall get away with it. isn’t there supposed to be oversight. aren’t there supposed to be safeguards. how did they let him get away with it

13.1 Flux Part 1: The Halloween Apocalypse

13.ii Legend of the Sea Devils

13.3 Flux Part 3: Once, Upon Time

13.iii The Power of the Doctor aka thank fuck, it’s finally over

10.5 Flux Part 5: Survivors of the Flux

10.6 Flux Part 6: Fuck You Chibnall

#196 #doctor who

[anonymousfoz]

HS Journalism: Good Luck Charlie: It's Christmas Review (Feature)

★★★★☆ (4 out of 5)

Good Luck Charlie is an American sitcom that ran on the Disney Channel from April 4, 2010, to February 16, 2014. The show had four seasons and one movie. The movie, “Good Luck Charlie: It's Christmas!” is not as well known as other holiday movies to watch with family and friends.

The movie follows the Duncan family of six as they plan to spend a Christmas with grandparents in Palm Springs, Ca. It is the family's first Christmas away from their home in Denver. Things go awry when daughter Teddy Duncan (Bridgit Mendler), and mother Amy Duncan (Leigh-Allyn Baker), get separated from their family after Teddy gives up her seat on the plane in exchange for a free plane ticket.

The movie is a delight to watch, however it comes with minor issues. The movie doesn’t truly feel like cinema as it tries to feel like an episode of the show instead of a separate entity. It does take certain elements away from the sitcom formula such as the laugh track and natural lighting. The movie is clearly made for fans of the show as it jumps straight into the movie without introducing the cast to those who haven’t seen the show. The movie is supposed to take place between seasons 2 and 3, which might be why writers or the director chose to tell the narrative that way. It doesn’t truly take away from the experience and provides a unique style of movies that isn’t quite modern anymore.

The biggest issue that stands out is the acting. For example, Baker doesn’t truly have good acting in her role as the mother compared to the rest of the cast. It seems to exaggerate her personality from her show. In the show, Amy is loving and caring about her family while being very overworked. However, at times she is self-centered and does try to be the star of the family most of the time. Yet in the movie she is very aggressive, and her side of being self-centered is over exaggerated at certain points in the movie. Out of all the characters, she feels out of character until half way through the movie.

Teddy’s character seems flat for a movie character up until the end of the second act. While her character is the same as in the show, she doesn’t really progress over the course of the movie other than a few instances of her responsibility, but she’s already a responsible character in the main show. For the main character, you would expect to see her growth throughout the second act, yet that development only really occurs at the end of the second act.

The other characters are the same from their show counterparts, and their characters shine through the side plot to the main story. Their side plot was the enjoyable part of the movie including the climax up to the resolution of the movie. For instance PJ Duncan (Jason Dolley) is the dumb member of the family, yet throughout the seasons, he gets noticeably smarter and ambitious. This does appear in the movie towards the climax.

While the acting is the major negative part of the movie, the positives outweigh the negatives. Certain jokes and minor plot points pay off towards the climax in clever ways. The movie is very unoriginal in certain plot points, yet makes up for it in the creativity and exaggeration in some of the scenes and especially the climax with the male members of the family. Numerous jokes were surprisingly funny considering that the movie is a decade old.

Despite all the jokes, the movie does know how to transition from silly to serious in a way that doesn’t give the viewer whiplash. The movie is great at evoking emotions as the serious moments give impact, though they aren’t as frequent in the movie as the silly moments; they stick out and carry throughout the rest of the movie.

Overall this movie is worth watching as it captures the craziness of the holidays with family. While the movie does have issues and is heavily dated, it is still a blast to watch even as the movie is over a decade old. This movie is still fun to watch with family and friends, especially around the festive time of Christmas.

