#I got to rewatch the season 5 special for the cast credit

[kidshowsarecool]

The Robocar poli cast is literally just the 4kids cast.

I think the director who did Robocar Poli just called the 4kids cast and was “hey you want to do the show”

[popculturebuffet]

Averyfest Special: Top 12 Uncle Phil Moments (Comission by WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy pillow mounds of mashed pot-a-toes. Today kicks off Averyfest. For those like me who didn't know about this treasured event, Averyfest is a now yearly event held in Sufolk, Virginia, home of the one the only James Avery, a celebration of black culture in honor of this fine actor.

And since both Kev who comissioned this and myself happen to be big fans of avery, we decided to honor him with a little celebration of our own. THE TOP 12 UNCLE PHIL MOMENTS. While Avery had a long storied career in tv we can come back to next year, including being the first animated shredder, guesting on night court, being to my suprise the first actor to play Jim Rhodes overall in the 90's iron man cartoon, leading his own sitcom Sparks and more we'll probably find as we dig. The man is talented as hell and IS more than uncle phil.. but it's also hard to define his legacy without his best roll.

Over 6 seasons Avery gave us one of if not the best sitcom dad ever: Uncle Phil worked in a lot of contexts and played off everyone in the cast uniquely: he was respectful yet stubborn with his wife vivian, often livid at Will's antics but more than there to support his adopted son in all but paper when he needs it most, alternating between having a close bond with carlotn and being another straight man to the increasingly cartoony dweeb, grappling with ashely growing up and serving as easily hillary's best foil, exasperated at his daughters vapidity. Ther'es also of course Geoffry, his butler who hasn't met a joke he won't make about his boss and is too good at his job and too loyal, and has frankly put up with too much crap at times, for Phil to complain. Over the series Avery got to show his strong dramatic chops with the more grounded moments of character and his immense comedic chops. Avery was a wonderful man, a wonderful talent and he's dearly missed and this is entirely in his honor, showing off every inch of his performance with my 12 faviorite momnets from the show.

12) And I"m Telling You (The Script Formerly Known As.. 6-5)

This is an episode I honestly barely remember, i've watched the series casually on and off. But this is a moment i've rewatched a few times on it's own.

Now i'ts so low on this list because the moment's more Will Smiths, an actor I respect as a performer, who fucked up royally at the oscars (As did Chris Rock), an incident I was going to get into but frankly.. this isn't about Will Smith. I'll still give him credit where he's do, but this isnt the place to unpack that whole incident, plenty of people have, and I'm only adressing it because it's hard not to.

Anyways this was more Will's moment, giving a hilaroiusly over the top lipsinc to phil after Will Smith Shenanigan #129. But while Smith's capering would be fucking brilliant on it's own what sells it and lands it here is Avery's facial acting. Giving the most baffled and bug eyed performance, Uncle Phil is left somewhere between confused and pissed off before ultimately giving up and it's glorious. This moment would be good anyway but it's doubly good thanks to his reactoin to the madness before him.

11) Soullllll Train (Soul Train, 5-8)

The Soul Train ep is a fun one for Uncle Phil.. and for all involved as the banks as a whole get invited on SOULLLL TRAINNN after Phil had a great showing years ago. Phil's self concious, but goes anyway and gets a great moment dancing with his wife and showing age dosen't matter, how you feel is. We also get him dancing with a guy for funk practice, something that will never not be hilarous.

10) Hell Toupee (Geoffery Cleans Up, 2-16) I honestly forgot this was in the same episode as Geoffery Dates a Rich Lady, a plot that's nice if forgetable. This on the other hand is pure comic gold. I don't know who in the writers room shouted "let's just put james avery in a goofy toupe and riff on that" but bless them. Trying to make his dad look younger, Carlton puts him in this monstrosity while Phil is fully against the whole idea, feeling self concious. I do like how Phil's Self Conciousness is a big part of his character, that he dreads not being seen as the upstanding rich lawyer he's become. Sometims it holds him back like the Soul Train ep above or an episode coming up on the list. Other times like this.. you get it. He's fine being bald, looks honestly damn good with a bald head and beard, and dosen't really need it, Carlton just got in his head. Will's scream at seeing his second hairpiece is also worth it.

9) Pillowy Mounds of Mashed Potatoes (4-10)

Look this meme had to get here. This wasn't an episdoe I watched a lot as I didn't want to watch Avery have a heart attack, Doubly so since Avery died of problems during heart surgery. But i'll be dammend if his weird worshipful description of how much he loves potatoes dosen't get in here. He's on a diet, he misses mashed potatoes, you don't need much.

8) Judge Phillip Banks (Season 3 Arc)

This one is lower because it's not really ONE moment but the only arc I can see Phil got to himself all series and it's a great one. After finding out his mentor Judge Robertson is both an asshole and refusing to leave despite being not fit for the job, Phillipi runs. And thus shenanigans insues as he doeas with constant set backs, robertson shooting low and anything will does, or in one case Jazz using Will's car, not helping. Ironically it is Will who wins it.. by calling Robertson, a truly hilarious villian and great guest sport, out then accidently killing the man. It's a solid arc that moves Phill forward in his career while looping in everyone else for at least one bit.

7) Beauty (The Big Four-Oh, 2-7)

This is a moment i'd forgot about. The Big Four Oh is rightly remembered as Janet Hubert's best run as Aunt Viv, dancin gup a storm as she persues an old dream to see if she still has it, insecure at turning 40. Something I can relate to as turning 30 was stressful enough. 40.. 40 scares me.

But this small moment is so wonderful it made it here: Phil telling his wife just how he feels, how he gets lost in her eyes like a thousand thoughts turned to dust, her beautiful skin and just how much he admires her. It's powerful acting from avery and a reminder that while the two argue like any couple, there's real true love there. And always would be.

6) Break Out Lucille( Bank's Shot, 1-22)

One of the best moments of the whole show and another one of those little moments that reminds you while Phil is a stuff shirt now he wasn't always and is eternally not to be fucked with. I honestly don't remember most of this episode: will did a gambling, lost a lot of money, so Phil has to bail him out. Phil does so however by showing that while Will got hustled, Phil was a hustler, making his money on pool, suckering the man who suckered will into ab ad bet.. then having Geoffery break out lucille. This alone is a nice detail I didn't really examine before writing this; normally Phil tries to keep his past at arm's length, our next entry gets into that more. He's not ashamed of the lengths he had to go to get where he is, but dosen't like to dwell on it. Yet when it comes to Pool.. he clearly still enjoys it. It's something that still has a touch of class to it and he can enjoy, something that's both his past having to hustle to pay for school and something he still keeps up. So while this is to tecah will and some assholes a lesson, Phil is clearly just letting his lack of hair down and enjoying himself with this one.

5) Zeke (Not Without My Pig You Don't, 1-4)

Not Without My Pig You Don't is one of my faviorite episodes of the show and one of the most important. As I mentioned, Phil likes to keep his past at arms length. It walks that line in that while he's not ashamed of having worked hard, done everything he can or protested, he's left most of that behind and adapted to the largely white subrban world he's in now.

The series dosen't let him get away from it for long as only 4 episodes in we meet Phil's parents and his past: Turns out Phil was a farm boy, first black president of his 4h club, desgreated a local bathroom (albeit because he had to pee real bad), and had a pig. It's all pretty charming stuff: while I grew up in suburbia my dad grew up on a farm with my grandma I visited frequently and while not having pigs, just cows, it was charming to meet Will's grandma a kindly, lively woman.

What makes this a moment for Phil is how he grapples with it. He's mildly embarassed at his past when Hattie brings it up to his kids.. but he's absolutely furious when will, in a truly kind moment finding out a newpaper inteview Phillip did is going to be cut as the reporter finds it boring, tells the stories. What makes this so good is that Will isn't pulling some prank or trying to get under Phil's skin: he saw the story was going to be cut and while he laughed at Phil's antics as "Zeke", he's clearly proud of what the man acomplished even back then. It's already clear that while Will will razz phil constantly, he loves his uncle even this early.

Phil however dosen't want to be known as a "hog handling hick from yamacraw" so blinded by who he is NOW that he hates who he was despite again being from the farm being nothing to be ashamed of. He had two loving parents who worked hard to support them.. and Hattie hearing this is furious and calls him out. This being a sitcom Phil does manage to patch things up with a warm speech, but it feels more earned here, wtih Phil accepting his past and himself and how hard his parents worked to get him where he is today. Just because being a farm boy dosen't fit iwth who he is now dosen't mean it didn't get him there.

4) Goodbye (I, Done 6-24)

I, Done is a solid series finale, giving all the banks their happy endings: Geoffery to London to connect with his son, Ashely and Hiliary to New York for school and her show, Carlton to Princeton and the rest of the Banks somewhere east. That leaves will in Calfironia, still in school and wondering if he'd gained anything at all and hidning the fact he didn't have some grand plan. When confronted he feels like a looser.. and instead.. Phil sets him straight

You have no idea what my first memory of you is. I remember... a kid loaded with all the potential in the world. Now I see a person on the verge of realizing that potential.

While Phil always had issues with Will it';s clear from the pilot, which we'll get to he loved the boy as his own and confirms it at the end, saying Will's his son end of story. It's a powerful goodbye..a nd yet not one as he gets will to promise to call him every sunday. While we never saw it... I never doubt the two met again. And still call every sunday.

3) I Heard the Brother Speak (The Fresh Prince Project, 1-1)

This to me is Phillip Banks defining moment. It's an important one as we're only on the first episdoe and Phil spends most of it being what you'd expect from the series premise: a stuff shirt who Phill seemingly needs to get to loosened up. And that isn't untrue: there are time Will gets Phil out of his own bubble and to accept the wider black experince. But what makes the show works so well is that it's nuanced: it was a goal from the start to show there's not one kind of blackness. And that just becaue Phil is a rich man now dosen't mean he forgot his roots.

He keeps a bulk at arms length.. but there are parts that won't leave him. When Phil tries to counter part of his rebellion is simply Phillip being so bougise, claming he's forgot himself, he's not entirely wrong, as the previous episode shows just two episodes after this, but he's not right either: Phil makes it clear will DOES NOT know the full measure of him and that while rich, Phil was old enough to have been on the front lines, at the marches, encountering racists, probably getting hosed, and to have "heard the brother speak". While there's no doubt Will encountered racisim and the series never darts around that, we'll get to THE episode tackling that soon enough, it's still enough of a gap to give will pause and feels like the moment Will stops seeing phil as just this adult to rail against, but his eventual new dad. It's also a good moral for a sitcom, one not done enough: that sometimes you can' tjudge a person just by what little you know but by their ful character and past. That there's always layers beneath. And this was the first time we saw Uncle Phils.

2) BULL! (Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse 4-24)

I already put this episode at the top of my top 12 fresh prince episodes, so this isn't remotely suprising. Will's dad returned, claimed to take him on a trip then prepared to flee again. Phil spent the whole episode PISSED Lou was back. Vivian wasn't happy either, but both tried to give Will their blessing and space. But when Lou planed to abandon will AND have Phil tell him, Phil fucking explodes. he has before, lots of angry rants at Phil and Carlton most of which they deserved. But this is Phil at his most pissed off with only our #1 coming close: he tears the man apart, refusing to let Lou leave when he tries to brush him off, making the man sit and shouting BULL when Lou tries to say he'll still take the trip and tearing into him. It's one of the best reason you suck speechs i've ever witnessed tearing Down how Lou thinks he can just duck in and out of his sons life, what he's done and how yes Lou was scared, young and it's understandable.. but so was Uncle Phil who as seen by flashbacks got his fortune young but also still struggled at first, and who didn't remotely run from his responsiblities. He then forces Lou to break things to will himself before hugging the poor boy in one of the best moments of film history after WIll's epic speech and very real tears.

1) Your Grandchildren Will Need Lawyers (Mistaken Identity 1-6) This speech above is easily my faviorite fresh prince moment and one that's only gotten better with age as sadly shit like this still happens. Mistaken Identity shows the series tackle race up front and early, with Carlton and Will getting pulled over by a racist cop and accused of car theft. The two get great stuff as Carlton tries to play it normally for him while Will gets this is being caught driving while black and is used to it but still scared. The two get thrown in jail, have to fake a confession to get out, as Uncle Phil is busy at the party they were headed to in Phil's boss' car.

Vivan and Phil's response to this bullshit.. is great. Vivian is 5 seconds from beating the piss out of every last racist cop in the prisinct. Phil tries to keep it calm.. but when the racist cop at the front desk both refuses to talk to him and then is disrepsctful to vivian Phil explodes "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE TALKING TO?" it's a perfect rage, and one clearly built from having to deal with this shit FAR too often and the realization that no, his kids aren't safe and never have been. No matter how rich he'es gotten, no matter how far he's come, they'll never see him as nothing but another black man to sneer at and throw away and he'll be fucking DAMMNED if they mistreat his sons.

Granted there is some white backup from Firth, the partner whose car it was, but it's realistic: this fucker was not taking Phil seroiusly and was bein ga royal unhelpful ass. While Phil defintely would've ripped this man to shred it's all to ssatisfying to see this fucking tool have the color drain out as he realizes how BADLY he fucked up and that he happend to pull over two innocent black men this time who happened to have backup. One dope as hell speech pointing out EVERY fucking thing Phil can sue him for later the kids are freed.

The ending is also part of this: Will rails a bit, understandably pissed if used to it... but more pissed Carlton won't accept reality: Carlton claims the system worked, that htey got out... but it's very clear had they not had a rich powerful father figure and even more if said father figure didn't have someone to coberate his story, they may of been stuck there for a crime they didn't commit. The cop didnt pull them over because carlton made a mistake: he was pulled over because a cop saw him in a fancy car and assumed it'd be an easy arrest. And it's phil's reactoin that's heartbreaking: not only is he pissed this still happens.. but he simply.. can't agree with carlton. He tells carlton he asked the same thing the first time he was stopped leaving his son stunned as he goes to bed, clearly sad that history repeats and might again.. and as present day shows it just.. keeps happening. Thanks for reading and rest in power james avery

[rajasbaby]

Ranking all 'All Stars' Seasons

1. All Stars 4

This will forever be MY all-time favorite season of Drag Race periodt. I've rewatchted so many times. The cast is A-MA-ZING, there's the perfect amount of drama, the challenges are fun.. I have nothing bad to say. Manillas Runways are EVERYTHING. I've even come to terms with the Twinner Twinner 2 Chicken Dinners Twist..

2. All Stars/All Winners 7

Now, I might be biased because Raja is in the cast.. but I LOVE this season. It's great just seeing pure talent on my screen, no fake production pushed drama, and no eliminations. They were all confident in what they're doing! I regularly watch the acting challenge because everyone is just so so good. Now I don't even need to talk about the runway..

3. All Stars 2

Every Drag Race fan has a special place for All Stars 2 in their hearts. I know it! The cast is so perfect. Very quotable. Great Lipsyncs. I personally love Alaska, sooo I live! There's only a few minor flaws you can overlook. (Katya was not robbed btw)

4. All Stars 1

*COLLECTIVE GASP* I know I know, we don't even talk about All Stars 1 but there's something about it I just really love. The drama is funny, Rujubee are like a dream team! It still has that older season flair, with the going outside and all. I also like seeing Chad being awesome lmao. Added bonus: we got Latrilla <

5. All Stars 6

Okay this was a VERY weird season. I'm still unsure how I feel.. So the game within a game was.. useless? The cast was.. interesting like really. The judging was QUESTIONABLE at times. I just think it got pretty boring, but out of the top 4 I would've been happy to see any if them win, they made the season watchable! (Along with Bob and Thorgys recap lmao)

6. All Stars 3

I was HYPED for the cast, likeeeee Bebe? Thorgy?? Shangie??? DELA???? Even Aja! But something.. wasn't working for me (like the winner). I never rewatched, but I was entertained. The lipsyncs were top-notch. Also, the Dela self elimination - I don't think something gaggier ever happened...

7. All Stars 5

Pffff. This was something. I think it's one of the MOST hated Drag race seasons ever, and sadly, I get it. I loved that Shea won, but like... Cracker won half the season?? The lipsync assasin twist was weird. The cast? Some queens kinda ruined their reputation here. The Alexis drama was tired.. However.. MISS COULEÉ oh and I'll never forget Jujus snatch game and her iconique confessionals!

8. All Stars 8

No. I'm sorry I couldn't even finish this season had to watch the Pit Stop. It was not only obvious who would win, there was no competition casted?? I was excited to see Monica back but.. idk. Alexis was so unbearable! The only girl I liked was Jessica. HOWEVER I have to give credit where credit is due, the rusical is SO SO PERFECT. One of the best ever!!!

