#After this weeks episode of Protocol this ended up being the perfect timing but also hurts worse now | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

inawickedlittletown · 4 years

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317/318 - Some Thoughts

Gonna put it under a cut for both spoilers and length. This is 4,700 words so you know, at it again with the rambling.

I’ll start off by saying that I really enjoyed this episode. This and last episode are called a two part finale and I definitely buy that as 3x17 sets up 3x18. In particular it sets up the return of Abby, something that everyone has known was coming and concerned about. And I think when it came down to it, it went down like I expected it to.

The episode opens on Abby and we get to have a glimpse of her fiance and the other people on the train and we learn that Abby lives in Phoenix. She also seems happy. And as someone that liked Abby, it was nice to see her again but even then it had me dreading seeing what it would do to Buck.

We move on to the station where Hen is doing a practice exam. Eddie is showing Buck a brochure for Summer Camp because Christopher wants to go. Immediately, Buck goes into protective dad mode because Christopher at a sleep away camp for two weeks? What if something happens? What if he gets homesick? Buck is definitely not on board with that and Eddie admits that he isn’t too thrilled either and that he was hoping for assurance from the team. Bobby is the one to offer it. Even Chim seems skeptical about Christopher (a city kid) going to summer camp and points out that Eddie’s plan to get reassurance clearly wasn’t well thought out.

This scene was adorable from how much Eddie just isn’t sure at all about his kid going to summer camp to Buck’s overprotective reaction and just the fact that Eddie was showing the brochure to Buck in hopes that Buck would make him feel better about the whole thing and give him a different perspective. Perhaps Eddie expected Buck to be more open to the idea of Christopher taking chances and becoming even more independent (as much as a kid can) and expected Buck to push for the fun rather than have Buck be more cautious and concerned. And while the rest of the 118 do get involved in the conversation, it is clear that Eddie was looking for Buck’s opinion. It is in the end Bobby who supports the camp idea because of course Bobby did Summer Camp as a kid in between the figure skating, hockey, and probably being a boy scout. And while I love knowing so much about Bobby as a kid, when do we get to find out more about Buck’s childhood? Hen speaks up then and she mentions how Denny would not be into the whole camping thing which makes Eddie bring up how excited Christopher is and how the camp will have the kids garden their own vegetables and cook and Buck immediately calls it “child labor” which I just love because he’s so clearly against the camp idea.

We then find out what’s happened with Athena’s fireplace — you know the one that Bobby and Michael decided would be a great idea to destroy simply because Athena was in the hospital and they were both having feelings. Of course, Athena is out of the hospital now and she is not happy about it. May’s graduation party is in two weeks and Athena couldn’t possibly hold a party with that mess in the middle of her living room. It’s a light moment that I love because we get to see fierce Athena and also May. We also find out that Michael will be getting his test results back finally (and it’s good results...but even better, Michael sees the doctor again in an elevator and by the end of the episode they’re on a date) and it’s the start of seeing that Athena is not doing well after what she went through in the last episode.

Athena is such a strong character. She’s not meek, she’s not someone that comes off as a victim or that appears vulnerable often and we’re seeing someone that hasn’t lost their fire but that is clearly shaken by what she’s gone through and I love that it’s not something shoved off to the side and that instead we get to see the repercussions of what she went through. And what I love the most about this is that Athena has such support from her family and from her friends and that they’re all there for whatever Athena needs to do even if that means stepping back from being a police officer. And it opens us up for an interesting storyline for her in S4.

We get a glimpse at Josh and Maddie at the call center next and Josh is preparing for his testimony for court and I really appreciate that Josh is getting that closure he needs by doing this and that we actually do get a glimpse of him later saying his piece. I think he absolutely deserves that and that hopefully next season he does get to find his footing and find a boyfriend because he deserves it so much. He’s suffered more than enough already.

And then we finally get to the main emergency of the episode. The train derailment and crash. This is one of those calls that is clearly huge and time consuming and that the show could have easily dragged out for two episodes. Indeed, it takes up a huge chunk of the episode’s screen time and while I think it was a great choice of an emergency I do wish that some of this had happened in the previous episode where all of the emergencies seemed routine and could have been taken out to really give the train a bigger spotlight.

The 118 arrive on the scene and Buck and Eddie are sent to check out the train car that’s practically on a 90 degree angle. Abby is out there trying to get back on the train to look for her fiance and Eddie goes to tell her no and Abby suddenly realizes he’s from the 118 which immediately means that she realizes Buck has to be around there somewhere.

I appreciated so much the way that Abby is desperate to go in and help because that’s just who she is. It’s the reason that in S1 she made sense with Buck — their need to help people brought them together and this is important because of the parallel that can be seen later when Abby explains why she never returned.

Buck in the meanwhile hangs back and he very clearly has one of those “just saw a ghost” moments when he first sees her and then he approaches and Abby says his name and there is a split second where the camera is on Eddie and Eddie’s expression just says “you’re Abby” because this is someone he’s heard about...this is someone that hurt Buck and in this scene Buck does not make it any easier for Eddie to not dislike Abby because there is just so much pain and confusion and worry mixed in Buck’s face as he gets near them because Buck is of course worried that Abby isn’t okay at first and then he has to come to terms with Abby freaking out because she’s worried about her fiance. Abby’s moved on. She never came back and she moved on.

The situation isn’t ideal, and Abby has to tell him about her fiance in a place and time where such information can only hurt Buck and looking at his face after she yells that she’s looking for her fiance, it’s clearly a blow.

In 3x16 we see Buck exploring the idea of what his life might end up being in the future because the job is the only thing he has going for him. And so for Abby to return with a whole other life and having moved on is a blow to Buck who probably didn’t expect to see Abby again and I think it brings back those feelings especially since we know from 3x16 that Buck has abandonment issues that Abby is very much a part of. However, I don’t think that Buck actually believes that he’ll end up like Red anymore.

Eddie is a bit of a bystander during all of this but when Buck can’t form words, he jumps in to ask Abby to describe the fiance. But after Eddie runs off, Buck turns to walk away but he then turns back to ask for the fiance’s name and this scene is done so so well in that Buck hesitates to say anything else to Abby but he forces himself to and there’s clearly some regret on Abby’s part. Buck is holding himself together and being professional and you can see that it takes absolutely everything in Buck to stop himself from letting his feelings of hurt and anger take over because the situation requires that Buck be a firefighter and be a hero and he can’t stop just because Abby showed up again and with a fiance that Buck has now promised to save. Oliver Stark’s acting in this scene — absolute perfection.

Just go back and rewatch that scene. The way that he delivers this line: “No. No. Don’t worry about it” with such restraint like he’s holding back words and like Abby speaking to him is physically hurting him — boy did that hurt to watch.

Buck and Eddie make their way up the train car and Buck gets to Sam first. Eddie is right there with him and it’s very interesting to me that Eddie and Buck just don’t talk about it at all. Yes, at this point when they’ve made it all the way up to where Sam is they can’t because Sam is the fiance and would overhear and professionalism but before that Eddie elects to let Buck take a moment. And Eddie despite knowing the conflict of interest involved here, doesn’t tell Bobby what happened, instead of that he trusts Buck to do the job and maybe he keeps a close eye on him.

Bobby sends Hen and Chim to help out on the ground with the rescue dogs and he goes up to help Buck and Eddie with Sam who is trapped by a beam. Things get complicated when they realize someone else is trapped by the beam and not just that but moving the beam off one means that other will likely die. There is no easy choice there and Eddie tells them both victims have an equal chance which does not make any of it easier.

Buck tells Sam that they don’t choose who lives and who dies and he’s talking to him and finds out that the wedding is in June and that furthermore he is a father. Abby has gone and found herself a whole family and he is just so hurt by it all...but that also means that Buck is even more determined to save him. When he returns to Bobby and Eddie though, they tell him that the other victim (let’s call her Rummer because I don’t think the character was given a name?) has better vitals and protocol says they save the person that is more likely to live.

This brings us to another perfect moment in this episode. One thing that makes Buck such an effective firefighter is how quickly he can think on his feet and figure out ways to rescue someone. We’ve seen this come up time and time again so it isn’t surprising that Buck has an alternative idea that will save both Sam and Rummer but of course it’s super risky. I think we needed this scene. Not only because it shows Buck once again being so willing to do whatever it takes but because of Buck’s state of mind and how there’s this pressure he’s putting on himself to bring Abby her fiance back because Buck sees Sam’s life as valuable. He says as much to Bobby — Sam is a father, he has a fiance. Buck on the other hand...his ex-girlfriend couldn’t even properly break up with him.

But this is also about Bobby and Buck. And this is the scene in conjunction with a scene we see later towards the end of the episode, that makes a point of finally bringing back up the way that Bobby worries about Buck and cares about Buck and how much Buck doesn’t see that. How much Buck doesn’t realize that he’s been lucky so far to get out nearly uscathed from everything that’s happened to him. There is risk involved in the job but as Bobby says, “you can’t just rush into any situation and assume it’s going to be okay” because he’s right. And this is especially hard to take right after Buck mentions so casually that the train car falling on him would be so much worse and heavier than the firetruck that crushed him a year prior.

During all of this, Bobby also finds out about Abby and there’s something about the frustrated way that Eddie growls out her name, his scowl and how he physically has to get away from Buck and we see that Eddie knows what Abby returning has meant for Buck and how hurt Buck is from seeing her and Eddie is the one person that knows what it’s like to see the past return so he knows how Buck must be feeling and he is 100% against Buck risking his life because of her. I also want to point out that Eddie gives Buck the time to tell Bobby that the fiance in question is Abby and that he only tells Bobby after Buck doesn’t say it and because he knows that it’s important information. But before that, Eddie was willing to keep that information to himself because he felt that Buck needed him to. So their friendship is yet again one of the best parts of this show.

It is Eddie that stops Buck and Bobby from continuing to argue the matter when they don’t have time so we don’t get to see how Buck convinces them to let him go out there and cut into the train car, but that’s what we see him do. And luckily, Buck manages to do it and rescue both Rummer and Sam. We watch both Abby and Bobby watch this all happen. And this would have been an excellent moment to also have an Abby and Bobby scene to add some depth into her return and maybe have her have another perspective on what she did to Buck. So this is where we suffer from having so much shoved into one episode.

Sam calls out to Buck to thank him as he’s being loaded up into the ambulance and Abby thanks him as well and when Sam hears his name, Sam is shocked to find out that this is Buck. And to me this is interesting because apparently Abby could talk about Buck with the new man in her life, but she couldn’t be bothered to call Buck up to apologize for the way she left him and never returned.

After Abby and Sam leave in the ambulance, we are left with Buck standing there and Eddie comes over to join him and it’s so clear that he’s worried. He asks Buck if he’s okay, but Buck doesn’t answer. Instead he asks what’s next which is Buck deciding to focus on the work instead of Abby and what just happened. He doesn’t want to deal with it yet, not when he still has work to do. Poor Buck. So he runs back to find something to do and Eddie follows. And one thing I wish we’d gotten is a moment for Eddie to talk to Buck about this and if not Eddie then Bobby. Maddie. Anyone.

In the meanwhile, Hen and Chim have their own rescue to conduct and we see Hen save a boy’s life and Chimney is reminded how amazing Hen is and I think all of this helps to start to let go of Hen and want her to succeed in her plans of going to med school. Since 3x17, he’s been struggling with it and we even see it earlier on when he doesn’t know how to encourage her. But by the end of the episode he’s helping her study. I do want to say that it is valid to want to keep growing and that I give props to Hen for wanting to be a doctor and that it can be an exciting direction for her character to take. I don’t think it will take her away from the show at all, or even from being a paramedic for a while. After all, can’t she do that and med school all at once? If anyone can, it’s Hen. I just hope it gives us interesting storylines.

When we next see Buck, he’s sitting on a bench overlooking LA and waiting for Abby and this scene is so heartbreaking. Abby approaches and it’s easy to tell that this isn’t easy for her. It’s even harder for Buck, though. This is closure that I think was absolutely needed, but I don’t know if it did enough for me. This is another place where I wished that we’d had a slightly longer scene to really show the closure effectively. Or that we had gotten to see Buck talk about it with someone else afterwards.

Abby watches Buck for a moment before he realizes she’s there and then she joins him and Buck asks about Sam because he’s Buck and of course he cares. Abby thanks him, but Buck says he was doing his job. Abby apologizes for how Buck found out about everything and the thing I loved about this moment was seeing Buck immediately turn to look at her taken aback that she’s apologizing and trying to explain herself for that instead of the thing that actually hurt Buck — how she left him. So it’s clear that Abby is well past that, that she might have even expected Buck to not be hung up on that anymore. She’s read his reaction to seeing her again completely wrong and I am glad that Buck says, “that’s what you’re apologizing for” and doesn’t just let her bypass the past like that.

The body language in this entire scene is just perfect. There’s awkwardness and a stiffness in Buck that we don’t usually see. He doesn’t quite look at Abby and instead he keeps looking away from her and looking down. This is Buck with less confidence than we ever really see him and it’s painful to watch. I’m also fascinated by the way it’s shot because it’s from behind them so that we are seeing their backs more often than not and profile views of their faces but not their front. Even when the scene first begins Buck is completely turned away from us.

Buck nervously asks when she knew that she was leaving him and the courage that it took Buck to ask that and not just bury that question — I am here for it. The fact that he even goes as far as to describe what the last time they saw each other was like and he’s pushing for an answer is exactly what I wanted for him. And Abby answers him and I like her answer a lot because it gives us a view into the complicated state of mind that she was in when she left.

I still hate how Abby picked up and left and then gave Buck no explanation and just stopped responding — there are no excuses for her not breaking up with him.

Abby explains that her identity was lost to her because she identified herself by everyone she was helping — her mother and the 9-1-1 calls and that she needed to leave to find herself again. I think all of this is valid and even Buck seems to understand this. I think it hits close to home for him not just because of his connection to Abby, but because Buck’s identity is his job. It’s something that Buck has said a lot this season and something that he came to realize even before Abby returned. And I think this is why it was important for Buck to already realize that with Red and to have had that convo with Maddie and know he isn’t alone.

Buck still presses on about how Abby didn’t come home after finding herself. Abby explains her fear of becoming that person again if she returned and that is a valid answer too. It still doesn’t make it okay that she didn’t try to reach out to Buck to break up properly. She says she missed him and wanted to see him but that doesn’t make her behavior towards Buck back then any better. She didn’t need to see him to write him a letter or to reach out in any way to end what they had. And it also annoyed me that somehow in her mind leaving Buck like she did wasn’t something she didn’t need to apologize upon seeing Buck again because hurting Buck didn’t affect her as long as she was able to move forward with her life which clearly she did.

Buck says, “I’m glad to see you happy. You deserve it” and because it’s Buck and he’s the biggest puppy in the world he means it. Of course he does, but I don’t think that Buck is any less hurt. I do think that knowing the reason she never came back helps and that it gives him answers to things he never got answers to, but Abby doesn’t know about Buck’s abandonment issues and she doesn’t know the damage she did on him and she doesn’t know that Buck can relate to how Abby felt back then. And I don’t think that any of this was about making Buck feel better about what happened with Abby. I think it was about him no longer having that question of “why” in his mind anymore.

I think they should have talked more and we should have gotten more from this scene but I also appreciate that it ends with them not quite friends again and that there is some closure there for Buck so that he can put Abby behind him officially and know that she’s somewhere happy.

The last few five minutes of the episode is May’s graduation party and everybody is there. We have a montage of the party with some photo booth moments. Lots of Buck and Eddie goofing around with and without Christopher and everyone else taking their turns too. It’s clear the cast had a blast filming those bits. One particularly good moment is Buck trusting his chest forward and hitting Eddie with one of the twenty or so bead necklaces he has around his neck. I wonder how intentional that was on the part of Oli.

We see Buck helping Christopher write a message for May and those two together will never not be cute. May asks Maddie if they can talk once Maddie asks about school which makes me curious about what May might be planning on studying (maybe nursing?). We also get a scene with Karen, Hen, and Michael discussing the firepit that the fireplace has now become and the shade that Karen throws at it with her quiet “No” when Hen asks if she sees the greatness...not that Hen isn’t judging either. Athena and Bobby get a moment and he comments on how she’ll be glad to be back at work in 30 days clearly not knowing that Athena doesn’t think she’ll be ready to go back at all so that opens up potential for interesting conflict regarding that even though I think that Bobby will stand by any of Athena’s decisions.

During the party montage we also see other things to give us some ideas about what else is going on with everyone’s lives. First is Chimney showing up to help Hen study at the firehouse which I loved because I think Hen needed him to give her his support. Later we see Hen doing another practice test at home with Karen and Denny grading her and she gets the scores that she’s been aiming for. Doctor Hen, here she comes.

We also see Michael sitting outside a restaurant waiting for his date and I am so happy for him. I want Michael dating again and that doctor seemed perfect for him. Marry the doctor, Michael. I also really appreciate how this parallels to the way S1 ended with Bobby and Athena meeting up for a date.

We see Christopher leaving for Summer camp and Eddie is watching him go (so I guess Christopher won out on going on that trip) and then we see Eddie look at a card that Christopher made him that reads: “You are going to have a great time, Love, Christopher”. This is an interesting scene to me because the note is cute and it’s obviously Christopher wanting to make his dad feel better about him going away for two weeks, but the camera work and the way that Eddie looks away from the bus as it leaves implies that Eddie was supposed to be looking at something at the end of the scene or someone...whatever way he was going to spend the two weeks without Christopher perhaps? (insert eyebrow wiggle). Instead he’s looking at nothing. Now we can’t be sure, but I can’t help but wonder if this was edited to not include someone that was supposed to be Eddie’s love interest. Ana. Otherwise, why shoot it that way? (And why introduce her to then not do anything with her in this season?) I guess Eddie could be looking at the bus driving away, but it’s just a little bit odd because while watching the episode the first time I expected her to be standing there and we probably will never know.

We get to see other moments of the party. Buck and Bobby get a small scene where Bobby asks how Buck is doing and Buck says he thinks he’s good and I think he means it and believes it. I don’t think that seeing Abby damaged anything for Buck, but I do think that it left him in a place to move on from the memory of her without any more questions. Buck is in a good place in a lot of ways by the end and we can only look forward to whatever may come next for him and I think he’s ready to that to be anything. This scene is also a call back to the last time we saw Buck and Bobby at Athena’s house when Buck wasn’t okay and instead collapsed due to the blood clots. But now Buck is actually okay.

This is all of course being shown while we get a voice over from Maddie. We’ve had a few signs up until now with the feeling tired earlier in the episode and then Chim asks her if she’s seen a doctor yet since she hasn’t been feeling well and Maddie immediately knows what’s up and rushes them out of Athena and Bobby’s house. Because she’s pregnant. And the scene when she comes out of the bathroom with one and then a second stick. I loved that moment so much because they have come to freaking far and that is where the episode ends.

I really appreciate shows that end their seasons on good notes and that leave a season in an uplifting way especially this one because of how long the hiatus looks to be due to real world problems. We also have a lot to look forward to of course. Athena’s storyline is bound to be complex and interesting, Hen and med school, something is up with May, we don’t know where Buck’s headspace when it comes to dating and such will be after that closure with Abby, Michael still doesn’t have a full clean bill of health but things are looking up for him, Maddie and Chim being pregnant, we don’t know what’s next for Christopher and Eddie, and we are of course still just looking a crumbs of Buddie and nothing concrete to go on but also nothing hugely negative to hold against the possibility of it happening so who knows. Overall, just a good and enjoyable season finale.

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nellied-reviews · 4 years

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The Sound and the Fury Re-listen

Well, I've reached episode 7 in my Wolf 359 re-listen, which means it's time for:

The Sound and the Fury

In which Hera and Minkowski are fighting, Eiffel gets caught in the middle, and Hilbert just wants them all to submit to the biologically superior will of the Blessed Eternal.

Straight up, I should probably admit that I forgot about this episode, or rather I didn't link the episode title to the episode's events until I was listening to it. And then I was like "oh, yeah, this is that episode" all the way through. For whatever reason, I thought, in particular, that the plant monster didn't come back until Season 2, with The Paranoia Game. That said, I love the plant monster to a possibly unreasonable degree, so its return here was more than welcome, and the rest of the episode was also fun!

We open in the middle of an argument - and for once, it's not Eiffel's fault. In fact, Eiffel isn't even involved, except insofar as he's trapped in the middle between Hera and Minkowski, and is forced to be the voice of reason as the two of them have it out.

And look, that is always going to be a funny set-up. Hera and Minkowski are both incredibly stubborn personalities, and not at all shy about asserting their opinions, so there's definitely potential for a comically drawn-out, petty argument there. And casting Eiffel as the reasonable, level-headed peacekeeper, in contrast to the two of them, is perfect. It's in character - Eiffel always has been the most pacifist crew member - but it's also a role he's just totally unsuited to, because faced with the combined stubbornness of Hera and Minkowski, he's outmatched, and he knows it.

In an effort not to get involved, then, Eiffel briefly runs through the week's schedule, in a section that isn't really linked to the rest of the episode, but is full of little oddities that remind us just how weird the Hephaestus is. They have a compulsory chess tournament that Hilbert always wins. They have movie night, but only a VHS of Home Alone 2. "On Friday we'll have mustard." It's so weird, and I love it.

We're interrupted, at this point, by Hilbert, who sounds very strange, even for him. And naturally, Eiffel ignores it completely at first, focussed as he is on the unfolding Hera-Minkowski conflict. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, for such a pop culture-savvy guy, Eiffel falls into literally every horror movie cliché. He's so oblivious!