#high school newspaper #journalism #writing #my writing #movie review #good luck charlie #good luck charlie it's christmas

[captain-hen]

RAVI PANIKKAR APPRECIATION WEEK

day two: the 118

[Image description: 10 rectangular gifs of Ravi Panikkar along with the rest of the 118, from seasons 4 and 5 of 9-1-1. Gif 1: A scene from season 4, episode 12. With Ravi in the center of the shot, opening the treasure chest, the rest of the 118 and Athena are gathered around them; their faces excited, only to fall when they see what's inside. Gif 2: A scene from season 5, episode 5. In the kitchen of the firehouse, Ravi, carrying a dish to the table, smiles shyly as Bobby pats him on the back with a grin. Gif 3: A scene from season 4, episode 14. The 118 are gathered on the rooftop of a building, congratulating Albert on passing his certification test. Ravi stands to the side, grinning, his hands clasped behind his back. Gif 4: A scene from season 5, episode 8. After the hospital fire, Hen and Ravi are sitting in the open ambulance. Hen reaches down to touch Ravi on the shoulder, comfortingly as she smiles at him, he smiles back. Gif 5: A scene from season 5, episode 18. A shot of Ravi and Lucy in the same frame, listening to Hen and Chim. Their faces light up in shock and excitement, and Lucy glances at Ravi as he speaks to Hen and Chim. Gif 6: A scene from season 5, episode 10. At the Christmas party, a shot of Ravi, Hen, Buck and Eddie; as Eddie pulls them aside to talk. Ravi watches Eddie intently, his hands stuffed in his pockets. Gif 7: A scene from season 5, episode 13. In the bay of the firehouse, Chimney looks excited when he spots Ravi, and runs over for a hug, The shot shifts to Ravi, who bends down to hug him back. Gif 8: A scene from season 5, episode 18. In the firetruck, Ravi speaks to Hen, looking serious, and next to him, Buck listens to him carefully. Gif 9: A scene from season 5, episode 6. A shot of Ravi, looking somber and Bobby, with an encouraging smile, getting up from the chairs in the hospital waiting area, and starting to walk out of frame. Gif 10: A scene from season 5, episode 18. A shot of the 118 walking through the bay of the firehouse as the bell rings. Bobby is in the center of the shot; behind him are Lucy, Hen, Chim and Ravi (in that order); and Eddie and Buck are in the end. /End ID]

#911edit #911 fox #* #*raviweek2022 #raviweek2022 #tuserzee #userisha #tuserksn #provieravi #userkourt #userpaolo #usermissjessie #usermaripal #ravipanikkaredit

[annabethy]

aurora // a ‘tis the damn season au

Percy and Annabeth had something real. They fell in love somewhere between bookstore kittens and vintage novels with pages tinted yellow with time, and they were happy. It's rare, finding the type of love they did. It's even more rare making it last. (Chapter 5/8)

Annabeth’s never been adventurous.

It can be fun from time to time, but she usually prefers to stay in her own bed, warm under the covers with a movie playing in the background. That’s why she is where she is now, curled into a ball with her laptop on the bed next to her, watching short episodes of a show she doesn’t recognize.

She is vaguely aware that her stepmother’s hosting a Christmas party that night, but she wants nothing to do with it so she tries to go unnoticed. It works for an hour, but then her stepmother is at her bedroom store, giving her a judgmental stare and asking her to clean up before joining them downstairs.

She’s only slightly offended changing out of her Rudolph themed pajamas, but she’s also used to the looks from someone that never really considered Annabeth her own daughter. She’s not, however, used to the superficial decorations that line the banister of the stairs, even with as many times as she’s seen them. She’ll never be used to the monotone Christmas tree and crystal champagne glasses carried around by people that only show up to maintain the perfect family image.

Read More on AO3

#percy jackson #percabeth #annabeth chase #my writing

[redheadgleek]

2023 in review

Milestones: 10 years since I completed fellowship and became an attending; 10 years since I moved to Oregon.