[lukesperfectharmonyhair]

im rewatching jatp instead of studying for the 3 tests i have tomorrow and i thought i would share my thoughts and reactions with each episode so enjoy!!....

wake up

- hearing the “1, 2, 3″ at the start of the episode gives me more serotonin than my antidepressants ever will

- julie’s slippers...that’s it...that’s the thought

- that dry ass pasta the molina’s are eating for dinner??? someone needs to give my man ray some cooking tips or a cookbook... something

-the looks the boys give julie when she says it was an OLD cd she found. as if they could be old??

-the entire julie and luke kitchen scene i mean there are no words to describe how much i am in love with scene. the banter, the flirting, luke giving this girl he literally just met an actual PIECE OF HIS SOUL so she can get music back into her life. not a single time have i watched that scene and not felt my heart literally grow cause of how cute they are. 

-the entire scene when julie is singing wake up. that scene is what made me literally CRAVE watching the other episodes. like of course i was going to watch them cause i wasn’t gonna just stop watching a show after one episode, and yes the show was good already but seeing the lighting and her voice, and just everything about the scene,,,,*chef’s kiss* 

bright

-flynn drinking seven sodas....SEVEN??? i would be throwing up if i drank more than like 2 and she drank seven,,,no ma’am.

- flynn and her trumpet. talented queen

- “ i wouldn’t have given you the song if i didnt think you were gonna rock it.” lmaooo im crying:)

- i start tearing up every time julie goes to play the first notes of bright,,, and then i’m full on bawling when the guys come in and play with her cause...they weren’t playing to be seen they were playing to be there for her and play to comfort her. pls i love them<3

- nick vibing in the front row

- the tech guy deserves so much more praise

flying solo

- reggie’s little butt shake or whatever you wanna call it!!

- julie’s little laugh when she yells at the guys to stop it

- “and we’re on the runway again” GENUINELY one of my favorite lines of the whole show pls i love luke’s humor

-this is the first time i noticed this but reggie’s face after alex says “DONT TELL ME HOW TO GHOST!”

-WILLIE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU<3333333

-the slow mo helmet take off,,,,me too alex me too

-willie’s little giggles:))))

- “oh-oh!”

- “no clue” alex i love you baby<3

- next season better give us a scene of flynn throwing eggs at someone’s house because i think it’s safe to say we were robbed of that experience. 

- the flying solo performance is just amazing

i got the music

- just the whole opening scene is so cute ....the dancing, singing, happiness RADIATING from julie 

-nick in an all white suit and fedora

-WILLEX MUSEUM DATE YEAH BABYYYYY

- carefree skateboarder bf and anxiety ridden drummer bf

- yelling. in. museums. 

-alex thinking he’s literally dying again because of the salt... zero braincells in this band.

- another scene we were robbed of that i need to see in season 2...reggie singing “home is where my horse is” while alex and julie sit patiently and attentively listen to him but luke looks like he’s about to commit murder

- i get SO MUCH second hand embarrassment for julie when she looks through luke’s songbook and says “ wow luke I didn’t know you were such a romantic” julie baby i love you but...eekkkkk

- “he looks like a substitute teacher”- where did he come up with that like so many other things he could be compared to but a substitute teacher??

- “luke introduced you to rock” heck yeah it did.. literal soulmates

- would like to see a picture of the raccoon in Flynn’s backyard

- wee woo wee woo police sirens://///

- julie’s outfit ughhhh i love it

- the poster that im pretty sure says “sexiest role” behind caleb... why was that necessary 

the other side of hollywood

- THE ENTIRE PERFORMANCE OF THE OTHER SIDE OF HOLLYWOOD 

- i lose my absolute shit over this song omg literal chills

- the cape grab i cannot physically do this rn

- willie being so excited the entire performance and looking over to see alex’s reaction

- reggie being in awe everytime one of the girls performing does something.. me too reggie

-”well i wouldn't really call it mAAgiCcCC bUT”

- nick and his fedora again

- alex has a crush, alex has a crush on.....WILLIE

-the boys eating food for the first time in 25 years is honestly so realistic

-alex shoving a whole slice of pizza in his mouth

- lukes ‘OH MY GODDDDD’

- reggie kissing his meatball sub that looks painfully dry but also delicious 

- the continuation of the other side of hollywood performance and everyone dancing

-reggie imitating caleb’s evil laugh and owen trying so hard not to break

-me getting mad at the boys for not showing up for julie and being sad with her but at the same time i’m obviously not mad at the boys just...disappointed?? idk 

finally free

- how did julie get to the school if she missed the first three classes?? wasn’t she still at flynn’s house from the night before cause she slept over so did she walk to school or was she just sitting in flynn’s house by herself and one of flynn’s parents was like you gonna go to school or???

-dance class with nicky poo<3

-reggie fixing his amp in the rain

-julie’s blue dress outfit in this episode is my ABSOLUTE favorite 

- the birthday candle scene makes me sob like a little baby,,,and rightfully so

- julie smart, smart to be taking calculus as what a sophomore??

- all eyes on me yes queen iconic

- alex dancing is how i dance in my brain whenever the song comes on 

- finally free as a song is NEVER given enough credit and why not?? it’s my favorite song they do as a band AND the madison’s vocals and the echoing part omg i loveeeee

- and the whole performance with luke’s heart eyes. i count this performance as the moment luke like fell in love with julie...like full on just blown away with how much awe and admiration he has for her in that moment and all the time.

 - julie and luke singing “and you’re a part of me” while staring directly into each others soul,,,yeah that’s love kids

edge of great

- carlos being the ghost hunter he is and tía being done with him

- luke’s pouting face 

- reggie and ray making breakfast together is so wholesome. reggie really loves and seeks comfort in ray and i love that

- luke just waiting next to julie’s locker and his little “hey”

- the first time i watch this scene i thought charlie was from new york cause of the way he says “ i can't do this without you” and then i watched the cast interviews and just realized he is somewhat joey tribbiani 

- jealous luke hehehehehhehehe

- “well dont you look shARrP”- yes he does luke thank you very much

- “uh oh i think someone has a crush on julie” yeah you do you little shit,,, now admit it to her

- the proud look on luke’s face when he realizes julie is still paying attention to HIM even though she’s supposed to be having a full on conversation with nick

- the shoulder push ( as someone who has had their own shoulder pushed in the middle of a high school hallway as a weird way of flirting,,,,i can definitely somewhat attest to how luke is feeling in that moment and i too continued to flirt with the person who shoulder shoved me while we were still standing in the hallway)

- the flow from whatever the hell dance nick and julie are doing and the perfect harmony dance is so special to me and i love it

-ADOANCLOBNAOVBCOAB THE HAIR PLSSSSS

- EVERYTIME THE SCENE COMES ON AND I SEE HIM WALKING THROUGH THE MIRROR I HAVE TO PAUSE THE SHOW FOR LIKE 10 MINUTES WHILE I DIE LAUGHING BECAUSE THE HAIR IS SO BAD EVEN THOUGH I SHOULD BE USED TO HOW IT LOOKS AFTER WATCHING THIS SHOW LITERALLY 30 TIMES

- i think people see my username and assume i like his hair in this scene but...ummm fun little fact i do not like it

- the dance is so good though ugh my babies

- the hair

- madison is gorgeous 

- another season 2 scene i need: julie teaching this dance to luke and they perform it in front of alex and reggie so they can see luke roll on the floor like that

-the hair

- the lift i loveeee

- the voices at the end of the song *chef’s kiss*

- the way julie spins out from luke and into nick omg so good

- “thAnKs pArTnER”

- luke denying his feelings for julie,,,babe pls

- the whole edge of great performance is so good and beautiful and the colors are SPECTACULAR 

-julie avoiding luke’s gaze lolz

- can't believe my mans really tried to deny he didn’t have feelings for julie like 5 hours earlier even though he’s getting upset because she hasn’t looked at him in 2 minutes

- THE. GUITAR. RIFF. SOLO.

- when i finally learn how to play the electric guitar well enough to learn the guitar solo... it’s over for everyone

-nick just came to watch the girl he likes perform not watch her flirt with a hologram plssss can we give this man a break next season.

- “we have to say goodbye to julie”- that’s literally more important to luke than not playing music anymore because julie is music to him now

unsaid emily

-already crying and the episode hasn't even started

-willex in the orpheum

- alex literally being OVER reggie

- nope too emotionally unstable to watch this scene right now

- my therapist will be hearing about this tomorrow

- show us the baby picture of luke cowards

- this is such a beautiful song that makes me cry every fucking time gosh damn it

- everytime i watch the flashback scene of luke on his bike i think of “christmas song” by phoebe bridges and i cry even more

- i tried to learn how to play this song on my electric guitar (because i dont have an acoustic guitar) and i ended up crying half way through so i do not think i will be playing it anytime soon:/

- the harmonies *chef’s kiss*

- THE POLICE LIGHTS ....i cry

- FAT tears rolling down my face

- there's literally not a moment i don’t cry during this episode

- interesting little relationship :0

- when i played percussion in 7th grade i used to lay down on the couch in the practice room at school ( which god knows what people did on that couch...ew) and stick my drumsticks up my nose too,,,, just another similarity between alex and i 

stand tall

- willie really drove a bus 200 miles into the desert for his crush

- WILLEX HUG 

- i love willie no last name so much,,,i just wanna hold and protect him

- alex’s ballerina dance

-julie’s overall outfit i love<3

- “im swimming”

- the way carlos hangs up the iPad on tía makes me CRACK UP he’s just lmao bye girl

- another julie outfit i love

- “anything julie. you know that.” AHHHHHAASIDSJFPACISN love bitches

- the suits

- luke’s hair in this episode is so much better than the perfect harmony hair pls

- YOU GOT NOTHING TO LOSE

- the way luke looks so restricted and confined in his suit... but at the same time he looks like a 10 week old puppy

-luke’s AGGRESSIVE but small foot tapping leading up to being on the stage

- the solos:)))))

- crying again over julie’s monologue to her mom

- julie really was brave enough to be ready to perform by herself

-the way Trevor looks at carrie when she says “been here before”

-ALEXXXXXX

-REGGIEEEEE

-luuukkKKKEEEEEEE

- this performance makes me cry

- especially the first time when i saw luke flickering...sobs

- he finally looks free in his suit:))

- alex’s solo is so pretty i love him

- reggie’s solo too 

- nick just straight up vibing the entire performance

- alex and luke holding hands...hehehe cute besties

- “thank you, guys” NO THANK YOU 

- the way julie begs for them to do something about the jolts for HER cause she knows luke would never say no to her

- “no music is worth making, julie, if we’re not making it with you,” I JUST SCREAMED AND IM PRETTY SURE I WOKE UP MY ENTIRE HOUSEHOLD...whoops

- going back to that line i could say so much about it but....for someone who’s life was literally MUSIC for the 17 years he was alive, and after finding out he could play music again even though he was dead and saying it made him feel alive, he would give that up- he would give up playing his guitar, playing in a band with his friends, give up writing and singing music- if he wasn’t doing that with julie. that’s more than saying i love you,,,that’s literally like saying i’d give up my ENTIRE LIFE and what i love to do if i dont get to do it with you

- i just made myself cry with that description...wow

-the hug<3

-also imagine how luke felt in that moment,,, hearing this girl, once again that he would give his life up for, saying in his ear that she loves them. i would motherfucking glow too, luke

- *passionately but gently holds each others faces*

-HANDS OFF MY BABY NICK, CALEB

- caleb’s outfit is....something

- the head turn plssss

this was so long and i am so sorry but if you read this far.....leave some of your own reactions or thoughts:)))

k goodnight im gonna, ugh, finally go study ://

[life-rewritten]

DISMAYS VS RELIEFS AKA REVIEW/RANTS OF BL IN SEPTEMBER NOVEMBER

It's been an interesting experience this past few months. BL came back in full force, took mostly all days in the week and you know what? It surprised the hell out of me. Mostly because I was moving back and forth from the decision of whether to stop watching or to wait and trust something extraordinary would happen like last year. And then October/November happened before I knew it I was falling again for some storylines, I was excited again to analyse and talk about these shows, and also I was incredibly grateful for some of the messages I received from these shows, they educated me, humbled me and even pushed me to my own version of self-acceptance, learning and love. So there are some disappointments with some of the shows mentioned here, but overall I'm grateful we got to see these shows and wait for them every week to air. This is the first part of this list because in another two weeks I have more shows ending. December is shaking!

Ratings: From 1 to 5 (1 being least excited to watch, 5 being most,) how excited am I to delve into these shows?

DISMAYS

1. MY GEAR AND MY GOWN

Genre/Themes: Romance, Melodrama, Angst, Drama, Friendship, Unrequited Love, Family

Country: Thailand

Verdict:

 Um, this show. I've been through a lot with this show, I've been angry, frustrated, tired, annoyed but weirdly I love this show, by the end of the finale, this show left me with warmth and this energy of bliss and joy. I realised that the reason why I was so harsh to this show was because of the potential I saw when I first saw the first episode. I fell in love because I could tell it was symbolic, it was deep, and it also had interesting devices used to tell the plot. Who knew that the pacing and directing of this show would nearly leave me mad and furious because it could have been better. This is all on the director, and sometimes the actors, they weren't expressive enough, they weren't emotional enough, and they didn't entirely sell me on what they were meant to be feeling. Sometimes it felt awkward and stiff and unbelievable, and at those times, I felt disappointed and bored. But the characters of this show and especially some actors (FIAT and JJ) really stole my heart without me wanting them to. I fell in love with the couples, I loved analysing them and feeling their angst and understanding their character dynamics. I lived for their friendship and enjoyed watching how it all came together. Even some of the romantic scenes made me swoon and excited, and I was just so happy to watch these couples choose each other.

I also think the relationship dynamics, whilst sometimes annoying, was actually sweet and wholesome. Itt and Pai's love is so cute and memorable, and I understood why they wanted each other, they both helped each other so much, and I thought it was beautiful. Pure and Folk; everything, no words, they were incredible despite rushed and late, I enjoyed watching their love on my screen, and it left me so disappointed that we could have had more if the pacing was done right. Either way, despite the rants and criticisms this show was a gem to me, one of my favourites just because of the couple dynamics. I will miss it, and I will miss analysing it. But please NEW sort your self out, and stop with the slow pace directing; you're killing your shows, (just my opinion) but you're making me dread the shows I've been so excited for in 2021, and I really pray you won't ruin them. Nough said. 

Ratings:3.8/5 I can't rate it higher, but I do think it deserves credit, this show is very underrated as much as it annoyed me it's actually a decent show, it's very educational sometimes. It also has character development and growth. The romances are sweet and definitely should be paid attention to.

2. A CHANCE TO LOVE/ LOVE BY CHANCE SEASON 2

Genre/Themes: Comedy, Romance,  Drama, Friendship, Rich, poor dynamic, 

Country: Thailand

Verdict:

MGAYG was not the only show that New produced/ directed. There was this atrocity. No offence to everyone who loved this show, I love TinCan, I like most of the couples of the show, I didn't even complain when the show was rebooted, I didn't complain when there was not enough plot for the side couples for the first 8 episodes. But what annoys the hell out of me with this show is the lazy writing. I am so disappointed with this show, I realised that by the finale I was just tired and I was only watching it for some actors not even characters ( I was watching it to see a glimpse of Meen and Est), and it really made me sad. Because I started off with this show a bundle of joy, to see Tin and Can fall in love with each other again, I ignored when the haters said it was boring, awkward or stiff. I even accepted the massive amounts of product placement that was placed lazily and annoyingly. I was ready to forgive everything with this show. But I ended up feeling slighted, not me the actors should feel slighted, Cooheart, Mark Siwat, Gun, Title, Meen, Est should feel slighted by this show because this show wasted their potentials and only showed them for minutes in the whole 12 hours that this show aired for. I am so angry at the writer because she was lazy. She had clocked out when it came to this script (Though I don't blame her when everyone kept on sending her threats to how she told the previous story, she silenced her own creative ideas and muted everything, hence why Kengla and Techno's story was destroyed and became lazy and not needed and confusing, and Tum and Tar and Keen made no sense). Mame had given up on this show long before it aired. 

But as much as I am disappointed at her for doing so, I also have to take this back to New, he's the person again who ruined this show with his pacing and directing. I love New, but this year it wasn't it, he is the main flaw in both his shows, he doesn't know when to pace things properly, he rushes plots at the end, and he doesn't give enough time to side couples for them to make sense. He did well in season 1 I think, but this season was atrocious. I am heavily disappointed, and I want to forget this show exists. I do have to give credit to Mean because I think he carried the show, I think Plan was cute but he was uncomfortable, and he ruined a lot of moments for me despite how much I love his chemistry with Mean. So yeh LBC was a disappointment, but it still holds a special place in my heart because I did care about the cast (maybe not as much anymore because of their homophobia) but LBC was one of my first loved BLs to see such a disappointing follow up is just heartbreaking. 

Ratings:2.9/5 I couldn't bring my self to rate it even a three because I genuinely don't want to rewatch or think about this show again that's a pity because I genuinely love TinCan and MeenEst. But hey ho, c'est la vie. 