For the rest of us, it's obvious that something's wrong, and our suspicions are confirmed when we learn over the course of his conversation with Eiffel that Hilbert went looking for the plant monster, which now seems to be mind-controlling him, to the point where he's convinced that it's "the most evolutionarily competitive lifeform on this station, the most deserving of life."

And okay, I love the plant monster, but that's very alarming, and is made even more so by the fact that it's something that Hilbert might conceivably have said anyway? I mean, it's cold and Darwinistic and smacks of eugenics, yes, but it also has a callous ruthlessness to it that's totally Hilbert's style, as well as that trademark lack of concern for human life. It's like the plant monster just exaggerated what was already there, turned the mad scientist dial up to eleven. In other words, it made Hilbert even more Hilbert-y.

Luckily, Eiffel realises soon enough that something's wrong, and goes to warn Minkowski. Minkowski, being a mature, rational individual, immediately drops her argument with Hera and goes to - oh, wait, no, she does basically the opposite of that, ignoring Eiffel in favour of continuing her argument with Hera. Great. Good job, Commander.

It's at this point, of course, that we finally learn exactly what Minkowski and Hera are arguing about. And is it petty. Turns out, Minkowski wants Hera to submit reports on the various systems she runs around the station in case there's an emergency, but also just because Minkowski wants to know what's going on behind the scenes. We don't get to hear Hera's side of things just yet, but already, we can see the irony in Minkowski's arguments. Sure, she wants to be better appraised of everything going on onboard the Hephaestus in case of an emergency - but her stubbornness here means she's missing the emergency that's unfolding right under her nose!

Eiffel's attempts to make her see sense don't really help either, at this juncture. Instead, they just get him dragged into Minkowski and Hera's argument. Which I'm sure is that last thing he wants, because those two play dirty. First Minkowski pressures him into saying, to Hera's face, that he doesn't think AIs should be trusted. And then Hera, angry, plays Eiffel's words from earlier back to Minkowski, twisting what he said around so that both parties are angry at him. As a result, Eiffel ends up walking an impossibly thin line, trying to appease both of his friends, while keeping himself out of their argument as best he can and while getting increasingly frustrated with the both of them. It's a painfully awkward situation, and I genuinely feel sorry for him.

That said, the argument that then plays out is fascinating to me, because I think it shines a really interesting light on the power dynamics onboard the Hephaestus, putting the focus on Hera and Minkowski's relationship in a way that we haven't really seen before. Up until now, after all, they seem to have worked in tandem pretty well, with Minkowski giving orders and Hera carrying them out. Here, for the first time, we see a tension between them, stemming from the fact that Minkowski, as the commanding officer, nominally has the most power onboard the Hephaestus, while Hera, as the ship's AI, probably actually has the most power, between her vast sensory array, her huge databanks, and her literally running the entire Hephaestus. Yes, Minkowski is technically in charge, purely by virtue of her being a human. But Hera, on a day-to-day basis, is actually more crucial to their ongoing mission - even though, as an AI, she doesn't get to hold an official ranking position.

That's possibly why Hera takes Eiffel's well-meaning dismissal ("It's just her programming") so personally. It's a reminder of her different, subordinate status, and it reeks of a double standard - she's right that nobody would think to blame a human's erratic behaviours on their biology. That would be patronising, right? As much as Eiffel means well, writing Hera's reactions off as mere programming strips her of her agency - something that comes up again and again in her character arc. How much is Hera responsible for her actions, if she can also be programmed to act a certain way? In what ways has she been "made" a certain way, against her will? And how can she best deal with that while still retaining a sense of agency and control over her life and identity? They're big, complicated questions, and we're only really scratching the surface here, but I do think it's a solid foundation for later developments. At the very least, we get the impression that Hera doesn't like to be reduced to her programming - and rightly so, I suspect. To some extent, at least, she is more than just the code that she is made of, just like humans are more than the sum of their biology. And that's a good thing to be establishing now, buried in the middle of a relatively low-stakes argument, before the more plotty stuff kicks off later on in the show.

And of course, it also bleeds into Hera and Minkowski's argument, which really picks up steam at this point, after an impassioned but ultimately futile speech from Eiffel about how it's a stupid fight to begin with and how making him pick sides is dumb and unfair. Hera, ignoring this, accuses Minkowski of feeling threatened by the big, powerful AI. That, for Hera, is why Minkowski is micromanaging her. It's because she's a typical human, insecure about an AI having more power than her.

Hera's point is almost immediately complicated by Minkowski, who rightly points out that the issue, for her, isn't that Hera's an AI. It's that Hera' unreliable. She keeps breaking down and glitching, and so the crew keep experiencing emergencies that could maybe be avoided if Hera would just give Minkowski the reports she wants. We've seen Hera break down as recently as last episode, and so this does kind of ring true, even if the way that Minkowski brings up Hera' vocal glitching feels like a bit of a low blow.

Both of them, then, have a point, and I think it's also worth noting that it's also, as Minkowski points out to Eiffel, a question of protocol. Whether Hera likes it or not, Minkowski is, technically, her commanding officer, and should be able to just give her commands and demand reports from her. Refusing to do so undermines Minkowski's authority. That said, Hera didn't exactly have a choice when it came to joining whatever weird sort-of military thing Goddard has going on. She never signed up for the whole "commanding officer" thing, so why should she obey Minkowski? Because she's programmed to?

It's messy, grey situation, with no clear answers, and it's worth noting that the argument doesn't really get resolved. Neither Minkowski nor Hera back down at any point. Instead, a combination of Eiffel calling them out for being childish and Hilbert attempting a coup snaps them out of it, reminding them that they have bigger problems right now. There is a time and a place for the discussion they were having. But that time is not now, and so they decide, without really discussing it, to set aside their grievances. It's not that their respective opinions aren't valid. But keeping each other (and the rest of the crew) safe comes first, and so they bond over being annoyed at Eiffel, and they set off to save Hilbert. It's sweet, in a way, and I like how quickly they both just get on with it. And Eiffel's dejected resignation at the end is the cherry on top. Bless him.

And so we get to the end of an episode that, while it's reliably funny, also gives us an outline of the main points in an argument that we probably should have seen coming. It's yet another example of how stress and tension can easily build up in the contained, isolated atmosphere of the Hephaestus - only this time, we don't get Eiffel cracking and hoarding toothpaste, we get Hera and Minkowski cracking and unleashing the titular sound and fury. The points raised get us thinking, in particular, about Hera's status, as an AI, but also just as a member of the Hephaestus' crew. Eiffel, meanwhile, is forced into a responsible, mediating role that he is neither comfortable in nor particularly good at. And at the end of the day, we're reassured that Minkowski and Hera do, at least, have their priorities straight. Arguing over reports is fine and dandy, but it's not worth getting killed over.

And of course, perhaps most excitingly, the plant monster returns. Surrender your flesh, and feed your new master :)

Miscellaneous thoughts:

It doesn't escape my attention that this is the second title that's a Shakespeare reference. Keeping it classy there, Doug

"Umm... that's all it says for Friday."

The schedule bit is basically the Night Vale Community Calendar segment, but in space

Hilbert's voice in this is sooo weird and dull and creepy ugh

I know the science of it isn't really the focus here, and I'm 100% down with that, but also how does a plant mind control people?!? I want to know!

"Our operating system is a tin-headed, insubordinate, feckless fool!"

"Sit your Swiss ass down, and take a side, Doug."

Aww, Eiffel just sounds so confused and stressed-out by the whole situation :(

And finally we get the obvious Little Shop of Horrors plant monster joke :)

I didn't go into much detail about Eiffel in this, but his speech where he finally gets them to shut up and work together again is also great and I love it jsyk

"Shut up, Plant-Hilbert." Bwahahahaha.

#wolf 359 #wolf359 #w359 #wolf 359 relisten #the sound and the fury #nellied reviews #time to overanalyse Minkowski and Hera's argument #also #plant monster!#my not-so-small herbaceous child is back #gotta love it

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allyvampirelass29 · 4 years

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Bats in the Lake House

Bats in the Lake House A NOS4A2 Review By: Allyssa J. Watkins

A silent night A haunting song Seeing Uncle Charlie in your dreams Wayne, what's wrong? Christmas is forbidden For little boys who must stay hidden But a Lake House is not a Batcave Why can't the dark knight play with Charlie Manx Unless Vic McQueen is in the grave? Come boy, the moon winks, beckoning to you Christmasland is your North Star Do me a special favour, Wayne? Tell me where you are........."

The Lake House, while being more flash than bang, although ironically, it ends in one hell of a one, (Aaaaaaaah yeah, I'm still dead!) was a fun, intrigue of an episode, although like one of the homemade McQueen explosives buried a little too deep in the ground, doesn't hit quite as hard. That being said, it has THE most eerily dazzling opener of the entire series!!!! Wayne tosses and turns, hearing the siren's call of the Found Children's song, drawn to the window in a trance, pulls back the curtain and sees....... CHRISTMASLAND!!!! My heart STOPPED. I knew it wasn't real, it had to be a dream, and yet seeing him there, knowing how hard Vic was fighting to keep him from it, was both a thrill and a chill!!! Who KNEW Charlie Manx makes House Calls!? I LOVED this entire scene, it was so suspenseful, the horror on Vic's face as she hears her son humming Silent Night, over and over, following and fretting over her little duckling, all around the house, not realizing that, all the while, Charlie is not only there, hidden behind the veil of a dream, but is coaxing her son, pulling out all the stops, ever the showman, as he sells young Wayne on the joy and wonder of Christmasland!!!

Again, I know I've said this before, but Our Darling Zachary Quinto, truly embodying his Vampire Chauffer counterpart, dons a new facet of his dark, intense beauty, and magnificent malice, each new episode, bringing his holiday fear, and terrifyingly good looks to the dead heat of summer!!! I kept thinking how I need only open the door unto such a dark, dazzling visage, and I'd be like, "YES, DEAR GOD, TAKE ME TO CHRISTMASLAND!!!! I also love the way he is with Wayne, so paternal, and sweet, and patient with him, always doting upon him! It's a joy to watch them on screen together, the little lad and the Big Bad, walking side by side, so innocent. I especially loved how Charlie had the vampire children stand far enough away from the window, so that he couldn't tell they were vampires, so as not to scare him! That was adorable!

Aha the candy cane!!! I had my suspicions, first with Haley, and then last week with Wayne, there was such a smug satisfaction on Charlie's face as he took it, and I knew there had to be more! Can I say, as a writer, myself, I thought that was pure, smashing, genius!!! The key to Charlie's retrieval operations, slipping into the Children's dreams, and convincing them Christmasland is where they belong. How exciting to learn the secret of the magician's disappearing trick!! All of these scenes were phenomenal, and my heart ached with an inexplicable longing the way he said it...... "Tell me where you are, and I'll pick you up straight away......." Happy fuzzy sigh. Yes, I said my own address out loud. Come and get me, Charlie Manx.

The weekend escape to the Lake House was such a fun, promising concept, a chance for Vic, Lou, and Wayne to spend some real family time together, away from the looming reach of Charlie Manx and the pressures paid for by being a Strong Creative, with Aunt Maggie, and a Fed or two in tow. Wayne seeing the ornaments in the trees gave me chills, and it was interesting to think the McQueen clan had a Manx stowed away in their youngest's mind. Chris continues to impress me, giving Vic some MUCH needed advice about loving and leaving, and how trying to do both can cause more damage than cutting ties completely. Maggie is an absolute delight, as ever, and I love, love, LOVED her comment about Vic's father becoming Bear Grylls with his Spooky, Horror Cabin!!!! That was hilarious, and I'm still laughing as I write this!!!

I also loved what she said about, "None of those dudes are normal." That was a really beautiful moment for me, and I suspect an especially poignant one for Vic. She's always seen herself an an outsider, even in her own created family, but here she finally sees that she's not alone. That normal isn't so normal for them either, and she doesn't have to carry the consequences of having this peculiar gift all on her own. Also, can I just say, I think this was a subtle, tongue in cheek hint, to Wayne being a Strong Creative, inheriting his mother's gift, and if I'm right, I am so here for it, beyond THRILLED, and crossing my fingers!!! What a perfect twist, for Vic to have a little soldier with a knife, and inscape all his own, in the fight against Charlie Manx.

The warm fuzzies continue with Vic running off the dock, and jumping carefree into the lake, splashing and playing with her boys. I loved this so much, it was profound, getting to see them all together as family, happy, laughing, not a care in the world. It was Vic choosing her family, taking the leap into what it means to be vulnerable to the pains of loving Lou without doubt, and being a mother Wayne could respect, and love, and feel safe with. It was the last golden rays of sun before the night set in...... and oh what a night it will be......

The Lake House flawlessly sets up the suspense, puts all the players in place, loads up the Wraith as it were, with the intruding menace, and potential to be the BEST episode yet. But I felt a lull, I don't know, like we were forced to wait around. I was ready, and dying for it all to get started, for Charlie to swoop in the dead of night and attack. I felt like I was prepared for a fight that never came. Yes, I realize it was all to set up for the next episode, and I am enamoured with the screaming danger that awaits, but I don't know, I hungered for a little taste of it now, as I felt all that built up suspense, and pent-up foreshadowing fizzle out.

Okay, deep breath, when I said the episode ended with a bang, I was NOT kidding....... Tabitha, throwing caution and FBI protocol to the wind, invades the newest iteration of the House of Sleep, without back up, but it's okay because she brought a mask. Yes, that was clever, the mask safety and all, but I just felt like she should have been so much smarter than that!!! Last time I checked, going off half cocked, and riding headlong into mortal danger was Vic's thing!!! I loved that Bing had a special shrine inside the church to Charlie, wreathed in Christmas lights, with his Wanted Poster, I thought that was cute, and such a sneaky little detail. I would have loved to have seen Charlie's reaction to that, I can just see his initially disturbed expression, before arching his dark eyebrow, amused!!

Damn, I thought the fight between Bing and Craig was as intense as it got, but Bing VS Tabitha, was easily just as pulse pounding, and blood curdling. I'm not going to lie...... I thought Tabitha was dead, the moment she went down into that church basement. I heaved a sad little sigh when Maggie said, "We all know what happens to cops who cross with Charlie Manx....." We love you Joe, and we miss you!!! I thought that was a both a bittersweet tribute to Joe, and also a foreboding as to Tabitha's own fate. Tabitha after a fight to the near death, scratching, and clawing for her life, subdues Bing, when a tall, dark, handsome stranger steps from the shadows, and Tabitha comes face to face with her own demons, and the man she swore couldn't possibly exist. "Trespassing is a federal offence," He says silkily, before slamming a hammer into her shoulder without hesitation .

My heart almost can't take what happens next, watching Tabitha and Charlie scrapple with an even deadlier ferocity, in the midst of Charlie's seething taunts about what a waste it was to kill her here, and I wondered, if he'd known who she was, that she was Maggie's own girlfriend, would he have taken her prisoner, instead of trying to kill her? Make some kind of exchange for Wayne? The click of a gun cocked, not even a breath in-between, as the bullet is sent screaming, burrowing through the dead center of Charlie's forehead. At three in the morning, I have to clamp both hands over my mouth, not to let out a piercing scream of my own!!!! Charlie falls, lifeless, donning every appearance of death, as the tears stream down my eyes, and Tabitha makes a miraculous escape.

Yes, I know, Charlie's immortal, I know the only way to kill him, is outside the church right now, safe, but watching him fall like that, the blood pooling on his forehead, was a fleeting moment of pure, abject horror, and I felt helpless, wanting only to hold and cry over him!!! Death itself has no hold on Charles Manx, however, and after only a taste of it, he rises from his fallen place, as reanimated as ever, a bloom in his cheek, reaching for the back of his head. In a move that is pure, and utter SYLAR, he pulls out the protruding bullet, long nails dripping with blood, and lets out a sinister laugh, that is both beautiful and threatening, his smirk morphing into smouldering, slanted brow, murder. Careful, Kids...... Charlie Manx is coming to town.

The Lake House is full of all of these flashes of meaningful little moments. I loved the conversation between Lou and Vic about how they found each other, and came together as more than friends. If we had met randomly, under different circumstances, neither of us in mortal danger, would we still be together? Would it still be me? I really appreciated this as a viewer, because they finally said what everybody else was thinking....... Before the third episode, I thought of Lou as Vic's life raft, a comfort she had clung to, frozen, in the midst of unimaginable trauma. The question lingers unanswered. Vic and Lou came together during harrowing life and death turmoil, they found each other just when they needed to the most, in the aftermath of a ghastly tragedy, but can their love survive without it? When the storm is over, and there is just life, without the threat of death, and continued kidnappings, when there is no one left to save....... Will Vic and Lou still feel the same?

Another one of these little moments comes at bedtime between mother and son. Wayne is such a smart, confident little guy, and he's handled his attempted kidnapping with such calm, quiet strength, that I think Vic thinks he's more resilient, and doing better than he really is. After all, he's still only eight years old. For him to finally take off his brave face cowl, and say, Mom, you're hurting me, this is why I'm sad, what I worry about, what I want, was such a powerful moment, and a much needed wake-up call for Vic.

Ultimately, I give the Lake House due credit for creating such breathtaking suspense, and leaving us wanting more. I hope next week we can delve right into the explosive action, and Manx's revenge, the full out attack on the lake house at last!!! No more teasing, NOS4A2!!! After all, It's not a family vacation without Wayne's favourite Uncle Charlie.......The stage is set, The Batcave is empty, and The Wraith Cometh.

#nos4a2 review #nos4a2 #charlie manx #vic mcqueen #wayne mcqueen #lou carmody #maggie leigh #the lake house

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bellsmj · 5 years

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bad liar

summary: peter parker wasn’t the best at keeping secrets. god knows how the world hasn’t figured out he’s spider-man. but his relationship with michelle jones was something he tried hard to keep it just between themselves.

5 times people find out about their relationship + 1 time no one does.

characters: michelle jones x peter parker, steve rogers, may parker, ned leeds, roger harrington, flash thompson, tony stark, sam wilson, bucky barnes, wanda maximoff

prompt: secret relationship (spideychelle week - day 1)

word count: 1,666

warnings: language, implicit sexual behavior

it all started with a kiss. their first kiss in general and as a couple. in their defense, ned had left them alone for way too long and they’re 16 year olds with raging hormones and a gigantic crush on each other.

they were on the roof of the avengers’ compound, looking at the few stars on the sky, a bit too cliché for michelle if you ask her, their hands were touching, peter put his hand on top of hers and she was mad.

“peter parker, if you kiss me right now, i’ll never forgive you.” so, obviously, that’s what he did. and she did forgive him, the many kisses they shared after that proved it.

that same night, they decided to keep that relationship a secret. with the whole spider-man thing, he didn’t think it was the safest for people to know.

of course, someone finds out the next morning.

see, the thing is, peter was never late for superhero stuff, so, steve rogers knocking on his door at 9 AM because he was late for the practice they had scheduled the night before wasn’t that weird.

his eyes still bleed whenever he remembers what he saw when he opened the door. michelle wasn’t a shy girl, like, at all. she was very confident in herself and her body. but steve finding their naked bodies tangled in each other wasn’t how any one of them wanted to start their morning.

the teens begged him not to tell everyone and he, more than anyone, understood what they felt. he promised he wouldn’t tell anyone and walked away. thankfully, he kept his word.

needless to say, they were way more careful since then.

II.

they had been dating for four long months and only steve knew. well, steve and this really nice lady who owned mj’s favorite book store.

as much as it was nice that people didn’t know, it also sucked because they couldn’t do any couple-like things in public, which had its good side, since michelle couldn’t keep her hands off him when they were alone. who knew she was so touchy.

they were on peter’s couch, may was at work and after was going to her friend’s house upstate and ned had a family dinner, meaning they had the apartment for themselves.

they were watching a random movie that was playing when they turned on the tv. that is until michelle started kissing his neck. she found a spot, worked on it until she felt it was red enough, then made her way up to his lips.

they were making out on the couch until they heard may’s voice, “peter? are you home? i forgot my bag and keys when i left for work this morning.” they immediately pulled back and peter’s eyes widened, pointing to his room and telling mj to hide. “peter?” she says again.

“u-uh, yeah! i’m here, may!” he makes sure michelle is there with the door locked before he goes open the door.

“took you long enough, i have to hurry, melissa is waiting for me downstairs.... what’s that on your neck, peter?” she says, with her bag already on her arm and her hands on her waist.

“uhh, it’s an a... a rash?” he stumbles over his words. “hm, sure it is. wear condoms. bye, peter. bye, michelle,” she yells. “may!” he says sheepishly, but she had already closed the door behind her.

when she got home on sunday and he asked her how she knew it was michelle, her answer was, “i didn’t, that was a guess. but now that you told me, what’s going on between you two?”

III.

it was hard keeping it a secret, but with ned it was the worst. he was with them almost 24/7 and mj had no idea how peter still hadn’t blabbed about it.

michelle was making her way to the library when she heard him behind her. she bit her lip and walked into the next empty alley she saw.

she heard him drop behind her and turned around, meeting his masked face.

“hi, spider-man,” she smiles and pulls his mask up so that she could kiss him.

“hey, babe,” he says when they pull away. “how many times do i have to tell you that pet names don’t work for us, loser?”

“sorry, m-“ “MJ?” they hear ned’s voice coming out from a pocket on the suit. “shit. h-hi, ned. what’s up?” peter grabs his phone looking apologetic.

“you two? how long?” ned said and it was michelle’s turn to stumble over her words, “u-uh, five... five months?”

“FIVE MONTHS?”

