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thedevilsoftruth · 3 months

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Haven't posted in a while, but something that was really bugging me a lot was some shit I noticed when rewatching the Moon Knight series that I think a lot of comic book fans could relate to. I know, Mr " um actually " comic book guy is talking right now but imma need you all to bare with me here for a second. and before any of you start typing, please remember everything said here is MY opinion. All I ask is that you're respectful. I'm going to start of with how I don't understand the hype around this motherfucker.

Literally the most whiniest mf in the ENTIRETY of the MCU. The only people who can like or tolerate this bitch are mfs who have 9 hours of daily screen time on TikTok, listen to hyperpop music and think that he's a soft uwu meow meow baby girl hurt emo princess boy.

Moon Knight is literally one of the most metal superheros out there and the directors saw that and said, " now imagine that but we make his woman so much better than him and water him down and completely change his back story and then wipe our asses with it, spit on it and then pretend we were trying to show representation. " Like what the fuck are you fucking doing?

My first problem is that I felt like this show focused too much on Layla and her relationship to Marc... Nvm, Sorry I lied. Not Marc, fucking STEVEN. This show isn't about " Layla ", its about MARC and Steven and JAKE. (I'll talk about Jake later) Like can we just... " Are you an Egyptian superhero? " " I am. 🥺" GIRL BYE 💀💀 this part of this show was so bad it made eternals look good. This was cringe on the level of seeing your mother do a dab. All that episode 6 was about was Layla kicking ass and that's it. I don't understand why Kevin Feige has the urge to make everything about badass women. Like theres ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with that, I love badass women and we need more women superheros, but I'm just saying, I came here to watch MOON KNIGHT not Layla El-faouly.

So funny how they make a show about Marc Spector and he only gets like 20 minutes out of the 6 hours of the entirety of the show. I think the most time he got on screen was like episode five and maybe two but that's about it. It felt like he was only there to make things depressing and to make Steven Grant have better character development because he himself is just so fucking boring and not funny. Marc Spector is so much more than " I got hit as a kid and my alter ego is fucking my ex wife. " He's a Jewish antihero struggling with a personality disorder that's eating his life away and a toxic relationship with a man who's been basically lying, emotionally abusing, and manipulating him since his CHILDHOOD. What I love most about Marc Spector is that he's not like all other these mighty superheros, he's just some dude. He just some dude with real human struggles like you and me, trying to figure himself out and navigate through his disorder. Marc should have had a bigger role in this show but I guess Steven Grant and Layla were more interesting than him. Steven is the main course, Layla is the desert and Marc is the salad off to the side that's barley been eaten.

Steven Grant is not a shy British man with great manners who works in a gift shop and is giving in his moms flat, he's a savvy millionaire ( who's from Chicago, Illinois, so as Marc and Jake ) who works in the film industry and lives in a mansion. Those are two completely different characters. Everyone that I've seen who's criticized Steven in the slightest has said that he was bland, boring, and the producers were trying too hard to make him funny. You can't try to have something that's just straight up sad happening with a character and then pretend that it's funny and try to make it into comedy. That's just not how it works and it's not realistic. That's why movies like The Crow are good and movies like Renfield are bad. The Crow takes itself seriously and is genuinely sad but lightly sprinkled with comedy, Renfield wanted to be a bit sad, but ruined itself by trying to hard to make every scene funny.

The only good scene in this entire show is the scene where Marc says, " you are you the only real superpower I ever had " or whatever the fuck. I didn't pay attention because all I could think about was the scene from frozen where Anna fucking froze and Elsa cried about it and then unfroze her with her tears or something. I guess her tears must have been really hot.

What I'll give Muhammad Diab credit for is casting. Having Layla be Egyptian is good, and having Oscar Isaac casted as Marc is also really good. Everyone In the comics is white for a character normally centered around Egyptian bullshit. They also got Khonshus personality right and that's about it.

I hate how the producers said that this show was all about " representation" and then didn't add Frenchie, who is a gay french guy in it or Bushman who is a black mercenary because he was " too much like Killmonger " ( which doesn't make any fucking sense because they are drastically different on so many levels but okay. ) they also said that this show is they're most brutal and violent show yet, but they were " violent " ( and bloody-ish ) the first three episodes and then just kinda gave up towards the end.

For the last thing, I'm gonna talk about Jake finally. Just pretend that I'm sighing right now. Like a really audible, dramatic sigh.

I get they wanted for us to differentiate the differences between each personality with accents but Jake doesn't need to speak Spanish. He doesn't speak Spanish in the comics and having him do it is completely unnecessary. I get it's Hollywood and Hollywood needs to make everything sexy and attractive, but Jake Lockley is the least sexiest alter of Marc Spector. He doesn't wear a suit with black leather gloves or drive a limousine, he's a fucking taxi cab driver with a really weird mustache who wears a turtle neck. When I think sexy, I don't think taxi driver. And it ruins the point of Jake Lockley as well because Marc uses Jake to see what's going on on the streets in New York. New York is really busy and crowded, so people are more prone to using a taxi, not a limousine unless you're bougie and rich.

Anyways that was my rant. Good night.

#marvel #marvel cinematic universe #marvel mcu #marc spector #moon knight #steven grant #jake lockley #marvel smut #moon knight comics #marvel comics #steven grant slander #marvel slander #moon knight slander

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afterthefeast · 1 month

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ep 6 rewatch time!!

“why mention the number of men, lieutenant?” — fitzjames follows this by invoking tunbaaq and clearly implying that the bear was the only real threat to the men’s lives. at this point he is still woefully naive — unlike (sort of) goodsir & crozier, fitzjames never even has an inkling that they may have brought their doom with them (even though of all the characters he is the one who most certainly brought their own doom, which is not a coincidence). like god love him fj lives in a beautiful world where the british empire is completely unquestionable (more on this later re his death, i think). but he is also completely unwilling, at this stage, to entertain the notion that some men will die because of their food & illness situation, even though he has also already started to think about leaving the ships. this is down more to his naivety in the classic sense, which is in many ways really his most endearing trait, ironically. (in this respect, as i will undoubtedly make a separate post about at some point, he is a really interesting parallel to goodsir).

i’ve only just noticed it but irving’s hair is atrocious. he looks like a late 00s youtuber.

subject of memoirs again (cf. jane franklin). interesting that fitzjames broaches this as a question of plain truth — ie blanky explaining how ross’s men almost mutinied would contradict ross’s “truth”. which obviously puts blanky in a seriously difficult position of having to essentially call a previous superior, a knight of the realm, and all-round extremely important man a liar (and you can see on his face that blanky knows this). and fj, who again really has the intelligence of a spoon, never even considers this. he’s such a good example of complete buy-in to the victorian class system despite the ways in which he has been personally victimised by it (and his earlier treatment of crozier reflects this too).

probably also relevant that a) fj has no previous arctic experience, so he’s never been in a situation where that system might break down, unlike blanky, crozier and mcdonald (crucially, three characters explicitly shown to have some level of disregard for class barriers) and b) fj also does not have a single onscreen positive relationship with his men in the way that crozier has with blanky, little (to a degree) or jopson. even, actually, crozier & little’s relationship is important here because while it’s not always totally positive it is one that’s marked by a certain level of respect that transcends class or rank. the fact that we never see one of these for fj is proooobably in the main because he’s like, fourth main character behind crozier hickey and goodsir (and like well behind them as well) but regardless it paints a verrrry interesting picture of the quality of fj’s leadership. (also note that franklin, fitzjames’ model for captaincy, did not have this either).

this whole conversation is really interesting too firstly because it foreshadows really everything that happens: “scurvy was already us is” — this also in the episode where i think we find out fitzjames has scurvy? — and “what little love we had [was] the only thing keeping us civil” which really is just the thesis statement of the show isn’t it. bridgens and peglar it’s your time to shine.

also you can tell that blanky is still exceedingly bitter about the whole fury beach experience. and also that he thinks fitzjames needs to hear this (which he does). cause fj is also like deeply troubled by this in a way that i don’t reeally think crozier would be (although ultimately the fact that crozier doesn’t really seem to foresee hickey’s mutiny doesn’t serve him well and reflects other kinds of character flaws). and of course this raises the really interesting question of how much fj pulling the boats later was down to pure self-interest rather than any level of sympathy for the men. which in turn raises the question of how much that even matters; the major theme of fitzjames’ character arc is identity and whether actions or intentions/origins matter more in who a person is. bridgens tells fj he was a good captain when he dies; does it matter if this is because fj was trying so hard to be? and does it in turn matter if that was because he cared about his men or himself? ultimately i do think this question is left unanswered but the show broadly leads us to the conclusion that all that really matters are actions — how one “measures up” you could say

also insane that i am noticing this level of detail but fitzjames has a nervous tic of clenching his hand — given the importance of hand symbolism i am recording this here in case it may become important later

EMERGENCY CROSS-DRESSING SUPPLIES WOO. yet again let us all acknowledge that when blanky said ‘give your men something to keep them going or they might brutally murder you’ fitzjames’ reponse was ‘okay yaaaay party time :3’. queeeen of party city she would’ve LOVED the club

the mask scene is craazy. first level, okay obviously fitzjames wears a mask cause he’s secretly a bastard blah blah. second level though — it’s a female mask, and i wonder if aside from the obvious interpretation of Gender, this actually says something about how fitzjames does adopt a kind of female role as a defense mechanism. i mean, “i’ll not let francis’s melancholy touch you, i’ll not have it” is such a typical Wife thing to say to franklin that we joke about it but it also bears analysing in its own regard, as does the fact that fitzjames is definitely much more comfortable playing second to male commanding figures than commanding in his own right, even though he is at a point in his career where he could easily be commanding a less important ship himself. the stray parallels between him and sophia are interesting in terms of his relationship with crozier generally but also serve to position him firmly in a Wife role throughout the text, as crozier’s second. the attributes he relies on are also stereotypically female ones; charm, reading people socially, even physical attractiveness. there’s a really interesting tension in the fact that he leans into and sometimes even desires this role, but also chafes against it and resents himself for being a fake. moreover the third level of this is that fitzjames’ whole identity is ultimately fake, right down to his name, and any of his masculinist achievements (glory in the opium wars!), having been achieved under this name, are rendered suspect. because of the circumstances of his birth any persona fitzjames adopts would be fake, however it was gendered, the lottery was rigged against him from the start, so it’s not as straightforward as just “oh he resents this role that he was put into” but more so that any role that fitzjames performs in society, however it was gendered, would never fit properly. he can properly fulfil neither a male role nor a female one. this episode begins to set up a thesis that will be properly delivered on in episode 8. fourth level, which is obviously hinted at here but again fully crystallises post episode 8 reveal, is that given the absolute loathing fitzjames has for his true self, he longs to actually be the mask. this interpretation is supported by the body-as-a-cage stuff he’s got going on later when he realises he’s bleeding.

also. putting my asoiaf hat on for a second. bastard as a separate gender in a society in which gender is inherently linked to property

jopson mummy issues moment. also jopson class moments!! like as much as it’s a moving scene jopson doesn’t really have the option to withold this information from crozier. so he owes his captain everything including his identity, you know? his mother taking laudunum specifically is relevant as well because opium, of course, is and remains a weapon of colonialism.

“i don’t like to hear a woman laughing now” jopson misogyny moments too!!