RELIEFS

Gaya Sa Pelikula

Genre/Themes: Romance, Drama, Comedy, Angst, LGBTQ+ Education, Contract relationship, Haters to lovers

Country: Philippines 

Verdict:  We finally reached the end. And the way I didn't want this show to end, is just too much. I completed this show on the floor sobbing, clenching my heart and just reflecting and thinking about everything. One I was in shock, wasn't expecting something like this when I first watched this show. I had a lot of doubts despite the sneaky light in my heart from the comedy and energy and charisma from the show. I fell. Hard. For everything. Before I knew it, Fridays meant everything to me, if I could get to keep watching this show, it made laugh, smile, cry, weep, and it made me think and learn. It's weird how a show can mean so much to people, this show wasn't for me, it was a love letter to the LGBTQ+ community, a beautiful one, and with everybody's reaction, I think I can say for all of us, that this show was a masterpiece. It had everything, a plot that was so deep, interesting and unique, characters that felt real, understandable and relatable, lessons that made everyone think and question how they acted, how they viewed things, what we say, how we consider our selves, what is our story that we want to tell to the world?

 It's just incredible, not only that this show had terrific production, directing, acting and music that will stick with me for a long time. The music was perfectly used, perfectly mixed in, and it touched everyone's heart. This show left me feeling healed, it was weird, I don't know how to relate to the struggles of Internalised homophobia, but I get anxiety, I get feeling like you're not the main character in your story, I get feeling like your life was already planned out and your dreams don't matter, I get hiding and running away from the world and finding a place to stay in your head and find peace and I get feeling overlooked and misunderstood. Overall I get the fight for self healing, acceptance and love. And Vlad and Karl went through that, and it was so beautiful to see them grow and become what they wanted to be, even if they couldn't be together because of that. Everything including the side characters in this show meant something, each had their own story, flaws and importance for why they were there, and I loved it. Words can't explain how good this show is, and the fact that no one came into it,  knowing anything is just such inspirational and hopeful thing, out there, there are content and stories to consume that can teach and affect you and make you want to do something with your own. And Gaya Sa pelikula was one of those for me. I don't wanna say Goodbye, and hopefully, we get to see them again soon. 

Ratings: 5/5 I would give this more than 5 if I could. That's how much this show means to me. 

4. I TOLD SUNSET ABOUT YOU/ TRANSLATE MY LOVE WITH YOUR HEART

Genre/Themes: Romance, Melodrama, Coming of Age, Angst, Drama, Childhood friendship

Country: Thailand

Verdict: Wow. All I can say is wow. I find my self not able to talk about this show, because like what else can I say that everyone hasn't said. It's outstanding. No words. I think this show was just out of nowhere, I mean probably not; because it was a Nadao production but still, for a BL? Out of nowhere. The effort, the acting, the music, the production, the themes and the way it was all so perfectly told? It was a journey, I ended up at times also on the floor sobbing, shouting and just like feeling so single. Haha. But really this show is ridiculously good, it's like something that can't be fully explained, it's still a shock to me (and I really need to start believing in potentials of BLs more), it is, I'm just thankful I guess, for the 5 hours spent with this show, the number of essays derived from this show, the way Teh and Oh snuck in my heart and refused to leave. I think we all want a love like Teh and Oh, someone who completely takes your breath away, is selfless for you and is your number one supporter and fan. Someone who the room spins around for and your world only focuses on, someone who makes you brave.

And I think Teh and Oh found that with each other, and it was beautiful to witness, it was heartbreaking as well to see them struggle with it, it was also peaceful to reach the end and see them safe and secure with each other. ITSAY was everything, it also means a lot to me because the writing and directing are effortless, it's inspiring and beautiful to see how it came about, its so fulfilling to see how much effort went into this production. And I can't wait to see how Part 2 unfolds next year. I will say that with all the angst and longing, the ending did feel unsatisfactory because I just felt that all the tension and emotion invested just became really tame at the end, all the angst just fell apart so rapidly, and it felt weird that it ended in a hug? But with all the theories about sad endings and the other directions the writer could have gone with I'm happy it was a happy ending, and I'm delighted our boys reunited and became each other's most immense success/happiness. 

Ratings: 4.5/5  Yeh I want to give it a 5/5 but the ending like I said felt a little bit empty for me, I didn't feel satisfied or like complete but that's because there's a part 2 coming. Still is the best Thai BL ever created. And it deserves all the praise.

November was a ride, I think I've cried so much during these past weeks, but honestly, I'm so glad BLs are just improving and putting more effort in, BLs are no longer just for fujoshis to consume. Still, now they represent and educate about LGBTQ+ experiences, they feel relatable and understandable. They're not as toxic as before. We're getting healthier relationships, we're getting depth and unique plots, we're getting happy endings as well. It's very lovely to see the growth, and I can't wait to see what December brings or next year. I'm just so proud of these actors, I'm proud of actors who actually respect this genre and understands why people like it, for me I really enjoy learning about things I never thought or experienced, it humbles me, and it inspires me so much. I'm grateful for these shows. Hopefully, there's many more like ITSAY and GSP to come. Please. 

[cannot-decide-on-a-fandom]

I understand that it’s currently (well, it has been for a while, but still) fun and cool to make fun of Supernatural and treat it as if it was always just a stupid, mediocre at best show, but the reason why the entire thing going on with it sucks is that it really wasn’t.

I’m not saying it hasn’t done the things people are saying, like killing off every LGBT character and the one important disabled character over, at the time, 12 seasons (well, apart from Bobby, but he got cured, which is a whole other can of worms), had little diversity in terms of people of colour, because it has, and while I don’t think it’s inherently bad to kill minority characters, when you kill/mistreat all of them, that’s very different to “this one character died and he was gay”. I’m in no way denying the problematic writing of the show, and yeah, feel free to call the shitty writing in that aspect. Because that is shitty.

But Supernatural actually did have a lot to love. (this turned out longer than I expected, so I’ll put it under the cut, but please read it if at all interested, because I am curious what other people think. Also, this is based off of what I’ve seen, so our views of reactions might be a little different)

There are no finale spoilers in this, apart from “it was bad”

In terms of characters, I still love Cas with my entire heart, he is generally a well written and fascinating character (not flawlessly written, obviously, but still interestingly), and has a really cool opening role, season 4 still being among my favourites of the show. The characters were incredibly flawed which is actually a really cool thing to see because perfect characters take me out of the story, Sam and Dean were generally good protagonists to follow, I love Crowley and Jack, 2 of the other characters who were at some point listed as lead cast members, I didn’t even have the hate regarding Bela’s character or Ruby’s, there are some really interesting side and recurring characters too (Charlie, Kevin, Jo, Ellen, Bobby-all dead admittedly, which is definitely the frustrating and irritating thing), and they’re likable while still feeling relatively grounded, a surprise in a show about the supernatural.

As for the plot, I’m not gonna act like there were not bad storylines or badly executed ones. I don’t hate season 7 as much as others do, season 8 is my personal least favourite, but that entire season felt like filler for most of it, and to be honest I barely recall any episodes from s7. Plus the villains were probably the weakest (not strength wise, but writing wise) of the entire run. But every season up to season 5 had so much to care about and love, and while for me seasons 6-8 were not great, seasons 9-11 are all some of my most loved hours of TV (which I know is controversial, as people are so quick to say everything went bad after season 5, but I disagree with that too). Yes, the stakes may have escalated way too far and saying stuff like “ooh, God’s sister is the enemy” can seem ridiculous, I never once felt that they lacked heart and lacked a genuine desire to create. It really felt to me as if the people working on the show really did care and wanted to create and tell their stories.

The one off, meta, and special episodes are really fun and Supernatural has kind of become known for them. Things like Changing Channels, The French Mistake, Baby, Stuck in the Middle (With You) are all interesting concepts to apply to the show and whether you like all of them or not I think being able to have some unique or cool things up their sleeves even after a decade deserves props for at least trying (also, writing this now, I have a strong temptation to rewatch 12x12)

And one thing that I still genuinely commend Supernatural for (again, not that they did it perfectly, but I didn’t sense any malice from it) is that the show has encouraged its fans to explore what they want in their own writing and supported them in that. Some people may hate the meta stories, and that’s perfectly fine. But episodes like Fan Fiction were used as a thank you and an ode to the fans, not as a way to mock their interpretations. Dean explicitly says that his interpretation of the stories is not any less valuable than anybody else’s. The Real Ghostbusters did have Sam and Dean shocked at there being a Supernatural convention, but it was because anyone would be uncomfortable if their lives had cons around them, it wasn’t treated as if it was just wrong to be interested and love stories. I understand the issues with Becky’s character and yes, she was not a great example of a fan and I wish it wasn’t done in that way (especially one particular episode, which the show, ever so slightly to their credit, addressed in season 15), but I think that for the most part, the cast and crew recognise how much interpreting the story in your own way matters.

Supernatural wasn’t a shitty TV show that never deserved the success it had, it’s a show that was full of lovable characters, interesting concepts, some actually really good lines (even though it became most known for the memey, jokey lines like “I lost my shoe” I will die on the hill that there were so many thoughtful, deep, interesting lines of dialogue in the show. I am tempted to rewatch the show and make a list honestly because a lot of them I recall really stuck with me for a while and there were actual lessons, believe it or not, in them), actors doing their absolute best and mostly succeeding, a show that tried to do things outwith or a twist on their base genre, and over all a show with a lot of good in it.

The reason the way the season went is so frustrating is specifically because it wasn’t as bad as people like to claim. If it was always bad, yeah, people might be disappointed, but it wouldn’t be as big of a deal if it always sucked. It’s upsetting because throughout most of its run, Supernatural has shown that it is capable of creating interesting, enjoyable, emotional stories, and it’s show it can have interest, enjoyable, and emotional finales.

Of course it really fucked up with its representation throughout the whole show, nobody is denying that, and good. #TheySilencedYou/Us is important. It should exist, because it’s ridiculous how some of their characters were treated. They literally brought Eileen back for 30 seconds one time specifically to kill her, and that really annoyed me, among many other instances. But Supernatural did have a lot to love and a lot to care about, which is exactly why it pisses me, even as someone who hasn’t watched the show in years until this year, off that they threw away 15 years of character arcs, story writing, and 15 years of the positive things the show gave us to create a finale where it’s clear they did not give a crap as to what the fans or even their own cast members would be happy with.

So no, I don’t think Supernatural is a crappy show with bad writing that did not deserve to survive as long as it did. I think Supernatural had heart and love and passion put into it and through 15 years some stories were halfbaked and haphazard but it wasn’t just a bad program. Which is why what happened to it can fuck off, and why I feel bad for the fans, and also cast members who are dealing with a) letting go of their characters in a way that they’re unhappy with (eg-Jensen) and b) dealing with the backlash directed at them when they really aren’t the ones who should be dealing with the problems, because the writers should have known better (Misha)

(One last thing, I’m aware most fans aren’t cruel to the cast, this is a vocal minority, it doesn’t mean I don’t still feel bad for them)

[burritodetodo]

Burrito’s Guide To Survive Coronavirus Quarantine

We got to keep social distance (1 or 2 meters each other) or stay home during coronavirus outbreak so I thought I can share with y’all some things I’m gonna watch or do doing quarantine (this is a very long post, REBLOGS ARE VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!).

BUT FIRST SOME RULES:

Wash your hands: do it for 20 seconds or a while, but ALWAYS do it. It prevents the virus from spreading. If you don’t have sanitizer, water and soap! The cheapest and best ally against the disease.

Buy everything you need: if you can, try to buy stuff so you can stay some days at home. If the place is crowded, go back home and come later when it’s more empty. Same as medicine.

You can go for a walk: stay at home all day can be overwhelming for your mental health, but unless the goverment puts a curfew or gets strict about it you can go walk outside for a while always respecting the 1 or 2 meters from other people and without making contact (chatting) with other people. This ain’t my rule, a CDC professional says. DON’T go visit your friends or to crowded places such as bars, restaurants, shoppings, etc. If you want to buy something, ask for delivery or take away.

If you have coronavirus sympthoms (high fever, diarrhea, cough, feeling tired, breath difficulties) DON’T GO TO THE HOSPITAL YET, CALL TO YOUR PUBLIC HEALTH ORGANISATION OR WHATEVER YOU GOT AND THEY’LL TREAT YOU.

(credits to whoever made this meme)

SO YOUR LIFE IS ON QUARANTINE

Let’s say your boss or your school told you can stay at home. Okay then, you gotta prepare for some days inside *Isolation by John Lennon plays in the distance*. The first thing you think is you have to prepare a batch of series and movies to watch in order to kill some time. I’m gonna recommend you some you can find on VOD or cable, if you don’t have it don’t worry because I got you covered!

Infinity Train: a yet two seasons saga about people who got to face their problems aboard an endless train. The protagonists are joined by creatures who have different nature and help them, or not, to acknowledge their issues and leave the train. It’s on CN, it will continue on HBO Max.

The Owl House: a teen girl who daydream a lot was going to be sent to a down-to-earth camp but then she crosses a portal to the Boiling Isles, a magical world where she is taken care by a powerful Owl witch/saleswoman and her adorable demon. Lots of fantasy, some action scenes and many many puns. It’s on Disney Channel, it’ll be on Disney+ in some weeks.

Primal: Genndy Tartakovsky delighted us with the alliance of a caveman and a dinosaur, two rivals in a wild world who ally after facing a devastating event. It IS brutal and beatiful, has no dialogue and keeps you watching closely. Five final episodes are set to premiere this year. It’s on Adult Swim, maybe on HBO Max.

Tuca and Bertie: for the critics, one of 2019 best shows. For Netflix, a show that had to be cut off because the studio unionized. Two friends in their late 20s face changes in their lives: from living with a boyfriend and plan a life to look a way to stay sober and get a job. Deals with trauma, ptsd, anxiety and more harsh moments very well. In fact, the creator is a vital part of Bojack Horseman! It’s on Netflix.

Aggretsuko: red pandas are cute eh? But what about a antopomorphic red panda who releases her anger and frustrations by singing at a karaoke? This awesome comedy by Sanrio & Netflix is one of anime’s big hits lately. Like T&B, has a good handle of adult problems but not going too deep just to not break the comedy. You can watch it on Netflix.

Regular Show: yeah-uuuuhhhh! Eight seasons, a movie, five Halloween specials and some others. The adventures of a racoon and a blue jay with their co-workers/friends that relies on psychadellia and 80s and 90s nostalgia. It begins good, gets better, then lowers the quality (they were producing the movie at the same time tho, give some credit) and with and after the movie ends awesome. It’s on CN web, dunno if on Hulu (US only) and proably on HBO Max.

Evangelion: it’s a classic at this point, but addictive to me because I end rewatching the series or the final movie many times. A post apocalyptic future where the world has to deal with strange creatures known as the Angels and a boy with lots of traumas has to get on a mecha to save the humankind. All the characters have traumas and issues, the interaction between them or the action makes it worth. The End of Evangelion is a movie that ends the unfinished series. Warning: at some point it becomes very twisted and there are scenes which are too much violent. Viewer disclosure etc. It’s on Netflix worldwide.

Steven Universe & SU Future: this is the tale of the gem boy who ends a galactical tyranny and brings democracy to the universe. A acclaimed show that broke through many topics like gender, identity, ptsd, relationships and many more. Besides it’s got the best scores of the Milky Way and beyond thanks to the talent of Rebecca Sugar, Aivi Tran and Surasshu. And the actors and acrtresses! I don’t forget the movie, a musical that is an introduction to the epilogue: Shippuden Future. The show is available on CN and will be on HBO Max. Worldwide? No news.

Adventure Time: something that began as an innocent boy and a magical dog having adventures in a post apocalyptic world turns into the journey of Finn Metens from childhood to almost adulthood. There is a lot of fantasy and comedy you enjoy, but there are dark moments and serious ones through S6 that find a balance with early seasons form S7 to the finale. It also has great music, memorable moments and colaborations. And guess what? There is going to be a special set to premiere on HBO Max in some weeks! You got plenty of time to catch up or rewatch before that on CN or only (!!) S5 on Netflix.

Final Space: a dude tries to save the universe with their friends, where we can find his love interest, a cat-man and his kitten son, a intersexual alien, an AI then robot that is the best of them, two particular siblings and an annoying bot that prevents insanity that makes you insane. Crazy adventures in space, lots of situations, sadness, an evil smol bean who is a space emperor, a dude who looks for revenge, space deities that can destroy the universe. Is this a lot or info? It is not, because there is more and you can watch it on TBS, Adult Swim and Netflix (the world except US).

Rick and Morty: the most powerful, smartest human in the universe has adventures with his grandson. It’s awesome, but has a very toxic fanbase. Anyway, you can enjoy it on Adult Swim or Netflix (which is up to date!) and the rest of S4 is set someday.

Bojack Horseman: a Hollywood satire about human relationships, fame, traumas with a pour of comedy. Alongside the previous series, the best adult animation of the decade. Sadly cut by Netflix because the studio unionized (see T&B), said by both the creator and Aaron Paul. You can watch the six amazing seasons on that platform.