IV.

mister harrington decided that the decathlon team needed some “bonding time”. or “bullshit” in michelle’s words. so, before their weekly wednesday practice they went out to dinner (minus flash. they meticulously planned it so it’d happen the week he was traveling). mj really wasn’t having it.

as soon as they got there michelle yelped, “ow, mister harrington i just tripped and i think i twisted my ankle.” she was supporting all her weight on peter, who, surprisingly, understood her little act. “oh, yeah. i think she’ll have to head back. i’ll help her,” he said and picked her up.

“peter parker, put me down right now,” she said, under her breath, but keeping the fake look of pain on her face. “but-“ harrington started.

“bye! see you guys back at school,” peter said and started walking away.

when they got back at school they went straight to the auditorium. they put the tables and the stand in their places, which took them only 10 minutes with the whole “peter has super strength” thing.

michelle sat on top of one of the tables and peter stood in front of her, his hands on her hips.

“nice little act you did there,” he says, with what michelle calls his stupid smile on his face. “why, thank you.” his smile grows and she kisses it off his face.

the team wasn’t supposed to come back for another half hour, so you can imagine their faces when they’re interrupted by gasps and mister harrington yelling at everybody.

if you go to midtown high, then you’ve probably went to, or at least heard about, flash’s parties. a bunch of drunk teenagers in a huge house isn’t really a good idea, so that’s why it happened at least twice a month.

peter was never a big fan of parties, well, not since the bite, his senses got too overwhelmed, but michelle begged him to go, something about “people watching”. so, may dropped them off at 10 PM, giving her nephew money to call an uber.

the music could be heard houses away and, as expected, when they got inside half of the people were already drunk.

they grabbed a drink for themselves and hung out at the living room until michelle whispered something about it being “too boring” and grabbed her boyfriend’s hand and dragged him upstairs.

she opened the first unlocked door she found and kicked out a couple mid-kiss. “we’re gonna do better use of the room anyways,” she tells peter. “if i learned one thing from coming to all of these parties is that flash has every streaming service available on his tv.”

she jumps on the bed, peter following close behind and grabs the remote, “have you ever cried at a party?” “well, when i was-“ “that was a rhetorical question, we’re watching this is us.”

and yes, they did end up crying. and peter was terrified because michelle did not cry in any circumstances. so, he just pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. he truly was scared.

another episode started and neither of them said anything until halfway into the episode when mj paused it. “you saw me cry and you didn’t faint, i’m shocked.” he laughed, “i’m also shocked, to be honest.” she smiled and kissed him. which was the perfect moment for someone to burst through the door.

“MY EYES.” the person yelled, and they immediately recognized flash’s voice.

they were careful around everybody but the avengers. peter would make long calls in the kitchen first thing in the morning and they wouldn’t even bat an eye.

at this point, they wanted them to find out.

peter called her babe during their calls, no one said a thing. he’d be next to bucky and sam and would text her a bunch of hearts, nothing. one day, he showed up with a bunch of hickeys on his neck and no one mentioned it, which was absurd to peter.

later that day, he went up to steve “hey, do they not care that i’m dating someone or are they just dumb?” steve laughed, “kid, for superheroes, they can be very inattentive. but why not tell them if you want them to know so badly?”

that’s what he decides to do the next time he goes to the compound. tony was developing some sort of emergency protocol for his suit, something only may and ned could access.

they’re all at the kitchen when the couple gets there. peter pulls tony aside and asks, “hey, could you add michelle to the protocol? since we’re dating and all.” tony gasped, “dating?”

“remind me again why did i chose to tell the most dramatic of them.” peter says under his breath to michelle. her nervous smile grows and she answers tony, “yeah, we’re dating.”

sam is the next to hear it. “yo, bucky, did you hear this? the kid is dating the girl kid who always comes here.”

wanda, who’s next to bucky lifts up her head and smiles, “are you really?" “yeah,” mj chuckles.

peter smiles at the mess those grown ass adults were making because he was dating someone. he’d have to be ten times more careful now, but it felt good to have people knowing it.

mj squeezes his hand reassuringly and smiles. peter smiles back and kisses her cheek.

all was well.

#spideychelleweek2k19 #spideychelle fic #spideychelle #my writing #michelle jones #peter parker #spider man: far from home #mcu

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howtotrainyouragents · 5 years

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Agent H’s AOS Rewatch

S2E10 “What They Become”

I wrote this out during the actual rewatch week, but I didn’t realize I never posted it! Boy, did this get long.

-I had to do a liveblog of this episode because it’s one of my favorites of the season, and we get SKYE’S TRANSFORMATION!

-Okay, so @the fandom who were around back then: at what point did people guess they were doing a terrigenesis/Inhumans storyline? Because I only learned that’s what they were doing via the internet frenzy after the episode was over

Ward, May, Coulson, and HYDRA

-MAY’S. EPIC. FLYING. FUDGE YYYYEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHH. This is so fucking brilliant of her, dead-dropping the plane and then cloaking.

-”I would put two of these (bullets) in his heads”. Plus, Coulson always looking at the good side: “you saved six agents”. I didn’t do a liveblog of 2x09, but that conversation with Bobbi about acceptable casualties is SO IMPORTANT and vital to who Coulson is and the show overall and you know that’s the moment Bobbi truly supported Coulson.

-Good callback: Before Coulson freaked out that Skye was taken. Now he’s confident that she’ll be able to handle herself until they can get in there.

-”Hand me your side arm, let’s find out”-Skye

-Is Ward’s personality shift (though still a psychopath) this first half of the season because he’s lost without Garrett or because he believes he can be redeemed through helping Skye? Both?

-Yass queen, pick up the diviner

- I loved seeing the bad guys maneuvering around each other in Season 2a, and all of that coming to a head this episode. But I don’t know why Ward and Skye and all attacked and then they just stopped. I think they could have taken the HYDRA goons easily

-“Never turn your back on the enemy.” You know I’m glad Skye shot Ward too. It’s closure on his belief that she can redeem him that’s been carrying him through these last ten episodes.

-I never realized that Agent 33′s voice was distorted

-HYDRA, SHIELD, and the aos writers treated Kara so badly, and I am yelling shame and ringing the bell at all of them.

Hunter and Bobbi

-“If he really is dead, the number of people I trust on this planet, just plummeted.” The Huntingbird hug is so beautiful! How strong Bobbi pretends to be (“Whenever this is all over, I’m gonna cry for like a week”= so real) and how she lets herself go with Hunter. She’s so surprised by the hug at first, and I love how much taller she is than him. He knows about the flashdrive, but he tries to comfort her anyway and that makes me sad and touched.

-”Diego’s early and he’s wearing a suit.”-Bobbi

-The kiss! Ugh, Huntingbird really does fill all the classic OTP tropes

-”Don’t die out there.” “He likes to hear it.” “Who doesn’t like to hear it??”

-”Join SHIELD, travel to excotic distant people, meet exciting unusal people, and kill them” -Hunter

Fitz, Simmons, Tripp, and the Koenigs

-Bahahaha, the Koenigs, His little thumbs up and Hunter rolling his eyes for his life (Hunter would die in the middle of saying something sarcastic, and I will stake my life on that). Also good reuse of the pod units but this time for good (rather than, you know, bottom of the ocean and dying). Sidenote, did we see the pods anytime before Skye gets shot?

-I love Fitzsimmons working together (finally) in the holding cell. I love how the minute they say they’re not gonna work together anymore, they have to work together. Here, they’re so polite but also they’ve got such a natural rhythm. Simmons seems like she wants to talk about them but he’s like oh no, wasn’t talking about myself! Fitz is both back to himself and also gotta new groove (his recovery is going well!). Simmons being genuinely worried for Mack. FITZ’s LOOK OF LOVE

-I only appreciated it on this rewatch, but the show has good continuity of Fitzsimmons/team vs alien tech/bio. They spend majority of season 1 finding 084s and researching their properties and learning how they interact with human biology. Then second season plays off the events of the first season: they’ve seen how many times alien tech/biology is dangerous and they’ve seen it infect and kill so many people. It makes perfect sense why Simmons and the others would be cautious about this alien stuff (Fitz is the loyal one, remembering that this is their friend they’re talking about it and he’s got (blind) faith when it comes to his friends). Season 2 is like introduction to actual aliens (as opposed to relics/artifacts/Asgardians) and how human Inhumans are. Season 3 builds on that further by exploring the good and bad sides of Inhumans.

-I didn’t do a liveblog of the previous episode, but Fitz’s “If you’re looking for vacation time, bribery will get you nowhere. I’ve tried.” is golden. I like the little character traits they give Fitz like, in addition to being a literal genius and all the trauma he’s faced, he’s just a quietly disgruntled SHIELD employee who just wants vacation time and warmer AC (re: season 4)

-Howling Commando gear!!!!!

-Aww, Tripp flirting with Simmons and Fitz is just like…

-The Koenig cloning jokes, hahaha (Poor Tripp)

-First mention of Theta protocol! Dun dun dunnn

-We don’t know what the alien tech is. But Hazmat suits should do the job. :)

-I remember the Fitz splitting off scene being hilarious. Is it because he’s miffed at the flirting, miffed at Simmons, or just genuinely proving that he can do things now?

-Simmons touching Fitz’s arm. And then him holding her later!!!

Cal and Skye

-Cal and Skye’s meeting! This is an emotional, painful reunion.

-I LOVE the actor who plays Cal, he does fantastic job. Seriously how did they get him and Dichen Lachmann to play her parents?? Well done, casting director

-I love that they make Skye biracial just like how Chloe Bennet is and it’s relevant to her storyline

-So to recap Skye’s backstory. Her mother is taken by Whitehall but is released when he gets captures in the 40s. She’s born to her parents, but Whitehall captures Jiaying again. Cal rescues Jiaying, and they return, but HYDRA had already taken Skye as an 084 (?). SHIELD teams led by Audrey then take care of SKye until she is given to an orphanage. Correct?

-”People liked me. I liked myself.” This line deserves much meta

-Teach you about the stars= Inhumans. I love how that’s a total throwaway innocent line, but it all makes sense once you know.

-Just when Skye has figured out life as a SHIELD spy, her world gets rocked again. But I think this path is a good development because she’s not just a regular SHIELD agent: She was born on the outside; learned to think in unusual ways; she’s bubbly and warm and compassionate when SHIELD agents before were typically taught to be rationale and merciless. She’s born to be a new kind of SHIELD agent as well as the bridge between Inhumans and SHIELD

-The lullaby :(

-”Best Day Ever” -Cal

-I mean the emotional manipulation of “After you change I’m the only one who’ll understand” is bad, but he was right in the sense that they all were afraid of her

-Skye wanting to stop the drill and get the obelisk as a way of making it up to Coulson and because she’s a good SHIELD agent. But, like, she knows that’s what her father wanted, so does she just believe she won’t get caught up in whatever is going on? Does she go because fate is pulling her? Does this show believe in fate?? *thinks about all the future time-travelling shenanigans and gets a headache*

THAT ENDING THO

-The thing with Mack presumed dead freaking broke my heart, but it’s a good fake out to blindside us with Tripp’s death.

-IMO, the obelisk is a good fake out for terrigenesis crystals. Even if I knew about Inhumans stuff before hand, I wouldn’t have put it together through what info they give us on the obelisk in previous episodes

-THE TRANSFORMATION. “”WHAT WE BECOME” AKA THE QUESTION THAT WAS ASKED WAY BACK IN SEASON ONE IS FINALLY GETTING ANSWERED. AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH. The chanting, man. Is it the same one we’ve heard before?

- “I gotta admit I’m just the tiniest bit nervous.” I could write an essay on why I love this line.

-SKYE’S TRANSFORMATION. IT’S SO POWERFUL AND SO HEARTBREAKING. THEY’RE BOTH JUST TRYING TO SAVE EACH OTHER. I’M CRYING.

-I probably just need to rewatch this again, but why didn’t anything happen to Tripp when the terrigenesis first activated but then he gets hurt when he gets hit? Like is it the terrigenesis won’t hurt him, but touching the crystals/obelisk will?

-Ya’ll are gonna hate me for this, but... I get why Tripp had to die. Like, it devastated me and still does and its racist and HE DID NOT DESERVE IT. But from the storyline POV, I see why he was chosen to die. Tripp was incorporated into the story in season 1 to replace Ward. We needed an action guy on the team because half the team is non-combat and we needed someone who was genuinely good to balance out the real Ward. But season 2, everyone’s shifted roles. We have Daisy, Hunter, Bobbi who all fill the action roles, so Tripp’s primary role is no longer necessary. He’s (intentionally?) underdeveloped: he does a variety of things, but he’s not filling any one role nor is he vital in any specific relationship, the way Coulson, May, Fitzsimmons, and Skye are, and he doesn’t contribute to the season’s plot the way Hunter, Bobbi, and Mack do. Plus, it’s a really shitty symbolism of how the show is progressing to darker tones by killing of their sunshine boy.

-Anyway, I cant believe they just end like that for a mid-season finale. Top ten moments of superhero genre, without question. Also, is this the first time we here’s Daisy’s theme song? Because I’ve mentioned before how powerful and sad-sounding it is

-GORDON!!!!!!!

#My grouping has either made this less or more confusing #and I can't tell which #I'm sorry #aos #aos s2 #aos rewatch #aos season 2 rewatch #aos s2 rewatch #may #tripp #coulson #ward #skye #daisy #huntingbird #fitzsimmons #agent h #agent aos rewatch #agent report

12 notes · View notes

gigslist · 3 years

Text

24 Film Jobs and Casting Calls - SF and Worldwide

Paid and unpaid. The unpaid gigs looked interesting.

Casting Two Female Actresses For A Short

Location New York City, New York

Genre Action / Adventure

Deadline Aug 14, 2021

Casting two female actresses (height 5'2 to 5'8) race is unimportant, age range 18 to 35 to play leading actor's girlfriend. Script is already written, second half has been shot and edited. This is a pay job. Contact: [email protected] Please only serious inquiries.

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Wanted: 2 Female Actors For Lgbtq Short

Seeking Actor

Location Los Angeles, California and Hollywood, California

Status Development

Type Short film

Genre Female-driven • Romance

Deadline Oct 23, 2021

About the job

WANTED: Two female Actors for LGBTQ Short “My Gabrielle.” Where SAMI (25) shy, poet, androgynous, falls in love with GABRIELLE (23) who is tall, thin, mocha skinned African American beauty. Her hair in long ringlets, (or braids) cascades down her back. Gabrielle is a Las Vegas showgirl and dances in a chorus line. Sami got her MFA in creative writing, is a poet, and drives a motorcycle.

“My Gabrielle” is a 10-page short to be filmed in Hollywood. Two locations. Two actors. Would like to film as soon as possible, but willing to wait to find the perfect actors.

Please email Melissa at: [email protected] with your resume, headshots, and link to your reel.

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Office Assistant

Seeking Assistant Production Office Coordinator

Location Studio City, Los Angeles County, California

Status Post-production

Type Episodic

Genre All genres of TV • Television

Deadline Jan 29, 2022

About the job

DigitalFilm Tree, a post and production veteran

facility in Los Angeles, is a leader in cloud based dailies, remote editorial and finishing, VFX, archival services and on site/in house needs. We are an authority in cyber security for media & entertainment with ongoing R&D efforts that have contributed meaningful software applications to our community. As a multi talented collective of thought leaders, DigitalFilm Tree is hoping to add another super hero to our team - the glue of our team, the Office Assistant!

The role of DFT's Office Assistant encompasses a myriad of duties, from keeping phones, deliveries and pick ups covered, to keeping the facility sanitized every hour for the health and safety of our minimal on site staff, while pivoting quickly when one of those staff members has an urgent or client facing need. This role will also directly support and be an extension of our Chief Operations Officer who supports and serves every single department - flexibility, fast on your feet, clear and concise communication are critical to this role. If you love ''The West Wing,'' you're going to love working with our COO. Seriously, don't be shy about sending your long winded essays about the critical role Charlie played in the Bartlet Administration.

Soft Skills we seek:

• Interdisciplinary: meaning we all possess more than one strength across the scope of facility needs (i.e. our CTO is also our Senior Colorist, our Director of Content is also an authority in billing and data security, our Online Editor is also one of our content producers, etc.)

• Clear Communicator: Context is incredibly important to us. Because of the large scope of innovation we put forward, teams could easily lose track of what hand is doing that impacts the other. We prioritize efficiency, but never at the cost of leaving anyone in the dark.

• Endlessly Curious: While we respect the advancement being made outside of DFT, we know we have an incredibly gifted team of people in house who are and have built some of the most progressive M&E platforms in use on cutting edge shows. So we're constantly learning, building, breaking, battle testing and imagining new solutions for our client partners and do our best to remain brand and workflow agnostic.

What we're looking for in this role (in addition to comfort with the above):

Working in a fast-paced and busy facility, the Office Assistant is responsible for managing the heavy rotation of calls, deliveries, upkeep of common areas, ordering lunches, planning office events (on site and remote) to honor staff birthdays, holidays, etc. They also manage supplies for facilities management like kitchen, bathroom and printing needs.

Responsibilities Include:

• Significant project management in keeping track of receipts, office supplies, team preferences, birthdays, in bound deliveries (like media drives and machinery) and ensuring we never run out of supplies for the kitchen, bathroom, printers, and basic office supplies (i.e. pens, paper, post its, etc.)

• Phones - you are both a gate keeper, protecting the time of all those on site, as well as the very first or only touch point someone may have with our company. How you speak to people matters and we need to know we can trust you with our people and how we're being represented to anyone turning to us for support.

• Security Cameras and property awareness falls to the Office Assistant who is one set of eyes on our cameras. You'll alert various team members should their be an issue on property, you'll issue guests security badges (when we actually have guests again), and you'll be mindful of our neighborhood to ensure we're being a good member of our tiny Cahuenga community.

• Learn. Yep, that's a responsibility. We cannot teach ambition. Most folks at DFT have grown immensely from their first day to where they are now, with a large number of our team having been with us for over a decade. The number one responsibility of any DFT'er is to stay curious. Every single job here matters. Every single job here supports someone else on the team. We are interdependent and interdisciplinary.

• Covid Safety Protocols: You temperature check every employee and guest to DFT as well as sanitize surfaces and door handles every hour. You handle and sanitize inbound packages (packages are placed on the floor inside our door by vendors and you use a sanitizing spray gun to disinfect before touching with gloves). You ensure that everyone in office is wearing a mask at all times unless alone behind a closed door (most folks have a door at DFT).

• Billing Support: the Office Assistant provides a necessary hand to our accounting department, by facilitating weekly scanning and filing of financial documents, managing and filing receipts, and copying/scanning any additional financial documentation required.

• Honoring and supporting team members. Their birthdays should matter to you deeply. This is a hard enough time to try and connect, we want to make sure that our people know they're seen, valued and cared for - not everyone loves a big hulabaloo, but everyone does appreciate knowing they matter.

• Coffee. We cannot stress this enough. You're going to need to make a mean cup of coffee. This office is full of admitted coffee snobs with a borderline consumption problem.

• Lunches, Dinners, Catering - you'll be responsible for our twice weekly on site lunches (which may increase to 3x during busier seasons) and dinners for those working late - both lunches and dinners are also often extended to our team working from home, so you'll place orders you never see, but also need to check in with staff after delivery to ensure all went well and they're not left to solve for issues with their meals. Catering and holiday meals are generally organized through a vendor for us to offer as a pick up and re/heat at home (i.e. Thanksgiving were meals from Gelson's catering, Christmas we offered Whole Foods meals and ensure GF, Vegan, Allergies are accounted for with each person). Food is a love language we take seriously.

Experience & Education:

• High end hospitality background preferred.

• Media & Entertainment background a strong plus.

• Billing or accounting strengths are helpful.

• Direct support of a management role - having to anticipate needs - very helpful.

• Project management experience a strong plus.

If the above sounds like you and you're looking to join one of the strongest and most innovative teams in town, we'd love to hear from you!

Compensation: Range and categorization (salary versus hourly) DOE Dog friendly office / Fully or mostly paid

health insurance (depends on your choice of plan) / PTO One Medical service for ongoing Covid tests as well as virtual care and dedicated, on time visits with on site labs / Parking / Twice a week fitness sessions (virtual w/ trainer) / WFH often possible / Lunch provided 2-3x per week.

Please attach your resume and tell us a bit about yourself in the email. It would help us to know:

1) What is the most effective way you've found to show people you care and are genuinely interested in supporting their goals?

2) Are you comfortable working on site, regularly sanitizing surfaces, providing your Covid vaccination card and taking Covid tests?

3) What is one movie you think best represents what it means to be a great team player and/or assistant?

======================================

Actor

Seeking Actor

Location San Antonio, Texas

Status Production

Type Episodic

Genre Comedy

Deadline Aug 6, 2021

About the job

Casting call. Unpaid but will get IMDB credit. Looking for a real-life acting couple to play these parts below.

Filming in San Antonio, TX but you can be located in any city as filming will be done remotely.

Mr. Campbell-30s to 40s. Socially awkward. He is trying to be more confident in the bedroom with his wife but he’s a little frightened by her.

Mrs. Campbell-30s to 40s. Bubbly and very outgoing. Loves her husband but annoyed he doesn’t want to indulge in her solicitous bedroom antics.

Email your headshot, reel and resume to [email protected] and [email protected]

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Videographer

Seeking Videographer

Location Montréal, Canada

Status Production

Type Internet project

Genre Documentary / Docuseries

Deadline Sep 7, 2021

About the job

Looking for a videographer with equipment for a web docuseries. The details are:

Estimated shooting days: 5.

Estimated schedule: September 3rd to September 7th.

Location: Montréal, Canada

Task: Filming and derush of minor corrections of files if necessary.

Includes: Rental, installation, and handling of equipment.