Places visited: Hawaii in February with my parents and sister; Yellowstone and Grand Tetons in July with my whole family, with a few days down in Utah; Iceland in September with J; Arizona a couple of times to see my niblings; Seattle for a few weekends.

Games played: Settlers of Catan, Dutch Blitz, Cover Your Assets, Codenames, Exploding Kittens, Zombie Kittens, Happy Salmon, Trails, and Dragonwood. Abandon All Artichokes was also very shortly abandoned and Tacocat was not as entertaining as hoped.

Puzzles completed: 2 (one Karin mostly did, and I just threw down a few pieces).

Movies watched: Wakanda Forever; Return of the King (in the theater in April); Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (terrible movie); Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (excellent movie); Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (stop making want to give up chicken!); Red, White, and Royal Blue.

TV shows watched: Battlestar Galactica (all but the last season because I don’t want it to end), Shadow and Bone season 2 (I am so mad that it was canceled), Doctor Who specials, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Great British Bake-Off, Heartstopper season 2 (and let’s be real, lots of season 1 again as well), Lockwood & Co (I think I still have the last episode to watch), Tom Jones (PBS), Good Omens season 2, Schmicago (so so good).

TV shows watched with @lucy8675309: The Mandalorian; Ted Lasso season 3; Star Trek: Picard; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Loki season 2; Fringe (we’re on season 4 and I love it so much). We started to watch the second season of Our Flag Means Death, but it was taking us away from Fringe, so it’s on the back burner.

Books read: 128 (!!!). Here’s a link to my storygraph account. I’ll do a separate sum up.

Audiobooks listened to: 13.5. My hope had been to do one per month, and Jonathan Strange took at least 3 months to finish, so I’m surprised I made it, but I did have a long road trip to Yellowstone, where I listened to 3 different books on the way there and back. (Carry On is the 0.5 – I listened to 2/3rd of it on the plane ride down and wanted to finish it by Christmas so switched over to the ebook).

Musicals/Plays watched: Moulin Rouge: the Musical (the movie is so much better); Ain’t Too Proud; My Fair Lady; Choir Boy; Hairspray; A Midsummer’s Night Dream; Six; Tina: The Tina Turner Musical; Les Miserables; Waitress (in the movie theater).

Concerts attended: Theo Katzman in April; Vienna Teng at The Triple Door in Seattle in August.

Music listened to: The Riversitter by Vienna Teng, Prayer for the Broken by Naya Rivera, multiple hours of classical music while visiting my parents.

Medical conferences attended: 2, one virtually, one in Phoenix, in August in 115 heat.

Medical conferences where I gave a presentation: 1 on a specific consideration on organ donation (the reason why I was in Phoenix in August).

Number of lectures given: 5 including to the NW Internal Medicine Society.

Nights spent in the hospital because my driveway too icy/snowy to get home: only 3!

Knitted projects: Wisteria scarf (a Christmas present that I finished in January); Anne, Diana, and Gilbert dolls were finished in the spring (only took me 2 years); Orchid and Gold Poppins scarf, Grandpa sweater (my first real sweater!), 3 scarves for Christmas (which are in various stages of finished and need to be mailed).

Number of skeins of yarn bought: … Just enough for a few more dolls and a sweater or two, and some Icelandic yarn and some yarn for my mom…

Notable fails: the annular solar eclipse (too cloudy), parenting succulent plants (3 needed the Plant Hospital, 1 is still in the Plant ICU), summer flirtations.

House repairs: every board on my 32×24 foot deck was replaced. I still have the two lower decks and the back stairs to tackle.

Visits to the beach: only once in June. Must be rectified in the new year.