“how do you feel?” “like christ, with more nails” — well you can’t all be christ allegories, pick one

also obviously this like textually positions crozier as jopson’s mother, right, which is soo interesting happening right after james fitzjames gender moments of all time. fitzjames being Wifed by the text obviously only has salience when crozier takes the position of father; so for him to be paralleled to jopson’s mother right after it’s implied fitzjames might purposely occupy that wife role and both desire and resent it demonstrates just how accidental any gender role is, rather than essential. happening at this point in the narrative it also heralds the slow breakdown, for better or worse, of the trappings of victorian civilisation.

the carnivale idea coming from fitzjames is also interesting because it’s a classic festival of misrule, ie one in which traditional hierarchies break down. gender is one but that’s way less important here than class. officers socialise alongside the crew for once, traditional reserve falls away (irving gets hammered, fitzjames crowdsurfs etc). and it comes right after the start of this episode where we see just how uncomfortable fitzjames is with any real criticism of the class system.

hickey touching heather’s brain — the squelchy noise of this transitions seamlessly into jacko eating the lead-poisoned food so great foreshadowing there. but it also obviously demonstrates hickey’s growing unwillingness to abide by the very basic rules of civilised behaviour (bodily autonomy) and his sheer curiosity about what lies beyond them. while the accidental features of civilisation are critiqued, the text ultimately reasserts some of them — namely human fellowship and mutual respect. covering heather’s brain is pretty consistently shown to be a clear rule on the erebus, one that everyone follows because seeing his brain is too much if a violation both for heather and those who see it. similarly, cannibalism in the way hickey performs it is a violation both of the eaten and the eater, and this his first step to get to that point.

the fact that hickey & billy also continue to chat throughout all of this really makes me so sad. like yeah they’ve a really complex relationship but also on a basic level they just really get on and naturally gravitate towards each other.

once again this is the worst day at the office little’s ever had

hartnell & hickey’s conversation: great insight into victorian morals. hartnell is, of all of crozier’s crew, probably the most loyal to him as a person despite not being friends (so obviously blanky doesn’t count here). this intimacy is quite literally achieved through violence; it’s only after crozier has hartnell flogged that hartnell becomes so loyal. and ultimately it doesn’t save hartnell at all, he still dies in crozier’s arms

hickey doesn’t answer as to why he didn’t rat armitage out for coming with them to capture silna — is it because he didn’t want to rat out a fellow crewmember or because he wanted the credit for what he thought was gonna get him crozier’s approval?

“well francis will decide — yes, it does seem inescapable now.” GREAT example of what i was saying earlier about fitzjames being much more comfortable standing behind another commanding figure.

collins calling goodsir dr! a person is defined by their actions more than their position — goodsir acts like a doctor so he is one.

first time i watched this i disliked stanley a lot for this, and like yeah he sucks but he also does try and give collins something he just doesn’t know how. stanley also is one of the characters who clings the most to the class system, so it’s pretty telling that he doesn’t survive this episode and also that he is the one who destroys the carnivale

he didn’t even wear that dress that’s how unnecessary this whole thing was. i mean look he is also not the only one who wears a dress to the carnivale and like again. festival of misrule it’s a classic. but also come on. also there’s something about the blood falling on the mask

of fucking course de veoux is wearing the racist mask

fitzjames as britannia is so good. i think in the modern era he would probably advocate for conscription for all genders or something equally unhinged.

WAIT! when unnamed marine feeds private heather he helps him swallow the food…

the fact that silna after her failed attempt to become tunbaaq’s shaman goes back to the ships…either it’s because she needs help and this is the only place she can go, or to warn them, probably both, but either way they do not deserve her.

hickey stabbing mcdonald is so. fucking. sad. mostly because i liked mcdonald but also because it’s hickey’s first onscreen kill and he didn’t like. really mean it

tozer losing heather is also so sad

it’s tempting to read the carnivale’s destruction as showing it was all a bad idea and any inversion will be punished but that’s too straightforward imo. i think it’s much more that this is the final destruction of all of the trappings of class and hierarchy that have really been at the forefront this episode. not totally, but like — once you’ve had the carnivale you can’t really go back to strict hierarchy. instead you have to forge a new way of being, going (literally) into a new dawn. again this why i think it’s so telling that stanley dies this ep because his identity and very being is so tied up in that hierarchy that he literally could not go on in a world where it didn’t exist.

#the terror #writing this meant this episode took me about an hour and a half to actually watch it’s one of my favourites

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moonah-rose · 2 years

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!! as someone who watched red dwarf a while back, i was pleasantly surprised to bump into a fan of it while i was scrolling through a whole other blog (you know how tumblr binges go..) i haven't watched it in a while otherwise i'd come up with a more interesting question to ask you, but as it is i'm curious to know what you like about it! not in a judgemental way (sorry it probably sounded that way ahaha) but srsly, what specifically about the characters or the premise or whatever it may be draws you in? (thank you in advance for your answer, i'm sure it'll be delightful to read)

Woah, sorry if this is late I literelly just spotted it in my inbox and somehow missed the notif!

This answer might be disappointing but basically; I was raised on it. My earliest memory and how I learned what Fridays were was knowing "it's Red Dwarf night!" It was the best night because it meant I got to stay up late with my dad and brother and watch this show which would have us all laughing in stitches. I remember me and my dad had a game where I would ask "Why is it called red dwarf?" (Because it was series 6 and the only ship was Starbug) and Dad would say "Because that's the name of the spaceship!", which made no sense to me because Starbug was green, so I'd keep asking and eventually he'd just reply with random things like "that's the name of the cat." or something. 😂 I guess you had to be there but, yeah, a lot of my love for this show comes down to nostalgia and happy memories with my dad.

Now what kept me into the show as an adult? So many things. It's my favorite British style of humor; a group of people who annoy the smeg out of each other while also willing to die for each other. Its the absolute zaniness of the sci-fi where anything can happen, where humanoids evolved from cats, or a computer becoming senile, or a guy who is his own dad etc. It has all that insanity going on and yet each episode is so smegging COSY! Because an episode where the gang is fighting an insane robot is the same one where they throw a party for android friend who they think is about to die. Because the last man on earth tricks his ghost frienemy into confessing about his soup trauma for a laugh but also maybe free therapy.

And it's hilarious! No show has ever made me laugh so hard and I've watched it too many times to count over the years.

I honestly don't know how to sell it for someone coming in fresh or isn't fond of British humor but I always encourage everyone to give it a try; and I always recommend an episode from S3 - 6 as those are peak Red Dwarf eps imo. I love the whole show but the first 2 seasons can come off a bit slow for newbies and the comedy definitely took a hit post s7.

If there was one clip I'd show to kinda sum up the show in a nutshell it's this one:

youtube

#red dwarf #kryten #the cat (red dwarf)#arnold rimmer #dave lister

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adultswim2021 · 5 months

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Delocated #7: “Sick of It!” | March 30, 2009 - 12:15AM | S01E07

The season finale that luckily didn’t turn out to be a series finale. In this episode, Jon is at the park to get custody of David, which is one of Jon’s favorite things to do. David is dropped off by Susan’s bodyguard/boyfriend. David is also wearing a motorcycle helmet. David’s insistence on wearing the helmet around is due to his bodyguard’s influence; he owns a motorcycle and apparently made an off-handed joke about leading your day-to-day life in a helmet that David took a little too much to heart. Jon orders the production to halt so he can father his child privately, and not on camera. When they refuse, Jon flips out. He eventually grabs one of the cameras and takes off with it.

After shaking the show and his family, Jon films himself from the confines of a bush. Eventually he lures a fella named Mark played by Michael Shannon, an actor whose name I knew, but I can’t for the life of me ever recall seeing him in a motion picture. I’ve literally had multiple conversations with people who mentioned his name in some context and I just nodded as if I knew who they were talking about. So that’s who that guy is! He’s great in this! I think I like this guy!

So Mark, played by Michael Shannon from Delocated S01E07, decides to be friends with Jon after Jon beckons him to be in the bush with him. Eventually they hatch a scheme to exchange lives. Mark and Jon exchange clothes (NOTE: the DVD contains the entire take of them changing clothes, but it's sped-up, so you can see exactly how laborious it was to film), and then Mark exits the bush when Jon’s loved ones all come out looking for him. This is the moment the Mirminskis strike, shooting and killing Mark (dressed as Jon).

The episode ends with Jon doing a Tom Sawyer to his own funeral, walking in with the video camera during Susan’s eulogy for him. He shoves the camera in people’s faces and taunts them. He retrieves his ski mask (his face is pixelated out in the actual show) and very nobily oversees a funeral for his once-friend.

This is probably my favorite episode of the season. It relies on the simple premise that Jon is enamored with the idea of being bros with people. The concept of friendship is extremely important to him, because he probably finds himself in need of allies on a constant basis due to his terrible behavior. It’s like a numbers game for him. So he and Mark bond very quickly. Their scenes together are wonderful.

The bit at the end where Jon eulogizes his friend and decides to throw a proper funeral for him using the handful of things he knew about him to give it personal flare (pall bearers on roller blades and the presence of his candy apple red dodge durango) is so fun. The part where Jon rehashes all of his Mark facts to the people attending his own funeral is wonderful.

At the end of the episode, Jon drives away in Mark’s bitchin’ ride, and his bodyguard bolts for him, making it seem like Jon has now successfully fled the program. Will he be back for a second season?? Will it be expanded from 11 minutes to 22?? My friend! Time will tell my friend.

MAIL BAG

It is mail bag my friend. I love you:

Why did you put a picture of Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick above your writeup of some dumb british show I never heard about?

(Joe Biden voice) C'mon man...

Using my napkin math I saw you took 5 tasty tuesdays last month. It was the holidays so sure it's okay to take one more tasty tuesday than usual. However, you have already taken 2 tasty tuesdays in january and we are all 6 days in. And I fear you may take one tonight.

Sometimes I think I need brain medicine (probably, actually) because I lack focus, and part of that includes me losing patience with the concept of burdening myself with a nightly mandate to post. But then I realize that by skipping days and simply not caring makes me one of the only people living on Earth who truly knows freedom. Stay safe, and happy January 6th, my friend.

#adult swim #adultswim2021 #delocated

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laststandx3 · 8 months

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This post contains spoilers for ep 6 of daryl dixon

so finally watched ep 6 (the last one of the series) and let me tell you: it's bad. AdNag was wonderful, his hair were perfect, his face so kissable. 100% the highlight of the episode.

Anyway quinn dies (we knew it. let's not pretend we didn't) he get bitten by a zombie during the arena fight and in his last conversation as human he asks daryl to tell isabel he helped them an all. jesus christ, you're dying can you be less of a simp?

so let's talk about this episode for a minute. first half is them escaping the zombies in the arena (which daryl dixon has barely any difficulty in doing. he even lift one with a pole. really.) then the militia guys (was enough to fire one shot at random and they run away) and then our heroes were back on the road just to have the most nonsensical 5 minutes in the history of plots: does anyone remember the militia guy that wanted to avenge his brother so bad that in looking for dixon he got at least 40 people killed? the same guy that was cheering for a zombie to eat off dixon's face 3 minutes ago? that guy that was shown as the right hand of the boss? well after 5 episodes of murder after finally having dixon at the end of his gun he decided he wasn't going to kill him. bc he didn't want to kill laurent apparently, but the 20+ dead nuns is fine? the other innocents from the club? the paris commune? they can die. it's fine if he doesn't want to kill the kid but daryl dixon was right there, why not kill him?

second half of the episode they reach the nest and it's maybe the nicest sequence in the show so far. not enough that i can forgive everyone being dressed like background characters from a 40's movie or a group of french people picking the token american aboard student as their leader or everyone still speaking english for daryl or these people needing daryl to teach them how to use a rifle. but okay at least the sequence was nice. i don't believe that nuns taught laurent about aristotele but okay. i still have some suspension of disbelief left. at this point the people from the nest found daryl a lift home (kinda) and there's a ship waiting for him on the coast of Normandy. You know what we just found out? that dd's granpa died on the coast of normandy during ww2 and daryl sniffs on his grave even tho he never met the man and had a bad relationship with his dad. it feels like the american writers of this show had a list of things americans and french had in common and ww2 was the only thing left. anyway laurent then shows up from a dune and waves at daryl and idk it's implied daryl will take him to america? this kid only has bad ideas.

at the end of this season i can say this was the first draft for the show. not one single character has an arc. characters were underdeveloped, they had no solid background for their personalities. bad guys were bad until the plot needed them not to be. and those who were bad were bad just because. Genet she was a night guard at the museum and now she's leading a militia, i'm not saying it's impossible, i'm saying that without seeing even a glimpse of her character evolution she feels hollow. the guy wanting to avenge his brother does a 180 in a minute, killing 4 of his men. what is the journey there? he could've been a great character development, if he got developed in any way. Quinn, went form british living abroad (job still unknown) to nightclub owner that simped for Isabelle for 12 years but never ever in all this time looked for her once. and now that he died nobody cared, they made the big reveal that he was laurent's father and he was the ONLY person laurent showed no sympathy to?? Isabelle, laurent and the other nun, they saw everyone they lived with die and were okay, no faltering in faith, no grief. no lets go on with the plot. the other nun cared so little that she left them when they needed help the most and joined back when the risk was over. like?? girl what? I want to talk about laurent, he never questions he's god on earth, everyone told him he's special and in all his journey he never doubted for a second that he wasn't even if so far more people died than how many he helped. he saw murder, violence, hunger, pain, living dead and he didn't care at all. and now daryl dixon, i started the series knowing nothing about him and now the only thing i know is that he's the typical grunts not speak no friends type. zero connection with his character. he went throughout another tuesday of killing zombie and people and what bothered him the most was that everyone was speaking french.

this series gets a 4/10

#was about to say 3/10 but adnag was there #he couldn't save them. adnag was there but it wasn't enough to make them write a good plot #daryl dixon #adnag #adam nagaitis #show's over folks let's pack and go home

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movietonight · 1 year

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I was tagged by @variousqueerthings to share mash thoughts!