Please send portfolio and cv at [email protected]

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Crew Up And Create A New Entertainment Source

Seeking Crew, Actor, Editor and Director of Marketing & Distribution

Location Washington, D. C., Los Angeles, California, San Francisco, California and New York City, New York

Status Development

Type Internet project

Genre News

Deadline Jan 28, 2022

About the job

Hey Everyone,

I am looking to build an Entertainment News source with a hungry team that wants to create something that would be also theirs. I am looking for Anchors, writers, editors, and more to help create this vision. With 20 years of working with networks, I have access to footage, interviews, and behind-the-scenes content that will make our channel unique and stand out. I would love to set up a small crew for a meeting and talk about what we can build together.

This position isn't paid but all would have equal rights to the project and as the project grows and creates monetization, we'd all share equally.

I am doing this because I love storytelling and would like to have a channel that would focus more on the art and not on the "Jen and Ben are back together!" moments.

I've done a soft launch test on Facebook: https://fb.watch/715u4FsSDu/

========================================

Vfx-Artists For Star Wars Fan Film In Denmark

Seeking Compositor, Concept Artist, Storyboard Artist and Visual Effects Artist

Location Copenhagen, Denmark

Status Post-production

Type Pilot

Genre Action / Adventure • Drama • Fantasy • Sci-Fi • Indie • Independent

Deadline Sep 8, 2021

About the job

SHROUDED DESTINY: A STAR WARS LONG TALE - FAN PRODUCTION IS LOOKING FOR VFX-ARTISTS, CONCEPT ARTISTS AND MORE! (PRO BONO):

What is this?

"Shrouded Destiny: A Star Wars Long Tale" is the world's biggest independent fan film made in Denmark!

With more than 350 volunteers having lent their talents to the making of this 70 minutes pilot episode, this is an unsolicited pitch to Lucasfilm and Disney in the effort to get a meeting with the topfolks at Lucasfilm to meet myself and the producers to create an entirely original story in the Star Wars Universe!

Starring actors like International Emmy-Award winner, Lars Mikkelsen (House of Cards, Sherlock Holmes, Ride Upon The Storm); stunt performer Laûren Okadigbo (Justice Leauge, Wonder Woman, Krypton, Ready Player One); Magnus Bruun (The Last Kingdom, Assassin's Creed: Valhalla) and others, the fan film is a "pilot" aimed at showing the visual style and storyline in a small part of the planned 8-season storyline that takes place in the years 550-510 BBY. Imagine the scale of Game of Thrones; the meticulousness of The Wire, and the dysfunctional family relations of Breaking Bad spiced with the violence of The Raid, and you have an idea of what this film is all about.

What do you need?

We've finished filming and are currently looking to recruit people in two areas: Immediate post production and creating illustrations for a Virtual Production Pitch Presentation.

The post work includes things like:

Keying

Matchmoving / camera tracking

Houdini DOPs

All-round compositors

If you have skills in these departments, why not send our VFX-supervisor, Peter Rongsted, an e-mail at [email protected] with an application?

We really want to engage people who are ambitious about their lives and their careers and are willing to set the time matching said ambitions to come work with us. This is a stepping stone for so many of us on this production and we're eager to make it a stepping stone for as many people as possible! Like every single soul working on this production, it is an unpaid assignment.

If you don't fit into the post-production categories we're looking for right now, send an email anyway. We're sure we'll be able to find something for you anyway.

For the Virtual Production Pitch, we're looking to emulate the style of "Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj", where illustrations of characters and environments are playing in the back, as we present the story of the film.

It's an insanely ambitious endeavor and we hope that you as an illustrator, concept artist or Storyboard Artist can see the logic of being attached to a project, where the end goal is to have your work seen by the biggest folks in the film industry.

If you feel like this could be something down your alley, send an email to: [email protected] and we'll continue the conversation there. :-)

What do I get out of this?

Since a paycheck currently isn't in play, this project has to make sense to you on a different scale.

We want to put this film out this year (Covid has already post-poned it more than a year) and this will offer you credits on a film that will most likely be viewed by millions of people via YouTube, since we're not selling this film, but merely working on a very over-zealous proof of concept.

So you're in that point of your career, where you have the talent and time, but don't have the jobs right now and are looking to add things to your portfolio and you're not afraid to put forth ideas that you believe will strengthen the final product.

Whatever time you have to offer, we'll gladly take, whether it's a few hours a day, a week or full-time commitment, we appreciate you. :-)

You might just also be a really huge Star Wars fan and are ambitious of one day working for Disney or Lucasfilm and want to be able to get an in somehow. This project might be it, if you're not in the near vicinity of getting hired by a company working for them. :-)

=========================================

Actors, Sound

Seeking Actor, Boom Operator and Makeup Artist

Location Anchorage, Alaska

Status Pre-production

Type Episodic

Genre Horror

Deadline Jan 19, 2022

About the job

Hi, this is strictly for fun. Just throwing this out there to see if anyone's interested with date TBA. We've just finished a fun, short horror film that we're proud of & would like to shoot a web series from it. We've already got quite a few eps written. Think Supernatural meets Stranger Things. *Actors need comic timing. This is not a paid job, but food will be provided. You must be in the area, have training at least. We prefer experienced actors. We have an experienced crew & equipment. The set will be 100% safe. Please tell anyone you think might be interested! Thanks.

Contact me at: [email protected] - Kym

=====================================

Screenwriter Looking For Fellow Screenwriter

Seeking Screenwriter

Location Chicago, Illinois, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, Wheaton, Illinois and Downers Grove, Illinois

Status

Genre Thriller / Suspense / Mystery

Deadline Jan 23, 2022

About the job

Screenwriter available with whom I can collaboratewith Seeking to team up with someone to come up with new ideas, Putting strong hook in five pages.of the script looking for a fresh perspective for my ideas

50/50 split. writing new Movie Script. I have allots of new ideas for that.

If interested you can massage me here or Email me [email protected] or any other location you are at.

======================================

Texas Snowstorm Victims

Seeking Actor and Crew

Location San Antonio, Texas, Austin, Texas, Dallas, Texas and Houston, Texas

Status Pre-production

Type Documentary

Genre Historical / Biopic / True-stories

Deadline Sep 1, 2021

About the job

Looking for REAL PEOPLE who were impacted by the Texas Snowstorm 2021 for documentary to be shot in early September.

AND CREW.

Message [email protected]

=====================================

Writer For Science Fiction Tv Show For Stream

Seeking Screenwriter

Location Brooklyn, New York

Status Development

Type Television

Genre Drama • Sci-Fi • Television

Deadline Aug 15, 2021

About the job

New York Production Company is seeking an experienced TELEVISION writer that writes Dramatic Science Fiction and who can think outside of the box. . This is NOT A REMOTE JOB. We are located in Brooklyn, NY and you will be required to report to location for the writer's room/ work each day. For this job, there is no zoom interview and it is not a zoom job, you would have to come in person for the interview. On-site Hours: Monday-Friday, 11am-7pm This project lasts for 1 month. Compensation: $660 per week We cannot stress enough that this is NOT a remote job. We need someone as soon as possible, ready to work, with open availability. If you have any doubts, please do not apply. Qualifications: - Must have at least 5-6 years experience writing drama and SciFi - Must have at least 5 years of experience writing for SERIES! as member of the writing team, you will be working to complete the entire first season of a SciFi television show for online streaming. This means you MUST: -Be able to write, organize, and intertwine multiple plot lines and character arcs in a way that is real, appealing, and that does not create plot holes. -Be fantastic at scene creation. -Be meticulous with taking notes. We depend on our writers to accurately follow and update series bibles. Whatever is verbally created in writer's room meetings MUST make it onto paper! -Be punctual! Arrive on time for work each day and meet all deadlines. -Be creative, openminded, and a team player. -All writing, but especially something as fantastical as science fiction, works best when the writer is able to open their mind to all possibilities. - You must be ego-free, and be able to throw an idea out completely in order to facilitate a better one. Please submit Cover Letter, Resume, Samples of your EPISODIC work to [email protected]

=================================================

Screenwriter

Seeking Screenwriter

Location East Lansing, Michigan

Status Development

Type Short film

Genre All genres, all formats.

Deadline Sep 17, 2021

About the job

OVERVIEW: The Department of Theatre is looking for original short film script submissions for consideration of production in May of 2022. This is an annual film production opportunity in collaboration with the students and faculty of the Department of Theatre. If selected, your script will go through the entire production process: Development, Pre-Production, Principle Photography, Post-Production, and Distribution (submitted for film festivals in the professional category.)

You are expected to be available (either in person or via video conference) for two development meetings in Fall Semester 2021, and one in early Spring Semester 2022. These are primarily for script notes, which are also expected to be addressed.

Submissions will be accepted now through September 15th, 2021.

SCRIPT GUIDELINES: Scripts should be between 10 - 20 pages in standard screenplay format. There must be 7-10 roles in the film (think ensemble pieces). The characters should be aged between 16 - 30 years old. No driving with dialogue scenes. Some stunts are okay, but should be relatively limited. Limited special effects requirements. Limited visual effects requirements. No period pieces at this time. Open to a variety of genres or styles as long as it adheres to the guidelines above.

SELECTION PROCESS: Each script will be read by the Film Initiative Selection Panel. Final notifications will be made by October 15th 2021.

COMPENSATION: The writer of the selected script will receive a $500 honorarium.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS: Please complete the Form Submission (https://forms.gle/koH25cp6BkA7...) and attach your screenplay with no identifying information. These are blind submissions, meaning, the pdf of your script should not have your name on the cover sheet or any other part of the document. Make sure your script includes a title page with the title of the film only. Global majority, female, and LGBTQI+ strongly encouraged to apply.

If you have any questions, please email Ryan: [email protected]

================= ========================

Voice Over Artists And Actors

Seeking Voice Artist

Location Paris, France

Status Post-production

Type Feature film

Genre Drama • Female-driven • Horror

Deadline Sep 1, 2021

About the job

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for V.O artists, actors or anyone willing to help me out on my first feature "CONFINED" (you can check out the movie on my page for more infos), entirely funded with personal funds.

- I have 9 positions to fill (male or female) for American-English V.O: Journalist 1 (3 Lines) / Journalist 2 (3 Lines) / Journalist 3 (5 Lines) / Paranoid Dude (4 Lines) / US Official (4 Lines) / Journalist 4 (6 Lines) / Journalist 5 (5 Lines) / Evangelist ( 6 Lines) / Journalist 6 (4 Lines)

- I have 2 positions to fill (male or female) for Asian (can be any Asian language) V.O: Journalist 1 (2 Lines) / Asian Official (1 Line).

If you're interested by the roles, please contact me on here or at [email protected]

Thanks so much in advance for your help.

Louis.

========================

Development And/Or Creative Executives - Pane

Seeking Director of Marketing & Distribution

Location Miami, Florida

Status Development

Genre All genres, all formats.

Deadline Aug 30, 2021

About the job

FILMSTOCK EVENTS "where talent meets opportunity"

FILMSTOCK is the first of it's kind as the only industry expo offering in person meetings with agents, casting directors, film distributors, show runners and vendors and other industry professionals. Our date for the first annual FILMSTOCK is set for November 13th 2021 right in the middle of the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF).

Our vision is not a Sundance or a Tribecca Film Festival but a Business Industry Expo which I know is the first of it's kind. I am not talking about a networking event where everyone there is simply talking nonsense claiming to be in the business.

I am talking about professional and industry leaders from Photographers, Videographers, Industry Organizations, Graphic Artists, Make-up, Wardrobe, Set Design, Casting Directors, Soundstage Production House owner / operators, Kraft food services, executive transportation services, etc. These individuals / vendors will all be in the main lobby area where they have each purchased a table for the day at a cost of $79. Tables are standard six foot table with access to power, where they will display a banner ad or backdrop.

SPEEDCASTING -We are the first to offer a face to face live in person slate where Actors pay a fee to do a 10 minute monologue or just who they are to a panel (2 to 4) of Casting Directors and Agents. 3 hours 1pm to 4pm allows us 18 Actors to do their thing in front of the pros to hopefully get picked up. When an Actor registers he / she must upload a media bin, headshots, resume and if they plan on performing a monologue it cannot exceed 5 minutes.

PITCHFEST - Same as above only now we have independent film makers pitching their project. They have already registered with a Treatment, Teaser, etc and they get 10 minutes to tell their story in hopes that a panel (2 to 4) of Distributors / Investor Producers may just give them a shot. Same time slots of 10 minutes each over 3 hours same = 18 pitches.

We have broken down the above with a general admission day ticket $25. All Access VIP ticket for $199 and in between for those interested in only the Pitchfest or Speedcasting a lower priced ticket. Door Prizes / raffle of high end electronics already in house donated from industry related companies such as Lume Cube.

NOTE - we are compensating the above professionals each $100.00 for their time on site open to close 12 noon to 4 pm paid at days end and they must be on site before 12 noon call time to set up .

Between social media, the coordination and support from FLIFF we expect a few hundred in attendance between 11 am and 4 pm that day.

Sara Rogers is our CEO and has a huge following in the industry with over 40 years experience. Also included in this email is Rion Heldibridle our CFO and actively involved with Artserve in Sunrise Florida where the event will take place on Saturday November 13, 2021 along with Lou Silver, the COO with over 30 years experience in marketing and promotion and business development.

Lou Silver, COO (954) 895-5801

Sara Roger, CE0 (786) 247-7761

FILMSTOCK EVENTS

==================

Help With Writing Script

Seeking Screenwriter

Location Mission Viejo, California and Los Angeles, California

Status Development

Type Television

Genre Drama

Deadline Dec 17, 2021

About the job

I need help writing my script. If you know anyone who can help me out, I’d appreciate it. You can reach me at +13108632713 or [email protected]

===================

Cast, Crew and Admin Wanted

LocationLos Angeles, California StatusDevelopment TypeFeature film GenreSci-Fi • Action • Romance

The storyline

One day a young man discovered the meaning of Kleroterion, the ancient Greek model of elections of the rulers. From that point on, he tries to rearm “The Kleroterion” based on an Artificial Intelligence.

Actors

Development department

Production management department

Craft department

Technical department

Post-production department

Sales and distribution department

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScXOGVN93x60UHa-GSxV1-T58blaHT1QaSA_EApyGLtl_BdjA/viewform

=================

Dop And Editor (Collaboration Only)

Seeking Director of Photography

Location Guwāhāti, India

Status Development

Type Feature film

Genre Drama • Female-driven • Independent • Romance

Deadline Aug 31, 2021

About the job

Hi, I am all set to shoot my second feature film "MINI" by second half this year . Looking for DOP and editor who can come as collaborators only . I can give rights accordingly . Feel free to write to me at [email protected] for more details .

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7961313/

========================

Nonbinary Social Media Take On Romeo & Juliet

Seeking Screenwriter

Location Los Gatos, California, New York City, New York and Los Angeles, California

Status Development

Type Episodic

Genre Drama • Romance

Deadline Nov 25, 2021

About the job

SEARCHING FOR WRITER TO TACKLE NON-TRADITIONAL TAKE ON ROMEO & JULIET

I’m the Director of Content Development for Sideway - an innovative new streaming service that uses the mechanics of social media to tell fictional stories - and we are looking for a writer to develop a new, gender nonconforming version of Romeo and Juliet for our platform. If you have any kind of direct, personal connection to nonconforming gender praxis, or fall anywhere on the LGBTIAQ+ spectrum, this is the gig for you. If you are a straight white guy, probably not.

A little more about the platform itself: Sideway is a mobile-only app that resembles a social media app in how it’s navigated, but populated by fictional characters rather than real people. Each show on Sideway takes place within an entirely simulated social world, complete with video chats, DMs, posts, likes, comments, all of which make up the stories told.

In bringing this new version of Romeo & Juliet to life, we are hoping to retain as much of the original text as possible, while at the same time not being sacred about prudent dramatic changes. That said, the framework of the story - the setting, character relationships, world and texture - are entirely up to you. It needs to be set in the present day, given the nature of the app itself, but all other aspects of the story are open to creative interpretation.

Please submit resume and a brief pitch to [email protected]. Am happy to discuss the concept, platform, compensation and expectations further, and answer any and all questions.

Happy writing!

==================

Open Theatre Auditions: Ben Hur (Brixham, Dev

Seeking Actor

Location Brixham, United Kingdom

Status Production

Type Theatre

Genre Action / Adventure • History • Faith-based / Inspirational • Drama

Deadline Aug 29, 2021

About the job

OPEN THEATRE AUDITIONS We are casting all roles in a regionally touring, plus globally streamed production of Ben Hur Auditions for all roles on Sunday August 29th 2021, at 1pm onwards at our home rehearsal base of Chestnut Community Centre, 1-3 Poplar Close, Brixham TQ5 0SA (this is as long as Covid restrictons allow. If they do not, we will be conducting alternative auditions online using Zoom) * Actors must be based in/ near Devon, UK. (Rehearsals - as long as Covid allows - are in Brixham, Devon), * All roles open for casting. * Paid profitshare as minimum (funding for higher cast/crew payments actively being sought) plus portfolio material. * Many roles being cast "genderblind". * All ethnicities needed and welcomed. *We do not charge you anything to audition or work with us. Download the full audition information pack from https://www.southdevonplayers.com/auditions.html SYNOPSIS: Based on the famous novel by Lew Wallace, and brought to life by strong, memorable characters, both male and female, Ben Hur is set in the first century AD. Judah Ben Hur, a young nobleman of Jerusalem, a city under the occupation of the Roman Empire, is framed for the attempted murder of the Roman governor, by his erstwhile closest boyhood friend, Massala, now a Roman commander. Sentenced to life as a galley slave; a sentence which usually led to death within months, Judah survives, and after a pirate attack on the Roman navy in the Agean sea, travels to Rome a hero, having saved the life of the Roman commander in his escape. He once more returns to Jerusalem, seeking his mother and sister, who were imprisoned for the same attack, and finds no trace of them. He does however, find Massala, and blinded by rage, challenges Massala at the annual Roman “games”. Massala is killed in the Games, with his dying breath, reveals to Judah that his mother and sister were in fact released and driven from the city as lepers. With all hope, and all lust for revenge, gone, Judah is lost, but fate is not finished with him. He eventually finds his mother and sister, who are miraculously healed by a preacher, who has recently come to the city. A historical action drama set in Biblical times, interwoven with the life and death of Jesus Christ, who appears twice in the drama, this is ultimately a powerful tale of hope and love, set within the dramatic and often brutal times of the Roman Empire. We are a female-led theatre company based in the beautiful fishing port of Brixham, in Southwest England, to create top quality local opportunities for local creatives to create work in theatre, and to bring new productions to audiences across the South of England. Founded in 2005. Creating internationally awardwinning theatre based on historical events (including new writing) and stage adaptations of classical literature. Breaking down barriers to participating in theatre for actors, crew, and audiences alike. We love to hear from new prospective actors, creatives and audiences at any time, regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, or experience. www.southdevonplayers.com www.facebook.com/sdevonplayers www.twitter.com/sdevonplayers email: [email protected]

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Actors: Act From Home - Online Table Reads

Seeking Actor

Location Los Angeles, California, New York City, New York, Chicago, Illinois and London, England

Status Development

Type Live event

Deadline Sep 12, 2021

About the job

ONLINE TABLE READS - We pay actors to bring scripts to life! Your voice can help a writer experience their work in a different way. Does the dialogue work? Do the twists and turns actual twist and turn?

Go to https://onlinetableread.com/ to apply for ongoing positions.

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Screenwriter Writing Partner

Seeking Screenwriter

Location Chicago, Illinois and Wheaton, Illinois

Status

Genre Thriller / Suspense / Mystery

Deadline Sep 11, 2021

About the job

Someone I know seeking Writing Partner is asking to bonce ideas back and fourth. Make script workable putting strong hook in 5 pages. Make script vary intresting.

If intrested send me email [email protected] ty

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Dancer And Performer

Seeking Dancer

Location San Francisco, California

Status Pre-production

Type Music video

Genre Music • Musical • Indie • Experimental • Fantasy • Mystery

Deadline Sep 11, 2021

About the job

Hi everyone,

I am directing and producing a music video for an indie singer and songwriter. I am looking to find female and male dancers (ballet or modern dance).

If you are interested in collaborating, please contact me.

[email protected]

Niloo Asadi

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Editor For A Short Teaser

Seeking Editor

Location Stockholm, Sweden

Status Pre-production

Type Promo

Genre Crime

Deadline Sep 10, 2021

About the job

Looking for an editor with great skills and has significant experience.

We will be shooting a promo of 1-2 min length ( Max ) If you have a editing reel please send it.

Open to worldwide applicants.

Send to [email protected]

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Actors

Seeking Actor

Location Denver, Colorado

Status Pre-production

Type Short film

Genre Horror

Deadline Oct 31, 2021

About the job

Dark Park Films Presents: Reign of Vibrant Screams: Tales of Cosmic Horror Director- Gino Alfonso Ginome Films Fresh Cola Four preteen friends go out in search for a new hot soda, called Fresh Cola with some bizarre side effects Short - Unpaid This is for an anthology series that will be released in January filming for 2 days sometime in Nov - (masks will be worn on set when not shooting and six feet apart and temperatures will be taken upon arrival on set) Need - kids ages 12 Mia - Hispanic - 12 Chris - African-American - 12 Jake - Caucasian - 12 (sandy blond hair) Katie (Jake’s sister) 12 (sandy blonde hair) Mom (30’s) of Jake and Katie Dad (30’s) of Jake and Katie Curtis - Store clerk any age adult any ethnicity Please email headshot/resume and if you have a reel - to [email protected]

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0 notes

recentanimenews · 4 years

Text

Star Trek: Lower Decks – 02 – Sam of All Trades

I recently watched the TNG episode “Time Squared”, which featured a lot of sweet shuttlebay porn. The Enterprise-D’s shuttlebay is gleaming and spotless, but that’s just where the shuttles land. We never saw the dirtier storage and maintenance facility, but that’s the part of the Cerritos we get to see in just the second episode, where Ensign Boimler gloats about being assigned to co-pilot a shuttle escorting a decorated Klingon general to his diplomatic appointment.