#2023 #end of the year

[zalrb]

What do you think of the new season of Ted Lasso? Honestly I'm not enjoying it as I used to, I think there are some good scenes here and there, but nothing that carries the whole episodes. I think the longer hiatus of streaming services makes our excitement die down. :/

I'm not enjoying it like I used to either. I don't know if it's necessarily about the hiatus. There were two years between series 2 and series 3 as well as series 4 and series 5 of Peaky Blinders for instance and there was still a lot of excitement and I enjoyed those seasons, well not so much series 5 and series 6, but I just don't think this season has the same kind of magic as the previous seasons and I think it's because it's becoming a different kind of show. Like you said, I think there are some good scenes and I like that we're exploring different characters now, like Colin, and there are some good explorations of various themes this season, like I have thoughts about this episode that I'm still trying to work out, and the boys are still their himbo boy selves but while the first two seasons did deal with many different themes and issues, there was a feel-good nature to it, there was this, like, aching endearing quality to it where I would spend entire episodes with a smile on my face while also thinking about the issues the episode was exploring and I think we're getting darker, I think the more we see Ted's struggles, there's less of that quality, which isn't to say that there aren't endearing moments but that overall tone, in my opinion, is gone, which doesn't make this season bad, it's just I miss that tone. I miss scenes like The Haircut and like Higgins Christmas etc.

#jmo #ted lasso

[br1ghtestlight]

OKAY I AM FINISHED BOB'S BURGERS!!!! or im almost finished i have to rewatch a few of the latest episodes but i have watched every episode at this point :) so yayy here is a list of my favorite episodes

obviously the christmas episode from season 13 is the sweetest most adorable and emotional episode in the show <3 louise's poem and gene's music sound amazing together its the most heartwarming episode of the show

the episode where they visit bob's mom's grave and the episode where they visit bob's dad at christmas are both great bcuz i love family backstory!!!

the robbery episode where mickey is introduced is absolutely hilarious and probably the funniest ep of the entire show, or at least top 5

season four finale is very exciting and fun i rewatched it today and its a great prequel to the movie tbh

i loved the water balloon fight episode FJDMSSMSJSJJS its so funny 2 me that mr fischoeder's place was just fighting with water balloons, i love that its a battle royale hunger games kinda story and gene and louise just leaving the competition bcuz they want to play in felix's treehouse is hilarious and something that i would have done as a kid, also its a funny episode and the moment with bob and mr fischoeder was sweet

the episode where gene is home alone bcuz they forgot him is an interesting look into his mind and how he processes things and new situations, also very silly subplots

the episode where gene and louise are home by themselves bcuz tina is in detention is great, its an interesting look into their relationship and how gene doesn't exactly act like a big brother and isn't treated like one but he still loves his sisters, and also him trying and failing to be responsible LOL

bob actually was a cute episode that i watched bcuz i thought the title was so funny bcuz why would they parody that movie, but its actually adorable and i love the ending of this episode :) im not usually into romance-focused episodes but the ending to this was just so sweet and louise's thing with rudy was great

the subplot with gene and bob plumbing is honestly one of my favorites in the entire show idk how to explain why, and i absolutely adore the ending song to that episode its so passionate and so obviously full of love and affection for each other its so sweet <3 the main storyline is also interesting

that subplot where bob is annoyed by linda kicking him while they're asleep so he moves into the basement, but then linda comes down to visit and he acts like a teenager who has a girl coming over and he wants to impress her LOL and them trying to sleep in that tiny bed before realizing they should probably just go back upstairs, it really shows how much they love each other and WHY their relationship works and that they choose to be together again and again

the episode where the kids burn down the restaurant and try to make it up to their parents is great, i love how bob and linda try so hard to be understanding and gentle and how it ends with bob telling his kids that he loves them and that they're the best ever and he could never hate them its just such a healthy example of parenting and the relationship between them and the kids FJDMDMSJSJSM

topsy was a fun episode and also the musical number was so good, the episode where bob gets stuck to the toilet was also very fun and i liked the music in that episode :D that thanksgiving episode where bob keeps putting the turkey in the toilet, and the episode where he carries gayle through the show and home for thanksgiving. the ending gets to me idk, and the mini golfing thanksgiving episode from season 13 is great i love episodes that focus on the relationship between the kids and how much they all love each other!!!! also the episode where they pretend to be mr fischoeders family, and basically any episode with him tbh