1. Whose overall narrative feels the most satisfying to you?

I have three different answers. If I take "satisfying" to be doomed from the start haunted catharsis? Hawkeye, obviously. It's incredibly satisfying to see a sitcom without much * turn into a beautiful heart breaking eleven season long mental health spiral.

Then there's Klinger, who has the most satisfying narrative from a meta perspective, seeing a one episode gag turn into a beloved character who begins showing up in the credits and gets a big wedding and farewell.

Then there's Charles and Margaret, who graduate from narrative foils to complex and likeable characters with lots of memorable and :') moments.

2. Whose finale narrative feels the most satisfying to you?

Literally the ones above. Hawkeye and Charles make me both tear up every time and Margaret and Klinger make me go :') with pride to see how far they've come.

3. What's a post-canon headcanon that you have (about anything or anyone)

I think they try to hold at least one other reunion to see each other again with all their families in the same hotel on the anniversary of the party

4. What's a pre-canon headcanon that you have (about anything or anyone)?

I think Trapper and Charles vaguely met in Boston at work (maybe at a conference or maybe their hospitals collaborated on something)

5. Who's a secondary/tertiary character you wish you could have seen more of?

Honoria, Bigelow and Kellye.

6. What's a headcanon you have about a non-main character?

I think Kellye got all of them their Hawaiian shirts (yes I know they were popular at the time and sold in different places but I like the thought that she is their main Hawaiian shirt dealer and I think it's also the only explanation why Charles has one)

7. Who's your single episode MVP?

Inga <3 She said Trans Rights. Shout out also to British UN guy bullying Charles, Brandy Doyle the burlesque icon, Tuttle and Park Sung.

8. Share a headcanon about anything that you don't get the chance to talk about enough

Charles listens to "Songs on the Death of Children" because of his brother :)

9. What's one of your favorite non-romantic dynamics on the show?

Potter and everyone. He's just so dad and grandpa coded and I love how a lot of that was just Harry Morgan being Like That. Potter just adopted an entire camp of weird traumatised kids.

10. What's an underrated dynamic overall on the show?

Klinger and Mulcahy being besties <3 Klinger being the only one attending services and Mulcahy telling people to compliment his gloves lives rent free in my brain. Runner up is Charles and BJ making 2 separate people believe they are seriously sick because they were annoying. Absolute gremlins and they should have worked together more often.

11. What's a moment that was shocking to you?

Just the entire episode George. I was 15 and just figuring out I could be queer and watched an entire episode from the 70s set in the 50s. Really rewired my brain back then.

12. What's a moment that you could analyse forever?

Just about anything in Dreams. Shout out also to the coffee scene in sons and bowlers because everyone needs to have one small line in that episode that makes them foam at the mouth, right?

13. What's a moment that you want to watch over and over?

Movie Tonight. Any moment from that episode. Also just the entire episode. It's one of my feel good episodes and it's just sooooo <3

I tag: all my lovely mashtuals and anyone else who wants to do this (bonus points if you haven't seen mash and just commit to the bit making things up)

#mash #Macks Musings

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annakie · 2 years

Text

A List of Shows I’ve Watched So Far This Year

...and a couple of sentences about each one. Also some movies and podcasts, too.

I started keeping a list around the time the entertainment outlets started publishing their “Best of 2021″ lists near the end of the year so I would be sure to catch some good TV since I wasn’t sure what to watch half the time. So this list is partially from those lists, partially stuff I found in other ways like via tumblr gifsets on my dash, some things I stumbled upon, had already been watching, and some just because I was subscribed to whatever service a show was on and thought “Hm that looks interesting.”

Tried keeping track of movies and podcasts, too. Gonna do video games in a different post. Currently I have 34 shows on my “To Watch / Catch up on” list, and always adding more.

This is in no particular order at all.

Taskmaster (& rewatched a lot of it.) - OK I immediately lied. I moved this to the top because I honestly believe everyone should watch Taskmaster. It is the most joyful thing I’ve ever watched, I love it so, so much. Everyone I have convinced to watch the show has loved it. It curbs anxiety, it always always always makes me laugh, and there’s a lot of it to watch.

Taskmaster is a British... panel/game show, sort of, where five comedians/entertainers are at the whims of the Taskmaster (Greg Davis) and his assistant (Alex Horne, who is the true genius behind the show) and do ABSOLUTELY ABSURD tasks to earn his approval. The same cast stays for an entire season (early on 5 or 6 episodes, then 8, now 10.) Greg scores their efforts, and at the end of the season, the winner takes home... a bust of Greg’s head. Mostly bragging rights and a spot on the Champion of Champions special that happens after every 5th season.

I cannot express how much I love Taskmaster. You can just watch most of it for free on Youtube. Series 1 Episode 1 is a fine place to start, or maybe try season 4 for people you likely already know. Anyway, that’s the sales pitch. Everything else is just my opinions. Watch Taskmaster, unless you hate fun and don’t need a distraction right now?

I started watching it near the end of last year, and then synced up with @ahab99 and we watched the rest of it together. It’s been one of my favorite things to do this year, and the fandom is great. My favorite seasons are 4, 5, 7, 9, 12 and 13, but I love them ALL.

Kongen Befaler (Taskmaster Norway) S1 & 2 - I love Taskmaster so much I started watching the Norwegien version, which is slow going because I have to be in the right mind to watch something with subtitles, but the Norwegian version is very nearly as good as the original. Highly recommend it if you’ve finished with the original. I haven’t yet gotten to the New Zealand version yet because I’m waiting for ahab99 to be ready, but I know it’s also considered to be great.

The Great S1 & 2 - Speaking of great... watched this as it was on Alan Sepinwall’s best of 2021, and I trust him about quality of things most of the time. Enjoyed The Great a lot, not one of my favorite things of the year, but thought the leads were very good and also Sacha Dhawan was a nice surprise. It’s got a lot more grossout humor than you were probably expecting. But I’ll watch S3.

Halt and Catch Fire S1-4 - I’d watched S1 and the first half of S2 when it was airing, then fell behind, and my DVR broke, and I never caught back up. But Sepinwall had mentioned it somewhere in a review I read recently and put it back on the list. It’s a show that got stronger every season. S1 was really trying way too hard to be Mad Men But In the 80′s And About Tech, once they figured out the characters in S2, toned down Lee Pace’s character and made the “mousey wife” not so mousey, it got amazing. Loved it so much.

Station Eleven - The first few eps aired last year, and I watched it in real time, but the last three aired this year. This is one of the best things I watched not only this year but... ever. A story of love and hope after a world-ending pandemic. You would think “I don’t need a pandemic story right now” but yeah, you need this story. One of the most satisfying moments I’ve experienced in fiction near the end of the series, too. So good. Highly rec. This also means Mackenzie Davis was one of the leads of... the last two things I talked about and she deserves all the awards.

Hacks S1 & 2 - I love Jean Smart and had been meaning to get around to this one for awhile, so I got to it like a few weeks before S2 aired. Really funny and powerful story of two women in different generations who were there when they needed it the most. A definite rec.

Starstruck S1 & 2 - I watched this not only because Sepinwall recommended it, but because it was created by & stars Rose Matafeo, who is on series 9 of Taskmaster and who I adore because of it. Really funny, great story, a little frustrating, but well worth it.

Our Flag Means Death (3 times) - Thanks to tumblr for all the gifsets, and finding out Guz Khan (who is in S12 of Taskmaster) is in this show, I gave in and watched it. I didn’t watch it the first time til the week after it ended, but then I signed up for HBO Max to support the show and watched it three times in one month. Loved it. Can’t wait for S2.

Severance - Came for Adam Scott, stayed for holy shit what is going on here why do I have to wait week to week for more? I NEED ANSWERS NOW. Creepy, bleak, and very, very intriguing. Am on the edge of my seat for season 2. Another one of the best things I’ve seen this year/in awhile.

The Expanse (Some in 2021, some in 2022) - One of those shows I’d been meaning to get into for a long time and I knew if I could stick with it eventually I’d love it. I had tried the first episode a couple of times over the last few years and didn’t like it but... I was determined this time and stuck with it. I have LOVED Shohreh Aghdashloo for a long time and she got me to stick around. I honestly didn’t love the show until season 2 or so, but at some point I was all in, and was sad when I finished, though a couple of the seasons were weaker than others for sure, and learning the circumstances behind the removal of one of the main characters, who was another of my favorites, put a small damper on it. But I’m glad I finished it. Someone make a S7. :(

Upload S2 - Watched S1 and thought it was decent, S2 was... definitely affected by the Pandemic filming. It was OK, but not great. The season finale especially seemed cut off too soon. But I’ll keep watching.

Doctor Who Specials (New Year’s special and The Sea Devils) - New Years special was great, other one was okay. It’s nice that they’re addressing 13/Yaz. Even though, ya know, it’s almost regeneration time. There’s a lot about the 13 era I have liked, but also a lot of wasted potential. And I’m not a fan of the Timeless Child thing... have seen few who are, though.

I also rewatched the Husbands of River Song because the Taskmaster himself, Greg Davis, plays King Hydroflax in this episode.

Critical Role S3 + Calamity - Been keeping up with Critical Role still, though sometimes I fall behind a week or two. I have been enjoying S3 a lot, probably more than I enjoyed the first arc of S2. Having Ashley back full time is great, and I like the new characters. Been staying far, far away from the fandom and the drama, though.

Calamity was amazing. I know I posted a thing about maybe not watching but I did because of how everyone was talking about it, and it was everything people said it was. I cried through most of the finale. Thanks to @thequeenofmyownscreen for crying with me. :)

I have very much wanted to get into Dimension 20 since before Calamity and really want to now, but have yet to find the time.

Breaking Bad Rewatch (Just season 2.5 to the end) - After watching the first half of S6 of Better Call Saul, and hearing the second half is going to have more relevance to Breaking Bad, I went back and re-watched BB from the first Saul episode to the end, since I hadn’t seen it since it aired. For like the S2 and some of the S3 part I was fast forwarding through a lot of like, Hank & Marie scenes or parts that were a lot of people staring at each other, but after awhile I just settled in and re-enjoyed the ride. Worth it.