Meanwhile, it’s become clear Ensign Rutherford has developed a bit of a crush on Ensign Tendi—can you blame him?—but his grueling engineering duty schedule conflicts with a date to watch an astronomical phenomenon. In order to make that date (he considers it beneath a Starfleet officer to go back on his word), he quits the Engineering division. Seems kinda rash!

Boimler could never have predicted a slacker like Ensign Mariner would not only be his shuttle co-pilot, but also old friends with the general they’re escorting, a closeness made clear when in the middle of introducing himself to the general, Mariner pounces on him and the two have a brief knife fight.

By-the-book diplomatic protocol and theory are fine, but Starfleet is just as much about who you know than what. The resulting shuttle ride is predictably chaotic as Mariner exploits the fact the general is a lightweight when it comes to bloodwine.

He’s passed out by the time they land in the Klingon district to grab him some local Gagh, but before they know it he’s “behind the wheel” and taking the shuttle for a joyride without them. With transport and ship-to-shore comms not an option due to the properties of the planet’s atmosphere, they’ll have to track him down on foot.

In a hilarious demonstration of how nice and understanding the vast majority of Starfleet officers are, Rutherford’s commanding officer is perfectly fine with him exploring other divisions. Things don’t go well with command, however, as Rutherford manages to muck up a basic holodeck command simulation that theoretically shouldn’t be muck-up-able.

Feeling that perhaps there’s some continuity to be found in the great engineering project that is the human body, Rutherford tries his hand at being a nurse, only to find his bedside manner is non-existent. We also observe how Tendi’s bubbly personality serves her well in calming and reassuring the patient Rutherford wound up.

Boimler once again exposes his greenness when it comes to missions on worlds other than Earth and Vulcan (which shouldn’t even count!) when they reach the Risian district. He’s suddenly seduced by an human-looking woman who turns out to be an alien interested in depositing eggs in his throat. Thankfully Mariner has his back…and a hose!

She has it again when Boimler recklessly jumps into the middle of a dispute in an Andorian bar he knows nothing about. Things escalate quickly into a big Alien Bar Fight (a Trek standard, to be sure) but cool (and thirsty) heads prevail when Mariner offers to pay for the next five rounds if everyone agrees to stop fighting.

Now that’s Starfleet—inadvertently starting fights, then amicably ending them. But Boimler starts to lose hope that he ever had a chance to be a Starfleet captain, and tosses his combadge in a puddle.

The last division Rutherford tries is security, and to the surprise of both himself and the buff Bajoran chief, his cybernetic implants give make him the perfect fit for security, as he dispatches a squad of holographic Borg without breaking a sweat, letting the implants do their thing.

Still, after a day(?) of trying out new career paths, all it takes is one glance at an open Jefferies Tube—spotless and gleaming—for him to politely turn down the offer to job the “bear pack”. Like the chief engineer, the security chief is supportive and happy for Rutherford.

Back on the planet, Mariner and Boimler encounter a shifty, Gollum-like Ferengi offering transport. Boimler is suspicious, but Mariner tells him she’s “pretty sure he’s a Bolian” and that he should listen to her since they haven’t let them astray yet. But when the Ferengi betrays them by pulling a knife, Boimler phasers it out of his hand, saving Mariner.

Once they learn the Klingon general safely reached the embassy, Boimler and Mariner return to the Cerritos. Despite asking to keep events between them, Boimler ends up telling everyone at the bar how Mariner confused a Ferengi for a Bolian. We later learn that the Ferengi was another friend of Mariner’s, who put on a performance in order to restore Boimler’s confidence.

As for Rutherford, he learns that Tendi wasn’t going to hold it against him for not watching the pulsar from a window—and certainly wasn’t something to quit the job he loves about! Instead, she joins him in the tubes and watches it on a PADD, in a very cute cozy scene of budding friendship.

Star Trek episodes don’t always have A and B-plots running side by side, but they’re definitely a common occurrence among the hundreds of episodes of television in the franchise. I felt both A and B worked well here, with the on-ship/off-ship plots complementing the characters and served as backdrops for their development. Tendi definitely got the short end of the stick this week, but she’ll no doubt be the focus of an episode (or an A or B plot of one) soon.

Stray Obervations:

The cold open features another TNG classic: the alien intruder depicted as a bright point of light. In this case, it’s one that is weak enough to be placed in a hold by Mariner, who threatens to stuff it in a canister unless it creates the cool new tricorder model that has a purple stripe…and a power crystal!

Mariner’s little singing but about the shuttle’s blast shield was as awful here as it was in the previews that made me initially weary of this show. Thankfully it and scenes like it are the exception and not the rule.

That said, why did she have so many bowls of broth, and why was it spilled all over the consoles? I know, I know…“it’s a cartoon!”

Boimler really was presenting himself to that Klingon general all wrong. Standing too far away and speaking too softly are both considering insulting.

The senior officers looking ready to get angry only to be totally understanding and supportive was a an example of why I love this show: even though it borrows so much from a franchise I know back to front, it can still surprise me!

Another practice that, while true to Trek, I found a bit problematic, was the alien stereotyping by Boimler and Mariner. Mariner’s barb about Klingons smelling bad was pretty cringey. As for Boimler ragging on Ferengi…Dude, the Alpha quadrant would have been lost to the Dominion without Quark and Rom!

At least the Ferengi dude was acting all “TNG first season” on purpose…IRL he wears a monacle!

As someone who does not mind tight enclosed spaces (as long as I can get out of them of course!) I always loved the Jefferies tubes growing up…even if they made no sense. You’re in space! Just make the ship big enough so the tubes are regular height!

I am so here for all the alien representation these past two episodes. Due to budgets, previous Trek crews were overwhelmingly human, which made the Federation feel small.

By: sesameacrylic

#Anime #News #RABUJOI – An Anime Blog

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calzona-ga · 4 years

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She might change her mind; she certainly has before. But midway through an interview, Ellen Pompeo casually drops the bomb that after more than 360 episodes, the upcoming 17th season of “Grey’s Anatomy” may be its last.

“We don’t know when the show is really ending yet,” Pompeo says, answering a question that was not at all about when the show might end. “But the truth is, this year could be it.”

Pompeo has played Meredith Grey — the superstar surgeon around whom “Grey’s Anatomy” revolves — since its start. The show, created by Shonda Rhimes, premiered on ABC on March 27, 2005, and became an immediate, noisy hit. Since then, for a remarkably long time in Hollywood years, the drama has been among the most popular series on TV, even as the landscape of television has changed seismically. At its Season 2 ratings height, the program drew an average audience of 20 million viewers. And all these years later — in a TV universe now divided by more than 500 scripted shows —“Grey’s” ranks as the No. 1 drama among 18- to 34- year-olds and No. 2 among adults 18 to 49. In delayed, multiplatform viewing, Season 16 averaged 15 million viewers.

Strikingly, technology is such that teenagers who were born when the show premiered, and later binged “Grey’s” on Netflix, watch new episodes live with their parents. The series has spawned two successful spinoffs for ABC, “Private Practice” (which ran from 2007 to 2013) and “Station 19” (which enters its fourth season this fall). “Grey’s Anatomy” has been licensed in more than 200 territories across the world, translated into more than 60 languages, and catapulted the careers of music artists — from Ingrid Michaelson and Snow Patrol to Tegan and Sara and the Fray — whose songs have played during key emotional sequences.

In its explosive initial success, “Grey’s Anatomy” was an insurgent force in popular culture. The Season 1 cast featured three Black actors — Chandra Wilson, James Pickens Jr. and Isaiah Washington — as doctors in positions of power at the Seattle hospital where the show is set, and Sandra Oh played the ambitious intern Cristina Yang, who would become Meredith’s best friend. For the women characters, the “Grey’s” approach to sex was defiant and joyful, starting in the pilot with Meredith’s one-night stand with Derek (Patrick Dempsey), who turned out to be one of her bosses at the hospital.

Rhimes presented these images to the world like they were no big deal, when in fact, nothing like “Grey’s” had ever been seen on network television. Krista Vernoff has been the “Grey’s Anatomy” showrunner since Season 14, as anointed by Rhimes, and was the head writer for the first seven seasons. She remembers the moment she realized how radical “Grey’s” was — a medical show driven entirely by its characters instead of their surgeries — as she watched an episode early in Season 1. “My whole body was covered in chills,” Vernoff recalls. “I was like, ‘Oh, we thought we were making a sweet little medical show — and we’re making a revolution.’”

Still, no one expected “Grey’s Anatomy” to become the longest-running primetime medical drama in TV history, outlasting “MASH” and “ER,” the previous record-holder. Since 2005, “Grey’s” has inspired countless women to become doctors, and along the way, its depiction of illness has even saved a few lives. The show has remained popular through three presidential administrations, the Great Recession, tectonic shifts in how people watch TV and two cultural reckonings — one feminist, one anti-racist — that demonstrate how ahead of its time “Grey’s Anatomy” has always been.

And they’re not done yet. When Season 17 premieres on Nov. 12, “Grey’s Anatomy” will tackle the subject of the coronavirus as experienced by the doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial, all while filming under strict COVID-19 protocols. The season is dedicated to frontline workers. And Pompeo, a producer on “Grey’s” — whose Meredith has removed a live bomb from a patient’s body, was in a plane crash, was widowed after Derek died in a car accident, was beaten nearly to death by a patient and, in a separate incident, actually did die briefly after a ferry accident — is intent on making the show top itself once again.

“I’m constantly fighting for the show as a whole to be as good as it can be. As a producer, I feel like I have permission to be able to do that,” Pompeo says. “I mean, this is the last year of my contract right now. I don’t know that this is the last year? But it could very well could be.”

Pompeo has been refreshingly transparent about her fight to become the highest-paid female actor on television, having detailed a few years ago how she negotiated a paycheck for more than $20 million a year. She clearly knows what she’s doing with these frank pronouncements as well.

As Pompeo laughs over the phone from her car, she says in a near shout: “There’s your sound bite! There’s your clickbait! ABC’s on the phone!”

The “Grey’s Anatomy” team — led by Rhimes and executive producer Betsy Beers — created the first season in a vacuum, because the show did not have an airdate. The 2004-05 season was a comeback year for ABC because “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost,” both of which debuted that fall, became phenomena — not only ratings successes but also watercooler events.

But at “Grey’s,” Rhimes was getting noted to death by network president Steve McPherson. According to Vernoff, McPherson — who resigned in 2010 under a cloud of sexual harassment allegations — stonewalled with “pushback every step of the way,” as ABC’s then- head of drama, Suzanne Patmore Gibbs, fought for the show. Vernoff was close with Patmore Gibbs, who died in 2018, and recalls her talking about her clashes with McPherson.

“He just didn’t get it; he didn’t like it,” Vernoff continues. “Honestly, I’m going to say, I don’t think he liked the ambitious women having sex unapologetically.”

Wilson, when she was cast as Miranda Bailey on “Grey’s,” was a New York theater actor (“Caroline, or Change”) relatively new to series television. But she was well aware of the network’s issues. “We took a creative break around the Christmas holiday, which to me meant ‘Oh, we’re out of a job.’”

Pompeo was frustrated: “Once we finally got an airdate, two weeks before that airdate they wanted to change the title of the show to ‘Complications.’”

In an email to Variety, McPherson disputed these assertions, saying, “I made the original deal with Shonda. I developed ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ at the studio. I picked it up at ABC.” He praised Patmore Gibbs, and added, “As for defaming me again and again, I don’t know what to say other than it’s sad that anyone feels the need to spread lies about me.”

Yet there was so little faith in the show that the writers were asked to clear out their offices when they finished the season. But to Vernoff, who had clicked right away with Rhimes, the early episodes had “felt like a labor of love.”

And it was worth the battle. “We fought for the right for Meredith and Bailey to be whole human beings, with whole sex lives, and not a network TV idea of likable,” Vernoff says. “You might not have been likable, but now you’re iconic.”

As far as the medicine went, the cases were often ostentatious. “Every kind of crazy accident that had ever caused terrible harm to any human ever, that was our homework at night,” Vernoff says. It was up to Zoanne Clack, an emergency room doctor-turned-writer, to be a sounding board in the writers’ room. She began as the only doctor on staff during the first season, and is now an executive producer. “What was interesting was that the writers don’t have those boundaries because they don’t know the rules, so they would come up with all of these scenarios, and my immediate thought was like, ‘No way!’” Clack says. “Then I’d have to think about it and go, ‘But could it?’”

When the program finally premiered — on a Sunday night after “Desperate Housewives” — to massive ratings, it was a shock to the cast and crew, given that they had shot the first season under a cloud, Pompeo says, adding, “So the fact that the numbers were that huge the first time we aired was a big f–k-you to McPherson!”

With Season 2 now a given, everything changed, Vernoff says: “It was like a hurricane-force gale, and everyone was just trying to hold on.” They had made 13 episodes for Season 1, airing nine of them and holding the final four for Season 2 — Meredith finding out that Derek was actually married (to Addison, played by Kate Walsh) had felt like the perfect finale. But upon the writers’ return, Vernoff says, the feeling was “Holy s—. We have to make 22.”

The entire cast — mostly unknown actors like Katherine Heigl as the sunny Izzie Stevens, T.R. Knight as the chummy neurotic George O’Malley, and Justin Chambers as the troubled, secretly vulnerable Alex Karev — had become famous overnight. For Wilson, whose Bailey was the stern teacher the interns called “the Nazi,” it was a new experience. “Folks were scared to talk to me, like in the store or in the Target — people would just kind of leave me alone,” she says. “It was like, ‘What’s going on?’”

According to Vernoff, “Paparazzi were following the cast to work — it was wild.”

The mid- to late-2000s were the height of glossy gossip magazines such as Us Weekly (and its copycats), as well as the inception of TMZ and Perez Hilton as celebrity-hounding, news-breaking forces that fueled (and soiled) the fame-industrial complex. The cast of “Grey’s Anatomy” was firmly in the sights of these new, often toxic forces in media.

Pompeo says the cast was so talented that it “was all worth it” — but yes, the transition to stardom was hard for the group: “At the time, it was just a real combination of exhaustion and stress and drama. Actors competing with each other — and envious.”

Heigl, Knight and Isaiah Washington all went through press cycles that made the show seem scandal-prone. To rehash it all now seems pointless; you can look it up. Washington was fired in June 2007. Knight and Heigl asked to be written out of the show preemptively, in Seasons 5 and 6, respectively.

Vernoff and the other writers were watching the internal messes unfold. They had to deal with how the fallout affected the show’s plot, as when Washington was fired just as Burke, his character, was about to marry Cristina. “When word comes down that an actor is leaving the show, and what you’ve got scripted is a wedding …” Vernoff trails off, laughing.

“There was a lot of drama on-screen and drama off-screen, and young people navigating intense stardom for the first time in their lives,” she continues. “I think that a lot of those actors, if they could go back in time and talk to their younger selves, it would be a different thing. Everybody’s grown and changed and evolved — but it was an intense time.”

Pompeo doesn’t want to talk about what happened with individual actors from the show, because when she has in the past, “it doesn’t get received in the way in which I intend it to be.” But she does make a point about the way television is produced. “Nobody should be working 16 hours a day, 10 months a year — nobody,” she says. “And it’s just causing people to be exhausted, pissed, sad, depressed. It’s a really, really unhealthy model. And I hope post-COVID nobody ever goes back to 24 or 22 episodes a season.

“It’s why people get sick. It’s why people have breakdowns. It’s why actors fight! You want to get rid of a lot of bad behavior? Let people go home and sleep.”

Debbie Allen would eventually be Pompeo’s savior in that regard, but that was years away. Allen — an actor and a dancer — began her directing career when she was on the 1980s TV series “Fame” as a “natural progression” because, she says, “I was in charge of the musical numbers, and so many directors didn’t really know how to shoot them.” She went on to be a prolific director and producer, most notably overhauling NBC’s “A Different World” after a tumultuous first season. As a fan of “Grey’s Anatomy,” Allen wanted to work on the show, and in Season 6, she was hired to direct. To prepare for it, Allen shadowed Wilson, who had been tapped to direct by executive producer-director Rob Corn. (“He came to me and said, ‘You should direct,’” says Wilson, who has now helmed 21 episodes. “And I said, ‘OK.’ Because I didn’t know what else to say.”)

Directing that sixth-season episode led to Allen’s fruitful relationship with “Grey’s.” In Season 8, Rhimes wrote Allen into the show to play Catherine, a star surgeon, a love interest for Richard Webber (Pickens) and the mother of Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams). Ahead of Season 12 in 2015, Allen became the show’s EP/director. Her duties included hiring all of the directors, weighing in on scripts and casting, and, as Allen puts it, “minding that people feel good about themselves.” Several years before the revived #MeToo movement would lead to calls for systemic changes behind the camera in Hollywood, Allen set a goal of hiring 50% women directors. She also increased the number of Black men who directed “Grey’s” during her first season as executive producer, among them Denzel Washington. (When she sold him on it, she recounts, he said to her, “I’m going to say yes, Debbie Allen.”)

Pompeo and Allen are close. Allen began her new role the year after Dempsey left, “at a time when we were really broken,” Pompeo says. “And so much of our problems were perpetuated by bad male management. Debbie came in at a time when we really, really needed a breath of fresh air, and some new positive energy.”

Pompeo continues with a laugh: “Debbie really brought in a spirit to the show that we had never seen — we had never seen optimism! We had never seen celebration. We had never seen joy!”

According to Pompeo, Allen began advocating for her to have more humane hours — Fridays off (Pompeo: “And I was like, ‘What? What? Fridays off?’”) — and for the show to shoot 12-hour days maximum, and ideally no more than 10 hours (Pompeo: “And I was like, I love this woman.”).

Allen speaks affectionately about her bond with Pompeo. “Coming out of Boston, she’s so earthy and real in a way that you might not know,” Allen says. “There’s a sisterhood between us — I guess you would say it’s almost a Blackness that exists between us. And she’s part of our tribe.”

Allen has been a key member of the “Grey’s Anatomy” brain trust since Season 12, and two seasons later, Vernoff returned to run the show. She’d left at the end of Season 7, consulted on “Private Practice” for a few years, and then went to Showtime’s “Shameless” for five seasons. As her contract was set to expire, Rhimes asked Vernoff to lunch, and told her she wanted her to take over. “It felt like she was saying, ‘Hey, our kid needs you,’” Vernoff says.

Before accepting the offer, Vernoff had to catch up on the show. She had always written “Grey’s” as a romantic comedy, and what she saw on-screen during her binge was dark as hell — especially after Derek’s death. “If this show that you are currently making is the show that you want ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ to be,” she recalls telling Rhimes, “I am, in fact, not the right writer for it.” But Rhimes was insistent, saying it was time for a change after the mourning period for Derek.

Vanessa Delgado, who started as a production intern during the seventh season and has worked her way up to being lead editor and co-producer, says the show’s trajectory shifted when Vernoff came back — it was a return to the original, saucier tone of “Grey’s.” “We changed the music completely,” Delgado says. “The dialogue felt lighter and more fun, and wewere having fun again.”

That lightness will be difficult to maintain this year, of course, when, as Allen puts it, “COVID is No. 1 on the call sheet right now.”

Vernoff at first wondered whether “Grey’s” should ignore the coronavirus, thinking the audience comes to the show “for relief.” But the doctors in the writers’ room convinced her this wasn’t the time for escapism, saying to her, “This is the biggest medical story of our lifetime, and it is changing medicine permanently.”

When they’ve had doctors and nurses come speak with them this season, Vernoff says, “they were different human beings than the people we’ve been talking to every year. And I want to honor that, tonally. I just want to inspire people to take care of each other.”

Pompeo, who is not shy about offering criticism, sounds positively enthusiastic: “I’ll say the pilot episode to this season — girl, hold on.

“What nobody thinks we can continue to do, we have done. Hold on. That’s all we’re going to say about that!”

Pompeo has a few more months before she decides whether she wants to continue — and as Rhimes and ABC have made clear in recent years, the show will likely end when she leaves. “I don’t take the decision lightly,” Pompeo says. “We employ a lot of people, and we have a huge platform. And I’m very grateful for it.”

“You know, I’m just weighing out creatively what can we do,” she says. “I’m really, really, really excited about this season. It’s probably going to be one of our best seasons ever. And I know that sounds nuts to say, but it’s really true.”

Vernoff doesn’t worry about the creative well drying up. “We’ve blown past so many potential endings to ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ that I always assume it can go on forever,” she says.

And Wilson knows how important “Grey’s” is to its audience, in that the characters have essentially become people who “live in their house.” As one of only three actors who’ve been on “Grey’s” since the beginning — the other is James Pickens Jr. — Wilson is in it until the end: “In my mind, Bailey is there until the doors close, until the hospital burns down, until the last thing happens on ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’ That is her entire arc.”

Whenever the show does conclude, part of its legacy will be about the talent it launched into the world, beginning with Rhimes, who will soon release her first shows for Netflix, after her company, Shondaland, made a lucrative deal with the streamer in 2017.

But it will also be about the characters of “Grey’s Anatomy”— mostly women and people of color — who are trying to make the world a better place as they find friendship, love and community.

“The show, at its core, brings people together,” Pompeo says. “And the fact that people can come together and watch the show, and think about things they may not have ordinarily thought about, or see things normalized and humanized in a way that a lot of people really need to see — it helps you become a better human being. If this show has helped anybody become a better human being, then that’s the legacy I’d love to sit with.”