the big fish episode where tina wants to be a good mentor and big fish and at the end louise and gene tell her that she's a great big sister to THEM and that they love her, and if other people can't see how amazing she is thats on them. it makes me so emotional for some reason!! sweetest episode ever

the ending of that episode where they do the time capsule thing and they're all sitting together outside the concert and sing that song about how they'll be together when they're older, i know it probably wasn't supposed to be mean anything serious but something about it really gets 2 me and emphasizes the relationship between the kids and how they're going to grow up together

gene cheerleading episode was great, and i liked the season 13 episode were linda volunteers at their school And also the episode where linda gets a job at a grocery store its very silly

also not an episode but i remember a scene where linda like spills her wine and she tries to soak it up with a shirt so she can drink it?? and bob just laughs and says i love you and it sounds so genuine, i dont remember what episode that was but its just sweet how much he genuinely adores her. also that moment in early season 1 where linda is singing and even though bob is annoyed he just starts laughing bcuz he loves her so much

a lot of the early episodes were funny and i like the handdrawn animation style a lot more its very expressive :0 the episode with the trans sex workers is weird but also fun, and i love the relationship between the family and the one-eyed snakes

the christmas episode from season eight?? that was extra long was good i liked watching that episode, the music was great and i loved the giant party with like 500+ queer people Where did they come from

the episode where bob takes gene to that laser rock-and-roll show is a classic, and the season 12 episode where louise asks if she isnt being a girl in the right way. also the sleepover episode with louise and jessica

i also liked the lice episode for some reason LOL

random things i like abt bob's burgers that aren't related to a specific episode:

bob hates jimmy pesto but by like season 2 he accepts that all his kids are just going to be friends with jimmy jr and andy and ollie and he's okay with that and supports their weird friendship, it would be so annoying if he was constantly trying to sabotage the friendship between these kids who have nothing to do with their feud but he and jimmy pesto are like Whatever its fine they're friends :) also specifically that parade episode where jimmy jr was forced to attack tina and at the end they apologize and theyre dancing together it was cute

bob gets that weird horse tattoo for tina and throughout the rest of the show, whenever he's animated with his shirt off and his back visible he still has the tattoo!!! including in the weird bean stock fairytale louise was telling where he was a giant and he never had kids, he still has that tattoo <3 its so adorable to me he loves her so much

everywhere related to mr fischoeder is so fucked up i love him 10/10 best character in animation

#this seems like a lot of episodes but there are like 250+ episodes in this show this isnt even 5% of them FJDMDJSJDJSJSM #and im probably still forgetting some of my fave episodes bcuz there are just so many!!!! #the quality is so consistently good which is crazy when you've been watching object shows for the past 2 years #and the first season of every show is like borderline torture to get through bcuz its so bad #i cant believe other fandoms can watch EVERY episode of their favorite show without literally going insane #txt #bob's burgers

[deltaengineering]

Summer Anime 2023: GoHands saves anime

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale S2

I wasn't really all that impressed with S1 of Sugar Apple, but it was fun enough. There was a chance it would do away with its naive ruminations on chauvinism and slavery, after all. And yeah, it did that. But maybe I should have stated more clearly that that bland nonsense also needs to be replaced with something better, and that part certainly did not happen. The show fills the vacant space with two things: The kind of completely uninteresting worldbuilding and politics that were all over S1, weren't good there either, but were so insubstantial they weren't worth of note. Well, now they are. The other is that we get a ridiculously evil over the top villain that's amusing for one episode, but gets old really fast. Not to mention that everyone (outside of the designated villain, which is why you know he's bad) seems to love Anne now, especially Challe. So the spicy romance interplay is gone and Challe is now an edgy white knight that tips his fedora to m'lady. And the big finale is that Anne inspires a dozen pretty boys to invent Christmas, somehow. This one just is very poorly written and as of S2 has optimized out all things that distract from that. 4/10