Better Call Saul S6 - As noted above, have been keeping up with BCS the whole time. Love it. Can’t wait to see how it ends. DON’T KILL KIM WEXLER, PLEASE SHOW.

(BBC) Ghosts S1 - 3 - Three of the main characters have been contestants on Taskmaster (Charlotte Richie - S11, Lolly Adofope - S4 and Katy Wix - S9) plus at least two guest stars (Jessica Knappet - S7, Bridget Christie - S13.) So after learning this plus seeing some gifsets on my tumblr dash and seeing it was on HBO Max, I watched. Really enjoyed it, highly recommend.

(CBS) Ghosts - While looking up info for BBC Ghosts, I saw CBS had brought the show to America. I thought “Well, let’s see how bad they fucked this up” and dove in, intending to watch just the first episode or three. I finished the (currently only, S2 is incoming) season in like a day and a half. They did a good job making both the living married couple and the ghosts American, retaining some flavor of the BBC version without it being a direct ripoff aside from the pilot and one ghost being a near carbon copy of the British counterpart. I think they did a good job making it their own. The Brit version is probably still better, but I don’t regret watching both and will watch the next seasons of both, too.

(New) Kids in the Hall - I was in High School when the Kids in the Hall was originally airing on Comedy Central here in the US, and things like “I’m Crushing Your Head” were as cool as Wayne’s World quotes. Wasn’t sure what to expect about the revival but I really loved it, a lot. Be warned if you watch it there is old man full frontal in uh, the first episode, lol. But seriously, it was great. And I’m flabbergasted and mad that it wasn’t nominated for an Emmy.

Only Murders in the Building S2 - I think S1 aired last year? Watching S2 now. What a delight this show is. As an Old, I grew up loving Steve Martin and Martin Short and they’re amazing here. I had no idea who Selena Gomez is before this show, and now I adore her. Enjoying S2 a lot.

For All Mankind S3 - I think I watched S1 & S2 at the end of last year, and except for that mindbogglingly terrible subplot at the end of the 2nd season, I really loved it. S3 has been likewise great so far. Even though the stupid subplot continues into S3. I’m a Margot and a Dani stan.

Mare of Easttown - When this was airing last year it felt like everyone was talking about it and how great it was, so I got around to watching it. It was, indeed, very good, with a resolution that was surprising but didn’t feel like came out of nowhere. Also more Jean Smart = good.

The White Lotus - I mean, I have HBO Max right now and this is another show people kept talking about when it was airing, so I watched it. Eehhh, it was okay. It was a good takedown of white people at their most white-people-ness. Don’t think it deserves the Emmy love it’s getting except for the guy who played the hotel manager.

The Umbrella Academy S3 - I keep up with TUA when it’s on, and enjoy it. Enjoyed S3 as well. Not as much as S2 but hey, enough to look forward to S4. Mostly glad this season Luther got over Allison, but Allison this season was uh... not great.

Stranger Things S4 - Just like most everyone else, watched ST4 and I did love it, though the criticisms of it is pretty valid, too. NGL, got pretty bored with the Eleven subplot in the first half and fast forwarded through it as I thought it was very obvious Henry = Vecna and it felt like otherwise we were rehashing a lot of other stuff. And the Russian Prison subplot could have been cut way down, too. But still, love Stranger Things. Can’t wait for S5.

Murderville - Will Arnett’s improv / cop comedy. Swung WILDLY in quality depending on who the guest of the week was. They were right to put Conan first and Kumail Nanjiani last so it started and ended on its strongest episodes. I adore Annie Murphy but it was uncomfortable watching her stumble through her episode. But I finished it and would watch a S2.

Resident Alien S2 - I think S1 was stronger so far, but still loving this show, and Alan Tudyk is great, so is his co-lead Sara Tomko. Could do with less Mayor and Mayor’s Wife who’s character’s names I can never ever remember, and more of everyone else.

Barry S2 & 3 - I watched S1 as it aired and never got around to picking up S2 or 3 until a few weeks ago. It’s very good, and very violent. Can’t believe they’re still gonna do a S4 after that S3 ending.

The Flight Attendant S1(ish) - I watched the first episode and thought... I am not into this enough to watch the rest of the season but I do want to know how it ends. So I skipped right over to the last two episodes. Maybe I’ll do the same with S2.

Gentleman Jack - Was interested in this from tumblr gifsets. Literally watched the first episode and a couple of hours later the cancellation was announced, lol. Overall, I enjoyed it but I hope Suranne Jones’ back is OK because she carried this show for all sixteen episodes. Anything focused on Anne Lister was great. But they could not write a subplot of side characters to SAVE A LIFE. The cast was great, (I mean they had Five himself Peter Davison!) with what they were given. But so many subplots either were messy, boring or went nowhere and were dropped without resolution. Still glad I watched it but... it feels like only Lister/Walker ever found its footing and everything else was... not there. I’d have kept watching, but not super upset it’s likely not going to happen.

Star Wars

Book of Boba Fett - I think I liked this series more than most when it was focusing on Boba Fett but also like... the criticism was fair. And yeah it felt more like a sub-show of The Mandalorian rather than its own thing in the end. It was quite cool seeing the whole gang, minus Cobb, fighting together in the finale. And also uh, this may be blasphemous, but I am slightly disappointed they brought Grogu back? I think they are victims to their own success if they don’t think the show can survive without Grogu, whereas I was kinda looking forward to Mando on his own. But I’ll enjoy Mando S3 either way, I think.

Even this review of BoBF became a review of The Mandalorian. *facepalm*

Obi-Wan Kenobi - Yeah it was messy blah blah but I really really loved Obi-Wan. We’d been waiting for Obi’s return forever and I think they did a great job making the show emotionally resonate. It was so great seeing Hayden back, too. And it also adds a little more emotional weight to ANH how too, with Obi-Wan having a relationship with Leia.

Star Trek

I watched all the Star Treks. Yesterday was the first NON-STAR TREK Thursday of this ENTIRE YEAR and I AM MAD ABOUT IT. Luckily Lower Decks S3 starts next month.

Prodigy S1.0 - There’s still more Prodigy S1 coming, but I am enjoying this show more than I thought I would, grading on the “It’s for children!” curve. NGL I am most invested in the Real Janeway & Chakotay stuff but the kids and Holo-Janeway are also great. Excited for more. And the Kobiyashi Maru episode was a fave, as well as the 1.0 finale.

(Rewatch) Picard S1 & then Picard S2 - I forgot most of what had happened in S1 so I rewatched it. I like it more than most people did, but I mean... there’s like no Star Trek I don’t like. S2 started strong, and I liked the ending, and a lot of what they did in the middle stumbled with some great moments and a few not so great. There were definite parts of S2 that... didn’t work. But it was also fun. Plus my Teenage Dream Crush (lol) showed up, which was a huge plus for me. And uhm... I am absolutely feral about what’s going to happen in S3.

Discovery S4 - I think Discovery had gotten stronger every season, and I again, have enjoyed every season. I do definitely agree I wish every season wasn’t universe-ending threats, and the bridge crew doesn’t get enough to do, but I mean... that doesn’t at all ruin my enjoyment of the show. I thought the universe-ending threat was at least new and original this year.

Strange New Worlds S1 - Ummm... yeah. It’s great. I’m mad about how great it is. It’s not my favorite of the New Treks (Lower Decks is probably my fave) but I do get why so many people say this is their favorite. REMEMBER THOUGH... we wouldn’t have this Pike, Spock and Una without Discovery S2.

MST3K

Mystery Science Theater 3000 S13 + Specials - I Kickstarted MST3k season 13 for uhhhh... more than I probably should have. I am really loving Season 13 so far. Jonah is great as always, I already adore Emily and her bots, and having Joel back in the riffing seat with J. Elvis by his side mashed the nostalgia button so hard. All the episodes have been hilarious, though some are more faves than others, but that’s normal. Really enjoying the “special events” too. Having something to do like, every other Friday by appointment has been nice, too. The chat is very friendly and actually funny. Ready to support them for as much as I can when S14 talk comes around.

The Mads Are Back - MST3k-related, Frank Coniff and Trace Belaiu have been doing monthly riffing livestreams since July 2020 and I’ve been to them all. So another monthly Tuesday night appointment. They also do a guest interview after each, which has been delightful. Was a big help early in the Pandemic to have another monthly “appointment” to look forward to, and I’m glad they’re keep on keeping on with the livestreams especially since Frank’s health problems. And I love that nearly all the old cast plus some of the new MST3k cast has come and hung out in the post-show with them. <3

Along with that, just rando, MST3K and Rifftrax episodes whenever I feel like it, often as white noise when I’m gaming or working.

Trashy Realtiy TV - I make no apologies. I don’t watch a lot of reality TV but I have watched these.

The Circle S4 - I just lilke the Circle, OK? Love is Blind S2 - It’s a dose of drama that I usually avoid. 70% of Love is Blind Japan S1 - Wanted to see the differences. I watched the pods and vacation part, skipped most of the “We’re back at our real lives!” episodes and just went and saw who made it to the altar and who said I do.

JUST STARTED:

The Other Two - Haven’t finished yet, but just wrapped up S1. A Sepinwall rec I wouldn’t have checked out otherwise. The Entertainment Industry Takedown stuff is kinda funny but nothing we haven’t seen before. What has made this show work so far is that yeah the mom + adult kids are very dysfunctional on their own but they love each other and their little brother a lot and that glue makes the show worth it for me.

Blood and Treasure S2 - I would not watch this show most likely but Mark Gagliardi is one of the main stars (probably #3 on the call sheet I’d guess) and when a guy you kinda know is on TV, you usually wanna watch that guy being on TV. It’s a fun cheesy National Treasure like romp. This season was filmed in 2020 and JUST NOW BEING RELEASED and only on Paramount+ so we’re probably not gonna get more. The first two episodes released just this week so, we’ll see how the rest of the season goes. Mark’s character has his own subplot this season though so I’m excited for that.

Movies

TBH I don’t watch a lot of movies? There’s too many shows to watch. But I have watched these in the last 6 months...

Everything Everywhere All At Once - Everyone was talking about it so I wanted to experience it. As amazing as everyone said. I still think about it often. And get Absolutely Story of a Girl stuck in my head.

The Batman - Not a huge Batman fan, (like it’s FINE but whatever) but wanted to see Pattison’s take on it. Thought the movie was a little too long, and I came away with no strong feelings other than Pattison and Dano were both very good, and was excited to see Izzy Hands and Irving from Severance in the movie :v

Star Trek The Motion Picture - I’ve seen this like a half dozen times, and am always amazed at how many reaction shots of the cast’s face they padded the film with. Wanted to see the new enhanced visuals and cut. At least what they were gazing at for 15 minutes of the film’s runtime looked great. I need to finish rewatching the rest of the TOS movies. I’ve been saying that since I finished my All-ST Rewatch in 2020. SO I guess I didn’t actually FINISH that rewatch. Hm.

The Lost City - I truly don’t know why I watched this movie but I had finished whatever show I had been watching and didn’t want to start a new one yet so I watched this for no reason. Cast was good, movie was cheesy but also fun in a Romancing the Stone sort of way. Not great, but fun. Daniel Radcliffe makes a great villain.

Suicide Squad - I’m... trying... to watch the DC movies. I’ve only seen the two Wonder Woman movies, Batman vs.Superman and that first Superman movie, all when they came out. I’ve heard the second one and the Peacemaker show are great though so I’m trying to shove my way through the rest to that. Do I have to watch the Snyder cut? Anyway, this was fine, but felt like it was trying way too hard to be cool. Was entertaining at least.

Podcasts

I haven’t been listening to a lot of podcasts lately, tbh. Mostly I listen in the last hour before bed when I’m playing on my Switch and hanging out with Patchy.