#grey's anatomy #Ellen Pompeo #chandra wilson #Debbie Allen #krista vernoff #season 17 #variety #news

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accuhunt · 5 years

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How to Indulge Your Wanderlust During the Coronavirus Pandemic.

The past few days have been rather scary. Mask-covered faces. Queues to wash hands in public toilets. Sanitizers constantly out of stock. Accusatory looks towards anyone coughing or sneezing. Eerily empty hotels, flights and streets following the lockdown travel advice for Coronavirus. Places that were once plagued by overtourism are now deserted. The spread of the COVID-19 Coronavirus has suddenly brought all usual life – and travel – to a halt.

Until a week or two ago, the panic felt rooted in social media, whatsapp forwards and even racial profiling. At that time, I posted on Instagram that I would continue my travels. But in light of recent developments, I’ve archived that post, cancelled some rather exciting travel plans until April and urged everyone to do the same.

I was scheduled to conduct a workshop on responsible tourism marketing in Madhya Pradesh and speak at the prestigious Economic Times Women’s Forum this month – but both events have been cancelled.

In fact, India has cancelled all visas for foreigners till mid April. Sri Lanka has suspended its e-visa facility. Italy is under lock down. Public events have been cancelled in most parts of the world. Schools and colleges have been shut in most Indian states. India’s travel advice for coronavirus is to cancel all non-essential travel abroad. Indians returning from China, Italy, Iran, Korea, France, Spain, Germany, Malaysia, Nepal and even the US can potentially be sent to 14 days of quarantine!

Chances are, you already know that. You, like me, have cancelled your immediate travel plans. And probably you, like me, are wondering what you can do now to indulge your wander-lusting soul!

Here are some creative ideas to satiate your travel cravings – safely and responsibly – during this uncertain coronavirus period:

Read non-fiction books by local authors to virtually explore a new region or country

I’ve dreamt of setting foot in Tibet for a long time, knowing fully well that the Tibet of my dreams is off limits (or no longer exists). So a while ago, I did the next best thing to travelling in Tibet – reading a book that movingly explores its lost beauty, culture and way of life. Tibet With My Eyes Closed is a collection of short stories by Madhu Gurung, based on the lives of Tibetan refugees in India. Some stories moved me to tears, while others left me with an insatiable longing. I can’t recommend it enough!

My point is, as per official travel advice for coronavirus, the entire world is off limits right now. But we can do the next best thing – travel to our dream places through the words and insights of people who know them deeply.

If you dream of Iran, for instance, read Reading Lolita In Tehran. If you dream of Myanmar, read From The Land Of Green Ghosts. If you dream of the Caucasus (Georgia / Azerbaijan), read Ali And Nino.

For more book recommendations, see my favorite (unusual) travel books by local authors around the world. If you’re keen to explore the world from my lens, you can also get a copy of my travel memoir, The Shooting Star

Also read: What No One Tells You About Writing and Publishing a Book in India

Learn a new language that will make a future trip more meaningful

Everywhere I travel, I try to pick up a few words in the local language. But in the weeks before I travelled to Japan, I tried to listen to one episode of a Japanese language podcast every day. By the time I landed in Tokyo, I was able to say many basic phrases in Japanese – which sure made it easier to make friends, find local vegan food and even get some unusual recommendations.

The process of learning a language can certainly make us feel like we’re almost on our way somewhere. The Survival Phrases podcast is good for conversational skills and the Babbel / Duolingo apps can help with basics. But if you really want to commit, consider signing up with an online teacher for one-to-one Skype lessons on a site like italki (I haven’t used it yet but heard good things).

I took Urdu writing lessons last year, but have been terrible at keeping up with what I learnt. I’ve pledged to practice a bit everyday now!

Also read: Unusual Solo Travel Destinations to Feed Your Adventurous Spirit

Document your past adventures

I still have tons of untold stories from my travels over the years. If you’re a travel writer, blogger, photographer, Instagrammer or any kind of storyteller, you’re probably full of stories too – and always wishing for more time to be able to tell them. Or perhaps you have a special interest in architecture, vegan food, wildlife, languages or something else – and you could combine that with your past travels to create unique stories.

All travel advice for Coronovirus suggests not going on a physical journey. But we can still journey into the recesses of our minds, relive some of our adventures and share them with the world. After all, we could all use a little break from the negative news out there!

Also read: How I’m Funding my Adventures Around the World Through Travel Blogging

Binge watch the wonders of our planet

Many of us travel to witness the breathtaking beauty of nature and the cultural wonders of the world. Unfortunately both are fast disappearing.

Video streaming sites online are full of films and documentaries about our incredible planet, wildlife, remote cultures and more. Now is a good time to plug into them, both to feed our wanderlust and to remind ourselves what we stand to lose. Maybe the travel advice for coronavirus and this time away from the road, work, school, college and social gatherings can be a time to reflect on how we need to make better life and travel choices to collectively help the planet.

I’ve been meaning to finish watching One Strange Rock on Netflix, which explains the wonders of earth from the fascinating perspectives of astronauts. And start Our Planet, which documents the impact of climate change on the world’s most remote and vulnerable regions.

Also read: Tajikistan: A Country That’s Not on Your Travel Radar, But Should Be.

Support small responsible travel businesses virtually

As you can probably imagine, this is one of the worst times for the travel industry. March, otherwise peak travel season for many places around the world, has been a month of cancellations. April might go the same way, though I really hope not. Small business owners, family-run homestays, social enterprises and responsible tourism businesses will be some of the worst hit this year.

All travel advice for coronavirus suggests we can’t physically travel this month to support them or the work they do for local communities and environment conservation. But small gestures can go a long way. Leave them a heartfelt review on Google Reviews / TripAdvisor. Mention them on Instagram / Twitter. Recommend them to family and friends for future trips. When the coronavirus pandemic is behind us, they’ll need our tourism money the most. Let’s make sure they’re found, remembered and supported then!

Also read: Offbeat, Incredible and Sustainable – These Travel Companies are Changing the Way You Experience India

Work on your storytelling

Perhaps experimenting with writing, blogging, photography or videos has been on your mind for a long time. Or you still need to perfect some skills. I know I need to get better at editing videos. I could use some professional photography help, but my heart is only half in it. I still have a ton of SEO work to do on this blog. And there’s no end to becoming a better writer.

Here’s a silver lining for the travel advice for coronavirus: Use the time you would’ve spent travelling or socializing, to work on something that might enable you to travel or work on the go in the future!

Also read: Advice for the Young and Penniless Who Want to Travel

International travel is out. But should you travel domestically now?

Many of you have reached out to ask for my travel advice for coronavirus with respect to domestic travel in India (and elsewhere). I think it’s a bad idea. For several reasons:

It’s just not fun. I felt an inexplicable anxiety during the last two days of my recent Chhattisgarh trip. Hearing someone cough sent a shiver down my spine. The last thing I wanted was to have to put myself in self-isolation in someone’s homestay or in a soulless hotel. Or worse, be quarantined in a government facility.

The fear of carrying the virus to a remote part of India. The idea of travelling from urban India – where the majority of coronavirus cases are (in Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Kochi etc) – to rural India is a scary one. Imagine if we have the virus but the symptoms haven’t yet shown up. We could be carrying it to small villages where medical facilities are rare and self-isolation is difficult because entire families live in a single room. It’ll be mayhem.

The fear of infecting people more vulnerable to the virus. People over 60 and those with respiratory issues seem to be the most vulnerable to the coronavirus. We can’t risk being the vectors infecting them.

Flights, buses and trains can be coronavirus hotbeds. Given how infectious the coronavirus seems to be, being stuck among scores of people in a closed environment is a big no-no.

It’s best to postpone all international and domestic travel atleast until April (maybe longer, depending on how things turn out). We need to avoid busy places, public transport and any physical contact. We must constantly wash and sanitise our hands. And if we have even the mildest symptoms of fever, cough, cold or flu, we absolutely must stay at home and follow official protocols!

How has coronavirus affected your travel plans? If you run a travel business, what’s it been like for you?

Also read:

11 Tips to Ease Your Transition Into a Vegan Lifestyle

Incredible Experiences That’ll Make You Fall in Love With Uzbekistan

Should Travel Bloggers and Influencers Voice Their Political Opinions?

The post How to Indulge Your Wanderlust During the Coronavirus Pandemic. appeared first on The Shooting Star.

How to Indulge Your Wanderlust During the Coronavirus Pandemic. published first on https://airriflelab.tumblr.com

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letscuttothefeeling · 5 years

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season three episode eight

Unfortunately, this was definitely a building block episode. Fortunately, however, we did get to meet Jared’s slut-shaming mom, his shockingly apathetic ex-wife, and watch Alyssa further cement herself as my least favorite person on the planet earth. Let’s cut to the feeling!

You know when you wake up and you’re violently hungover, and you’re regretting the night before, and your only option is to stay in bed and order food and wish for death? That’s exactly how we get to see Juliette the morning after Jared’s party. Relatable kween! As she lays in bed with a lot of pizza but zero hope, she tries to justify her behavior at Alex’s. It sucks because I think it was warranted to push him in the pool, but given her (other) recent violent behavior, it just makes her look like a meth head. Especially since no one believes that Alex was actually on the phone with her. Which is SHOCKING. But I’ll get to that later. Speaking of Alex, now we’re seeing Alex and Alyssa the day after the blowout. Alyssa starts to question why Juliette and Alex were even talking in the first place. Alex explains that he sent Boring Robby some screenshots from Juliette. This should ring major alarms for Alyssa! Like if Alex doesn’t care at all, why would he do that? Alex insists that Juliette is just “desperate for anything,” and Alyssa stupidly accepts this explanation. Sorry, who’s desperate?

Nothing like a boozy lunch with your mom! That sounded sarcastic but I’m so serious. Mom, let’s do that when you come visit me soon! Except instead of calling my ex-spouse who cheated on me during combat a slut, we can stick to lighter conversation topics. So yeah, after Jared’s mom fondly recalled the time she called his ex-wife, Jessica, a “slut,” we learn that Jessica cheated on Jared during his deployment. Jessica is starting to sound like a Messica! Then Jared breaks the news that Jessica is visiting him in Siesta Key, and suffice to say his mother is not pleased. My ex-wife is not a phase, mom.

Later that day, we see Jessica arriving at dinner with Jared. They laugh about how horrible they are together when they drink, and then immediately order drinks. Good plan! After dinner, Jared brings Jessica to meet the gang. Amanda, Brandon, Madisson, Chloe and G Baby are all anxiously awaiting the arrival of Jared’s infamous ex. As soon as everyone says hi, the boys peel off to grab drinks, and Chloe immediately asks Jessica if she’s heard about Jared’s fling with Kelsey. She doesn’t waste one second, that Chloe! Not only has Jessica not heard of Kelsey, but she also apparently has no idea that Jared has PTSD. Which is strange, because if my ex-husband was on a reality show, I’d definitely watch, and if you’ve seen any episode with Jared, you know about his struggles with PTSD. Jessica must have felt like an idiot!! You think you know someone, and then it turns out that you don’t at all. I can’t help but immediately think of that time in Stephanie Meyer’s final novel in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, when Police Chief Charlie Swan sees Bella for the first-time post-change. From Charlie’s POV, his daughter went on a honeymoon to a strange Brazilian island and then caught a very serious virus that caused her to be quarantined from everyone for a lengthy period of time. Finally, enough was enough, and Police Chief Swan said, “screw protocol!”, and he went to the Cullen’s to see his daughter. When he saw her, his heart sank. That was Bella, but she looked different. She had an adopted baby who looked just like her, but the timing of the pregnancy didn’t add up. In that moment, Charlie Swan knew that while this may be his daughter, it certainly wasn’t the daughter he knew. And that was how exactly how Jessica felt during this gossip sesh.

1 full year of wedded bliss

Something about Juliette is that while she is completely psychotic, violent, and potentially an alcoholic, she’s definitely not a liar. So when I see Chloe and Amanda in a pool, drinking literal water from cocktail glasses and saying that they “don’t believe Juliette” in regards to the phone call with Alex? I’m on the phone, calling Gary Kompothecras himself, suing for slander. It’s like, “I’m just done believing her.” Wait, seriously? Why? Alex is a proven pathological liar. Juliette is simply and factually not a liar. Based on those facts, let’s make an educated guess and decide who is lying. Later, Chloe and Alex head to the Crescent Club to get ready for the big bar opening that night. They briefly discuss Juliette, as always, since they seemingly have nothing better to talk about, and Chloe reveals that she’s meeting up for lunch with Juliette to hear her side of the story. After all, Juliette did break her $8 Amazon sunglasses. Chloe deserves an explanation. Then, after continuing to trash Juliette for a solid five minutes, Chloe tells Alex that Juliette “needs people like me in her life that are honest with her,” and they continue doing nothing to set up for the big night.

Juliette shows up to lunch with a gift and receipts. Text/call receipts, that is. After giving her gift to Chloe (a replacement of her wildly inexpensive sunglasses), Juliette pulls out the phone and proves that she was, in fact, on the phone with Alex for six hours. I’d like to give Chloe a shout out for truly sleuthing – yeah, Chloe, I saw you check the contact and make sure it was actually Alex’s number. Imagine if Juliette had just changed the name in her phone. After admitting that Juliette, was, in fact, telling the truth, Chloe decides to confront Alex at the bar opening. Perfect timing!

Here we go – it’s Crescent Club time! Amanda rolls up with BG, which is weird since I kind of thought they had a falling out, but okay. JJ is also there, and it’s just a matter of time before Brandon freaksoutté. But first, Chloe pulls Alex aside. It’s truth time. Chloe explains that she saw the calls and knows that Alex and Juliette spoke on the phone for six hours. Alex, an aspiring lawyer, hits back with an incredible defense. “She called me, though.” Okay, someone call RBG and get this man on the Supreme Court, effective immediately. Alex realizes he needs to tell Alyssa before Juliette does, so he pulls her aside and admits what he’s done. Alyssa seems, in a word, peeved. Peeved, but not hideously angry which is what a normal person would be. After a quick five-minute recap, they’re all good, which is extremely concerning. But, as Alex said, “emotionally, nothing was gained or lost” during the calls, so like, Alyssa really has no need to worry.

Is this Juliette or Santa Claus because she’s arriving to the Crescent Club bearing more gifts! After giving Alyssa a replacement bathing suit top, Chloe inexplicably rips the new top for no reason. Nice. Seriously though, I’m proud of Juliette for making amends and pushing forward. Ygg! Maybe she’s learning from Kelsey, who up until tonight, has made me so proud! Unfortunately, Messica gets the best of her. When she meets Jared’s ex-wife, the tension in the air is so thick you could cut it. Kelsey asks if the two are going to be sad to leave each other, and when Jessica explains that they’re not very “emotional,” Kelsey blatantly questions their relationship altogether by saying, “Well then was it ever real?” Ouch! That was super intrusive, aggressive, and uncalled for especially since she told Jared to fuqoffé a week ago and chose Jake. Oh no Kels.

We leave that awkward love triangle for another awkward love triangle – BG, JJ, and Amanda. BG randomly decides to confront JJ about Amanda. Brandon, what have we learned from the Jake/Kelsey/Jared debacle? This almost never ends in the desired result! After Brandon tries to stake claims over Amanda, JJ gently reminds him that Amanda owes neither of them anything, and she has been blatantly clear about the fact that she’s not being exclusive with either of them. Amanda has lied to BG about hooking up with JJ, so he’s got a right to be mad about that, but overall, he needs to drop this narrative. No one cares. We all know he’s really upset about his first love dating someone old enough to be her father, but to be frank, no one cares. You cheated on Madisson! You led her into the arms of Ish! Now get overetté!

Juliette approaches Alyssa to apologize more in-depth. She acknowledges that her behavior was out of hand, and explains that she never wants to come in between Alex and Alyssa. (Who aren’t even dating!!) Keep in mind – Juliette could easily show Alyssa the proof that Alex is still VERY invested in her. Alex feared that she might, which is the only reason he came clean to Alyssa in the first place. But nope, even after Alyssa antagonizes her and says that Alex shows her all of the texts she sends, Juliette still remains calm and simply says, “I wouldn’t be sending him things that I’m not getting in return.” Which is a very fair point! Instead of pausing to think about the situation logically, Alyssa tells Juliette to “have a nice life.” Ooh, BURN! Now we wait for Tuesday – get excited about double the episodes and double the drama.

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daleisgreat · 5 years

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Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season Four

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-Welcome back to my semi-annual Star Trek: The Next Generation coverage! I need to get better at watching only one episode a week so I can make better progress than only two seasons a year. Today I am covering season four (trailer) of the BluRay collection I am gradually marching through. To catch up on my entries on the first three seasons, click here! Yes, all these photos for this entry were taken via outdated smartphone, so apologies for the lack of quality, but I felt it was worth it for some of the captions! -Continuing the trend in past entries let us kick off with notable cast changes for season four. The most noteworthy one is Mr. Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) finally landing that spot in Starfleet Academy and departing the show a third of the way into the season. He had a great sendoff episode where Wesley and Picard (Patrick Stewart) go on one last adventure and he winds up saving Picard and the two have a couple emotional final exchanges I could not help but get wrapped up in. I thought Wesley was finally coming into his own the last dozen or so episodes he was on, but in the extra feature interviews he stated he was displeased by how we was treated by the producers in his final year on the show and did not want to pass up other acting opportunities for being the two main reasons he departed. I believe we get a couple more guest appearances from him in the remaining seasons, and for the rest of season four there is a rotating non-essential crew member every couple episodes filling in at the helm.

-If you recall the previous entry, season three wrapped with the critically acclaimed Best of Both Worlds cliffhanger where Picard became assimilated by the Borg. The season four opener wraps up that arc in a gratifying manner in how the crew rescues Picard from the Borg threat and restore him back to his original form. I want to emphasize again how important this episode was in terms of gripping narrative, near theatrical quality special effects and CG and how it was the catalyst for TNG finally being accepted by ardent fans of The Original Series and managing to overcome that show’s huge shadow. It was so groundbreaking that the two-part special eventually got its own special home video release. -The follow-up second episode of the season proved to be the quintessential ‘calm-down’ episode after the intense season opener. Picard takes some much deserved shore leave and visits his family back on Earth and we get to see them reconcile their differences when Picard’s brother gets him to break down his emotions from his Borg assimilation in a moving scene that will always stay with me. The secondary plot of that episode focuses on being introduced to the adoptive human parents of Worf (Michael Dorn) and how Worf overcomes the embarrassment of his loving family and they all wind up embracing each other. Normally, getting all wrapped up in an overly ‘lovey-dubby’ episode can be overkill for me, but I cannot think of a series that captured the perfect moment for it any better after the thrill-ride of the season opener.

-Speaking of Worf, season four proves to be a showcase season for everyone’s favorite Klingon. Aside from meeting his human step-parents, he later on becomes a sudden grieving widow in the same episode he meets the son he never knew he had. Season four finale is another two-part cliffhanger called Redemption and the first part that ends this season is all about Worf finally acting on Picard’s pleas to win back his family’s honor from the Klingon race after the big episode in season three where he covered up a Klingon controversy by taking a fall for a crime his family did not commit and being ex-communicated from the Klingons. The aftermath from that over the next year and a half was constantly referenced every couple episodes as a reminder from the consequences Worf had to live with so it felt like a justifiably big deal when Worf finally stepped up to overcome the shame cast upon his family name. Season four felt like a breakthrough season for Worf where his episodes no longer felt like ‘another Klingon episode’ to tolerate and I am now on board with all the way. -The holo-deck use seemed more dialed back this season. There is a fun mini-Dixon Hill excursion with Picard and Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) which regrettably gets put to a halt early on. Picard shows off some funky laser racquetball skills, and Worf duels with Guinan in a laser-target shootout I never caught the name of. Also dialed back this season was the poker games which I only think appeared in one or two episodes this season and one poker scene wound up on the cutting room floor in the deleted scenes. I hope to see both of these fun distractions become more featured in the proceeding seasons. The Ten-Forward tavern scenes continue to impress however as much needed breather scenes where Guinan offers her sage bartender wisdom like only she can and she even gets to put a badass halt to a stereotypical barfight that erupts!

-For the rest of crew, Data (Brent Spiner) has a memorable episode where he plays three characters at once that sees the return of Lore and after a few teases finally seeing the on-screen debut of his creator, Dr. Soong. I usually am a fan of Geordi (LeVar Burton) centric episodes, but his season four episodes where he is brainwashed by Romulans and infected by an alien race were more headscratchers that did not have me quite invested. The same can be said for Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) with her big episode where she is romantically involved with a symbiote who needs to constantly change hosts that proves to be too much for her. I will recognize however season four for her emerging as a competent doctor for a change and finally saving some lives! Transporter Chief O’Brien (Colm Meaney) gets a first name this season, and more importantly gets married too! Like last season, the use of telepathy from Troi (Marina Sirtis) is sparingly used, but whenever implemented it is noteworthy and actually helpful. The use of Ryker (Jonathan Frakes) as a key crew member also seemed a little more toned down this season, with him only having larger roles in a couple episodes. -Season four I will chalk up as a win for recurring once-annual recurring characters for TNG. I was delighted to see Picard’s treasure hunter partner Vash (Jennifer Hetrick) return in the Q (John DeLancie) episode this season that has Q whisk away the Enterprise crew for a memorable mission in the Robin Hood universe where Patrick Stewart shines as the ‘Prince of Thieves.’ I will also mark season four as the first time the annual episode with Troi’s mother, Lwaxana (Majel Barrett) as a legitimate entertaining episode. I previously could not stand her, but in season four she stood out in imploring an ambassador she fell for to go against his culture’s protocol of mandated suicide at age 60. I liked the ways to get Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) involved in the show again via estranged family members and more alternate dimension cliffhangers to wrap up this season. Props to them bringing back Reginald Barclay (Dwight Shultz) as a recurring crew member and his episode this season cracked me up where a cosmic blast leads to him overcoming his SAD to becoming overwhelmingly brilliant.