Noble Farmer

The appeal of Noble Farmer isn't what the show does, but what it is: Notable action shounen mangaka Hiromu Arakawa telling a few anecdotes about her growing up as a farmer on Hokkaido. Of course we've known that since Silver Spoon, but it's still enough of a novelty to just barely carry this short series. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's not. As usual, a short doesn't actually need to be all that good to be an easy watch, but I've seen better ones. 5/10

Instead Of Zom 100 You Get NieR:Automata Ver1.1a

Why hello, we have a vacant 5/10 spot for mysterious reasons. Let's talk about a production disaster from the season before that just managed to end in this one. To be honest, I've already forgotten about Near A Tomato Service Pack 1 (Backer Beta) so I'll have to patch it up with my knowledge of the game, which is probably for the better anyway. Or is it? I am one of the few people that don't think that Nier Automata is the pinnacle of storytelling¹, so one reason to even give this a chance is to see if the story clicks better if it's told in a more straightforward way. But then it just seems that the opposite is true: Yes, it is indeed the main plot of Nier Automata, but the lack of nonlinearity and other assorted participatory/environmental storytelling just points out that there isn't all that much to that, especially towards the end when it's just about beating up the big monster, but in a sad way. The few things that it does change or add either don't amount to anything we didn't already know or have their payoff pushed onto the sequel. At least the music is still fantastic but it's just literally the game music, so that's nothing new either. This anime is probably for the fans, but even the fans will quickly realize that it's inferior to the real thing - though for them, inferior to the BEST. STORY. EVER!!!! is likely still plenty good enough. 5/10

¹ Before a million salty Yoko Taro fans jump down my throat, it's pretty good, okay? Just not as exceptional as you think. Thank you.

Yohane the Parhelion -SUNSHINE in the MIRROR-

So why does this exist. I can only imagine that Numazu has a bit of surplus marketing budget now, so here we go, Aqours is back... In the form of an appealing, but pretty bog standard children's show. Sunshine already wasn't the most profound Love Live show, nor did it have the most multidimensional characters, but naturally this is a shallower version of that - with the curious exception of Mari, who somehow is a more well-rounded character here than she originally was (though what that means is left as an exercise to the reader). Yoshiko herself of course has a bit more going on, but she better have, given that this show is very definitely about her and her problems - and it's still not really enough. All of this of course is expected from a children's afternoon show where the big bad is a vague "calamity" that doesn't even get defined as much as being made out of people's negative emotions or something like that. No it's just uh, bad (and by bad I mean purple), and then gets defeated by friendship and good vibes and an Aquors single. This show should have really done more random nonsense like Chika and her sisters randomly having a Sentai team and Dia being Kamen Rider for tedious IRL reasons, but that quirkiness is so minor it feels more out of place than anything. I don't want to be too harsh on this because it's still fundamentally a good time, but there really just isn't much to it. But I guess that's just how it goes with entrenched franchises, right? 6/10

GoHands presents the GoHands Power Hour featuring The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses and The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today

Before I get to the details of these shows, there's quite a bit they have in common, and that is, obviously, being made by GoHands. I have a pretty complicated history with GoHands. Yes, I did watch the whole Handhakersverse mostly because it was unbelievably ugly, but on the other hand, there is something to be said about an unique, consistent aesthetic: GoHands is dreamcore. I don't think it's pretty, but I do think it's fascinating, which is why I wasn't amused when every Anime Opinion Haver immediately wrote these two off as being unwatchable and took cheap shots on Ecks Dot Com. So I'll watch them. I thought. That'll show em.