The Taskmaster Podcast and Taskmaster: The People's Podcast - Yep been listening to the companion podcasts to Taskmater, too. The original TM podcast is hosted by Series 9 contestant Ed Gamble and it’s fantastic because he’s SUCH a fan of the show, and he’s a great interviewer. It’s a recap podcast, of the current episode if a series is airing or past series when one’s not.

The People’s Podcast is hosted by S8 contestant Lou Saunders + a guy who’s a fan (and a writer) who keeps meticulous stats of the show. Though there’s a bit of episode discussion it’s mostly a celebration of the fandom. Episodes are a bit more hit or miss depending on who the fan-guest is, but it’s a good effort and usually still entertaining. Especially loved them interviewing Norwegian Taskmaster Assistant Olli Wermskog <3

Hello From the Magic Tavern S4 + Patreon Bonus Content - I’ve been a fan of HFTMT since about episode 24 (When Craig Cackowski guest starred.) Through the years sometimes I’ve kept up, sometimes I’ve fallen months behind, but I have listened to it all, including the spinoff podcasts and signed up for the pateron on day 1. Still love these guys after all these years. If you want to listen to three guys and guests worldbuild a silly magical world, here you go. There’s like 400 episodes including spinoffs and Patreon content, you won’t run out any time soon.

The Delta Flyers - Technically as I’m a Pateron patron I watch the episodes online, not listen to them as a podcast. This is Robert Duncan McNeil (Tom Paris) and Garrett Wang (Harry Kim’s) Voyager rewatch podcast, that they started as a pandemic project, and they’re now in season five. I really enjoy their takes, even when I don’t agree with them, and there’s so much BTS content. Also the bonus content includes really great interviews with the rest of the cast pretty often, guest stars, directors, writers, crew, producers etc etc. I pledge at a mid-teir level now and don’t regret it at all. I usually watch while working, and sometimes I get a few episodes behind. And also sometimes I have to rewatch the Voyager episode before listening to the podcast episode. But very worth it. Going to miss this one when they’re done.

The “To Watch / Catch up On” list: Counterpart You're the Worst Miracle Workers Zoey's Extradordinary Playlist Pen15 Derry Girls In Treatment We Are Lady Parts Girls 5eva Squid Game Succession Reservation Dogs Evil I May Destroy You Love Life Shadow and Bone Yellowjackets New Girl Wheel of Time Lovecraft Country Atlanta Watchmen Tuca and Bertie Sharp Objects Devs Yellowstone Gaslit Abbot Elementary Shining Girls The Orville

Catchup: Cobra Kai Downton Abbey (last season or two + movies) Rutherford Falls S2

I am taking suggestions.

And then there are a bunch of upcoming shows or shows with seasons that aired in like 2021 that I haven’t mentioned here to watch like, the Lord of the Rings show, and S2 of Leverage: Redemption not currently on this list that I will watch as they come out.

No idea how someone with an actual life squeezes in more show time. I’m still like 90% in quarantine still (thx immune system) so... at least I’ve got the time.

#television #movies #podcasts #i am not tagging shows individually that's way too much work #If you are looking for a media rec list here you go #media #personal post tag thingy

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shivvroys · 2 months

Note

multiples of 3 for that one ask post!

oh god i’m ashamed of how long it took to do the math 😭😭😭

3. 3 films you could watch for the rest of your life and not get bored of?

there are soooo many but if i had to pick only three, probably rocky horror picture show, moulin rouge! and kill bill vol I

6. what’s the best and worst part of being online/a creator?

the best part is gaining a sense of community, the worst part is you may not realize how easily that community can turn into something that closely resembles a cult

9. tell a story about your childhood

you know how when you’re a kid you feel really cool pulling up to school after being sick or showing up with a cast or a band-aid? yeah, when i was about four or five i went into kindergarten and proudly declared to all of my peers that i had roundworms 💪😎

12. what’s some good advice you want to share?

when you feel like you’re inside out, taking a shower or a going for a walk if it’s nice outside will make you feel like 60% better.

also this one too, honestly rewired my brain chemistry:

15. what do you think of when you hear the word “home”?

warm potato stew <333

18. do you believe in ghosts and/or aliens?

not really but i do occasionally enjoy suspending my disbelief

21. are you a spiritual person?

i honestly don’t think i have that complex of a belief system except for like. kindness being the point of it all. maybe something about being out in the sun, too

24. what’s one thing you’re proud of yourself for?

that i’ve stopped looking for reasons to be angry at myself all the time

27. any nicknames?

lia :)

30. what’s one thing that never fails to make you happy/happier?

the little “hello!!” sound they make in penguin diner 🥹

33. any hobbies?

writing?? drawing too maybe but i haven’t done it in ages, and i used to love making gifs or edits but my laptop couldn’t take photoshop anymore :(

36. are you an open book or do you have walls up?

probably the latter

39. youtuber you’ve been obsessed with and why?

ughhh there are a lot of ppl that i used to b obsessed with as a kid but i can’t really remember their usernames and i don’t know how to find them anymore :((

the biggest one was probably jenna marbles. i used to watch her religiously and i still miss her like a mf. she was like a very cool older cousin that i grew up with :)

i also loved watching ppl like dodie and rebecca brown bc of how open they were about their mental health issues

there’s also a british dude who used to make poundland food/toy reviews on his brown couch that for some reason i was obsessed with 😭

god and the chokehold the fine brothers and buzzfeed had on me as a preteen/teen. FOUL!!!!

nowadays i don’t really watch youtube that much, and when i do i’ll just click on whatever sounds interesting and will last me through my dinner or randomly pick an episode of katya & trixie’s podcast or the basement yard 😭

#bless u claire i hope i did the math right 😭😭😭#<3333333 #ask

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lily-blue-blue-lily · 2 years

Text

truly no other show does it like derry girls

#derry girls #that scene of everyone voting and when they all were walking out the polling station #goddd #im so sad its ended but im also glad in a way #you know that post about how british shows will only have like 6 episodes #but theyll be the best 6 episodes of tv ever made #thats about derry girls #(yes i know it has more than 6 episodes but you get my point)

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raven-dancer · 2 years

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I’m back with more Thomas ideas yay!

I don’t know how many people have been listening to the Downton Abbey podcasts, but in the 5th episode, while they were speaking to Phyllis Logan, she monitored something about Thomas that got me thinking.

It was only brief but they spoke quickly about how no way did anyone think or expect Thomas Barrow be the butler of Downton by the end of things. The host mentioned this by saying she would never have guessed that from season 1 Thomas’ behaviour. To which Phylis Logan replies, “just wait till you see the next movie”! So WHAT?! This could mean so many different things! Is he going back to his old scheming ways? Is he going to save downton somehow? I’m so stumped but clearly it’s going to have an impact. The host actually described Thomas as the heart of the show, being the butler and all. This was said right before Phylis Logan’s comment. So he’s obviously going to have an important role…

Another thing that was mentioned was a few key details about the new film. They gave a quick run down of the new character, Guy Dexter. It’s said that he was a British actor who went to Hollywood, got famous and is now back in the country with a Hollywood crew. It was also mentioned briefly that he’ll be bring the big question of ‘there’s more to life than service’ to the abbey. This is interesting. Because as we’ve seen, Thomas is likely going to have some interaction with Dexter. So I’m really learning toward a story where he’ll bring this new idea about leaving service to Thomas. I can see something where he’ll build up this picture of a life outside service, which by 1928 was probably a dying career, and Thomas will question it.

I already said in my last post that I don’t want to see Thomas leave downton (even more after listening to Phylis Logan hint that the story could continue in another more films to come). And I also adore the idea of Thomas being the last butler of Downton Abbey and I think he should hold onto that as long as possible. He had a story line where he nearly left downton for 4 out of 6 seasons (he actually did leave in season 6 and we saw he wasn’t happy somewhere else). So I’d quite like to see him question leaving without being forced to, like in the show. However, he then comes to the conclusion that he is happy where he is. I mean look at him in the trailers. The boy didn’t smile that much in six seasons now he can’t keep the smile of his face.

Let me know what you guys think. I need to discuss with someone!!

#I just found this interesting #it might not mean anything for Thomas #but it also might…#downton abbey #downton abbey a new era #thomas barrow #rob james collier

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lokiondisneyplus · 3 years

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Yes, Loki series director Kate Herron knows about your fan theory about the show, the analysis you posted to social media. No, she won’t tell you what she thinks about it, or whether you were right.

“I follow all the conversations on Twitter,” Herron told Polygon in an interview shortly after Loki’s season 1 finale. “I don’t always weigh in on them, because I made the show, so they don’t want me weighing in like, ‘Actually, guys…’ I think that’s the whole point of art — it should be up for debate and discussion.”

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for season 1 of Loki.]

Loki has been a hit for streaming service Disney Plus — episode 6 of the show, the final installment for this season, was reportedly watched by more households than any of the platform’s MCU finales to date. The series has been a popular source of fan conjecture and argument, with one particularly big rolling conversation focusing on whether the budding romantic relationship between trickster Asgardian Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and his alternate-universe counterpart Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) is a form of incest.

Herron is willing to speak up about that one. “My interpretation of it is that they’re both Lokis, but they aren’t the same person,” she says. “I don’t see them as being like brother and sister. They have completely different backgrounds […] and I think that’s really important to her character. They sort of have the same role in terms of the universe and destiny, but they won’t make the same decisions.”

Herron says thematically, Loki falling for Sylvie is an exploration of “self-love,” but only in the sense that it’s Loki learning to understand his own motives and integrity. “[The show is] looking at the self and asking ‘What makes us us?’” Herron says. “I mean, look at all the Lokis across the show, they’re all completely different. I think there’s something beautiful about his romantic relationship with Sylvie, but they’re not interchangeable.”

Directing the final kiss between the two characters was a complicated process because it had to communicate something about each of them over the course of just a few seconds. Herron says the primary goal was creating a safe, comfortable environment for Hiddleston and Di Martino, and after that, she had to think about how to bring across Loki and Sylvie’s conflicting goals in that moment.

“It’s an interesting one, right?” she says. “Emotionally, from Sylvie’s perspective, I think it’s a goodbye. But it’s still a buildup of all these feelings. They’ve both grown through each other over the last few episodes. It was important to me that it didn’t feel like a trick, like she was deceiving him. She is obviously doing that, on one hand, but I don’t feel the kiss is any less genuine. I think she’s in a bad place, but her feelings are true.”

Herron says directing Hiddleston in the scene mostly came down to discussing the speech Loki gives Sylvie before the kiss. “That was really important, showing this new place for Loki,” Herron says. “In the first episode, he’s like, ‘I want the throne, I want to rule,’ and by episode 6, he isn’t focused on that selfish want. He just wants her to be okay.”

Loki writer and producer Eric Martin recently tweeted that he wished the show had been able to focus more time on two of its secondary characters, Owen Wilson’s Time Variance Authority agent Mobius M. Mobius, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Ravonna Renslayer. “I wanted to explore her more deeply and really see their relationship,” he says, “But covid got in the way and we just didn’t have time.”

Asked if Loki and Sylvie’s relationship suffered from similar necessary edits, Herron says it’s true that the show’s creators and audience still don’t know everything Sylvie went through to make her so different from the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s original version of Loki. “We’ve seen her as a child, but she’s lived for thousands and thousands of years, in apocalypses on the run,” she says. “I think there’s so much more to delve into with Sylvie […] You’re filling in the blanks. You see [her on the planet] Lamentis, and it’s horrific. And you’re like, “Well, what kind of person would she be, growing up in apocalypses? What kind of personality would that give her?”

Herron says Sylvie’s backstory actually reminds her of the 1995 movie Jumanji, where a young boy is sucked into a magical board game in 1969, and emerges 26 years later as a full-grown man, played by with typical manic energy by Robin Williams. “It’s such a weird reference, but…” she says. “He’s a little boy when he ends up captive in that game, and when he comes out, it’s obviously been a life experience. With Sylvie, it’s similar. She was a child when she had to go on the run, so she’s had a very difficult life. I would love to see more of it. As Eric said, she’s a rich character, there’s so much to be explored.”