I’m not an animated movies guy, but here are three I really like and you can watch:

Porco Rosso: a handsome Italian combat aviator turned magically to a pig has a face off with an American pilot hired by pirates to get rid of him before WWII in Fascist Italy. It’s entertaining and, like every Ghibli movie, nice to watch. It’s on Netflix and will be on HBO Max for US.

Lego Batman Movie: Batman is depressed and has to get over it. It’s wacky and has lots of comedy. Plus Will Arnett is top 3 Batman. On Netflix (Latinamerica).

Spiderverse: Oscar winner movie about your friendly neighbour Peter Parker Miles Morales. Miles sees Spiderman die and feels bad after being transfered to a private school. Then a radioactive spider from a Fisk compound bites Miles and he’s Spiderman... among other dimensions’ Spiderpeople: Gwen, Peni, Peter Parker, Noir and Peter Porker. It’s visually amazing. On US it’s on Netflix (I guess), on Latinamerica on HBO.

Some interesting live actions I watched lately

Atlanta: Donald Glover is Earn, a dude who struggles to find a job for her baby girld and sees an opportunity when his cousin, Paper Boi, has a hit and uses him to make his cos famous. Sometimes a comedy, sometimes a social satire with touches of drama. And all protagonists are now big shots, like Zazie Beetz, Brian Tyree Henry or Lakeith Stanfield. There are two seasons and two seasons set for 2021 (2022 possible beacuse of coronavirus). It’s on FX, Hulu (US) and Netflix (world)

Avenue 5: this is brand new. On 2060 space cruises are a thing, and one cruise (the Avenue 5) has an accident that leaves the crew and passangers stranded for years. The captain (Hugh Laurie) has to solve this shit with a bunch of incompetent crew, bosses like Judd (Josh Gad), except one female engeneer who is very smart. Lots of crazy things happen in this series from the creator behind Veep. It’s on HBO (it’s free in the US!).

Peaky Blinders: it has some years but damn it’s epic. A gang from Birmingham makes their way to the top during the late 1910s after the Great War and extends through the 1920s. S5 is right in the ascension of fascism in Britain. ALL THE CAST acts spectacular, names like Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Anna Taylor-Joy and a long etc. But my fave is Paul Anderson, that ultra violent junkie Arthur Shelby is splendid, then is Tommy and aunt Pol, the baddest badass woman in Britain. Blinders is going to have seven seasons, there are two left. You can watch it on BBC or Netflix.

Sex Education: speaking of Britain, excellent teen comedy. Horny, doubtful teenagers going through those hard years. Stories of sex (duh!), abuse situations, abortion, there are gay relationships either, Gillian Anderson! It’s on Netflix, go go go!

Watchmen: despite not having Alan Moore on board, Damien Lindeloff did a tremendous job with the comic. Way better and less misleading than Zack Snyder’s 2009 film, Watchmen is again at the gates of the world’s end (like today) and handles the problem of racism and white supremacy quite well. Just 9 episodes, but worth to watch. On HBO.

CAOS: Sabrina the Teenage Witch is over. Warner and Netflix made a revival of the Archie Comics character and brought her to XXI Century. But gorier, hornier, dark and magical than the nice 90s sitcom. Sabrina Spellman goes from a doubtful teen who has to decide if she has to be a witch or a powerless woman to rule Hell. How she does it? Find out on Netflix! Note: S1 and 2 take some episodes to start properly. Don’t get bored too easy.

There are A LOT MORE to recommend and I make a list: Harley Quinn (DC Universe), OK KO (Hulu -US only-), House MD, Young Justice (DC Universe/Netflix), Ken Burns’ documentaries (Netflix), Titans (DCU), Over The Garden Wall (CN), Seis Manos (Netflix), Thundercats Roar (CN), Easy (Netflix), GLOW (Netflix), Star Trek Discovery (CBS, Netflix) and Picard (CBS, Amazon Prime), etc.

- You named cool shows, but I’m not from the United States or I don’t have a subscription to (insert VOD here) because I can’t afford it

- Glad you asked, I have the answer here

Introducing Stremio. It’s an open source platform where you can watch shows, movies or even live TV on Windows, Linux, Apple or Android. You create an account, install some addons and start looking for what you want to watch.

Stremio is based on torrents, you should install addons from many known torrent sites. So maybe you find an old show, but there aren’t many seeds to watch. And it could be frustraiting, so make sure there are people sharing so you can watch it.

You can download Stremio here and check the FAQs which is very clear.

NOTE: Stremio is note quite “clean” way to watch, but if you do please support the shows you watch by posting, commenting about them, making memes, thanking the creators and crew for their work, buying merchandise if you can. They put a lot to make the shows we love, let’s give ‘em back that love and effort.

You’re tired of the same music, the same movies or need to leave something to make company? There is Vaughn Live, a streaming page where are lots of channels with movies and series on strem (not VOD). For example, there is a channel that streams Adventure Time, other Regular Show, other Sci-Fi shows, another with DBZ and so on. Take in count that if the channel has +70 viewers, the free access is cut and if you want to watch it you have to pay.

En Vaughn también hay canales en español, como Simpsonmanía, Dragon Ball, Futurama, dibujos viejos y muchísimo más. Anyway, go to https://vaughn.live/ and enjoy yourselves!

Y hablando de canales en español, pueden ir a SeriesLan donde está el mayor reservorio conocido de series animadas de entre 1960 a 2010 en español latino. Pueden encontrar tesoros desde Don Gato, los Halcones Galácticos o Street Sharks a Flapjack y Mechas XLR. Otra alternativa para que pasen el rato.

Some interesting facts:

Epic Games releases a free game per week in their store. This week will be two games. You can check in https://www.epicgames.com

Steam has good prices on games and some free ones. There even is the latest Football Manager for free until March 25th. Check on https://store.steampowered.com/

If you’re interested,

I got this playlist I made on Spotify

with songs I liked in more than one year. More than 1200 songs.

And that’s pretty much it! You got resources for a lot of days, 14 initially since that’s the quarantine time in my country. Remember: obey the indications of the Health authorities, this is no time to play the “fuck the goverment” game. We will overcome this pandemy together, helping and caring for each other. That’s why I did this guide, to keep your minds busy in these tough times! Wash your hands, keep social distance, stay at home, go outside if necessary and have some patience please. This has been a PSA.

Stay strong!

Burrito

[crowdvscritic]

round up // MARCH + APRIL 20

You don’t need me to tell you it’s been a weird couple of months, nor do you need me to talk about anything that rhymes with shmorona or shmyrus or shmovid-shmineteen.

The short summary of this time for me (and as it’s relevant to this Round Up): I’ve watched a lot of movies. At the time of publishing this piece, I’ve watched almost 100 while staying inside. As always, I’ll only be highlighting titles new to me, but if you need even more recommendations for movie night, read all the way to the end for more.

March + April Crowd-Pleasers

Agatha Christie Movies

Turner Classic Movies broadcasted Murder She Said (1961), Murder Most Foul (1964), and Ten Little Indians (1965) in March, and I’m only a few movies away from becoming an Agatha Christie junkie. Margaret Rutherford is a delight as the elderly, self-appointed detective Miss Marple in the latter two films. Full disclosure: I’m thinking of becoming a spinster detective aided by my librarian gentleman friend after watching them.

NBC Comedy Night Done Right Podcasts: Office Ladies and The Darkest Timeline

I rewatched all of Community the week after it dropped on Netflix, and it was even better than I remembered. Oh, and then Joel McHale and Ken Jeong decided to randomly start a podcast with hours of meandering memories from making the show? Sign me up for that study group.

If you like your podcast retrospectives a little more structured, try Office Ladies, co-hosted by real-life besties Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey (aka Pam and Angela on The Office). They invite friends who made the show to join the conversation, but I also could just listen to their BFF banter about bread making and Game of Thrones all day.

Lizzo and Harry Styles Singing “Juice”

I mean…do you really need me to explain why this is here?

The Other Guys (2010)

I’m really late to the party on this one, but I can confirm it’s still funny. Bonus: It’s a great movie for a Netflix Party. Crowd: 9.5/10 // Critic: 8/10

This Personality Test

One of my favorite online retailers, ban.do, shared this, and then another friend forwarded it to me, and I know why it’s going viral. Call it the pop culture version of Myers-Briggs because it types your personality based on books, movies, and TV shows like Harry Potter, Parks and Recreation, and Pride and Prejudice, just to name a few. Speaking of Pam from The Office, apparently we’re 89% alike? I’m flattered!

Onward (2020)

Apparently even Tier 2 Pixar can make me sob. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 8/10

The Banker (2020)

Samuel L. Jackson and Anthony Mackie are phenom in this historical drama about a story I wasn’t familiar with, and Nicholas Hoult is an actor that can get me to watch pretty much anything. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 8/10

Happiness Continues (2020)

Did I dance and sing and jump around the living room with sisters while reliving this concert together? I’m not saying I did not do that. Crowd: 10/10 // Critic: 7/10

Kill Bill (2003-04)

Quentin Tarantino movies are hit-or-miss for me, but, boy, these two volumes hit just right. Uma Thurman’s Bride is complex and relatable and insanely cool, aka the perfect center for a complex, satisfying, and insanely cool action saga. Crowd: 9.5/10 // Critic: 9/10

A Parks & Recreation Special (2020)

I have no novel thoughts on why this was such a warm hug, but I’m so grateful this reunion was as beautiful as a desert fox.

March + April Critic Picks

The Man in the High Castle (2015-19)

Imagine a world where the Axis Powers won World War II, and you’ve got a great premise for a thought experiment and for a TV series. This Amazon Prime show made me realize I’ve had the privilege to never need to think much about this scenario, and while we’ve got a host of problems in 2020, this realistic (and addicting) drama dwarfs them with this what-could-have-been scenario. The series didn’t quite stick the landing that the first season promised, but the characters and performances are top-notch start to finish, the world building takes a careful attention to detail, and the dialogue is just as powerful for what isn’t being said in each scene.

Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

Some movies important to the history of cinema taste like vegetables to my modern sensibilities—this Busby Berkeley-choreographed musical wasn’t one of them thanks to dance routines that still marvel and jokes that are still funny. Plus, you can enjoy Ginger Rogers singing the stage classic “We’re in the Money.” Crowd: 7.5/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

Reply All episode #158 “The Case of the Missing Hit”

I’ve recommended Reply All before, but this strange pop culture mystery is as curious as any true crime story you’ve listened to.

Alyosha by Joshua Powell & the Great Train Robbery (2015)

Great soundtrack for a rainy day.

“Inside Friend” by Leon Bridges ft. John Mayer

Dream team.

Emma. (2020)

An aesthetically-pleasing Jane Austen adaptation that catches both the author’s snarky and romantic sides. This article from Verily captures why Emma Woodhouse is an Austen heroine that resonates so much today. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 9/10

Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)

Who would have thought my French-speaking sister who has trouble sitting still through movies would be the one to introduce me to the mind of Agnès Varda? Her heroine Cléo is fashionable and eccentric and flighty, but most of all, she’s vulnerable as we watch in near-real time the two hours leading up to her getting test results back from her doctor. A lovely cinéma vérité look at 1960s Paris. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 10/10

Double Indemnity (1944)

A salesman and his lover plot to kill her husband for the insurance money—it doesn’t go as planned. (Who woulda thunk?) A piece of advice: Don’t start a drinking game for every time Fred MacMurray calls Barbara Stanwyck “baby”—you won’t remember anything past the premise I just described tomorrow. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

The Women (1939)

An 100% female cast leads a story written by women adapted from a play written by a woman. While some of the setting details are dated, the questions these women (played by Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Godard, Joan Fontaine, and more) are asking about marriage, family, independence, and a woman’s place in society are the same today. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 9/10

Also in March + April…

I’m keeping track of everything I’m watching while staying inside in a Letterboxd list made up mostly of favorites and feel-goodies I’m rewatching if you need more recommendations.

My friends at ZekeFilm and I wrote up two sets of recommendations of what to watch while staying inside.

In the mood for a new release? If you’re considering the new Ben Affleck drama The Way Back, you can read by ZekeFilm review to see if it’s up your alley.

On SO IT’S A SHOW?, Kyla and covered one of the greatest movies of all time, one of my most favorite movies of all time, and a movie about a horse. Oh, and a few conspiracy theories!

Photo credits: Office Ladies, Personality Test, Reply All, Alyosha. All others IMDb.com.

[steal-this-idea]

Babylon 5 rewatch continues...

Now with a LINK to the original post that I had let grow to unreasonable length instead of forcing the two people who will see this scroll through ever last piece of dumb shit I’ve had to say first!

JUMP TO ORIGINAL LONG POST HERE

(Learning Curve)

I’ve taken the talk on meditation to heart (the “anyone can meditate in silence” bit) to the point where I think I can become impatient or even annoyed by those who insist upon quiet to do so (think especially for certain sports like golf and tennis...like, if you’re to the point where you’re a professional, some asshole in the stands should be able to neither faze you nor distract you)

If garlic stinks then what’s saffron? (the meal where Garibaldi starts laying into Lochley’s past and Zack is obliquely commenting on it, asking if anyone thinks the food tastes funny, suggesting saffron when it starts getting awkward and concluding garlic after Lochley puts Garibaldi in his place)

Continuing my Takashima just disappeared rant: N’grath, our season 1 praying mantis gangster, gets a mention in this episode but Lt.Cmdr. Takashima? Who’s she?

I do love that the Minbari are an advanced race but not an impassionate one...which honestly makes them scarier, as the Earth-Minbari War shown to us throughout “In the Beginning” demonstrated...

Meaning does not exist independently... I wonder if this episode is where I got that idea from?

(Strange Relations)

I don’t hate the ex-wife of Sheridan revelation of Capt. Lochley. If anything, it kinda complements how Cmdr. Sinclair got appointed to run Babylon 5. I assume, like with the Minbari when the station first came online, Sheridan insisted on veto power over anyone EarthGov might select to run Babylon 5. I wonder if Capt. Lochley was far down the list too?

Zip ties: Still good enough for the 23½ century :-)

The bottle tossing Hyach is at it again...

(Secrets of the Soul)

I do like Season 5 being like a mirror of Season 1 and giving us more standalone type episodes which allows us to be given closer looks at members of the (former) League of Non-Aligned Worlds. This episode, the Hyach; the next episode, the Brakir; and the one after that, the Drazi.

And I have to say this again. Even when he’s cheesy, I don’t hate Byron.

I think Lyta made me love bangs :-)

I liked the detail of the Drazi record not being in English

Also, why didn’t we learn Byron’s secrets too? While, yes, dramatic effect for the later episode, sure...why not? I suppose also Lyta’s walls coming down during her intimacy may have simply flooded everything else out too. Hard to say. I also wonder why Lyta’s eyes went black during their lovemaking when, since this is a Vorlon-influenced memory, they should’ve glowed white? Again, I’m sure it had something to do with dramatic effect...

(Day of the Dead)

I love that Capt. Lochley hates Rebo & Zooty. It’s like, ugh...these hacks :-)

And I also love Delenn’s reaction to one of their jokes. I wonder what Mira Furlan was thinking about to get herself to laugh so heartily and convincingly?

Nice that the guest spots got end credits billing and not upfront so as not to spoil the surprise (unlike what happened with Anna Sheridan). I wonder if that cost TNT a fine with the Screen Actors Guild? I know Lucas always had to pay a fine to get out of putting traditional title screen credits over the start of each Star Wars film.

I presume there is plenty of A.U. fiction out there about who the other characters would have met had they been on the other side of the line?

Do you think Kosh would have appeared in its encounter suit to Sheridan had he been there or would it have been more open like in the death dream sequence (or even in its true squid-like form)?

(In the Kingdom of the Blind)

The Centauri are ultra racist. That dude’s not even attempting discretion: he’s gonna talk shit about Narns right in front of a Narn with not even a hint of concern that G’Kar might understand what he’s saying or be capable of feeling hurt by it.

As much as I hate what Byron did after learning how telepaths came to be and what they were intended for, I also can’t imagine an equivalent shock that could so forcefully shake the very foundations of my world and thus how I would react to such knowledge...

Would the Drakh have worked better if they didn’t have visible sclera? I just can’t help but feel if their eyes were entirely black or red instead of looking human, if it would have increased their visual menace or just made them look goofy?

But that lighting on the Drakh’s reveal though...magnificent

Isn’t that a Brakiri warship? How could it have been unarmed? I’m not in any way justifying the attack on them but, like, of *all* the ships you could’ve used to illustrate an attack on a commercial transport...

(A Tragedy of Telepaths)

I’ll admit I’ve tried using the “There’s No Bomb” technique in my desperate attempts to quell my allergies. Trying to tell my itchy, runny nose that, despite its objections, there’s no need to sneeze. There’s. No need. To sneeze...

Can’t say it ever worked though...