The punchline was obvious: Neither of these shows are crassly ugly in a meaningful way. They're a bit overdone, but honestly they're more reminiscent of some SHAFT productions. Really, outside a few meme gif shots in the first episodes, there's nothing special about the looks apart from an overreliance on postproduction gimmicks like particle and lighting effects and stifling color correction, and everyone loves those when KyoAni does them. So there goes the reason to watch them... Except then, in a truly GoHandsian further twist, they're actually good. I'm as puzzled as you are.

Well, "good" is maybe a bit much. Glasses Girl is definitely watchable though, mostly just because Mie is remarkably cute. Of course, this being an entry in the "my classmate is wacky and I can't deal with it" genre, the same cannot be said of Komura, whose React-Man antics are most charitably described as "occasionally not annoying". The show gets a lot of credit for actually finding new ways to make the one joke that is in its title reasonably fresh, and it even manages to elicit some d'aww feelings towards the clumsy kid romance it develops into. I can't tell a lie, it's fine. 6/10

This one honestly is pretty good though, even though the absurd wish fulfilment setup of "I'm a lonely dysfunctional office lady but my cat is actually a perfect homemaker" seems thoroughly sketchy. To be honest, Yukichi actually does act like a cat, so I can only assume this is indeed written by a lonely dysfunctional office lady. As far as surreal daily life comedies go, this one's a winner though. It's cute, it's funny, and all that. A rather simple comedy about a very obvious joke setup, but there's enough going on in the periphery to make it not boring - and then there's hooks like half the female cast having a crush on Saku, which if acted upon would instantly make this one of the dankest yuri shows of all time. One can only dream. 7/10

BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!!

It's always the same with these gacha franchise shows. Even when they're good, they're always bloated by too many characters, too many established plots, too much desire to make everyone equally likeable, and a strict adherence to the status quo. Over the years, many a time I have written "but what can you do". What can you do, indeed?

So here comes MyGO, where the plan apparently was "how about THIS time we just don't do any of that". Now, this part is interesting only for people like me who watched this show as part of the franchise. Nobody else would (or, honestly, should) care that this franchise show breaks the mould uncommonly hard — only whether it's good. Thankfully, MyGO is also just one of the best teen drama shows around, franchise or not. I guess it really helps if you make a show that a writer would actually want to write and not just a bunch of corporate mandates, but Ayana Yuniko takes it no the next level and does things that even "regular" shows in a similar lane don't attempt; for example, Tomori completely fixes the problems I had with Bocchi (of The Rock fame) by being treated appropriately seriously. Now, I don't want to oversell this show, you won't get the next Kids on the Slope here - it's still a small-scale anime about a bunch of drama kids that produces not one, but two marketable bands in the end. But within this framework, it really is about as good as it gets. Every character is complicated and has major personality flaws, which seems very risky but extremely worth when it pays off like here. In short, it's textbook character drama. It's a bit silly at times, but I'll accept that as yeah, teen girls in bands can be pretty goddamn silly. It also doesn't have an ending, but I'd question whether a low-key drama like this even can have a proper ending. They manage to make their disastrous teen band work for a bit, what more can you expect?

I guess I should mention the looks also, which are nothing particularly special when you know the fairly high level of CG animation Sanzigen have consistently been doing. Of course this serious show doesn't have much of the cartooniness, but makes up for it with select instances of really good direction — MyGO has a particular knack for uncomfortable wide angles.

In the end, MyGO is an uncommonly legitimate character drama with low stakes. It can dip into melodrama but not any worse than these shows always do. Ironically the most questionable aspect is that there will be a sequel based on the other band, Ave Mujica, which work extreme well as a joke about how they are everything MyGO is not. But that makes them an awful band full of awful people, and I'm not sure if I want to actually watch that. It's certainly a tall order, but then again, I didn't expect much from this show to begin with. For now it's an 8/10

#anime #review #summer2023 #sugar apple fairy tale #noble farmer #nier automata #genjitsu no yohane #the girl i like forgot her glasses #dekiru neko wa kyou mo yuuutsu #bang dream it's mygo