#I hadn’t seen Arthur in decades but I remember most of that episode

[gilmourtheapatosaur]

There was an episode of Arthur where DW believed the myth that she would die from eating a green potato chip to the point that when Arthur’s friend Binky hears about it, he thinks he’s about to die too after eating one and talks to DW about it. Eventually they form a friendship during the episode. Once DW realized it wasn’t true she didn’t want anyone to talk about it because she was uncomfortable and embarrassed about the whole thing. And for Binky, he used the moment to come out of his shell and demonstrate his love for ballet.

But in the following episode everyone was talking about DW’s green potato chip to the point it was in the newspaper and was going to be on a visiting national television show. DW was clearly distraught about the whole thing and was suspicious about everyone. She then spotted her own MOM was clipping the article from several newspapers and mailing them out while she talked to several people on the phone about the green potato chip.

DW calls her out on the spot and convinces her to stop talking about it. Until much later in the episode while queuing for audience spots for the aforementioned show, DW spots her mom talking publicly about it again while loudly saying, “I hope DW doesn’t know I’m talking about this again.” And of course DW calls her out again and flees the scene.

I can’t remember how it was reconciled but I think eventually she runs into Binky who tells her to be assertive about how to show her feelings. She and her mom make up and her mom for real promises to just ignore anyone who presses her about it to protect her daughter’s feelings.

Meanwhile the show starts and the first topic is the green potato chip, but it’s only because Binky was comfortable about making it public to the point he performs a ballet with his friends, thus fulfilling DW’s wish to be heard about her feelings.

It taught me as a kid that kids deserve to have their feelings heard and that parents should respect that.

When I see people sharing so much of their kids' lives, I think about that one time my child told a joke, I shared that joke with ONE FRIEND in a private conversation, and my child said "can you please ask me next time, before you tell people something about me?"

And, yes, I absolutely should. So I apologized, and now I ask.

"I love that video of you, can I show it to a friend?"

"Can I tell a friend about how clever you were just now?"

"Can I share this in the family group chat?"

"Can I show your art to grandma and grandpa?"

And it's not like my kids don't like when I share their jokes and puns and fun moments. They love it! But they want to have control over what I share with people. Even without their faces or their names. Even people we know and trust.

And they deserve to have that control.

[panharmonium]

okay, honest question about 5.11 -

are we seriously supposed to watch this episode and still come down on arthur’s side?

i’m not saying that’s what the show wants us to do.  on the contrary, i think they actually do a pretty good job this episode of NOT hammering us in the face with “you’re supposed to root for camelot,” which i appreciate, because there have definitely been other times when they’ve approached the moral dilemma of magical oppression and have kind of punked out at the end - most noticeably in ‘the sorcerer’s shadow,’ when they finally force us to look merlin’s cognitive dissonance in the eye by putting him in the position of saving uther from a magical youth fighting for freedom, and then they back off from that uncomfortable question by having kilgharrah say “you, like i, must hold hope that arthur will bring about a new age, an age where the likes of you and i are respected once again.”  

they don’t quite do that in this episode, which i really appreciate, because i just cannot see how they would have been able to pull it off without sounding ridiculously disingenuous.

arthur is WRONG.  

(i’ll get to merlin later, he’s...he’s got a whole different issue going on, but let’s just deal with arthur first.)

that whole conversation where he interrogates kara in front of the court - just look at it:

were you part of a cohort of saxons who attacked an arms shipment bound for camelot?

yes.

and were you acting under the orders of morgana pendragon?

what i did, i did for myself.  for my people, and for our right to be free.

i have no quarrel with the druids. 

i have spent my life on the run because of my beliefs, and seen those i have loved killed.

once, maybe.  but i’m not my father.

you don’t kill those with magic?  it is not i, arthur pendragon, who needs to answer for my crimes.  it is you.  you and your father have brutally and mercilessly heaped misery on my kind.  it is you who has turned a peaceful people to war, and it is you and camelot that will pay the price.

are we supposed to look at this girl and condemn her?  nothing she says is wrong.  

whenever we encounter these magical rebel types, the show always tries to play it like ‘well uhhhhhh they’re a little extreme......i mean......they kill people 0.0,’ as if camelot’s regime hasn’t been killing magical people all along.  like - kara stabs that soldier when she’s escaping from the cells, and the show kind of plays mordred’s reaction as...‘omg she killed someone oh no what a baddie,’ but dude!  the soldiers are about to kill her!!!!!  she’s running for her life!  killing a guard is nothing merlin and arthur haven’t done a hundred times, when escaping from captivity on their own adventures, but it’s never been framed as some sort of evil thing, for them.  why is kara the only one branded as a sinner?  a knight’s life isn’t more valuable than any of the children uther drowned.  a knight’s murder isn’t more deserving of reprisal.  