Byron just dropping that some worlds developed telepaths naturally which seems strange because I thought I recalled JMS mentioning that if a species were to develop telepathy they’d never advance to civilization. Being a telepath would just be another technique a predator could use to snare prey and/or a technique a prey animal could use to avoid being eaten.

Still, if I’m going to grant him this, I wonder if the Soul Hunters were an example of natural telepaths? The behavior of the two we meet in the show’s second episode is reminiscent of telepath behavior we witness in later episodes (like Byron sensing that man’s impending death and the Soul Hunter being able to pick up on Delenn’s secrets as the machine she was hooked up to slowly killed her). Were Soul Hunters like vultures originally? Always feeling for the impending death of an animal so they could eat that night? But that particular ability wouldn’t necessarily have prevented the kind of generalization necessary for the development of language, tools, and technology so the ability served them rather than limited them and as they developed and went to the stars, the idea of preserving special souls became of paramount importance to their raison d’être. Comments? Concerns? Good idea? Poorly thought out idea?

G’KAR: Would you like some jala? It’s cold.

LONDO: Get that away from me. Jala needs to be hot. It takes heat to cultivate its flavor. To consume cold jala is to insult a Centauri. I don’t even know where you got it.

G’KAR: I saw it on a tray heading into the south end of the palace. I assumed no one would mind if I took it.

LONDO: That’s right. Only Narns can stomach it cold.

It would be interesting to have a culture which marks the peaces rather than the wars. I don’t even know if that would be so far-fetched to imagine such a people given the Incas made “constellations” out of the dark parts of the sky as well as its luminous parts.

Byron’s demand for compensation is SOOO much more reasonable than his threat of blackmail. It’s a shame he didn’t think of it first...

Is the Interstellar Alliance basically the Minbari Empire? Minbar’s going to be the home office of the ISA. After the White Star fleet (which really cannot be rebuilt), the Minbari military is the strongest in the known galaxy and I have to assume it is their fleet the ISA would lean on in the event of a major war between powers. I don’t know. I just think of it like if we were to form an EarthGov right now and it actually had real power, its power would almost certainly be heavily reliant on U.S. military might, making an EarthGov like a de facto U.S. empire, no? It’s outside the scope of Babylon 5, but I wonder if such a thing will come up in the ISA’s future?

Babylon 5 did for me with telepaths what Buffy the Vampire Slayer did for vampires. I can no longer accept any alternative :-)

(Phoenix Rising)

I wonder how this telepath colony plot would have unfolded differently had Byron had the foresight to have some non-human telepaths among them so they wouldn’t be wholly under Earth’s jurisdiction?

Do you think Bester spoke to his underlings at the briefing because he *had* to or was it solely for our, the viewer’s, benefit? I just think back to when Bester first met with Sinclair...

Regarding Bester’s “How stupid do you think I am?” speech: I’m so glad JMS didn’t pad the scene by going to commercial as the music climaxed with Garibaldi holding a PPG to him. That immediate release of dramatic tension because there never was any there to begin with; that subversion of expectations, was an effective choice.

I don’t drink but after that scene, I’d probably start drinking too...

Peter’s telekinesis seems underwhelming. I suppose I could blame it on the show’s ability to do that special effect (the ring Eilerson fires in that episode of Crusade was an effect done well). But how hard was he casting those objects? I feel like I could throw harder and more accurately; like his telekinesis was really an inefficient way to go about things, y’know?

I know from reading around that had Claudia Christian remained on the show, she would’ve been the one to fall for Byron and I have to admit it’s still hard imagining Ivanova in that role. I think I’m glad she didn’t not because it would be unbelievable but just that it would be yet another tragic love and broken trust story for her and it’s like, damn, give this woman a break already...hasn’t she suffered enough?

Did Byron program his followers with that hymn? The way they gather around him before he immolates them is practically instinctual. I suppose it’s not so far-fetched. Byron *is* a strong P12 and more than once he desperately tried to get back to his people in order to calm them down suggesting his hold over them may not have been charisma alone. I don’t know...

(The Ragged Edge)

The Drazi with the vomit bag on the shuttle, haha. I love those touches they put into the show :-)

Is it my imagination or is G’Kar’s room less red?

[trustchurch]

My hero academy episode list

MY HERO ACADEMY EPISODE LIST HOW TO

MY HERO ACADEMY EPISODE LIST MOVIE

MY HERO ACADEMY EPISODE LIST SERIES

My Hero Academia: Make it! Do-or-Die Survival Training (OVA) – Make It! Is a two-part special episode and the fourth OVA for the series.

While visiting the world’s leading hero items expo, class 1-A get tangled in a theft gone wrong and must carefully save the day without endangering the hostages caught in the mix.

MY HERO ACADEMY EPISODE LIST MOVIE

My Hero Academia: Two Heroes (Movie) – Two Heroes is the first MHA movie and is separated from the main story of the anime.

It peers into All-Might’s past, showing us his beginnings as a hero.

My Hero Academia: All Might: Rising (Special Episode) – All Might Rising is another special episode that serves as an anime adaption of the one-shot manga of the same name.

It takes place right at the end of season 2, with the cast returning from their internships to a special lesson at school.

My Hero Academia: Training of the Dead (OVA) – Training of the Dead is the second OVA and serves as another plot-unrelated side adventure for the cat of MHA.

This episode isn’t vital for the plot of MHA, making it a great little break between the drama of the main show. arc in season one, and shows off some special training for Class 1-A.

My Hero Academia: Save! Rescue Training! (OVA) – Save! Rescue training is the first OVA for MHA.

This sets the foundation for every main character in the show, and any MHA content you absorb down the line simply won’t be as enjoyable without taking in this season.

My Hero Academia: Season 1 – I don’t have to make a case for you to start MHA at season one.

MY HERO ACADEMY EPISODE LIST HOW TO

With all that in mind, here’s how to start watching My Hero Academia. Some content is viewed as flashbacks, which are better enjoyed with an understanding of the characters. Because of this, our list is assembled in chronological order for your viewing pleasure. Simply viewing this content in release order will mess with the chronological viewing of MHA and lead to a lot of contextless and confusing moments. The popular anime has 5 seasons, several OVAs and a few movies under its belt.

MY HERO ACADEMY EPISODE LIST SERIES

My Hero Academia or Boku No Hero Academia (also referred to in the short hand as MHA or BNHA) is a huge animated series with a lot of content to watch. There are plenty of episodes in the latest seasons that deserve some credit for their great animation, awesome soundtrack, and thrilling plotlines.Looking to get into My Hero Academia? Are you a returning fan, trying to catch up before the next season? Maybe you’ve got a big binge party coming up and need to know which order to stream the hit series to your friends? Whatever your reason, having an accurate My Hero Academia watch order list is important to experiencing the series the way it was meant to be watched, and we have you covered. Villain relationships and hero friendships were strengthened and the main characters realized the vast threat that was soon to be upon them. Updated on December 18, 2021, by Jourdan Silva: As the fifth season of My Hero Academia came to a close this fall, a lot of new and exciting episodes were released! Fans loved the action-packed episodes that epically showed off the growing abilities of the students and villains in the anime series. These few are the most nail-biting, thrilling, passionate, and exhilarating, and all are definitely worth a rewatch. Though the current 100+ episodes are all fantastically executed and important in the series overall, some stand out above the rest. While more action and crazy plot twists are on the horizon for My Hero Academia fans, the current list of aired episodes already has many fantastic scenes for viewers to eagerly rewatch. RELATED: My Hero Academia: Characters That Need More Screen Time In Season 5 The show features so many fun characters, exciting plotlines, devious villains, and powerful moments across its five amazing seasons so far. One of the biggest anime currently airing is My Hero Academia, the action-packed shonen series that has taken the world by storm.

[stampstamp]

So the four other people who went the Free! Screening all looked like me 😆 And one was wearing a Samezuka jacket and I was wearing a Yuri on Ice jacket and we probably could have been friends but we all sat 10 metres apart and ignored each other for 3 hours 🥲 I hate being shy.

I liked the films! There were lots of good moments. Some scenes in Part 2 reminded me of that bit in Community where the secondary cast members complained that the college revolved around the study group 😆 if I had been one of the mob characters on the swim team I'd have been so pissed that Haru got that much special treatment but as an audience member, it was nice to see how big his support network has become.

Despite rewatching the 3 seasons in three days to prepare, a lot went over my head because I didn't watch the complication films with added scenes or read the books 🥲 Idk if Kinjou's character development happened in one of the other films or something, but I felt like S3 built him up to be a mid boss before Haru faced Albert but he wasn't.

The credits had a slideshow of official art, which was odd but nostalgic. After the crew had been credited, it just turned into a slideshow for another 5 minutes, then there was a long epilogue with lots of scenes? I'm glad I didn't leave during the slideshow lol.

[sarazanmai]

Stuff I loved in 2018.

Its that time again. The end of a year and a look back on all the stuff I enjoyed. Honestly I almost wasn’t going to write this because I feel these posts are a lot of effort with very little reward, but there was a lot I experienced this year that I think was interesting and worth sharing. So let’s go.

Roger Ebert once said “artistry can redeem any subject matter”. While I’m not sure any subject matter can be salvaged through an artistic eye, it can certainly help. If someone approaches a certain material with a clear vision and purpose to what they do they can create something truly fascinating. The Monogatari series is a very strange one. Its told in a non chronological order, there’s characters who say they’re one thing and reveal themselves to be something else, there’s a lot of references to other anime, the visual style changes sometimes radically, its incredibly meta, some moments of fanservice have a deeper meaning to them while others not so much. Me personally I think the series goes through periods of being brilliant as well as periods where it just is not up to the same standard as before. That said I kind of like that, I like that you go through so many different moods and style shifts. Not everyone will like that, some will get frustrated with the weaker seasons, but for me I think it all comes together and really made for something I won’t forget. I watched the entire series within a week and then later in the year I rewatched it all barring “Koyomimonogatari” which is one of those weaker seasons in my opinion. Despite its bulk, despite its tendencies, the Monogatari series just kept me hooked.

There comes a time where we all must accept certain truths. One of them is a lot of you don’t really understand mecha. I still see all of these reviews and comments claiming that mecha before “Evangelion” were all just light fluffy Saturday morning cartoon fare with little substance. This could not be further from the truth. The Gundam franchise from the very beginning was serving what I am going to refer to as a human element. It was not this soulless creation who’s only goal was to sell model kits. Whether it was Amuro’s PTSD from piloting the Gundam or Kamille and his tragic romance with Four or Char’s true motives during the original series there was always more going on than just giant robots shooting things. This isn’t even taking into consideration other installments like “War in the Pocket” where its a story of war from the point of view of a child and soldier. I have not watched every Gundam anime, I am sure there are some that were just there to exist as another installment in the franchise and didn’t necessarily push the franchise or genre into new areas. But what I have seen in “Mobile Suit Gundam”, “Zeta Gundam” “War in the Pocket”, “Unicorn”, “Iron Blooded Orphans”, and even the polarizing “ZZ Gundam” which I admittedly dropped were all very interesting and very unique experiences. Tomino really hit on something when he created the series and now we’ve come so far that we have a franchise so massive and large it needs an entire wikipedia article devoted to its cultural impact.

Once again, mecha that came before “Evangelion” were still displaying that human element many critics are convinced wasn’t there. In “Macross” its very prominent to the point where it feels like a driving force to the entire show as well as its film “Do You Remember Love”. We spend as much time with the characters and their developing relationships as we do with the mecha battles. The emphasis on music and culture as something that can create a change in the world is one of the themes synonymous with the franchise. While there certainly were times in the show where it leaned a bit into a comical area, I didn’t mind this. It was a show aimed at a younger audience and was trying to communicate these themes on their level so at times things can be a bit silly, but I appreciate what is being said so much that it does not feel like an issue. The heart is still there, the human element is still there. And more complex and serious sub plots are there too. Regardless when it comes to the film “Do You Remember Love” and the OVA “Macross Plus” things were certainly approached with a more mature voice, bringing the franchise to new places. I watched this prior to any Gundam anime in an attempt to get a better feel for the mecha genre. I wanted to expand my tastes and I’m very happy I did because not only did I love this I also want to really explore the genre now more than ever.

With the release of “Lupin III Part 5″ this year I was really turned onto that franchise. I ended up getting this massive itch to explore it when that anime wrapped and while not everything I found was a masterpiece it was a worthwhile endeavor. There’s something to Lupin the character and the series at large that manages to be both fun while also evoking a sense of coolness in spite of his goofiness. It was interesting to go through the various TV series and the movies and some specials and get a sense for how its evolved through time. Rewatching “The Castle of Cagliostro” I really enjoyed it a lot and other installments like “The Fuma Conspiracy” and “The Hemingway Paper Mystery” were hugely entertaining. I really liked “Lupin III part 4″ and “The Woman Called Fujiko Mine” too and the original “Lupin III” anime. I can still hear that voice singing “Lupin...he’s a nice man...but he’s cool...”. And objectively speaking green jacket is best jacket. I feel like this is a series that has undergone so much evolution through the various people that came in to work on it that there’s bound to be something that appeals to somebody. You just have to find it.

I spent a lot of time ignoring “Gintama” and its a bit of a shame that I did because this is a really fun series. Despite how long it is I really didn’t feel like it took me a terribly long time to finish it. And even though its goal is more on the comedic side of things, the series surprised me with how strong of an emotional punch it can provide. The cast of characters is one of the most likeable and fun that I’ve seen in a while and the seiyuu cast was very impressive. Everyone plays their character well and I get the sense they really enjoy working on it. Akira Ishida in particular seemed to really get a kick out of playing someone as ridiculous as Katsura when so many of his other roles lean more serious. And of coarse everyone loves Tomokazu Sugita as Gin. His voice just feels so right for a character like this and it was great having him for something this big when in other anime I’ve seen him in he’s only around for so long. I’ve also got to give the series credit for its female characters. There’s a really sturdy amount and they’re all occupying their own place in this world with distinct identities. This is something that makes this world feel more alive and expansive. Kagura is a character I need to applaud for the fact that she wasn’t there for some sort of lolicon fanservice or to have a really awkward crush on Gin or Shinpachi. No she just cares about food and her dog. What a queen. Speaking of Shinpachi he was the MVP of this series, good boy. And there’s our Shinsengumi boys and of coarse Gin himself, so many great characters. I am sure a lot of people look at how much there is to “Gintama” and get nervous at the size of it, but there’s really no need to. When it clicks with you then there’s no putting it down.

“Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju” might be one of the greatest anime in recent years. It takes you through so many periods in this man’s life and the people around him and manages to hold you the entire way. Once again Akira Ishida is someone I need to give major credit to. He’s a very talented seiyuu and in this anime his performance was so impressive I was almost beside myself. Given the performance style the series is built around the cast all needed to be really great at reciting these stories and articulating them. And for the scenes where the characters are not on stage, when the interpersonal drama comes out, everything just hits in such a powerful way. I can’t remember how often I cried during this anime, but it never felt like I was being manipulated. It all felt as if it came through organically and easily. Even more subtle scenes like a character finding out he’s having a child hit on just the right emotions. If you are in the mood for a fantastic character driven drama this is absolutely one I’d recommend.

Speaking of character driven drama “Sangatsu no Lion” is another one to tune into. It initially presents itself as a very intense and dark story, but as the viewer stays involved you find that this is not about wallowing in self loathing but healing. The family that has taken this very troubled young man in and helped him navigate through his mental illness is so likeable and endearing. You find yourself wanting to see him get better and hope that these girls, as well as the other shogi players, find happiness for themselves too. Its not always simple though. There are ups and downs to the characters and their arcs, but it never feels bitter or angry. It feels like reality. Over the coarse of its two seasons it manages to do what so many other shows about a character with depression fail to do. It never feels exploitative or like it has no sense of how to handle such a topic nor does it feel hopeless. As difficult as things in Rei’s life can become you know deep down this isn’t the end of the line, things can get better. It also does a very good job at holding your attention whether you understand the intricacies of shogi or not. You’re told what feels like the essential basic rules to the game and you aren’t thrown into a state of culture shock if you’ve never looked into the game before. I feel like what we have here is a modern masterpiece and more people have been watching it and celebrating it as a great achievement and that makes me so happy.

“Galaxy Express 999″, pronounced “three nine” because why not, is quite the space opera. I watched every episode of the original TV series as well as the two films directed by Rintaro and while they have some flaws or areas that did not age well, they’ve remained famous for a reason. The TV series did a really great job at pulling at your emotions and showing you different worlds. Some felt similar to others, but then there’s so much creativity in other areas. The concept of a space train was inspired by the popular Japanese children’s book “Night on the Galactic Railroad”, which would receive its own anime adaptation, and what Leiji Matsumoto did with this inspiration ended up taking on an identity all its own. You really feel for this bond between Tetsuro and Maetel. You spend so much time wondering just who Maetel is and what her goal in all of this could be. She’s kept just vague enough where I feel we were told all that we needed to. Tetsuro is someone I’ve seen reviewers describe as a little frustrating due to his naivete, but he’s a child. It makes complete sense for him to place his trust in the wrong person or make a mistake like he does. Masako Nozawa, the future voice of Goku and all his male relatives barring Raditz, voiced Tetsuro and I think she really brought a strong likeability to the character. We feel for him and also have a lot of fun seeing him travel through space. Its hard to say what version is stronger, I’d argue the show but know its not easy to recommend something that hefty. Whether someone watches the films or the show or both I think they’re still getting something great out of it.