Herron says, though, that during her time on the show, material about Sylvie was added rather than cut — specifically, those scenes of her as a child, being kidnapped by the TVA. “This was before my time, but I know in the writers’ room, there were lots of avenues exploring Sylvie on the run and what her life was like,” Herron says. “I wouldn’t want to speak more to those, because I wasn’t there when they were being discussed. But something wasn’t in there that was important to me — I felt we should see her [history] in the TVA. Me and the team were talking about how it made complete sense, because episode 4 is all about twisting the idea that the TVA might be good on its head. And so that’s something that came in later, once I joined, was seeing her as a child. I think we needed to see that, not to understand her completely, but to get an idea of her motivations, why she’s so angry at this place.”

Talking more broadly about the series finale, Herron says the last few episodes weren’t as heavily referential as the first episodes, which she intended as “a love letter to sci-fi.” While early images like the TVA’s interrogation rooms had specific visual references from past science fiction, episode 6’s locations were drawn more from collaborations with the crew.

“The idea of the physical timeline being circular, our storyboard artists came up with that,” Herron says. “I had in the scripts, ‘We move through space to the end of time,” and then me and [storyboard artist Darrin Denlinger] discussed how we could play with the idea of time, while also adding MCU nods. He was like, ‘What if the timeline is circular?’ I think that’s such a striking image, like the Citadel at the End of Time is the needle on a record player. I just thought that was such a cool image, but it wasn’t necessarily taken from anything.”

Episode 6 focuses heavily on the mysterious figure He Who Remains and his citadel, a space she says was largely conceived by production designer Kasra Farahani. “I remember he brought in the art of the Citadel, and I thought it was beautiful,” Herron says. “He said, ‘The Citadel has been carved from an actual meteorite,’ which I thought was such an inspired idea. And He Who Remains’ office is the only finished portion of it.”

She says there are only a few direct homages in episode 6, including the zoom shot through space, which directly referenced a similar sequence in Robert Zemeckis’ 1997 film Contact.

“And then I have my Teletubbies reference for episode 5,” Herron says. “I wanted the Void to feel like an overgrown garden, like a kind of forgotten place. And I realized I’d pitched it as the British countryside. I remember trying to explain it to ILM, who did the visual effects, and saying, ‘Oh, you know, it’s like the Teletubbies. It’s just rolling hills, but they go on forever.’ That actually was quite a helpful reference in the end, which is funny.”

Asked for her favorite set memory from shooting the season, Herron says it comes down to Tom Hiddleston starting a mania for physical exertion before takes. “Sometimes he runs around set to get himself in the right mindset before he performs,” she says. “He does pushups. You know, you’re going into an action scene, you want to look like you’ve just been running. And it became infectious across all the cast. We’ve got so much footage of — I think Jack [Veal] ended up doing it, who plays Kid Loki. I’ve got [shots of] him and Sophia doing pushups and squats, just to get ready. It was so funny watching that echo across all the cast. I think all of them ended up doing those exercises with him at some point. It was so funny.”

“That might be my favorite set story, but it’s honestly, not a sweet one,” she adds. “I would say my favorite thing is his enthusiasm. He’s a very kind empathetic person. We were filming this in quite tough circumstances, a lot of people were far from home and isolating, and he brought this warmth and energy and joy to the set every day. And I think that made everyone feel very safe and very bonded. I’m forever grateful to him for doing that.”

#Kate Herron #Loki #Sylvie #Tom Hiddleston #owen wilson

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mostlymovieswithmax · 3 years

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Movies I watched in May

Sadly, I kind of skipped writing a post for April. It was a mad month with so much going on: lots of emails sent and lots of stress. I started a new job so I’m getting to grips with that... and even then, I still watched a bunch of movies. But this is about what I watched in May and, yeah… still a bunch. So if you’re looking to get into some other movies - possibly some you’ve thought about watching but didn’t know what they were like, or maybe like the look of something you’ve never heard of - then this may help! So here’s every film I watched from the 1st to the 31st of May 2021 Tenet (2020) - 8/10 This was my third time watching Christopher Nolan’s most Christopher Nolan movie ever and it makes no sense but I still love it. The spectacle of it all is truly like nothing I’ve ever seen. I had also watched it four days prior to this watch also, only this time I had enabled audio description for the visually impaired, thinking it would make it funny… It didn’t.

Nomadland (2020) - 6/10 Chloé Zhao’s new movie got a lot of awards attention. Everyone was hyped for this and when it got put out on Disney+ I was eager to see what all the fuss was about. Seeing these real nomads certainly gave the film an authenticity, along with McDormand’s ever-praisable acting. But generally I found it quite underwhelming and lacking a lot in its pacing. Nomadland surely has its moments of captivating cinematography and enticing commentary on the culture of these people, but it felt like it went on forever without any kind of forward direction or goal. The Prince of Egypt (1998) - 6/10 I reviewed this on my podcast, The Sunday Movie Marathon. For what it is, it’s pretty fun but nowhere near as good as some of the best DreamWorks movies.

Chinatown (1974) - 8/10 What a fantastic and wonderfully unpredictable mystery crime film! I regret to say I’ve not seen many Jack Nicholson performances but he steals the show. Despite Polanski’s infamy, it’d be a lie to claim this wasn’t truly masterful. Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) - 8/10 Admittedly I was half asleep as I curled up on the sofa to watch this again on a whim. I watched this with someone who demanded the dubbed version over the subtitled version and while I objected heavily, I knew I’d seen the movie before so it didn’t matter too much. That person also fell asleep about 20 minutes in, so how pointless an argument it was. Howl’s Moving Castle boasts superb animation, the likes of which I’ve only come to expect of Miyazaki. The story is so unique and the colours are absolutely gorgeous. This may not be my favourite from the legendary director but there’s no denying its splendour.

Bāhubali: The Beginning (2015) - 3/10 The next morning I watched some absolute trash. This crazy, over the top Indian movie is hilarious and I could perhaps recommend it if it weren’t so long. That being said, Bāhubali was not a dumpster fire; it has a lot of good-looking visual effects and it’s easy to see the ambition for this epic story, it just doesn’t come together. There’s fun to be had with how the main character is basically the strongest man in the world and yet still comes across as just a lucky dumbass, along with all the dancing that makes no sense but is still entertaining to watch. Seven Samurai (1954) - 10/10 If it wasn’t obvious already, Seven Samurai is a masterpiece. I reviewed this on The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast, so more thoughts can be found there. Red Road (2006) - 6/10 Another recommendation on episode 30 of the podcast. Red Road really captures the authentic British working class experience. Before Sunrise (1995) - 10/10 One of the best romances put to film. The first in Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy is undoubtedly my favourite, despite its counterparts being almost equally as good. It tells the story of a young couple travelling through Europe, who happen to meet on a train and spend the day together. It is gloriously shot on location in Vienna and features some of the most interesting dialogue I’ve ever seen put to film. Heartbreakingly beautiful.

Tokyo Story (1953) - 9/10 This Japanese classic - along with being visually and sonically masterful - is a lot about appreciating the people in your life and taking the time to show them that you love them. It’s about knowing it’s never too late to rekindle old relationships if you truly want to, which is something I’ve been able to relate to in recent years. It broke my heart in two. Tokyo Story will make you want to call your mother. Before Sunset (2004) - 10/10 Almost a decade after Sunrise, Sunset carries a sombre yet relieving feeling. Again, the performances from Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke take me away, evoking nostalgic feelings as they stroll through the contemporary Parisian streets. There is no regret in me for buying the Criterion blu-ray boxset for this trilogy. Before Midnight (2013) - 10/10 Here, Linklater cements this trilogy as one of the best in film history. It’s certainly not the ending I expected, yet it’s an ending I appreciate endlessly. Because it doesn’t really end. Midnight shows the troubling times of a strained relationship; one that has endured so long and despite initially feeling almost dreamlike in how idealistically that first encounter was portrayed, the cracks appear as the film forces you to come to terms with the fact that fairy-tale romances just don’t exist. Relationships require effort and sacrifice and sometimes the ones that truly work are those that endure through all the rough patches to emerge stronger. The Holy Mountain (1973) - 10/10 Jodorowsky’s masterpiece is absolute insanity. I talked more about it on The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - 10/10 Another watch for Grand Budapest because I bought the Criterion blu-ray. As unalterably perfect as ever. Blue Jay (2016) - 6/10 Rather good up to a point. My co-hosts and I did not agree on how good this movie was, which is a discussion you can listen to on my podcast. Shadow and Bone: The Afterparty (2021) - 3/10 For what it’s worth, I really enjoyed the first season of Shadow and Bone, which is why I wanted to see what ‘The Afterparty’ was about. This could have been a lot better and much less annoying if all those terrible comedians weren’t hosting and telling bad jokes. I don’t want to see Fortune Feimster attempt to tell a joke about oiling her body as the cast of the show sit awkwardly in their homes over Zoom. If it had simply been a half hour, 45 minute chat with the cast and crew about how they made the show and their thoughts on it, a lot of embarrassment and time-wasting could have been spared. Wadjda (2012) - 6/10 Another recommendation discussed at length on The Sunday Movie Marathon. Wadjda was pretty interesting from a cultural perspective but largely familiar in terms of story structure.

Freddy Got Fingered (2001) - 2/10 A truly terrible movie with maybe one or two scenes that stop it from being a complete catastrophe. Tom Green tried to create something that almost holds a middle finger to everyone who watches it and to some that could be a fun experience, but to me it just came across as utterly irritating. It’s simply a bunch of scenes threaded together with an incredibly loose plot. He wears the skin of a dead deer, smacks a disabled woman over and over again on the legs to turn her on, and he swings a newborn baby around a hospital room by its umbilical cord (that part was actually pretty funny). I cannot believe I watched this again, although I think I repressed a lot of it since having seen it for the first time around five years ago. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 - (2011) I have to say, these movies seem to get better with each instalment. They’re still not very good though. That being said, I’m amazed at how many times I’ve watched each of the Twilight movies at this point. This time around, I watched Breaking Dawn - Part 1 with a YMS commentary track on YouTube and that made the experience a lot more entertaining. Otherwise, this film is super dumb but pretty entertaining. I would recommend watching these movies with friends. Solaris (1972) - 8/10 Andrei Tarkovsky’s grand sci-fi epic about the emotional crises of a crew on the space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris is much as strange and creepy as you might expect from the master Russian auter. I had wanted to watch this for a while so I bought the Criterion blu-ray and it’s just stunning. It’s clear to see the 2001: A Space Odyssey inspiration but Solaris is quite a different beast entirely. Jaws (1975) - 4/10 I really tried to get into this classic movie, but Jaws exhibits basically everything I don’t like about Steven Spielberg’s directing. For sure, the effects are crazily good but the story itself is poorly handled and largely uninteresting. It was just a massive slog to get through.

Darkman (1990) - 6/10 Sam Raimi’s superhero movie is so much fun, albeit massively stupid. Further discussion on Darkman can be found on episode 32 of The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast. Darkman II: The Return of Durant (1995) - 1/10 Abysmal. I forgot the movie as I watched it. This was part of a marathon my friends and I did for episode 32 of our podcast. Darkman III: Die Darkman Die (1996) - 1/10 Perhaps this trilogy is not so great after all. Only marginally better than Darkman II but still pretty terrible. More thoughts on episode 32 of my podcast. F For Fake (1973) - 8/10 Rewatching this proved to be a worthwhile decision. Albeit slightly boring, there’s no denying how crazy the story of this documentary about art forgers is. The standout however, is the director himself. Orson Welles makes a lot of this film about himself and how hot his girlfriend is and it is hilarious.