-Like previous seasons, I could not help but take notice of a couple episodes of TNG in season four I saw Seth McFarlane pay homage to in his current sci-fi show, The Orville. First Contact (yes a TV episode shares the same name as the eighth Star Trek film) establishes the rules for when the Federation of Planets recognizes the right time to well, establish official first contact with a new race, but only to see it be too much for the race to take in. Orville puts a twist on its first contact rules, but sees their own entertaining dilemma pan out when their cultures clash. In Theory has Data attempt to get involved in a romantic relationship with a crew member and that was replicated on McFarlane’s show when Isaac tries to maintain a relationship with that vessel’s doctor. Click or press here to see how the two shows contrast from each other with their respective androids trying to get romantically involved. -Like the previous seasons, Paramount does not disappoint on the extra features. Besides recycling past DVD extras, there are all new HD bonuses for the BluRay. Excluding a handful of commentaries, according to my notes I tallied up about four and a half hours of behind-the-scenes interviews. Yes, I watched them all for you dear readers! I will once again try to highlight the standout extras. Being a fan of Wesley and Picard’s father/son relationship I like how that is dissected in Selected Crew Analysis. Chronicles of Final Frontier and Homecoming provide valuable insight at the injection of new life a stable writing staff brought onto the show this season. Departmental Briefing indicate how Frakes and Stewart made the move to directing episodes starting this season, with Frakes especially getting more out of it and how it lead to him eventually directing a couple Trek films.

The showcase new HD extra is In Conversation: Star Trek’s Art Department which gathers several of TNG’s CG and special effect artists as they talk shop on how they were brought onto the show and share some of their favorite anecdotes for a little over an hour. I will admit some of it goes over my head, but it was mostly fun being a fly on the wall seeing these colleagues reunite and celebrate their favorite war stories. Random factoid I will forever remember from this was the artist’s disappointing writers for forcing them to tone down amount of phaser blasts they requested because they cost approximately $2000 to produce per individual blast at the time. -Damn, I babbled on for incredibly longer than I wanted to once again, but season four was a damn good season that warranted it. As breakthrough of a great year season three was for The Next Generation, I have to give credit where it is due for season four somehow surpassing it with a better overall quality of episodes. There are landmark moments for most of the crew throughout the season, and once again there is another two-part cliffhanger that has me anxiously awaiting to dive into the following season. Hopefully I will be back sooner than later this time…..no promises!

Past TV/Web Series Blogs 2013-14 TV Season Recap 2014-15 TV Season Recap 2015-16 TV Season Recap 2016-17 TV Season Recap 2017-18 TV Season Recap 2018-19 TV Season Recap Adventures of Briscoe County Jr: The Complete Series Baseball: A Ken Burns series Angry Videogame Nerd Home Video Collections Mortal Kombat: Legacy - Season 1 | Season 2 OJ: Made in America: 30 for 30 RedvsBlue - Seasons 1-13 Roseanne – Seasons 1-9 Seinfeld Final Season Star Trek: Next Generation – Seasons 1-7 Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle Superheroes: Pioneers of Television The Vietnam War: A Ken Burns series X-Men – The Animated Series: Volumes 4-5

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#star trek the next generation #star trek #Patrick Stewart #jonathan frakes #levar burton #Marina Sirtis #gates mcfadden #colm meaney #Wil Wheaton #john delaney #dwight schultz #jennifer hetrick #Michael Dorn #majel barrett #Denise Crosby #TV/Web Series

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gethealthy18-blog · 5 years

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295: Health Foods That Are Actually Making Us Sick With Dr. Gundry of the Plant Paradox

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295: Health Foods That Are Actually Making Us Sick With Dr. Gundry of the Plant Paradox

Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

This episode is brought to you by Fabletics. They make cute and high quality athletic wear available to everyone and they’ve been my go-to place to shop for workout gear for years. I find myself constantly switching up my workout routine, from lifting weights and swimming, to currently training for a 5K with my kids. I always find cute gear that fits my activity. Here’s how it works… After taking a super quick, 60 second style quiz, you’ll receive a personalized showroom of pieces specifically catered towards your own unique style. Right now, you can get 2 leggings for only $24 ($99 value) as a VIP at fabletics.com/wellnessmama. This includes my favorite – the high waisted powerhold leggings that is flattering – even in all the places I have a little loose skin from past pregnancies. A tip – Make sure you enter your email address at the end of the quiz, as you’ll receive exclusive monthly discounts and the inside scoop about new collections that haven’t been released yet. Again, check out fabletics.com/wellnessmama and grab the deal while you can and check out my favorite powerhold leggings while they’re still in stock as styles change monthly.

This episode is brought to you by Kion and their Kion clean energy bar. Finding good snacks is tough and finding snacks that are healthy, contain important nutrients and that kids love can be an uphill battle. Many of the so-called healthy snacks contain sugar or processed ingredients or lack nutrients so they leave you hungry soon after. That’s why I love the Kion clean energy bar. My kids love it for the taste, I love that it is all natural, made from real food ingredients and provides stable, long lasting energy. Unlike many snacks, Kion bars contain zero refined sugar or highly processed ingredients. These real food bars are naturally gluten, dairy and soy free and packed with electrolytes, vitamins and minerals. They don’t melt in heat or freeze in cold, making them ideal to pack in lunches or to send along with active kids as a snack. In fact, you’ll often find one (or 4) of these bars in the baskets of my kids bikes or their backpacks as they build forts outside. You can get 15% off of the Kion Clean Energy Bar by going to getkion.com/wellnessmama and using code MAMA15 at checkout.

Katie: Hello, and welcome to the “Wellness Mama Podcast.” I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com, and I am here today with one of the most requested podcast guests ever. Dr. Steven Gundry MD is a renowned heart surgeon, four-time “New York Times” bestselling author and physician-scientist. He’s considered the leading expert in the world on a lectin-free diet as the key to reversing disease and boosting longevity, and he explains the science and the protocol in his book, ”The Plant Paradox.”

He also wrote a book called “The Longevity Paradox: How to Die Young in a Ripe Old Age” where he talks about how to get younger as you age, and he certainly seems to be an example of that. He also has written several cookbooks, including ”The Plant Paradox Family Cookbook,” which comes out right about the time you are listening to this and is available everywhere books are sold. This is one of my favorite interviews I’ve done. It’s fascinating.

We go into a lot of different topics, including autoimmune disease and how to reverse it, how to keep your family healthy, even things like we go deep on APOE-4 genes and a whole lot of fascinating science. And Dr. Gundry practices medicine still seven days a week with his waitlist only clinics and helps thousands of people a year to get healthier. And, stay tuned to also hear how some of his clinical studies that he’s working on, they have a 95% reversal rate for autoimmune disease. So, like I said, one of my favorite episodes that I have done, and I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Katie: Dr. Gundry, welcome, and thanks for being here.

Dr. Gundry: Thanks for having me, “Wellness Mama.”

Katie: I am so excited to have you. In fact, you are one of my most requested guests ever, and I’m so excited to finally get to chat with you on air. And I mentioned in your bio you are well-known for your book, ”The Plant Paradox,” and I think that’s a perfect place to start because I read it and really enjoyed it, and I know it caused a stir to say the least. And you talk about lectins being a problem. So to start broad, can you give us an overview of what lectins are?

Dr. Gundry: Lectins are a plant protein that’s a sticky protein, and they’re designed by plants as a defense mechanism against being eaten. These, believe it or not, plants don’t want to be eaten, and they don’t want their seeds or babies eaten. So one of the ways they fight against being eaten is to produce these lectins, which like to bind to specific sugar molecules in us or any of their predators. And those sugar molecules line the wall of our gut. They line the lining of our blood vessels. They line in our joints. They line the spaces between nerves.

And when lectins hit these places, they are a major cause of leaky gut. They can break down the gut wall barrier. They’re a major cause of arthritis, they’re a are major cause of heart disease, and they’re a major cause, in my research, of autoimmune diseases. And so anything that a lectin can do to make its predator, us, feel bad, not do well. A smart predator says, “Every time I eat these particular plants or their seeds, I don’t do very well, and I think I’ll go eat something else.” That’s the defense mechanism that plants use.

Katie: That makes sense. So what would be examples of foods that contain lectins and some of the different types of lectins that are in these foods?

Dr. Gundry: Most grains have lectins primarily in the hull, sometimes in the germ of the grains. So we’re talking about, for instance, gluten happens to be a lectin, but there are other mischievous lectins in wheat in the hull called wheat germ agglutinin, which is probably even worse than gluten present in all grains except sorghum and millet. Sorghum and millet don’t have a hull and have been tested as lectin-free. They’re present in all beans. Beans and legumes have some of the highest lectin content of any food, and that includes peanuts.

Peanuts are a legume, they’re not a nut at all, and that includes cashews. Cashews are part of the nightshade, Oh, sorry. Not the nightshade family, poison ivy family. And anyone who thinks that cashews are good for them might chew on poison ivy and find out how bad that really is. I mentioned nightshades. The nightshade family includes potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, and even goji berries. And then there are also lectins in new world’s squash families, things like zucchini, things like summer squashes, things like cucumbers actually all have lectins, primarily in the peels and the seeds. So that’s a good overview.

Katie: Got it. So, that sounds like a lot of foods. I know people who are not familiar with this may be thinking, like, “That’s half of what I eat.” What would be on the converse, what would be some examples of foods that do not contain lectins?

Dr. Gundry: Well, you know, interestingly enough, all of those foods that I mentioned, no human being ever consumed any of those foods until about 10,000 years ago when agriculture started. We did not eat wheat. It didn’t exist. Rice began being cultivated 8,000 years ago. Things like the nightshade family, most of us come from Europe, Africa, or Asia, and all of these nightshade families are American plants, and so none of our ancestors ate any of these until 500 years ago. And beginning to be introduced to something in 500 years is like speed dating and evolution, and I think we haven’t been able to catch up with adapting to these modern foods.

So an answer to your question. We have been eating leaves and tubers for probably millions and millions of years. There is evidence that early man primarily got a lot of its food supply by tubers, including, fun fact, those little tiger nuts, which are actually not nuts at all but little underground tubers. There’s some pretty cool archaeological evidence that we consumed quite a bit of tiger nuts in the past. But yams, for instance, are another thing and all the leafy green vegetables. Great apes like chimpanzees and gorillas eat mostly leaves, and we started as one of the great eight families.

Katie: That is really fascinating. So to clarify one point on this because you just mentioned a lot of vegetables and even tubers that are sources of starch, I think that there was some misconception with “The Plant Paradox.” People thought it was essentially a carnivore diet or that you were saying to avoid all plants, and that’s certainly not the case at all. But can you just clarify that a little bit?

Dr. Gundry: Yeah. This is not a carnivore diet. It’s the antithesis of the carnivore diet. I’m actually very plant-friendly. In fact, there’s a vegetarian and vegan version of every one of my recipes in every one of my books. And I’m secretly trying to make people pretty close to vegan as possible. My wife and I eat pretty much vegan during the week. Then on the weekends, we add usually wild shellfish or wild fish into our repertoire. Now, the reason I think people think that this is a carnivore diet, the carnivore diet folks have jumped on the lectin bandwagon because, quite frankly, all plants have lectins in them.

And my point in “The Plant Paradox” is that there are some plants that we have eaten for literally millions of years and our bacteria, our microbiome, has evolved to handle those particular lectins and eat them and also teach our immune system that, “Yeah, this plant has a lectin, but, hey, you don’t have to get all upset about it because you’ve seen this lectin for a million years and don’t get your shorts in a wad. And I think that’s the difference. The carnivore diet folks say, “Okay, well every plant is bad, and so we auto-eliminate all plants.”

That’s, I think, taken to an extreme. I will say this about the carnivore diet. In a way, it is the ultimate elimination diet. And I do have patients with severe IBS or leaky gut that even raw vegetables, particularly raw cruciferous vegetables, are really mischievous introducing them initially into the program. And I write in all the books, and some people don’t read closely enough. But if you do have IBS, or a leaky gut, or diarrhea, then raw vegetables are way down the list that you should add to your diet. And if you want those vegetables, you need to cook them to an inch of their life and make them kind of mushy, particularly a pressure cooker really helps.

Katie: Let’s talk about that a little bit more. I’m a huge fan of pressure cookers and Instant Pots, and I have actually several of them. But how do pressure cookers help with lectins?

Dr. Gundry: So there is good evidence that all lectins can be destroyed with the application of high heat and high pressure simultaneously. The exception to that is gluten. Gluten does not appear to be broken down by high heat and high pressure. Interestingly, I was a professor and chairman at Loma Linda University for much of my career, and the Adventists are vegetarians. And, the primary protein source in the Adventist diet is texturized vegetable protein, TVP as it’s known. And this is actually defatted soy meal that is extruded under high heat and high pressure. And I think maybe unbeknownst to them, this deactivate the rather nasty lectins in soy.

So some people characterize me as anti-bean, and that’s actually not the case. I think beans have some great soluble fibers that if you deactivate the lectins by pressure cooking them, they’re a really great source of food. And so, as you know, I’m a big fan of the Instant Pot. In fact, on November 19th, I’m introducing ””The Plant Paradox Family Cookbook,” which has mostly Instant Pot recipes for busy families. And you’ve got six kids, so you are one busy wellness mama. And so, an instapot is just a great option for delectinizing foods and getting a great meal on the table very quickly.

Katie: I definitely agree. I’m a huge fan of it. I’ll make sure to share your new cookbook when it comes out and also to grab a copy. But just to make sure I understand, so if people are using an instapot or pressure cooker correctly, does that make things like beans, and nightshades, and squash safe to consume?

Dr. Gundry: Yes, absolutely. And I go through that in every one of our books, that the key is using a pressure cooker, like an Instant Pot and following the package directions. The other thing I think that’s important for people to know who maybe are still afraid of the pressure cookers, the Instant Pot or other modern pressure cookers are not their grandmother’s pressure cooker. My mother exploded one when I was growing up. These are incredibly safe, useful devices. I think the other great thing is, and I have no relationship with this company.

There’s a company called Eden, E-D-E-N, that not only soaks all their beans and legumes and lentils but also pressure cooks them. And they’re really one of the few companies that has a non-BPA lined can. And just to give you an example. I ran home from filming, in San Francisco, a public television special Wednesday night, and I opened a can of Eden Garbanzo beans, threw in a bunch of chopped onions and a half head of radicchio with some Italian herbs, and stirred it all around, and that was dinner. And so you can report that Dr. Gundry admitted to eating pressure cooked Garbanzo beans. Oh my gosh. News flash.

Katie: I have it on the record now. We have a record of this. What about grains? So you mentioned sorghum and millet do not have lectins. Does that make them okay as is to consume?

Dr. Gundry: Yeah, I think they’re really a great underutilized grain. Both sorghum and millet, you can make into oatmeal which has the texture, which has the flavor. I’m a sucker for sorghum popcorn. Sorghum popcorn looks like miniature popcorn. It smells like popcorn. It tastes like popcorn, only it’s really tiny. And I think it’s another underutilized grain. Now, one of the things that I talk about in all my books, these should be used not as the mainstay of anyone’s diet. I think they are additions to a diet. They still have a lot of starch that breaks down into simple sugar.

And one of the things I’ve seen through the years in dealing with my patients is that a lot of people see my list of friendly foods page and look at the resistance starches and say, “Oh, I can have unlimited amounts of sorghum, or Yuca, or millet.” And I’ve tested this on myself, and I’ll have a bunch of sorghum popcorn and then check my blood levels of triglycerides. And sure enough, if I’m munching, even a couple cups of sorghum popcorn as a snack, within a week, my triglycerides are elevated. And as people have heard me talk, that’s really bad longterm for heart health.

Katie: That makes sense. Let’s go a little deeper on that because I think that there’s also a misconception that you are just, by default, low carb or that you recommend a low carb or keto-type diet because a lot of these foods that contain lectins are also high carb, but you are a heart surgeon as well as a research scientist. So give us the low down on that. What do you personally consume carb-wise, and what do you recommend for your patients?

Dr. Gundry: Well, so I’m actually, as you probably know or as people know, I have a ketogenic version of my diet that I use for anyone who is insulin-resistant, or prediabetic, or diabetic, who has issues with cancer. I treat a lot of patients with cancer with my version of the ketogenic diet. But my version of the ketogenic diet is plant-based in that I want people to consume about 80% of their calories as primarily olive oil and/or avocados. And that’s where the vast majority of their calories should come from. I literally want people to consume about a liter of olive oil per week. And as strange as that may seem, that’s 10 to 12 tablespoons of olive oil per week.

My wife and I go through about a liter and a half of olive oil every week. And David Palmiter, a good friend, he and his wife, each have about a liter of olive oil per week. And you can look at any of us, and we’re certainly not overweight. In fact, there’s a beautiful study out of Spain forcing people to use a liter of olive oil per week for five years at the age of 65, and they actually lost weight during that time period. And they had improved brain health and memory, and they actually reduced their incidents of coronary heart disease by 30%.

So back to your original question, I believe that most of the food that we should be to get olive oil into our mouth. In other words, the purpose of eating broccoli is to get olive oil into your mouth. The purpose of having a salad is to get olive oil into your mouth. In fact, when I pop sorghum popcorn, I pour olive oil over it. And in fact, in my previous cookbook, I recommended that people, instead of butter on their approved waffles pour olive oil on it. And people go, “Wait a minute, olive oil on waffles?” Well, it’s a fat, and it’s a good fat, so why not use the waffle to deliver a good fat like olive oil? Everything goes better with olive oil.

Katie: I’m a huge fan of olive oil as well. I’m glad that you are such a supporter. So another thing I’d love to go a little bit deeper on. So I first really started learning about lectins starting with gluten but then all of the others when I was in, like, the really bad part of having Hashimoto’s. And so, I was trying to figure what was wrong with me, and I eventually figured out it was Hashimoto’s. And for a long time, I had to be very restrictive with my diet. And I’m much less so now. But let’s go deep for a little while on the lectin autoimmune disease connection. Can you start by explaining what’s going on in the body that there’s that link?

Dr. Gundry: Yeah, I think the first person to talk about this was Loren Cordain from Colorado State University, who, I think, is the true father of the paleo diet. And Cordain postulated that one of the things plants do is molecular mimicry. And the best way to explain this is lectins are proteins, and our immune system is set up with literally barcode scanners that read the barcode on all proteins that enter us. And the immune system is educated as to which proteins are friendly, that they’ve got a valid passport, or which proteins are on the no-fly list. And when, give you an example of a splinter, is under your skin, it gets all red, and that’s your white blood cells attacking that foreign protein.

So lining the wall of our gut is about 65%, 70% of all the white cells in our body line our gut wall. So if a foreign protein, you know, like a lectin, makes its way across the border, our immune system scans the barcode on that protein and says, “Aah, that’s a bad protein. And number one, we should mobilize the troops and kill this guy, but we should also memorize what this barcode looks like so that if we ever see something that looks like this barcode again in our body, we will attack it.” Now, I think plants are a lot smarter than people give them credit for, so plants have made these proteins resemble other proteins in our body.

For instance, they resemble the proteins in the thyroid gland. They resemble proteins in joints. They resemble proteins in nerves. They resemble proteins in skin. And, they even resemble proteins in the brain. So that when your immune system is activated by a leaky gut, then your immune system or I call them your fighter jets are going through your body and they go past your thyroid or Kelly Clarkson’s thyroid and says, “Oh, my gosh, you poor person. There are lectins in your thyroid, and we’re going to shoot to kill. Now, they don’t quite look like the electrons we’re looking for, but they’re pretty close. And so we’ll shoot first and ask questions later.” So that’s molecular mimicry.

Last year, I published a paper of 102 people with biomarker-proven autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto’s, like Crohn’s, like rheumatoid arthritis, like lupus who were put on the Plant Paradox program. And in six months’ time, 95 out of 102 patients were biomarker negative for those autoimmune diseases. So that’s a 94% success rate in six months. Not bad if I do say so. So we’ve seen people like yourself, like Kelly Clarkson, become completely autoimmune negative within a fairly short time period. In fact, just recently, I mentioned on another podcast, in my practice, for a new patient, usually my PA will see the patient first, and then I see the patient the next visit.

And I saw a woman in her mid-50s who had Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and she had been on the program for three months. When I saw her, first thing she did was introduce herself. She said, ”Well, I’m here because I have, you know, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.” And I said, “Well, no you don’t.” And she said, ”Well, of course, I do. That’s why I’m here.” And I said, ”Well, you don’t have it anymore.” And she said, ”Well, how could that be?” So I held up her new lab work and sure enough, her anti-thyroglobulin antibody or anti-thyroid peroxidation antibodies were previously positive, but now they were negative. And that was in only three months. So, obviously, she was delighted and so was I, but that’s what we’ve come to expect.

Katie: That’s an incredible success rate, and I love that it turns the idea on its head. There’s an understanding that autoimmune diseases are not reversible, and I’ve heard that, you know, from a lot of doctors saying, “Once you have it, you always have it.” And so I’d love a little bit more just to clarify, these people are not just in remission, but they don’t even have the biomarkers at all for autoimmune disease at that point.