And they say you can’t sum up a show in one image. So “Madoka Magica” what are we to do about you? Its kind of hard to explain, but I rather purposefully chose not to watch it for this long. Mostly because I was tired of the hype and the fandom basically pulling an “Evangelion” and acting like no magical girl anime or manga prior to this served emotions. But its presence never really died, this anime is almost a decade old now and people still care. And while I don’t regret not tuning in while it was running, I am very happy to have experienced it on my own terms. It gave me one of my new favorite characters with Homura, its visually stunning and marvelously directed. the music is so enchanting, and the story really is good. I think the show from start to end was a great watch and really kept me going and the bittersweet nature of it did work for me. As far as the movies go I did watch “Rebellion” and while I think its good it does complicate what the message to the series is in my opinion. Either way its just the same as “End of Evangelion” where I don’t see it as canon. I think the big question a lot of people have is if this lives up to the hype and I’m not totally sure how to answer that, but it is an anime worth your time all the same.

This will be easy. I have a review already written out for “Slam Dunk” so if you want my more expanded thoughts there you go. This really is a fantastic anime.

Last year I watched the movie “A Silent Voice”, but failed to put it in my year end review out of pure laziness. I am not making that same mistake again. “In This Corner of the World” is a film I am very grateful to have seen. Its a very interesting take on a WWII story. Not that we haven’t had movies about the war from the perspective of a civilian before, but there is something to the way its approached through our protagonist that feels especially powerful. She experiences so much during those years and tries her best to keep living with keeping her family alive as her main motivation and eventually is met with tragedy. Its produced by a studio called Mappa who’ve gained a lot of attention for “Yuri on Ice” and this year’s “Banana Fish. I did not like those anime very much, but I really loved this film and have to applaud them for trying different types of stories. I hope the projects they have lined up for 2019 are as enjoyable as this. I’ve heard the director has an interest in releasing an extended cut and if that happens I’ll be very interesting in seeing what it offers.

Again I will not make the same mistake twice. “A Silent Voice” was directed by a woman named Naoko Yamada. She also directed “K-On” and “Tamako Market”, two series that made it on my post for last year. She has an incredible talent and in my opinion is the director in anime to watch. After the success of “A Silent Voice” a lot of people wanted to see where she would go and what she gave us is nothing short of amazing. “Liz and the Blue Bird” is a film more people need to pay attention to. Those who’ve seen it adore it, fans have given it very high scores and glowing reviews. But I think this movie needs even more attention beyond that because compared to movies like “Doukyuusei” this feels like it made a smaller splash in the community. Yamada’s approach to love and drama is so effective without being forceful, you really feel for these girls and the longing between them. Yamada is a director who cares deeply for respecting the emotions of her characters which is why she has successfully created so many famous emotional scenes without them feeling melodramatic or feeling staged. This is especially clear with this film where she manages to communicate everything we need to know, but in very few spoken words. And the animation as one expects from a Kyoani project is just lovely. It also manages to work very strongly with its blue toned color palette. So many people make these blue toned movies look dreary, but not here. Things still have a brightness to them and even a warmth. I feel very lucky I was able to see this movie this year when so many anime films take so long to be made available elsewhere. When it reaches the US on bluray I am definitely buying it.

When it comes to the seasonal TV anime for the year, this was my favorite.”Sora yori mo Tooi Basho“ or “A Place Further than the Universe” is a very interesting installment in the “cute girls do blank” genre of anime. Here its cute girls go to the arctic. It sounds like a weird premise to a show, but when you see it put into practice its impressive how much you feel invested in these girls and what they’re doing. Its directed by a woman named Atsuko Ishizuka who was once identified as one of the great talents at the famed studio Madhouse. I think, like Yamada, she manages to work within these character heavy stories while avoiding any unnecessary melodrama. A lesser director would have made some scenes so cheesy or so over the top sad and that can take you right out of the experience. At first I was unsure of how big of a hit this anime would be given how many huge shows came out this year, but its managed to top the bluray sales in Japan for quite a while now. I feel really happy it became such a success. People say the cute girl sub genre is played out and that if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all, that is not true. Sometimes you need a talented director, an off the cuff premise, and you can get something fresh out of a genre that sometimes over saturates the market.

“Pop Team Epic” is an anime the like of which we’ve never seen before. And we will never get it again. A lot of people have said that in order to understand or get the jokes you have to know what it is they’re parodying and that really is not true. This isn’t referential humor like in “Gintama” where the impact of the joke relies on you knowing that material. If you don’t know "Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure” you won’t get it when Gin references Joseph and Caesar’s training with Lisa Lisa. Here the approach to the comedy is so surreal that if you don’t know the reference it just registers as a bizarre thing they did. Sure I know they referenced things like “Hikaru no Go”, but someone who doesn’t would just think its “Pop Team Epic” being weird again. And if you do know what they’re referencing then you know the layers to the joke. The anime is also in a lot of ways very visually strong to the point of being almost avant-garde. It was expensive and time consuming to make even if people don’t realize it. All of these different animation styles, the mixed media approach to certain scenes. They even brought in Miyo Sato, the woman who does the paint on glass animation for “Mob Psycho 100″, to work on the show for a few segments. To a lot of people this show was a meme, but in a lot of ways I think it was doing more than that. We’re not going to get another season or anything out of it, but I’m happy something this strange was able to exist and grab hold of such a large scale audience.

I have an in depth analytical review out for "Berserk”, if you would like to read such a thing there it is. However it does contain spoilers. My unspoiled and condensed opinions are that its fantastic, with gorgeous art, well developed and amazing characters, and tons of soul. Its very intense and not exactly for everyone, but its definitely a masterpiece. Unfortunately it also has a very foul fandom which turned me off reading it for years. I genuinely expected my review to garner a lot of negative feedback given how this fandom is, to my surprise this never happened though. If you can remove the toxic fandom from the equation, which is surprisingly easy to do, then you’re golden. Also this is a romantic manga and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise because they’re cowards.

“Golden Kamuy” is fantastic as a manga. I watched the anime too, but I feel like that works best treated like a companion piece to the manga. I’ve best described the plot as “One Piece” meets “Silence of the Lambs”. This is also something that probably comes closest to evoking the same kind of strangeness that “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure” has. The best way I can put it is that characters will say things that are weird, but nobody acts like they’re weird. There is also a lot of information fed to the reader about aspects of the Ainu culture and hunting and weaponry. At first it feels as if you’re being given a lot of information on topics that aren’t going to be important, but they end up having more significance than you realize. The same applies to the characters. I was surprised at how many characters I expected to be left behind were made relevant later on. And they’re memorable. Sugimoto, Asirpa, Shiraishi, Ogata, Tsurumi, Tanigaki, even that little girl Osoma was memorable. One thing the story really excels at is how you have a large amount of characters chasing the same prize, but with their own reasons. Nobody loses sight of their own motivation, some we still haven’t learned their true gain in all of this, and we see how this effects the flow of the plot. For such a large cast this would under a different writer feel very cluttered, but not here. And visually the manga looks amazing. Noda’s art is a little odd at first, but when you really look at it he’s got a lot of talent. Everyone looks distinct, the backgrounds look great, the animals look good (we’re not gonna discuss the anime’s CGI). If I had to recommend just one I’d say the manga as the anime does skip material, some due to networks being incapable of showing such things others honestly feel skipped because they wanted to streamline the plot at the expense of characterization and world building. I do still recommend taking in both as this sort of bundle deal though because the anime really is entertaining and has such a strong seiyuu cast it would be a shame to pass it by completely.

Takehiko Inoue is an absolute master at this stage in his career. In an interview with Akira Toriyama he was called someone with a real sense for manga and its amazing to see how he went from “Slam Dunk,” where he had not yet drawn a bare foot, to something like “Vagabond”. The art in this manga is deserving of all the praise it gets, its so detailed that it just leaves you stunned. The story also shows just how on point he is as a writer. I’m sure through the many movies and shows about Musashi Miyamoto a lot of Japanese audiences have a certain way they tend to view him and then here comes Inoue offering a different approach to the man. One where he is still working towards an enlightened state and trying to reign in an animalistic rage. Working in themes of being the strongest under the sun, what it means to live for the sword, how these choices effect the people left behind, its really fascinating stuff. There’s even an entire long stretch of chapters where we break away entirely from Musashi to focus on a young Kojiro and his adoptive father, its a very sudden break away yet it doesn’t feel random or jarring. I think because Inoue knows how to craft compelling characters so effortlessly it made that shift in focus work as well as it did. Its one of the most successful manga in terms of sales and with good reason, its a masterpiece. This is one of those manga that currently is on an indefinite hiatus and I can only hope Inoue is able to finish it. And if for whatever reason he can’t then at least we can say we got what we got.

Behold your new shonen king! Not Izuku, not Hinata. Open your arms for the next great shonen! “Dr. Stone” is a manga that at the moment doesn’t have the largest of audiences, but everyone I know who’s read it absolutely loves it. And with the anime being released next year I can only hope that will be the push that people need to experience it. The story is focused very heavily on innovation and discovery which feels so fresh compared to a lot of things Weekly Shonen Jump has been producing as of late. And the level to which things have been thought out really impresses me. In recent chapters it was revealed that in that period of time humanity was petrified the terrain has changed drastically and the maps from the past are now worthless. So that means finding a way to survey the land and get a better sense of the world. Its so exciting to read this sort of thing. And the characters are so fun. Senku is a very interesting character to place at the center of this story. He’s a genius and approaches things as logically as possible, sometimes he can be a jerk and self serving, but he’s always going to do what he can to further civilization because he just loves science that much. Chrome is a really funny character to bounce off of him. We recently were introduced to a new member of the cast that has great potential. I like Asagiri. Its written by the same mangaka behind “Eyeshield 21″ and while I have not read that I can say through this manga that he’s really got a great sense of story telling. I also really like Boichi’s art, he pulls out some hilarious extreme faces and also some really dynamic scenes. Next summer can’t come fast enough because I am so hyped and ready for this anime to start.

“Kimetsu no Yaiba” is another manga that will be getting an anime next year and I am extremely excited. If I had to compare it to anything I would honestly say its like if “Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood” and “Hunter x Hunter” got crossbred. Its mangaka Koyoharu Gotouge really feels very influenced by Yoshihiro Togashi in both her writing as well as some of her character designs. Togashi actually said this manga along with “Dr. Stone” is one of the ones in recent years to read which I’m sure made her thrilled to hear. I feel like this is something that does a lot of the things people generally want to see in anime and manga. You have a strong sibling dynamic at the center of the story (and it isn’t one of those relationships), there’s female characters that are involved with the action and its treated like a real fight, there’s themes of family that are always really endearing, aesthetically its very beautiful while still being able to pull off a more intense body horror style moment, fanservice aside from a couple moments is at a minimum, and it is also very funny. There’s a lot of personality to our main characters as well as the Pillars that we have gotten to know and it doesn’t feel crowded. She knows when to use a character and when to keep them out of a certain arc. She also has a lot of respect towards Nezuko who I feel another writer would have shoved aside in favor of her brother. But Nezuko is shown to still retain her autonomy in spite of her predicament, she fights and is sometimes vital to defeating a demon, and the more recent events in the story show a lot of potential for furthering her as a character. The anime is to be released for the spring and its made by Ufotable, based on the PV we have at the moment this show will definitely be gorgeous. I am very excited for what they’ve done with this material and I can only hope other people will be watching too because I do not want this to be a series people sleep on.

“Revolutionary Girl Utena” is a masterpiece. I have frankly a really complicated opinion of Kunihiko Ikuhara. A lot of people think he can do no wrong, I am not one of them. There’s things that happened with “Sailor Moon” that I know weren’t his fault, but there’s also things that happened during S where he had the most control over the project that still bother me. I can never know for sure if these were his ideas or things Toei forced onto him as he did leave the show because of a lack of freedom to do what he wanted, but that said when he really commits to a project he can produce something amazing. He has said many things over the years regarding Utena and a big takeaway from them is that he does not want to tell us what to feel, he wants us to decide for ourselves. I think what Utena fundamentally is about is deconstructing romantic tropes, analyzing chivalry, and the lies men tell women. The series gets more complex and symbolic as it progresses until we get to the movie “Adolescence of Utena” where its refusing to hold your hand any step of the way. Unlike with “End of Evangelion” or “Madoka Rebellion” the “Adolescence” movie is not an attempt at a different ending, but more of an alternative retelling of the story. Its a pure visual masterpiece and a movie that I honestly think deserves to be seen with or without the TV show. That said I would strongly recommend both of them as not only is it one of the greatest shojo ever, it is also Ikuhara at his finest. Moo.

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How The Sopranos Changed TV Analysis Forever

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When The Sopranos first aired over 20 years ago, audiences had never before seen that type of complex storytelling on the small screen. The program was acclaimed for its otherworldly acting and intricate attention to detail, but there were individuals outside of the Sopranos set that helped audiences understand a show that was much more dense and rich than anything that had ever come before it. Without widespread Internet access and with social media not even a mere thought in anybody’s imagination, it was up to pioneering TV analysts to make sense of this new type of prestige television that HBO was letting into our homes.

There is arguably no journalist who has covered The Sopranos in greater depth for the last two decades than Alan Sepinwall. Now Rolling Stone’s chief TV critic, Sepinwall helped shape the narrative of television discourse just as Sopranos creator David Chase forged a revolutionary subject to evaluate. The New Jersey native started his career writing at the Newark Star-Ledger, putting him in an intimate position to cover The Sopranos close to the show’s setting. He went on to write The Sopranos Sessions with Matt Zoller Seitz, a collection of episodic analyses and interviews with show creators that is now viewed as one of the definitive documents covering the series. Due to these resume highlights, his presence covering The Many Saints of Newark is a must heading into the theater to see the film. 

Den of Geek spoke with Sepinwall via email for a wide-ranging discussion on his personal ties to the New Jersey area, how TV journalism was shaped by HBO’s megahit and vice versa, and how the analysis landscape has evolved in the last 20 years. 

You famously got your start writing for the same paper Tony Soprano picked up from his driveway each morning on The Sopranos. How much did this personal connection to the Jersey universe in the show affect your career trajectory and do you think you would have become the same type of critic without these ties?

Oh, I was incredibly lucky. Right place, right time. It’s a bit like being the music writer for the Liverpool Daily Post when The Beatles started playing at the Cavern Club in 1962. Not only did the show reach out to The Star-Ledger for help designing those fake newspapers, but one of my editors had gone to Rutgers with Jim Gandolfini, and I grew up one town over (and a few decades later) from David Chase. So there were all these connections that gave me better access and a broader base of knowledge. And then the morning after the show ended, David liked and trusted me enough to very reluctantly give me the only interview he gave about the finale for a long, long time. The show put me on the map, and my focus on it over those later seasons made me a better critic. 

We’ve always wondered how you are able to separate what your favorite shows are from what you think the best shows are. Is it hard to not show bias towards The Sopranos in your writing because of your longstanding history with it?

I’ve criticized plenty of episodes of the show, and even whole seasons at times. (Though revisiting the show when I co-wrote The Sopranos Sessions made me look more fondly on, say, season four.) I think there’s a degree to which I know the show so well at this point that I probably look at it differently from more casual viewers, but I’ve never felt in the tank for it. 

Do you think David Chase waited too long to make The Many Saints of Newark? There is a good amount of interest in the film, but could there have been more if it was made more recently after the series finale?

I think the movie is actually coming along at a very good time. Sopranos had a huge moment during the pandemic when it seemed like everyone was using the quarantine as an excuse to either watch the show for the first time or rewatch it for the first time in years. A whole new generation discovered the show and will appreciate Many Saints in a way they wouldn’t have if the movie had come, say, 5 or 6 years ago. And also, it allowed Michael Gandolfini to mature into an actor capable of playing the young Tony as well as he does in the film. 

Do you think Tony Soprano’s template for anti-heroes was ultimately a good thing for society at large? Bad men being depicted as badasses on TV was almost too abundant in the years after The Sopranos, but did the ones who actually got it right pay off at large in your opinion?

I think there is definitely a degree to which our lauding of bad guys like Tony or Walter White helped make more recent political developments possible. Sopranos and the shows it inspired encouraged people to root for assholes provided they were interesting or charismatic enough. 

Do you think The Sopranos, in general, has aged well? Do you think it has been surpassed in any way by more modern storytelling, or are the elements that made it special in 1999 still going as strong as ever? Will the film prove in any way that this universe is timeless?