The Mitchells vs. The Machines (2021) - 4/10 More style over substance, Sony’s new animated adventure wants so much to be in trend with the current internet culture but it simply doesn’t understand what it’s emulating. There’s a nyan cat reference, for crying out loud. For every joke that works, there are about ten more that do not and were it not for the wonderful animation, it simply wouldn’t be getting so much praise. Taxi Driver (1976) - 10/10 The first movie I’ve seen in a cinema since 2020 and damn it was good to be back! I’ve already reviewed Taxi Driver in my March wrap-up but seeing it in the cinema was a real treat. Irreversible (2002) - 8/10 One of the most viscerally horrendous experiences I’ve ever had while watching a movie. I cannot believe a friend of mine gave me the DVD to watch. More thoughts on episode 32 of The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast. Don’t watch it with the family. The Golden Compass (2007) - 1/10 I had no recollection of this being as bad as it is. The Golden Compass is the definition of a factory mandated movie. Nothing it does on its own is worth any kind of merit. I would say, if you wanted an experience like what this tries to communicate, a better option by far is the BBC series, His Dark Materials. More of my thoughts can be found in the review I wrote on Letterboxd.

Antichrist (2009) - 8/10 Lars von Trier is nothing if not provocative and I can understand why someone would not like Antichrist, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. After watching it, I wrote a slightly disjointed summary of my interpretations of this highly metaphorical movie in the group chat, so fair warning for a bit of spoilers and graphic descriptions: It's like, the patriarchy, man! Oppression! Men are the rational thinkers with big brains and the women just cry and be emotional. So she's seen as crazy when she's smashing his cock and driving a drill through his leg to keep him weighted down. Like, how does he like it, ya know? So then she mutilates herself like she did with him and now they're both wounded, but the animals crowd around her (and the crow that he couldn't kill because it's Mother nature, not Father nature, duh). Then he kills her, even though she could've killed him loads of times but didn't. So it's like "haha big win for the man who was subjected to such horrific torture. Victory!" And then all the women with no faces come out of the woods because it's like a constant cycle. Manchester By The Sea (2016) - 6/10 Great performances in this super sad movie. I can’t say I got too much out of it though. Roar (1981) - 9/10 Watching Roar again was still as terrifying an experience as the first time. If you want to watch something that’s loose on plot with poor acting but with real big cats getting in the way of production and physically attacking people, look no further. This is the scariest movie I’ve ever seen because it’s all basically real. Cannot recommend it enough. Eyes Without A Face (1960) - 8/10 I’m glad I checked this old French movie out again. There’s a lot to marvel at in so many aspects, what with the premise itself - a mad surgeon taking the faces from unsuspecting women and transplanting them onto another - being incredibly unique for the time. Short, sweet and entertaining!

Se7en (1995) - 10/10 The first in a David Fincher marathon we did for The Sunday Movie Marathon, episode 33. Zodiac (2007) - 10/10 Second in the marathon, as it was getting late, we decided to watch half that evening and the last half on the following evening. Zodiac is a brilliant movie and you can hear more of my thoughts on the podcast (though I apologise; my audio is not the best in this episode). Gone Girl (2014) - 10/10 My favourite Fincher movie. More insights into this masterpiece in episode 33 of the podcast. Friends: The Reunion (2021) - 6/10 It was heartwarming to see the old actors for this great show together again. I talked about the Friends reunion film at length in episode 33 of my podcast.

Wolfwalkers (2020) - 10/10 I reviewed this in an earlier post but would like to reiterate just how wonderful Wolfwalkers is. If you get the chance, please see it in the cinema. I couldn’t stop crying from how beautiful it was. Raya and The Last Dragon (2021) - 6/10 After watching Wolfwalkers, I decided I didn’t want to go home. So I had lunch in town and booked a ticket for Disney’s Raya and The Last Dragon. A child was coughing directly behind me the entire time. Again, I reviewed this in an earlier post but generally it was decent but I have so many problems with the execution. The Princess Bride (1987) - 9/10 Clearly I underrated this the last time I watched it. The Princess Bride is warm and hilarious with some delightfully memorable characters. A real classic!

The Invisible Kid (1988) - 1/10 About as good as you’d expect a movie with that name to be, The Invisible Kid was a pick for The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast, the discussion for which you can listen to in episode 34. Babel (2006) - 9/10 The same night that I watched The Invisible Kid, I watched a masterful and dour drama from the director of Birdman and The Revenant. Babel calls back to an earlier movie of Iñárritu’s, called Amores Perros and as I was informed while we watched this for the podcast, it turns out Babel is part of a trilogy alongside the aforementioned film. More thoughts in episode 34 of the podcast. Snake Eyes (1998) - 1/10 After feeling thoroughly emotionally wiped out after Babel, we immediately watched another recommendation for the podcast: Snake Eyes, starring Nicolas Cage. This was a truly underwhelming experience and for more of a breakdown into what makes this movie so bad, you can listen to us talk about it on the podcast.

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rinko-fujinami · 2 years

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Actually before I make my eventual Crit post I will say that I still enjoyed Part 6. Despite a rushed, somewhat sputtery ending in true modern Lupin fashion, there were a bunch of things that make this part worth the watch for me. Some of my Positives include:

- Jigen and Fujiko’s dynamic was really refreshing. I feel that the writers of this part understood how they work (or the way they work to my liking lmao) much more than many of the modern Lupin writers, where they feel unnecesarily mean to each other. They bicker of course, but only to a fault and know when to work together, and know each other enough to understand how Lupin fits into their individual lives. There’s just not that much stepping on each other’s toes. The Jigen and Fujiko of Part 6 just feel like characters who’ve known each other for a long, long time. And they have!

- The one-off episodes. Some of these episodes are understandably hit-or-miss with fans but I actually appreciate the deviation from the norm that some of them have. I also love that the one-off episodes of the Witch arc at least tie into each other and the overarching plot loosely, making the structure feel less disjointed than they do in parts 4 and 5.

- Yata kind of got some development? A little bit? Still not quite sure what the purpose of his character is but he does feel more ‘matured’ than he does in Part 5, and I liked that he got an episode’s worth of working with Arianna and Zenigata. He didn’t do much and unfortunately only got a single scene in the ending but he did do a little, which is better than what he did in 5, which was nothing.

.- The character designs. Lupin and co. are so much more easy on the eyes in this part than in the last one. I touched on this before but the skin tone variations are back in this part. Fujiko still has the big issue of her shrinkwrapped body, but alas. It’s at least a little balanced out by cuter expressions, good fashion, and hair that doesn’t have awkward lines with no variation or weight.

- Better handling of callbacks. Part 5 is notorious for having plenty of meaningless callbacks just for the sake of testing how many fans remember them. Diana and the golden submarine show up for no reason. Minor villains from part 2 appear on-screen for no reason. ALL of the previous adventures of Lupin and co. are merged into one timeline for no reason. By the time the SSK showed up like it was in a Chevy commercial my eyes were rolling into the back of my head. Compare it to Lupin driving the SSK to his childhood home in Part 6, which has emotional weight, and the famous shot from Part 1 is remade, but there’s nothing flashy or gaudy about it. That’s what sets many of the Part 6 callbacks apart. Some callbacks are so subtle that if you blink you’ll miss them, and there’s a satisfying “aha!” when you catch them.

- OP and EDs. With each part the opening theme just gets better, IMO. I was a big fan of the theme of Part 5′s OP but not the visuals, I couldn’t get behind the weird low-framerate thing going on. I really like alot of the thematic upside-down visuals in part 6′s OP, representing both the “underworld” of the Raven in the first arc and building up on the mystery of “another side” of Lupin’s psyche in the second arc. I also LOVED the inspiration of British pop art in both the OP and first ED.

These are just a few of the things I liked about Part 6, about looking back this feels more like me comparing it to the previous part. That is to say, if you like me were burned by the previous part and not sure about completing Part 6, I say give it a chance. This part definitely had its fair share of issues especially as it does have to submit to the Lupin status quo, but there are things to enjoy about it too.

#me.exe #Lupin III #lupin the third #part 6 #spoiler-free

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renegadewangs · 3 years

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Van Zieks - the Examination, part 12

Warnings: SPOILERS for The Great Ace Attorney: Chronicles. Additional warning for racist sentiments uttered by fictional characters (and screencaps to show these sentiments).

Disclaimer: (see Part 1 for the more detailed disclaimer.) - These posts are not meant to be taken as fact. Everything I’m outlining stems from my own views and experiences. If you believe that I’ve missed or misinterpreted something, please let me know so I can edit the post accordingly. -The purpose of these posts is an analysis, nothing more. Please do not come into these posts expecting me to either defend Barok van Zieks from haters, nor expecting me to encourage the hatred. - I’m using the Western release of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles for these posts, but may refer to the original Japanese dialogue of Dai Gyakuten Saiban if needed to compare what’s said. This also means I’m using the localized names and localized romanization of the names to stay consistent. -It doesn’t matter one bit to me whether you like Barok van Zieks or dislike him. However, I will ask that everyone who comments refrains from attacking real, actual people.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11

Let's bring this thing home! It's time for the conclusion of the essay series!

Conclusion With a stupidly long essay series behind us, it's time to look at what we've learned! Let's go back to Part 1 and review what we needed from Van Zieks's character development for a fully rounded redemption arc, shall we?

1) Present an antagonistic (possibly immoral) force who personifies Ryunosuke’s biggest personal obstacle/weakness, in this case racial prejudice. 2) Humanizing traits begin to show. OPTIONAL: A backstory to justify any immorality he has. 3) Over time, Barok has his realization and sees the error of his ways. 4) Barok atones for his immorality, not simply through apology but by taking decisive steps. 5) The cast around him acknowledges his efforts and forgives him.

And looking at the main game (plus additional dialogue), we have...

1) Antagonistic force:

Etc. etc. I have many of these. We can all agree that as an antagonistic force, he does his job quite well. CEO of Racism and White Privilege in the flesh. It works, since we as the audience get very frustrated and want to see him defeated.

2) Humanization:

Giving him an old friend to be a defendant was a brilliant move, really. Albert's reflection on the friendship and the person Van Zieks used to be really helped flesh him out and make him appear more like a human being with, y'know, emotions and weaknesses. The little snippets of dialogue in his office really help too. Presenting evidence can also lead to fun tidbits. All in all, considering how gruff and distant Van Zieks is, they really did their very best to humanize him. The writers were given very little to work with but they exploited every opportunity to come their way.

OPTIONAL backstory:

Again, I don't think we needed a tragic backstory to have a well-rounded, redeemable character. Still, it ties in very expertly to the game's plot and the motivations of quite a few other characters. The story of Klint van Zieks and his death isn't necessarily Barok van Zieks's backstory, it's the center of an intricate web which also holds Kazuma, Stronghart, Gregson, Jigoku, (S)Holmes, Mikotoba, Sithe, Drebber- I could go on. A LOT. So because of how very integrated it is into the main narrative's recurring themes and characters, I'll give it props for being relevant and well thought out. The bigger question is: Does it justify his immorality? Not entirely. I think the game could have gotten more out of this if they'd involved the other two exchange students in this tale just a bit more. They could have given more attention to how Jigoku's aggressive behavior in the trial impacted Van Zieks, and explained whether he might've suspected Mikotoba of sabotaging (S)Holmes's investigation. If the narrative had done that, all three Japanese people to come to London would have been ‘the bad guy’ in Van Zieks's eyes and it would have given more credence to his racial generalization. They could have also given more attention to how the people around him reacted to Genshin being the Professor, because I'm sure Stronghart and Gregson stoked the fire in terms of xenophobia. As it stands, there isn't really enough there to justify hatred of an entire race as opposed to just one person.