Dr. Gundry: Correct. The biomarkers are negative. They’re zero. And, you know, that includes rheumatoid factor, that includes anti-CCP3, that includes anti-nuclear antibody, that includes anti-DS double-stranded DNA, that includes Sjogren’s syndrome. We’ve seen reversal in so far every autoimmune disease. So, we’ve tackled…including MS. We’ve recently… Let me give you another example. There’s some beautiful new tests looking at attack on brain myelin that’s measurable with tests. We’ve got anti-cerebellar antibodies.

Recently saw a gentleman, young man in his mid-30s, very successful businessman, young wife, who had brain fog, for lack of a better word. And he came to us, had autoimmune markers for lupus, but also had two markers of his brain being under attack, one of them a de-myelination antibody. And we put him on the program, and he travels a lot. And I saw him back after two months. He said those two months were the most difficult that he’s ever had in his life. He hated me. But his wife, to keep him on track, actually made all his meals and packed them for him while he was traveling because, you know, he’s a 35-year-old guy who’s got markers for MS, and his brain doesn’t work.

So he said, you know, after six weeks, he said, “I really began to start liking you, so let’s see what we got.” And sure enough, his marker for lupus antinuclear antibody was gone. But I think most encouraging was that both of his brain autoimmune markers were now turned off. And that just gives you the power that people have to take control of what…many doctors are telling them, “Well, you got MS, and you’re just gonna have to live with it.” And, you know, Terry Wahls perfectly proved that this is something people do not have to live with. This is something that’s reversible, and these are fixable problems as long as we repair the gut barrier.

And, I think, my research over the last 20 years has stood the test of time that Hippocrates was right, that all disease begins in the gut. And I’ve added to that, that all disease can end in the gut if we stop a leaky gut from occurring. And if lectins are one of the major causes of leaky gut, and I and others believe they are, then getting lectins out of the diet is a first step.

Katie: I love Dr. Wahls. Her work is so encouraging as well. And I’m guessing there’s a lot of people listening who are going, “Oh, my gosh, is this actually possible? I have X, Y, Z autoimmune disease. Where do I start?” And I know that, obviously, they need to get “The Plant Paradox,” and we’ll talk about your new book in a couple of minutes as well. But can you, kind of, give us just a broad overview, both as a doctor and as a researcher, what you think an optimal diet for most people sort of, like, a specific issue looks like? Like, where should we begin with the good?

Dr. Gundry: Well, like, principle number one of “The Plant Paradox” is what I tell you not to eat is far more important than what I tell you to eat. And I can’t emphasize that enough. It’s the foods that you remove from your diet. And if you want to call it an elimination diet, that’s fine with me. But there’s certain foods that are making people sick. And getting these foods out of their diet, the ones I’ve just talked about, the ones that we were not designed to eat and that we were not exposed to until 10,000 years ago is the perfect place to start.

And I jokingly say I want people to party like it’s 9,999 years ago and eat that way because these modern foods didn’t exist in the human diet. And that was actually my research as an undergraduate at Yale University. I had a special major in human evolutionary biology, finding the foods and the environment that transformed a great ape into a modern human. And that’s actually was the basis of my original program.

Katie: That’s amazing. And also, you do talk a lot about the microbiome, and I know that removing lectins is a big part of that. Most of the people listening have kids, and that’s been a big area of research for me as well, as, how do we give our kids the best start in life by fostering a good microbiome early on? And I’d love to hear your research and your take on that. As parents, what can we be doing from the very beginning with our kids to make sure that they have the best start in life when it comes to this?

Dr. Gundry: Well, that’s why I wrote ”The Plant Paradox Family Cookbook” because, number one, I was a professor of pediatrics at Loma Linda, was a children’s heart surgeon, and a lot of my practice now involves children with the juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease. I see a lot of children with asthma and eczema that have had no results elsewhere. And having children follow this program is obviously challenging because of peer pressure. But what we found was that if children were encouraged to follow this program, their Crohn’s disease went away, their rheumatoid arthritis went away.

And if they slipped, even if they cheated one time, had a cupcake at a school party, that they would flair immediately. And one of my patients early on said, “You know, feeling good, never tasted so good.” And I think that’s a really important point. So how do we do this with our kids? Now I have two young grandchildren. And bless my daughter and her husband’s heart, they have fed their kids with the Plant Paradox since day one, and they’re both thriving three and five-year-olds now. One just started kindergarten. And they cook in the kitchen.

I think that’s one of the most important things you can do, is involve your kids and making things very early. I give step-by-step advice to mothers who wanna get pregnant on the steps you need to do. Once you’re pregnant, what you should do. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of high dose fish oil, particularly DHA for building your baby’s brain. There’s a new study out that shows mothers who supplement with vitamin D have smarter kids who do better athletically than mothers who do not supplement with vitamin D during pregnancy. I think this is incredibly important information, and we give the all the suggestions in doing that.

In addition, please, please, please keep cows milk out of your child’s diet. Your baby is not a baby cow, and cow’s milk is designed to make baby cows grow rapidly so they do not get eaten by predators. We, as you, as a mother knows, are a very slow-growing species, and we do not want to have insulin-like growth factor, IGF1, which is high in cows milk given to our kids because it will actually make our kids grow faster and fatter. And that’s the last thing we actually want. Kids who grow rapidly have a much higher incidence of childhood cancers and cancers in their teenagers than kids who grow slowly and normally. So those are a few of the helpful ones. We can go on and on, but it’s all in ”The Plant Paradox Family Cookbook.”

Katie: Yeah, definitely. Again, echo the recommendation for your books.

Katie: And you mentioned in kids that they were even able to see reversal of autoimmune symptoms and certainly in adults. There’s studies on this as well, but then it took complete adherence and no cheating. And so, I’m curious how you respond because I get these, too, people who say, “This is way too extreme. Everything in moderation. It should be fine. Like, you don’t have to completely avoid it.” I’m just curious how you answer those types of questions.

Dr. Gundry: Well, in the paper that I published at the American Heart Association in Lifestyle and Epidemiology meeting on the patients with autoimmune disease, seven of the patients subsequently, once they were in remission or cured, had no biomarker evidence of disease, started liberalizing their diet. And all of those seven people relapsed. The good news is once they went back on the program, they cured themselves again. They went back into remission. And that’s what we see. I lectured at Harvard two years ago at the neurosciences meeting.

And after giving this evidence, one of the professors said, “Well, that’s ridiculous. You know, everything in moderation. What do you say to that?” And I said, “Well, that’s fine. You know, if you want moderate heart disease, if you want moderate arthritis, if you want moderate dementia, and if you want moderate autoimmune disease, then please do that. But who in the world would actually want that? It’s preventable. These problems do not exist in societies that eat like us.” And I mean, believe it or not, when, you know, when I was in medical school, autoimmune disease and childhood cancer were aberrations.

They were oddities. And now, every commercial we see on TV is for, oh, you know, a happy person smiling with our autoimmune disease because of an immunosuppressant drug. And people forget that I was a transplant immunologist. I’m world famous in Xenotransplantation and how to fool the immune system to accepting a pig heart as normal. And what I’ve taken with my knowledge of autoimmunity and immunity is bringing that into, “Okay, we know what the immune system is looking for, let’s calm it down. This is fixable.”

Katie: And that makes so much sense. And a couple more questions, I don’t know, that will probably come up and that are probably common questions for you. You talk about how you eat seafood on the weekend, and there’s also that conception in the natural health world that things like shrimp and crab aren’t good for you because they’re bottom feeders with their filters. And so I’m curious your take on that.

Dr. Gundry: This is one of my favorite questions. I have a very good friend who’s a professor at the University of Texas in Galveston, which is one of the shrimp capitals of the world, and he delights in telling anyone who will listen that a shrimp is not a bottom feeder. They’re free swimmers, and they are a quad with trawlers nets, and so they are absolutely not bottom feeders. I used to live in Baltimore, Maryland, and I can assure you that crabs are not bottom feeders either. They actually are free swimmers.

And, in fact, there’s a Pulitzer prize-winning book that I recommend to anyone about the Waterman of the Chesapeake Bay called ”Beautiful Swimmers,” which is about crabs. And so, that’s one of the great misnomers of all time. Incidentally, muscles may be one of the greatest health foods known to mankind. They are regenerative creatures. They actually filter about six gallons of water every day. They do not accumulate toxins, and they clean the ocean, and they actually do not use up any energy. So, they’re really one of the best foods that you can eat.

Katie: That’s great to know. And what about fruit? I know that’s a common food for kids. You didn’t mention it as being a source of lectins, so I’m curious your take on fruit.

Dr. Gundry: So two things on fruit. We forget at our peril that a few short years ago, fruit was only available seasonally during seasons that primarily were summer and early fall, and not the rest of the year. Unless you lived in the panhandle of Florida, you didn’t have fruit during the winter. In fact, there’s volumes of research that show that great apes only eat fruit during the summer, and they eat fruit to gain weight for the rest of the year. In fact, fruit consumption, fructose, is one of the best ways to gain weight that there is. Let me give you a recent example.

I recently appeared on the “Kelly Clarkson Show” because she cured her Hashimoto’s by following my book. All she did was read my book. She never met me. She didn’t have a consultation with me, and lo and behold, you know, she lost 30 pounds, and her Hashimoto’s was gone by…well, it’s up to 40 pounds now just by following my book. So I was talking with her producer a few weeks beforehand on, you know, what we’re gonna do on the show. So I showed up in the green room backstage, and the producer walked in, and he said, ”I took your advice. I gave fruit the boot. I gave up fruit, and I’ve lost five pounds in two weeks. And that’s the only thing I changed. I gave up fruit.” He said, “How did you know?” And I said, ”Well, because we use fruit to gain weight.” Fruit is not a health food for children, and particularly fruit juice. There’s a recent study in the “British Medical Journal” showing that fruit juice consumption is a leading cause of cancer. And we have to understand that cancer cells vastly prefer fructose, fruit sugar, over glucose. And so, you know, give fruit the boot.

Now, berries are great. Pomegranate seeds are great. Persimmons are in season right now. Those are some of the safest fruits you can eat. But this should be a treat. We should treat fruit as what it is, and that’s dessert. It is not a healthy snack. You’re much better off giving your kids a handful of walnuts, or pistachios, or macadamia nuts as a healthy snack rather than a healthy piece of fruit. And to elaborate on that, most fruit in this country is brought over incredibly long distances from Argentina, and Chile, and even Mexico, and it’s picked unripe and then ripened with ethylene oxide.

An unripe fruit actually has lectins in it. I am old enough to remember eating green apples as a kid and suffering what we called the Green Apple two-step, which was pretty impressive diarrhea. And that’s because the lectins in green apples were designed to not make you eat that fruit until the seeds actually had a peel on them that you couldn’t digest, and then the plant actually wanted you to eat its fruit. That’s how it works.

Katie: That’s really fascinating. So, as an action step, you’re saying things like local, seasonal berries when they’re in season as a treat, that’s totally great. It’s just eating all fruits year-round like we live on a tropical island confuses our body basically.

Dr. Gundry: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And it’s really one of really the major causes I see of weight gain in this country, of insulin resistance in this country, and heart disease, quite frankly. Actually, it raises triglycerides. Triglycerides are the first form of fat that we make from sugars. And also, by the way, fructose is a toxin, and it’s such a toxin that we carry it immediately to our liver where it’s detoxified into triglycerides, which is a fat, and uric acid. And uric acid causes high blood pressure, and it also causes kidney stones and gout. So we always have to go back to realize that fructose is not our friend. Fructose, oh, by the way, is a mitochondrial poison. So why anyone would want their kids consuming a mitochondrial poison is beyond my comprehension.

Katie: That’s a great explanation. And as some really important people in my life get a little older, my parents, and also as I get older myself, you also are well-known for your book, ”The Longevity Paradox.” So to switch gears a little bit, explain to us what ”The Longevity Paradox” is.

Dr. Gundry: Well, we all want to get old. And live a long time, but we don’t wanna get old. And that’s actually ”The Longevity Paradox.” We look kinda into the future and getting old, we don’t wanna die, but getting old doesn’t look very good. It means hip and knee replacement. It means stents or open-heart surgery. It means maybe not remembering your loved ones’ names or ending up in a skilled nursing facility or assisted living, and none of that looks particularly good. What we really wanna do, the subtitle of the book is we wanna die young at a ripe, old age.

And that’s what we want, and it’s actually achievable. And the purpose of ”The Longevity Paradox” is to give people the hope and the evidence that it’s never too late to make changes in your life that will change your life around. And the examples that I see in my practice, and I see patients seven days a week because I learn from my patients. I learn what happens when I ask them to do certain things. I learn from their blood work what works, what doesn’t. And you know, I can’t resist not seeing patients every week, every day because every day I get to learn something new from one of my patients. And, you know, what a tremendous gift my patients are to me. So ”The Longevity Paradox” is how to get young, no matter how old you are.

Katie: I love that. And I’m curious, are there any supplements or go-to things that you take or that you think are essential for both getting rid of autoimmune disease, living longer, a lot of these things that you’ve talked about?

Dr. Gundry: Well, as you know, I formed my own supplement line, Gundry MD, three years ago now. All the supplements that I manufacture are based on my research in tens of thousands of patients, looking at their blood work and their response to certain ingredients. So I’m obviously biased that there are some really good things that people should take. Now, I’m a nut. And I list every one of the supplements that I currently take at the end of ”The Longevity Paradox,” and there are a rather impressive list. I take about 120 different supplements in the morning and about 80 at night. And I’ll tell you when I’m 150, how that worked out. In fact, our saying in our clinic is “150 is the new 100.”

So having said that, I think there are certain supplements that really every human being should take for maximal health, and that is vitamin D3. The current recommendations are being raised. Most labs now, a vitamin D level of 120 is now considered normal, not elevated. I have run my vitamin D level greater than 120 for the last 17 years to prove that I’m not dead. And so far so good. I’ve yet to see vitamin D toxicity. It may exist, but I certainly not seen it in my patients. So I’m aggressive at pushing vitamin D on my patients, at least 5,000 international units a day. Most people with autoimmune disease should start with 10,000 international units of D3.

The second thing that I think is critical for most people is to get enough fish oil, and I don’t care if it’s algae-based DHA, but to get enough fish oil to have 1,000 milligrams of DHA per day. And look on the back of whatever omega-3 or fish oil you’re buying and look for the amount of DHA per capsule and then just choose accordingly. I take care of a great number of people with the APOE-4 gene, which is, unfortunately, nicknamed the Alzheimer’s gene. And about 30% of Americans carry the Alzheimer’s gene. And in those people, I supplement with krill oil in addition to their fish oil.

Not as a substitution because there’s a phospholipid in krill oil that will carry DHA into these people’s brains, which otherwise might not get there. It’s a small technical point. But since Dale Bredesen who wrote the end of Alzheimer’s and I have become friends, we’re both very adamant about getting people with the APOE-4 gene, not only on fish oil but also on krill oil. And so, those are the essential things. The third thing that anyone can do for longevity is to practice time-restricted feeding. Now, whether we call that intermittent fasting, whether time-restricted feeding, which means limit the eating time during the day to a small number of hours, start with 10 hours, work your way down to even four to six hours, that’s probably one of the best ways to prolong good health of any trick that anyone has ever discovered.

And I profile a gentleman from the 1500s, Luigi. Carnero, who wrote a book on how to live to 100. He actually died at 102 in the 1500s. And he wrote a book on how to do this. And he actually practiced calorie restriction, and he gives the complete guide of how to do it. And one of the things that I always remember him, he said that most people think that 65 is pretty much the end of life, and there’s not much worth living for. And he says, “I stand to correct everyone that 90 and 100 is the best years of your life, and here’s how to do it.” And that’s what I want for everybody.

Katie: I love that. And I’ll make sure there’s links to all of your books in the show notes, and I’ll also post them on social media. But I’d love that you address the APOE4 because that’s something that runs in my family and something I’ve done quite a bit of research on as well. It’s good to know that there are things people can do to really mitigate that. Another clarifying point, I just wanted to make sure we touch on.

When I made this dietary switch myself when I was just learning about autoimmune disease, there was definitely an adjustment period where I didn’t feel very good. And you mentioned one of your patients didn’t like you those first few weeks. So, can you talk about, is there an adjustment period with this when your body’s still kind of like trying to figure out what’s going on, when it’s not as fun, and when do the beneficial results kind of start to work?

Dr. Gundry: Yeah, I actually tell any of my new patients that “You’re gonna hate me for two weeks and then you’re going to love me.” And it’s worked out to be pretty true. Most of us are addicted to the morphine-like compounds in grains and in dairy, and it’s like being withdrawn from a drug. One of the reasons we love wheat products, and rye, and barley, and oats is because of these morphine-like compounds that they are morphed into. And one of the reasons we like cow’s milk and cheeses is a beta-casomorphine, which goes right to our brains, particularly women’s brains, and goes happy, happy, happy, happy.

And interestingly enough, since you mentioned the APOE-4 gene, remarkably, saturated animal fats like cheeses are really detrimental to people with the APOE-4 gene, and vast majority of people with the APOE-4 gene love cheese. And it’s one of the hardest things to get away from them, and it’s because of these morphine-like compounds. And I really do think that most of us are, you know, addicted to this and it’s withdrawal. And once you withdraw, that’s when things start kicking in.

The second thing that happens, the vast majority of Americans are insulin-resistant. They have high fasting insulin levels. And I tell anyone who will listen in all the residents that come through my clinic and family practice that the best test if they’re gonna spend their patient’s hard-earned money on a laboratory test, the best test to get is a fasting insulin level. And that’s gonna tell you more about your patient’s fate than just about any tests you can get. Most people are insulin-resistance, and insulin resistance, not only feeds cancer but also makes your brain die rather rapidly.

We now know there’s a condition called type 3 diabetes of the brain and your brain becomes insulin-resistant. And so, when people go on a program like my own, they’re not able to actually get to the fat cells and make ketones, you mentioned the ketogenic diet earlier, and so they really crash and burn because they don’t have what we call metabolic flexibility. They can’t change on a dime from burning sugar as a fuel to burning fat as a fuel. And I talk about those and how to get around it in all my books. And it’s a big factor in making this transition easy for people.

Katie: Amazing. And again, I know I’ve said it a couple of times, but I definitely recommend all of your books. I’ve gifted them to my parents. I tell a lot of people I love. And I’ll make sure they’re linked in the show notes, but, of course, they’re available anywhere books are sold. And speaking of books, I’d love to ask, mainly selfishly for my own ideas, if there are any book or books besides your own that have really impacted your life that you’d recommend?

Dr. Gundry: Well, actually, in my grade school library when I was 10 years old, I found a book called ”All About You.” And it actually changed my life at 10 years old. And after reading that book, I decided to become a doctor. And one of the things you’re…you know, you’re a mother, and you probably already know the importance of reading to your kids, number one, and getting your kids to read.

I think just reading opens up so many doors. Early in my lectin research, I was most impacted by Michael Pollan’s really first book, which was called ”The Botany of Desire,” about how plants are intelligent thinking creatures that manipulate animals for their benefit. And it just, you know, was tantalizing how smart plants are, and I think it really set the stage for me to give plants the credit they are due.

Katie: I love that. And reading is a huge, huge part of my life. Even in the busiest of times, I’m sure I get in time, like at least 30 minutes to read each day. I think it’s such an important thing for all of us. That and community, which I also personally think is huge for health and longevity and like having strong relationships and really nurturing those are kind of my two non-negotiable when it comes to life.

Dr. Gundry: Well, you’re absolutely right. In “The Longevity Paradox,” one of the real factors in all of the blue zones, those people with extreme longevity. And interestingly enough, I’m the only nutritionist who’s ever actually lived most of his life in a blue zone in Loma Linda University, so I hope I know what I’m talking about. Blue zones have this intense social network, and it’s this social network that is really critical to longevity.

And so you’re right. One of the things you’ve got to have is a social network, however you wanna constitute that social network, whether it’s, you know, whether it’s based on religion, whether it’s based on community service, whether it’s based on, “Let’s play bridge together at your house once a week”, you know, “mothers against drinking alone on a Friday night.” I’m just making that up.

Katie: I love that. I know you talked about it, and I’ve seen the stats as well about how having those solid relationships and making them a priority, it actually statistically is more important than things like even quitting smoking or exercise. Like, it’s absolutely vital to our health. And so I love that you talked about that.

Dr. Gundry: Yeah. Yeah. We are very definitely social creatures. And the other thing I can’t stress enough is having a pet, particularly a dog or a cat, in every study that’s ever been done, not only promotes longevity but is a great social connection. Making you to walk your dog twice a day is a great way to meet other people, and having a pet improves your microbiome and your children’s microbiome. And, in fact, mothers should realize that children who have pets introduced early in their life have far less allergies and far less eczema than children who don’t have a pet, exactly the opposite of what many mothers are taught.

Katie: I love that. I’m gonna use that to help talk my husband into another dog, and I think that’s the perfect point to wrap up, have strong relationships, have a pet that you love, and eat a clean diet, and get some sunshine for vitamin D. I think we covered so much in this episode. I hope that maybe one day you’ll come back for round two, but I’m so grateful for your time and for all that you shared today.

Dr. Gundry: I’d love to come back, and thank you for all the great work you’re doing. And we’re gonna have you on my podcast, and we’ll talk about all the stuff that you’re up to, and I’ll really look forward to it.

Katie: Thank you. I can’t wait. And thanks to all of you for listening and sharing one of your most valuable resources, your time, with both of us today. We’re so grateful that you did, and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the ”Wellness Mama’ Podcast.”

If you’re enjoying these interviews, would you please take two minutes to leave a rating or review on iTunes for me? Doing this helps more people to find the podcast, which means even more moms and families could benefit from the information. I really appreciate your time, and thanks as always for listening.

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/podcast/dr-gundry/

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