When Matt Seitz and I started working on The Sopranos Sessions, I was terrified that the show would feel dated, and/or like an inferior copy of the many series that copied it over the last two decades. Instead, the opposite happened. Not only did the show hold up, but I wound up enjoying a lot of it even more than I did the first time around. (Again, see season four.) My appreciation for Jim Gandolfini in particular went way up, to where I stopped considering him on the same level with Bryan Cranston, Ian McShane, et al, and felt comfortable saying he was head and shoulders above any other dramatic performance in TV history. Sopranos was so far ahead of the curve, and so many of its imitators only copied the superficial aspects of it, that when you get exposed to the real deal, it’s still incredible. 

What has been the biggest difference you’ve noticed in your readers’ reception to your Many Saints of Newark writing compared to your Sopranos stuff back in the day? Have audiences grown more intelligent through the years which allows you to dive deeper in your analysis, or is the market oversaturated now which makes it harder for striking criticism to stand out?

The big difference so far is that the movie’s not out yet. Over time, The Sopranos became a show where my most notable writing appeared after individual episodes were available. I’m planning to do something similar about Many Saints when it comes out. But audiences are definitely expecting deeper analysis of television — or, in this case, of films based on TV shows — than what the media was doing when Sopranos debuted. 

The Sopranos was a landmark series for countless reasons, with one of the more important ones being that the depth of the material allowed for TV criticism to really capitalize on its unique qualities and expand exponentially as a medium. But perhaps journalists like yourself don’t get enough credit in making audiences understand that what they were watching was important. How bidirectional was the relationship between the show’s popularity and the analysis of it?

Over the years, the best compliment my writing has gotten has been when someone tells me they didn’t fully appreciate everything a show or episode was doing until they read my take on it. I think shows like Sopranos or Breaking Bad or The Wire are so obviously great that they don’t need analysis from me or anyone else. But I feel like the explosion in TV criticism inspired by shows like them wound up enhancing the experience for viewers who wanted to dig deeper than what they got from watching alone. 

What is the biggest difference you have noticed in your job requirements between covering shows for Rolling Stone now and reporting on them back in New Jersey for the Star-Ledger? Has covering The Many Saints of Newark brought back nostalgia for earlier in your career?

Leaving aside the very seismic economic changes to the media business in general, the biggest difference is expectations. People want more coverage, and they want it to be more in-depth and thoughtful than what was happening at the start of my career in the mid-’90s. The very idea of writing about shows and movies for people to read after they watched felt largely alien back then. Now it’s a huge part of how people cover and consume media. 

It was also really exciting and surprising to be back in Sopranos country again after so long. (David) Chase is always a fascinating — if challenging — interview subject, and I got to do the kind of in-depth interview with Michael Gandolfini that I never got the chance to with his press-shy dad. It’s been wonderful. 

Do people go to you for Sopranos stuff in ways that they wouldn’t for other reporters in the industry? Has this helped you career-wise, like when you get to do big features for Rolling Stone for the Many Saints of Newark? Do cast and creators on the show view you as an authority on the show the way readers do?

Rolling Stone has a fantastic group of movie writers, but they asked me to handle a lot of their Many Saints coverage. And I’ve been happy to function as a human Sopranos Wiki for friends and fellow critics who have been boning up on the show to prep for the movie. There were even a few times conducting interviews with the Many Saints creative team where someone like (director) Alan Taylor would joke that I knew parts of the show better than they did. As areas of expertise go, it’s not a bad one to have. 

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Who is your favorite person from the show to interview throughout the years? Do you have a favorite interview you have done with someone from The Sopranos universe?

The Michael Gandolfini profile I did for Rolling Stone is one of my favorite things I’ve ever written in my whole career. But Chase is the best interview, in part because he’s so tough that it forces me to sharpen every question to a razor point, in part because he has just thought so deeply about every aspect of the show, and now of the movie. I always feel like I’ve gone ten rounds in the ring with David, but it always feels worth the effort. 

The post How The Sopranos Changed TV Analysis Forever appeared first on Den of Geek.

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LOST rewatch (season 3):

[follow the entire rewatch-tag here]

episode 1 – A Tale of Two Cities:

Time for Dooooowntooooown!!!

“So I guess I’m out of the book club.”

Aaaah it’s THAT Jack flashback episode aka the lowest he’s ever been aka

It’s not that Matthew Fox is a bad actor… it’s just that everyone else on the show is better than him. It becomes even more apparent with the presence of Michael “I single-handedly invented acting” Emerson being around there to stay now.

Sawyer solving the bear cage puzzle is so cute I wanna hug him.

episode 2 – The Glass Ballerina:

Awwww yaaaaas Ben’s round glasses jkdgnidfgnoidsfg

It always baffles me how long it takes for the credits to finish. Going on minute 8 of this episode and they still rolling.

It’s Sally Slingshot

Only Ben Linus can use a camping chair as a dramatic prop

“My name is Benjamin Linus and I’ve lived on this island all my life.”

episode 3 – Further Instructions:

John being speechless after seeing naked Desmond running through the jungle – #same

Wait… is that the sweat lodge episode? If so it means sweaty topless Terry O’Quinn and my body is absolutely and 100% ready!!!

Charlie just made the same “you don’t call, you don’t write” joke on John that he already pulled on Eko

It’s probably the only totally… useless John flashback. Like… we don’t really learn anything about his character that we didn’t already know. I still enjoy every second of John screentime we get but… I wish they had used this one for something else.

“amendable for coercion” is probably what Ben has written in John’s file as well

episode 4 – Every Man For Himself:

Oh shut up Charlie, you jealous ass.

It’s the episode in which Ben knocks Sawyer out with his phallic baton.

“the big kahuna”

First time appearance of the true star of the show: bunny #8

I love that of all the characters on the show, Sawyer’s the one who reads every book he can get his hands on.

Murder cactus hair!!!

Ben’s Bunny Bag™!!!

episode 5 – The Cost of Living:

Sexy linen outfit, Ben! Love the abundance of chest hair!

“Do you believe in God, Jack?” – “Do you?” – “Two days after I found out I had a fatal tumour on my spine a spinal surgeon fall out of the sky, and if that’s not proof of God then I don’t know what is.”

“I guess he’ll be expecting us.”

episode 6 – I Do:

Yet another bad wig for Evangeline Lilly

Random Nathan Fillion

I love the cage frickle frackle scene

Nice psychological warfare, Benjamin fucking Linus!

episode 7 – Not In Portland:

 I love Juliet’s curly hair <3

“I’m Tom btw.” – nice timing, Tom!

RICHARD ALPERT!!!

Ben just lying there, chilling with his back cut open… getting some fresh air on that spine.

There it is: Angel Hair Pasta story 2.0

“I wanna know what he said. You owe me an answer.” Good God what is it with Jack and this overly possessive behaviour? Why does he always have to know everything about the women in his life?!?!?! That’s not healthy, Jack!

episode 8 – Flashes Before Your Eyes:

More Desmond, hell yes!

istg that blue semi-unbuttoned shirt is such an iconic look for Desmond and it’s also hot as fuck

OF COURSE Charlie is playing Wonderwall

episode 9 – Stranger In A Strange Land:

The worst episode yet it gives us topless Benjamin Linus.

Seriously, I have hardly anything else to say about this one.

“Your bedside manner leaves something to be desired, Jack.”

Good fucking God, Jack you entitled self-righteous asshole!

episode 10 – Tricia Tanaka Is Dead:

Roger Workman!

Where’s Sayid btw?!??!?! Haven’t seen him in a while!

Aaaah there he is my bebe Sayid!!!

“SHUT UP! Red…. Neck… Man….”

episode 11 – Enter 77:

It’s the Mikhail Bakunin episode!!!

Oh wait…. Is that a Sayid episode? The one with the cat that I had completely forgotten about until now?!?!?!

I loves Sayid’s flashback hair in this episode.

NOT EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY, JOHN!!!

Oh John, what is it with you and beeping computers?

episode 12 – Par Avion:

“Remind me why we’re keeping him alive?” – “What do you suggest? We shoot him like a dog?” – “No. I like dogs.”

I love you, Danielle!

“The John Locke I know was…” nice time travel foreshadowing

Claire’s aunt is such an asshole!

John throwing Mikhail through the sonic fence is my jam!

DADDY SHEPHARD!

Okay but… if you can just go over the fence? Then why does Smokey not just… fly over it?!

episode 13 – The Man From Tallahassee:

OH NO NOT THAT EPISODE!!! Right in the feels!!!

John finally reunited with his future island husband.

The bedroom scene! Yassss!!!

“The man from Tallahassee? What is that, some kind of code?” – “No, John, unfortunately we don’t have a code for: there’s a man in my closet with a gun to my daughter’s head. Although we obviously should.” FUCK YAAAAS!!!!

“I know you, John Locke. […] Tell me John, did it hurt?” – “I felt my back break. What do you think?”

I like Tom Friendly – he really lives up to his name.

I can’t believe that Jack – the only doctor the survivors have – wants to leave the island all because Kate fucked Sawyer. Sounds like something a guy would do who’d detonate a hydrogen bomb because his girlfriend left him.

Ben and John out-sassing and manipulating each other is foreplay tbh.

“I was born on this island…” LIAR!

THE MAGIC BOX!!!! Fgnidgnidflsgnlkdd FUUUUUCK!!!! SHIT’S GETTING REAL!!!

Also a very rare occasion in which Ben’s beautiful face has no wounds, scratches, bruises…

You can see I adore this episode by how much I have to say about it even if it’s just a ramble of feels

And now it’s bondage John!

“And then you came striding out of the jungle, John, to make my dream come true.”

episode 14 – Expose:

Wow… I can’t believe I’m already that far down into my rewatch.

Unpopular opinion: I actually love Expose. It’s so… useless and dorky that it’s amazing!

“I’m just a guest star and we all know what happens to guest stars.”

It’s Boone and Shannon *cries forever*

I can’t believe someone called Maggie Grace and told her “hey, we know you got totally screwed over and we killed your character before you could have any substantial character development but… we need you back for an episode, you gotta scream your fucking lungs out of your body once more!”

Seriously…. This is the creepiest death on the whole show.

episode 15 – Left Behind:

Hahahaha it’s the one where Hurley tricks Sawyer into being nice

I loooove Cassidy and I love they mirrored this flashback with the Kate-and-Juliet-are-handcuffed-together episode

“My name is Kate.”

episode 16 – One Of Us:

It’s the one where Ben is very very creepy

That’s probably the only episode in which I can somehow understand the people who dislike Ben…. But I still love my dear rat boy!

episode 17 – Catch 22:

Ooowwww I love Desmond episodes

Oh Kate…why?!?!

I deadass forgot the whole freighter plot, like… I knew Miles & Co. where about to appear but I forgot how this whole thing started

episode 18 – D.O.C.:

Jin’s the only one who has a nice dad and a terrible mother

Also I just typed “John” instead of “Jin” which makes me wonder: where’s my bald jungle baby?

Aaaah first mention of fake 815

episode 19 – The Brig:

Fuuuuuck I’M NOT READY!!!

They made me miss my dear John for two (three?) entire episodes only to come back with this to totally rip my heart out

The “previously on” bit already wrecks me

IT’S THE PINS AND NEEDLES SCENE!!! Also known as: Ben tries this “flirting” all the cool kids are talking about.

Terry’s looking hot as fuck in that entire episode

Ben knocking out Anthony Cooper with his walking stick is my aesthetic.

Danielle causally poppin by to get some dynamite

“little hot for heaven, isn’t it?” – I would looooove this whole red herring if it weren’t for the “they were dead the whole time”-crowd

God that Anthony Cooper = The OG Mister Sawyer reveal is AMAZING!

“I thought I was special.” – “Well, everyone makes mistakes.”

Yes, James, KILL THAT ASSHOLE!!!

“I’m on my own journey now.”

episode 20 – The Man Behind The Curtain:

My precious Carrie Preston!

Uncle Horace

“Call him Benjamin.”

“You are the man behind the curtain – the wizard of Oz. And you’re a liar.”

Namaste!

Sterling Beaumon was the best casting choice for baby Ben!!!

Mikhail Bakunin still running like the devil’s chasing him (literally, kinda, considering Smokey revived him.)

John: [Ben] and I are going to see Jacob. – Everyone else: Wuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?

Ben really has a history of very shitty birthdays.

And this is making me very emotional because it reminds me of the “video of tears and pain” which makes me wanna cry my fucking soul out.

“Kinda hard to celebrate on the day you killed you mom.” Oh fuck off, Roger.

Ben’s Bunny Bag™ back in action

“I don’t wanna go back there. I hate it there.”

The way Richard talks to baby Ben is soooo similar to the way Ben talks to John I’m gonna scream!!!

Okay but this is no kiddon the best episode of this entire show so far. Like… Nothing that happened up until this point compares to this!!!

I FORGOT ABOUT BEN SPEAKING TO AN EMPTY CHAIR!!!!

Still baffles me they thought they could slap some fake hair and make-up on Emerson’s face and make him look like a 20yo – when he was already older than Ben is in our now-timeline… like… was there no 20yo actor with a big nose and bug eyes around?!?!

“Goodbye, Dad!”

“The Dharma Initiative. They came here seeking harmony, but they couldn't even coexist with the Island's original inhabitants. And when it became clear that one side had to go, one side had to be purged, I did what I had to do. I was one of the people that was smart enough to make sure that I didn't end up in that ditch, which makes me considerably smarter than you, John.”

John Locke seriously bringing a knife to a gun fight!

alright kiddos, I am #fucked up now.

episode 21 – Greatest Hits:

How many episodes actually start with someone running through the jungle?

Danielle just showing up to blow something up!

According to Jack this is day 90? So it takes another 18 days for them to actually get off the island at that point?!?! Wow.

Guess that’s the end of bunny #8

episodes 22 & 23 – Through the Looking Glass:

OH MY GOD IT’S THE FIRST FLASH FORWARD!!!

“WE HAVE TO GO BACK, KATE!!!!”

“I’m a dentist. I am not Rambo.” – I love these two so much!!

Can you believe they thought it was a good idea to give Ben round glasses that make his eyes look even bigger than they already are? He looks like straight out of a manga.

There really is a lot of fatphobia in this episode.

It’s taller ghost Walt

ALEX AND DANIELLE MEET FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!! WELP!!!

Ben letting himself be tackled and punched by Jack is such a power move. I am 100% convinced he let it happen on purpose because it’s already canon that he can easily knock out friggin Sawyer!!!

NOT PENNY’S BOAT

From Ben’s perspective this is once again John “striding out of that jungle to make my dream come true”

“I don’t wanna shoot you.”

Remember when you watched that finale for the first time and didn’t know all the time it was a flash forward and not a flashback?!?!? And then Kate steps out of that car and you were all like WOOOOAAAAHHHH?!?!?!

Remember when you didn’t know whose funeral they were talking about?!?!?!

That last scene was the first time I found Jack actually likable and relatable!

WE HAVE TO GO BACK!!!

[mayamatiln]

what are you favorite top degrassi seasons?

This question is so difficult!! I’m serious I spent an hour writing down all the seasons and weighing all the pro’s and con’s of each season to figure out the order I would put these in. I know you didn’t ask me to rank all the seasons and tell you why I think that… but I am… because I feel like it… so let’s move from the worst to the best shall we?

18. Season 11 - I hated it the first time I watched it. I hated it the second time I watched it. I don’t plan on sitting through the whole thing ever again. I loved the introduction of Zaya and that is about it. I didn’t ship anything. This was the season that made me stop shipping Eclare which I literally used to OTP so hard. 

17. Season 13 - This was the only season that I ever completely stopped watching because I was so bored. I was still nursing my heartbreak over losing Cam and then all of a sudden they ripped Adam from me too. After that I tried to keep up but I just didn’t really care because it hurt too much. Maya was moving on with Miles (which I still don’t get the appeal) and Zig was all but forgotten up until halfway through. The Paris plot was so stupid. And Alli one of my favorite girls was being uncharacteristically dumb (and she’s not very bright as it is). And to top it all off they gave Clare cancer for about 10 episodes then all of a sudden she was better! (I’m not even gonna mention Ew… I mean Clew) Lol no. Bye.

16. Season 14 - 14B just swooped in and saved the entire show for me. After the longest hiatus the show has ever had and about a year and a half after me only watching this show when I noticed it was on, the promise of seeing Alli Bhandari and Clare Edwards graduating was just enough to pull me back in. So before 14B I binge-watched season 13 and the first half of 14 (because I didnt really pay attention the first time) and BOY IT CHANGED MY LIFE. Not because the storylines were good but BECAUSE. OF. ZAYA. Never in my life had I gone from hating a ship (yeah yeah Zig was trying to break up Camaya so I hated him) to thinking it was the most well built pairing on the show. The rest of 14 was crap though. Zoe forcing people to send boob pics = dumb. Clare’s baby plot = dumber. So yeah I fell in love with Degrassi again because of Zaya and it’s probably the reason I’m here today. 