3) Realization/Redemption

We see him already start to realize the error of his ways around the end of 1-5, which is technically only about halfway into the full narrative. Unfortunately, thanks to 2-2 being played afterwards (but chronologically set before 1-5), any progress made in 1-5 can become invalidated in the player's eyes. Growth works best when it's done linear. Don't get me wrong, flashbacking to earlier times when a character is still more morally tainted can work well, but it needs to be executed properly. Barok's behavior in 2-2 is downright insulting towards the audience itself and therefore, it causes emotional friction when relaying the narrative endgoal of redemption. It also makes it extra jarring when we hit 2-3, and suddenly Van Zieks is meant to be relying on the protagonist's desire to expose the truth. How on earth can we as the audience trust that Van Zieks believes in Ryu's abilities when we just came fresh out of a case where this man actively sabotages Ryu's efforts?

Still, the line of redemption continues from 2-3 into 2-4 well enough. He admits that he was wrong- that his hatred was illogical and that he needs to change. This is the very definition of redemption. I need to stress once more this is not to be confused with atonement, which comes next.

4) Atonement

Here it is. It's not enough to simply acknowledge mistakes; one needs to work hard to fix them. Since Van Zieks is the defendant for two whole episodes, equaling roughly 20% of the full narrative and 67% of the time following his first true realization (chronologically), there isn't much that he can actively do to atone. Because remember, not only do these actions need to fit the situation he's currently in, they need to fit his personality. These two limitations ensure the atonement mostly takes the form of dialogue. Of apologies.

One might want to point out that he never apologizes specifically for his racism, but there's a reason for that. If you pay close attention, you'll notice that there isn't a single character who ever uses a word like “racism”, “xenophobia” or even “racial prejudice” in this game. It's for the same reason you'll never see an Ace Attorney character utter words like “alcoholism”, “drug abuse” or “depression”. These things may be implied very strongly, to the point where you'll know for certain a character is suffering from it, but it's never given these exact labels. It has to do with the tone of the game. In Great Ace Attorney's dialogue, Barok van Zieks is only ever described as holding “a deep hatred for Japanese”, which is then the only thing he could apologize for. And he does, so long as you aren't looking for a literal phrasing of “I apologize for my deep hatred of your people”.

Regardless, he can't take more active, decisive action until he's freed from prison and two scenes with Van Zieks later, the game has ended. He still manages to take two actions, though! The first is to publicize the truth of the Professor, taking the blame of the mass murders off Genshin's shoulders (and losing his own privilege in the process). The second is to take Kazuma under his wing as his disciple. I'm not certain there's anything else the narrative could have had him do. What is decisively missing, however, is the following:

5) Acknowledgment

The above aren't good examples of cast acknowledgment that Van Zieks is taking part in a redemption arc, rather, they're the best I could find. Characters are acknowledging that he's changing- that he's being kinder to them and they can get along with him now, but they're not acknowledging that he caused hurt in the first place. This, in my opinion, is the Great Ace Attorney's biggest narrative flaw. I've talked before about how Ryu's reaction to Van Zieks's racism is 'indirect communication', a typically Japanese manner of dealing with negativity. I've also talked about how Ryu is not in a position to speak up, as he's a literal minority who is there to represent his country in an official capacity and can’t afford to make enemies. However, characters like Susato and Kazuma are far more outspoken in their opinions, as is Soseki. The only one who ever calls Van Zieks out on his racism is the British judge, and even that is done very meekly. When an old crusty white guy is the one who condemns white privilege in a cast full of minorities, you've got a problem. The Japanese cast's refusal to acknowledge that Van Zieks's words were harmful is like Team Avatar telling Zuko that sure, he can join since he's a good guy now, but never once acknowledging that he burned down villages or betrayed everyone's trust in Ba Sing Se. There's something very vital missing, see? If indeed the cast had called Van Zieks out more actively on his harmful ways and how necessary it was for him to change, he in turn could have taken more atonement steps in response.

So, for the conclusion: Does Barok van Zieks tick all the necessary boxes for a complete redemption arc? Yes. In a very technical sense, all the requirements are there. But does that mean it's a successful arc? Not necessarily. The game has a few slip-ups, a few things not executed as well as they could have been. For that reason, whether the audience is satisfied with the arc is entirely up to them. Taking into consideration that they had to cram a whole lot of story into just two games- the second game in particular, I can acknowledge they did their very best with the limitations that were there.

And there we have it! That’s all I could think to say on the matter. I hope everyone who read this till the very end enjoyed it, maybe even learned a thing or two. I’m always open to questions, input and constructive criticism!

#dgs #dgs spoilers #tgaa #tgaa spoilers #barok van zieks #I'M FREE!#well until I tackle the DLC content #but until then...#FREEEE

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talesofafangirlwithadvr · 3 years

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April 2021 Picks

And we’re back with the end to another month. April! Wow! Lots more great picks to talk about this time. Lots of new ones to the list too. So, let’s dive in!

Spoiler territory ahead!

THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER

or should I say Captain America and the Winter Soldier

I just finished the finale last night, so it felt right to start off with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I really enjoyed it and I feel the episodes got stronger as the series went on. Each one felt like a mini-movie and I was upset it was over and had to wait another week for another one. I think the finale was my favorite. Especially the reveal of Sam as Captain America. I love his suit, his speech and the montage of everyone watching him. The last part of the episode was definitely my favorite and one I can watch on repeat. I loved seeing happy Bucky and him goofing off with the kids in Louisiana. He deserves so much happiness as he has now accepted he’s no longer who he once was. Bucky and Sam’s relationship is fantastic and I can’t wait to see it more. I know there’s a possibility of a second season and they have to be in a future MCU movie. Regarding the villain, I feel I was confused for most of the show as to what their objective was. I’m curious if this is because they had to reshoot parts during the pandemic. I also am mad with Sharon. Like what happened with her? She is definitely the true villain of the show. I also don’t love that we haven’t seen the end of Walker (but Wyatt Russell did a fantastic job). I also loved Torres and I hope he becomes the next Falcon. Definitely so different vibes from Wandavision, but just as good!

THE IRREGULARS

This is a show that more people need to be talking about! It was SO GOOD! I feel like I heard some buzz about it when it first came out, but not much after. It follows the teens featured about who live on the streets during Victorian London. The leader of their group, Bea gets approached by Dr. John Watson (that’s right...as in Sherlock and Watson) to take on a case that has more supernatural qualities. The story takes off from there. I think the group dynamic was fantastic. There wasn’t a character I didn’t like and each one brought something else important to the group (which they even bring up towards the end of the show). [I’ve watched a few cast interviews since finishing the finale and they seem like they get along really well in real life too.] There is a kind of love triangle, but it didn’t bother me and was over fast. I did like both combinations though. Lots of twists and turns along the journey. I have no idea if there will be another season, but there should be. It didn’t end on a major cliffhanger, but definitely ended in a way where it could continue nicely. Come on Netflix.

HBO’S THE NEVERS

From one show set in Victorian times to the next. The Nevers just premiered on HBO and HBO Max earlier this month. It follows an ensemble of characters, similar to other HBO shows, ranging from characters who are called “the touched” to men in government who are against them. Being “touched” means they have a special talent or power, which can range from healing to speaking other languages, being extremely tall, or being an expectational inventor (I seriously love Penance. I just don’t know how to explain her ability). Amalia True and Penance Adair are two of the main characters and they help bring in others who are touched to a remodeled orphanage that is a safe haven for people like them. Of course there are those who are against them existing. This seems to be at least two groups as someone is abducting and experimenting on some of the touched, but we don’t know who they are...yet. I love the fusion of a historical setting with a fantasy element. I am very excited to see where the show is headed. I also love seeing so many of my favorite British actors on the screen together.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN WONDERLAND

Time for a throw back. Fans of ABC’s Once Upon a Time might remember the short lived spin off following Alice in Wonderland (and some of Aladdin). It only lasted for one season of 13 episodes, but I remember loving it and I am so happy I can rewatch it on Disney Plus. It reminds me of why I enjoyed OUAT so much and I think this show deserved another season or more crossover with the original show. (Luckily the Knave got that opportunity.) I think it should have aired as a summer show or when OUAT was on hiatus, this way more fans would have tuned in. It is something I’ll believe forever.

Anyway, I’ll stop ranting now... I love Alice. I think she’s a badass and a fierce warrior. If you follow some of my posts on my other blog, Lydia-yougowith-Stiles, you’ll know that I love a warrior romance and Cyrus and Alice fit that perfectly (even if they are apart for much of the series). I also love Alice’s hair and outfits. Everything about her is cool. Her relationship with the Knave is one of my favorite friendships ever. I think they balance each other out so well and how they spend most of the journey together. Back in the day, I totally shipped them, but now I definitely don’t. (Even though I don’t love Anastasia.) This is definitely worth the watch if you’ve ever heard of Once Upon a Time or not. There is very cheesy CGI especially for 2013, but once you get pass that you’ll love it.

ZOEY’S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST

It was on a longer break than I expected, and I didn’t miss it as much as I thought I would (which I know doesn’t sound good for a show), but I am still loving all the episodes this season. It feels like there are more musical numbers, which I love. Mandy Moore is killing it with the choreography. There are so many amazing moments. I also was a big fan of the newest glitch episode. Everyone is so talented and I also like that we’ve started to hear from more like Jenna and Tobin. Leif has become one of my favorites. I don’t love the new neighbor next door, but I think we’re done with his storyline. I’m not loving the Zoey love triangle, but I do like her with either Simon or Max. She seems really happy with Simon now. (FYI: I haven’t watched the most recent episode yet. The glitch one was my latest.) Can’t wait for more!

KUNG FU

CW’s newest show this month was Kung Fu, which I just learned was a reboot. It follows Nicky who returns after 3 years to her home in San Francisco. Her family has mixed feelings as she has had no contact with them for the last 3 years. She is now a Kung Fu master and warrior, out to avenge her mentor’s death and stop a villain from acquiring mythical weapons. The show gives me Arrow vibes every time I watch it. It has similar flashbacks each episode to an earlier time in Nicky’s life. While Nicky’s mission is different, the style just gives me early seasons of Arrow vibes, which I am not complaining about. It stars Legacies’ Alyssa Chen, who I didn’t love on Legacies, but instantly fell in love with Nicky. I think she’s a bad ass character and love how she’s fighting for the underdogs on the streets of San Fran, while also taking down a bigger evil. The love triangle is heating up and I’m definitely team Henry (even though there’s some mystery there). I think he’s great and once again we have an awesome warrior romance. They balance each other so well and it’s only been like 3 episodes. Now they’ve also been sleuthing together and it’s just amazing.

NANCY DREW

Are you sick of hearing me talk about CW’s Nancy Drew? I hope not because I’m going to fangirl again. I LOVE THIS SHOW SO MUCH! I can’t wait till Wednesday comes and I tune in a little after it starts, so then I can fast forward on my DVR. Then when the episode is over I basically start it all over again and watch select scenes that were awesome. (More specifically, they tend to be Nancy and Ace scenes because I love them and we’re entering so much angst I don’t know if my heart will be able to handle it!!!)

I’ll say it a thousand times: THIS CAST IS EVERYTHING! Their dynamic is amazing. You can have any match ups and it’ll be a great time. There is not one person I don’t like. I was so upset that there wasn’t a new episode last week (especially because it was my birthday). I loved the last one with the Hardy Boys and that Nace reveal! OMG! I’m so sad that Grant has left again because we barely had him, but I feel he’ll eventually come back. He has to. I loved the ending when he spoke to Thom by signing to him. (My heart!) I seriously can’t say enough great things about this show. It is not your typical CW show and deserves more love and views. So happy a third season has already been confirmed!!

LAST NOTES

Just started Shadow and Bone on Netflix and am loving it! I’m sure I’ll have an entire post dedicated to it when I’m done. (Currently going to start episode 6.) I have no background on the universe or the books (just what my sister is filling me in with as we watch). I definitely plan on reading Six of Crows after this!

So what are you enjoying? Let me know. I’m always looking for more shows to add to the list! Can never have enough.

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