15. Season 1 - Shocked to find what started it all so low on the list? Yeah me too but that’s the way the cookie crumbles. Overall not much happened this season. It built the world that we left behind in Degrassi High over again and introduced us to the new generation and thats about it. But Sean and Emma’s first date, Emma’s first period, and the ecstasy plot = CLASSIC DEGRASSI. 

14. Season 8 - No one is surprised. Honestly though I LOVEEE this era of Degrassi. This was the first season I watched from beginning to end as it was airing so it will always hold a special place in my heart. Not only did I instantly love Alli and Clare to bits, but finally my all time favorite character Johnny DiMarco had an actual girlfriend and showed that he actually has real feelings. WOW. 

13. Season 9 - Yeah this is only a step up from season 8 because it was the epitome of Dolly J. The chemistry was through the roof. One of the hottest couples Degrassi has ever had. Plus this season had MORE JOHNNY so yeah I loved it but not a huge amount of hot topics were covered. 

12. DNC Season 2 - It covered hot topics but it didn’t really have that spark. I think since it was made at the same time as DNC season 1 that they put so much effort into making the first half great so it could attract more people but yeah it was a bummer. Honestly the only reason it’s above s8&9 is because of the reunion episode and the Craig Manning appearance… I appreciate them attempting the Black Lives Matter plot but it didn’t get me in the gut. I much preferred the Connor and Dallas racism plot in season 13 even if it wasn’t fully fleshed out.

11. Season 10 - This was when Degrassi reinvented itself for the first time and I must say it had me hooked from the beginning. This was when they started airing an episode a day for several weeks and it was so exciting. Everyone was falling for Eclare. And Adam was stealing everyone’s heart. It was so exciting and different and really a breath of fresh air. Were the plots amazing and jaw dropping? No not really but it kept me super entertained and frankly saved the show and I will gladly give the credit where credit is due. But seriously… Eli was better when he was with Morty just sayin…

10. DNC Season 1 - This was the second time that Degrassi reinvented itself and it was MUCH better done than season 10 was. After being so scared of losing the show altogether, seeing the beginning of Next Class really gave me hope. The cast was smaller and so were the lengths of the seasons but they worked so much harder to really make all the plots count and make every minute of screentime the best it could possibly be. After 4 seasons of really long seasons full of random plots that didnt always make the most sense, watching this season felt like coming home to the Degrassi that I fell in love with because for the first time in a long time they really cared about making EVERY plot the best it could possibly be. They still had a couple of kinks and issues to work out but this season really felt like it “went there” again.

9. Season 5 - The first time ever watching the characters you’ve grown up with graduate from Degrassi is one of the hardest things. DTNG’s 100th episode and S5 finale, High Fidelity will still make me cry at the drop of a hat. Watching Paige, Ellie, Marco, and Hazel graduate and thinking that you’ll never see them again still hurts me so much. And the scene where Jimmy forgives Spinner - SO MANY TEARS. Also this season gave us the iconic Manny line “You can sell this for a million dollars because I’m gonna be famous.” Also Darcy and Spinner’s Christianity plot still hold such a special place in my heart.

8. Season 6 - This season was a rollercoaster. One minute I’m flipping out over Sean and Emma being back together then the most heartbreaking TV death in the history of TV ripped my heart out. To this day I cannot watch Rock This Town without bawling my eyes out. I mourned for JT as if I had grown up with him myself. No other fictional character has ever made me feel emotions that were THAT REAL before. As sad as it was it was the moment that sealed Degrassi as my favorite show of all time and even though it’s been 9 years nothing else has even come close. 

7. Season 7 - Probably the darkest season the show has ever had. It began with Darcy’s rape and then followed her entire journey throughout the whole semester. On top of that we see Spinner reach the darkest place he has ever been when he gets cancer. And boy this season was just so sad. Especially with the addition of all the Lakehurst kids who we’d eventually learn to love like Holly J, Jane, Sav and Anya. On top of that we get to see Emma, Manny, Liberty, Toby, Spinner, and Jimmy graduate which really was a LONG time coming. These were the people who began the show and now that they were leaving it truly was the end of the Golden Era of Degrassi. 

6. Season 4 - This was the season that showed how dark the show could really get and it ultimately proved that Degrassi would “go there.” The fact that still to this day one of the most well known pieces of information about Degrassi is that Jimmy got shot by Rick truly iconic. It’s impossible for me to watch Time Stands Still without getting chills. Also this season featured Kevin Smith and who doesn’t love Kevin Smith.

(to be fair these top 5 are all pretty equal in my eyes and the order in which they come changes frequently)

5. DNC Season 3 - The first thing to note about this season is that it was released at 2am in the morning and I stayed up all night and watched the sunrise because I simply had to finish it all in one sitting. After s14 I was sure that the days of Degrassi’s fantastic seasons were through with and when Next Class began I thought there may be potential but this season went above and beyond all of my expectations. For one MAYA MATLIN. I cannot sing enough praises to the writers for treating her depression and suicide attempt in such a realistic way. And Lola’s abortion plot was the best one they have ever done and was handled in the most beautiful way. This season truly was the darkest season since season 7 and everything about it was So. On. Point.

4. Season 3 - Some of the best and most iconic episodes are from this season and they are the ones that time and time again I find myself rewatching because they never get old. Father Figure, Pride, Holiday, Accidents Will Happen, Take On Me, and Rock & Roll High School all have a solid place on my favorite episodes ever list. This season helped to build Degrassi into the longstanding and iconic show that it has become. During this season we no longer had to introduce characters and get used to them. By now we knew most of our main cast and they instantly felt like family - a concept that is the single most important reason why Degrassi is my favorite show ever.

3. DNC Season 4 - Even though it just came out, I could not imagine putting it any lower on this list. This season accomplished everything I could have possibly wanted and more. The genderfluid plot was so well done and it is something I’ve wanted the show to cover for years. And it tackled terrorism and Islamophobia. Not to mention that this season bid adieu to possibly my favorite graduating class that the show has ever had. It gave each and every one of them the respect and closure that they deserved while not granting any unrealistic and too good to be true endgames (*cough* Eclare). The season focused on the characters themselves and not just their romantic relationships and it really solidified who they have become as people and how much they have grown. And best of all it opened the door for a newer class to come in and keep the show going strong.

2. Season 12 - Wow this season came out of nowhere. In the midst of 2 of the worst seasons Degrassi has ever had was this gem. What made it stand out is that for once the writers went into the season with a plan of where they were going and where they wanted the characters to end up. The entire season was building to Cam’s suicide and how all the characters would be affected by it. Therefore this season had more direction and meaning that many seasons before it were severely lacking. Not only was the over arching plot of this season fantastic, the smaller pieces of it were as well. I was so invested in Campbell Saunders from the moment he showed up on my screen. His relationship with Maya became one of my favorites the show has ever done and it also made me love Maya as a character. This season was also the epitome of Eclare’s relationship for me. They were healthy and in love and finally on the same page (well until Bitter Sweet Symphony). We also had fantastic ships like Fimogen, Drianca, Jatie, Jonnor, and the beginnings of Bhandallas to pass the time. And another one of my favorite Christianity plots featuring Jenna took place in this season. This season’s success caught me by complete surprised and drew me in when I was beginning to not care about the show anymore. More specifically Campbell Saunders and Dylan Everrett’s acting saved Degrassi for me. Without that character I don’t know if I would still be watching the show. His character made me believe that Degrassi still had the ability to make me feel these emotions that other TV shows can’t and therefore this season holds such a special place in my heart. 

1. Season 2 - The first time I watched it I did not realize that this would be my favorite season ever. Because to me this season is the Degrassi essentials. It is the bare bones of what makes this show great in every way. Craig’s introduction in When Doves Cry will forever be the greatest introduction to a character I’ve ever seen. It’s so rare to meet a new character and become so drawn in and attached in a single hour that it blew me away. Degrassi introducing Craig as a new character in the season premiere and showing him having an abusive parent was absolutely heartbreaking. To be honest the first time I watched it I didnt understand. I was too young to fully grasp the magnitude of how important this episode was but it was. Moving forward, this season also went on to introduce Marco and Ellie and cover Paige’s rape which was the first time Degrassi truly “went there.” Another personal unsung favorite of mine is Don’t Believe The Hype that shows Hazel’s struggle to accept her heritage and it’s the first plot covering Islamophobia. And how could I possibly not mention one of the most iconic episodes to date, White Wedding that features Spike and Snake getting married with most of their old Degrassi High friends in attendance. This episode also features the cutest most adorable first kiss between Sean and Emma that stole my heart in season 1 but gained OTP status by season 2. In essence, season 2 is the heart of Degrassi.

[its-just-like-the-movies]

May Viewing List

Given that I now have two jobs that occupy a good amount of my week I’m so genuinely amazed I was able to get this close to last month’s number.

Casting JonBenet (17, B+/A-): As intimate with the actors as they are with their parts. Life experience as credibility in interpretation. - May 1, 2017 (review)

The Fighter (10, A-): O’Russell realizes the best possible version of this script to create a stunning, spiky showcase for everyone involved. - May 2, 2017

4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (07, A-): An incredibly tense, textured portrait of two women in a time and place that’s slowly creeping back. - May 4, 2017

The Butler (13, C-): Gumpy, conventional plotting, odd casting & makeup undermines everything neat about Daniels. Amazingly broad. - May 4, 2017

Props to David Oyelowo for being the stillest thing in that movie, enhancing everyone else while giving a great, quiet performance.

Pitch perfect supporting acting. Great work, improves the lot, and you wonder why this isn’t a movie about him and the Black Panthers.

Don’t Think Twice (16, B): Spry cast, easy chemistry, remixed script beats elevate this tale of relocated dreams and success. Jacobs! - May 5, 2017

Nebraska (13, C-): Dern gets his Crazy Heart but instead fights flat, mean direction & plotting, false emotions & atmosphere, shitty musak - May 6, 2017

Face/Off (97, B+/A-): So deliciously, entertainingly Extra, finding the perfect tone to pull off this astounding nonsense. Cage! Allen! Woo! - May 7, 2017

Aladdin (92, B-): Feels like a different Disney musical than the 10′s movies. Lovely songs. Williams more magical than the Genie. - May 7, 2017

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (17, B): Such a wide color palette! Shaky til “Come a Little Bit Closer”, then becomes the space opera it dreamed of. - May 7, 2017 (review)

Who else thinks Guardians of the Galaxy 2 should’ve been a musical, and that the next one should just go for it?

Florence Foster Jenkins (16, B-): Great fun, especially the leads. Generous, but overly so? Seems to resist a deeper dive into her rise. - May 8, 2017

And with that, I’ve seen all the 2014, 2015, and 2016 acting nominees!

Nightcrawler (14, B-): Provocative, in distinct and generic ways, but strained. Wonderfully lit, creepy, and blunter than Snowpiercer. - May 8, 2017

The Innocents (15, B): Textured like a Gothic horror story. Milieu I’ve rarely seen in this genre. Intertwined, parallel narratives hit hard. - May 9, 2017

Autumn Sonata (78, B+): Bergman, Bergman, Ullmann, and Nyqvist just beat the shit out of me for ninety minutes and it was an incredible experience. - May 9, 2017

Dheepan (16, A-): I noticed so much more in practically every aspect the second time around. Camera, Srinivasan my favorite elements. - May 9, 2017 (rewatch)

Blue Jay (16, B+): Another one that spiked up for me. Dynamics even richer the second time around. Paulson and Duplass are so lovely! - May 10, 2017 (rewatch)

Blue Caprice (13, B+): Hard, risky, genuinely nightmarish. Symbiosis, paranoia as real bonding. Finds so many questions in its own answers. - May 11, 2017 (rewatch)

The Immigrant (14, A-): An operatic marvel, moving freely through every period of cinema. And so gorgeous! God rewatching things is great. - May 11, 2017 (rewatch)

The House of Mirth (00, B+): A warmer, more conventional, but just as impassioned cousin to Portrait of a Lady. Great look. Gillian shines. - May 11, 2017

The Lady Eve (41, A+): Lord why don’t they make them like this anymore? Quick, witty, lovely, silly, paced like a dream. Superb. Stanwyck!!! - May 13, 2017

I get how problematic the setup could be if made today, but it’s hard to image a modern comedy with this much genuine craft at all levels.

The Stanford Prison Experiment (15, B): Every element builds & improves as it goes. Not sure how much to credit any one part over source material. - May 16, 2017

Maybe because the real thing is so pervasive in the culture already but I’m not sure what I got out of this. Already thinking about B-.

Cool Hand Luke (67, B+): Lots to say about people, about one among many, and how we treat them. Newman makes it about a man. - May 16, 2017

We Own the Night (07, A-): Technical prowess and directorial strength ably fight off genre cliche. Tense, captivating, and very much Gray’s - May 16, 2017

Network (76, B+): THIS was the film so many adults have said I’d be inundated to because of the world now? Friend, that makes it stronger. - May 18, 2017

Malcolm X (92, B-): Artistically and politically valuable even in the sequences Lee is less interested in. Not always both at the same time. - May 19, 2017

That being said, Denzel is incredible, giving a massive performance in an epic that’s sporadically as alive as he is.

The cinematography, especially the lighting, is also really spectacular. It’s artistically strong across the board, just conventionally told.

Secret Sunshine (10, B+/A-): Grabs you by the gut with bracing handlings of trauma and religion, albeit with small hiccups. Jeon’s a marvel - May 19, 2017

The Wolf of Wall Street (13, D+): Is there anything to even say about it? No new ideas from scene one. Boring depravity. So visually dull. - May 20, 2017

Melina, after making a joke about snorting coke out of a stripper’s ass: ”Can women really have it all?”

Alien: Covenant (17, B-): The case against humanity, by David. Human stupidity as real plot logic. Sets, VFX even better than Fassbender. - May 21, 2017

After the movie I realized I almost have the same haircut that Katherine Waterston has. So that’s neat.

August: Osage County (13, C): Not all the pieces fit, especially with so many sharp edges shorn. But Streep’s incredible, Roberts gets it. - May 21, 2017

Passion (13, C): Weirdly uninspired style for such a pulpy tale. Awful sets balanced by great clothes. Score works. McAdams on point. - May 21, 2017

Love & Mercy (15, B): Limited in scope but what textures it finds. Separates art and madness even as they feed each other. Great leads. - May 22, 2017

All three really blew me away, and between this and the Manson You Must Remember This episode, hot damn are The Beach Boys interesting.

And on a totally unrelated note, Paul Dano can fucking get it. Oh yes. Yes he can. Young Brian did have a sweet bed. I’ll stop now.

The Final Girls (15, B+): There’s an even more inventive script in here, but so much more going on visually than I realized. Åkerman! - May 22, 2017 (rewatch) (review)

The Iron Lady (11, C): Damp rag baby of La Vie en Rose and The Whisperers. Messy camera and direction. How much really happened here? - May 24, 2017 (review)

Sweet Bird of Youth (62, B): Scrumptious. Not quite the play but expands nicely. Page a delectably seasoned ham, Newman a sweet hunk of meat. - May 25, 2017

Stage Door (37, A-): Is it a bird? A plane? No! It’s the inner lives of over a dozen artistic, intelligent women, right there on the screen! - May 25, 2017

Is there any point in film history where this project isn’t a miracle? Why hasn’t this been remade every ten years? God, was I in heaven?

Caterpilar (11, B): So confrontationally severe in content and style, even as it dilutes itself in the final third. Iffy taste, but it hits. - May 26, 2017

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (05, C+): No tweet (rewatch) - May 26, 2017

Me, watching Goblet of Fire: “Why couldn’t Ron have dated Hermione AND Krum?”

My mom, every time we watch a Harry Potter movie: “It shoulda been Harry and Hermione.”

Not to read too deeply into things but Ron being Harry’s person he has to save is Really Gay

Easy A (10, C+): Kinda spotty outside Stone, but boy does it care about her. And lord does she make it something special. - May 27, 2017

It’s abominable that with a filmography seemingly built on delightfully supporting women Stanley Tucci’s sole Oscar nomination is for Lovely Bones

The Banishment (07, B): Pace and length made me sleepy but Zvyaginstev’s formal control more than kept me awake. Oddly compelling. - May 29, 2017

The Miracle Worker (62, B+): Beats Arrival for conveying the power of language and understanding. Bancroft’s great, and Duke’s even better. - May 29, 2017

The Man With The Golden Arm (55, B): Sinatra does great work to elevate this semi-cliched tragedy, but Parker and the score hit a home run. - May 30, 2017

Paranoid Park (08, C+/B-): Never not overworked, especially sonically, but unbearable first half hour turns into a compelling yarn. - May 30, 2017

National Velvet (44, B): So kind to its characters, mature about their wants and ideas. Gorgeous, infectious, and well-acted to boot. - May 31, 2017