the girl’s murdered innocent men in cold blood.  we are at war.  i must be resolute.

we hear arthur say that and we kind of just want to shake him like - CAMELOT has murdered innocent people in cold blood!  if arthur can use “we are at war” to justify killing someone who has magic, then the same justification should apply to magic-users attempting to kill him.  camelot declared war on magic-users decades ago.  these people are fighting for their lives.

arthur is showing his father’s reasoning here.  his own rules don’t apply to him.  his rationale, his justifications, they only go one way.  there is so much to pick apart in his response to this situation - he tries to make it sound like ‘the problem isn’t magic, it’s that you murdered some guys,’ (he tells kara “you stand before the court not because of an act of sorcery or sedition, but because of an act of murder”) but literally in the previous episode he sends out a squadron to hunt down finna (and merlin, unknowingly) just because gaius said finna practiced the old religion.  

finna had killed no one.  she’d done absolutely nothing wrong.  but arthur went after her and said she ‘must be found and brought to trial.”

brought to trial?  for WHAT????  she hadn’t DONE anything.  nothing except be a follower of the old religion.

and his hypocrisy!  ‘it is [people like morgana] that have terrorized camelot and forced us to outlaw such practices’ - really, arthur?  literally two episodes ago, you went the cauldron of arianrhod and used magic to save your wife from an enchantment.  at the beginning of season 5, you used magic to summon your father’s ghost.  at the beginning of season 4, you used magic to try to save uther’s life.  

arthur has always been willing to use magic for his own purposes, when it suits him.  all while continuing to restrict others from doing the same.

this show is big on pushing the narrative that “arthur’s different from uther” - and he is - but how different, really?  seriously.  in the end, how different are they?

i feel like because we are fond of him - because we’ve gotten to know him personally, in settings where we can temporarily forget the impact of his policies - we’re sometimes asked to sort of look past the real harm that is constantly being done in his name.  like - ‘it’s okay for us to let it slide when arthur persecutes people with magic, because he has valid reasons to think magic is a threat.’  but what, then it’s not okay for someone like kara to want him taken out?  

she has valid reasons to think ARTHUR is a threat.  he IS a threat!!!  to people like her!  that’s the reality.  these people have every justified reason to want arthur off the throne.  they have every rightful reason to riot.  they have EVERY RATIONAL REASON TO REBEL AND REMOVE HIM FROM HIS SEAT OF POWER.  

if this were star wars, they’d be the rebellion.  we’d be rooting for them!  it is not wrong for an oppressed population to rise up against their oppressor!!!!!!!!!!  we all know this!!!!!!!!  just because we like arthur on a personal level doesn’t make it less true.  we CANNOT fault these people for refusing to just sit back and wait for arthur to someday wake up and give them their rights.  that never happens.  that is never how people become free.  we can’t fault these people for not choosing to be like merlin, for not choosing to hover in a morally questionable limbo for years and years and years and become complicit in their own oppression.

(and again, i’ll...i’ll deal with merlin later.  he keeps fucking up and i hate to see it but i also have to remember that he is a victim of the same oppressive policies as kara and mordred so it’s like...his case is more complicated.)

but arthur.  i honestly feel like the most telling moment is when he gives kara that opportunity to “repent,” which is supposed to be like ‘oh wow look how benevolent,’ only the thing is he’s completely missed the point.  the point is not that she needs to apologize for her crimes.  the point is that she hasn’t done anything wrong.  

no.

it isn’t.

the way they cut to merlin at that particular line is devastating.  it’s this...reminder of how far we have wandered, from who he used to be.  he used to think this, too.  he used to fight for himself, too; he used to come home to gaius angry and upset saying “i want to be seen; i want to be free.”  and now he’s just...locked into this impossible place where he can either ignore the veritable chorus of dragons, seers, and literal gods who keep telling him he has an absolute responsibility to make sure arthur triumphs, or listen to their counsel and thus betray himself, and his own people along with him.  and all this while still living under threat of execution himself - what is he supposed to do?  

this episode calls back so strongly to ‘the sorcerer’s shadow,’ which is the first place where the show confronts this problem so directly, when merlin outs himself to gilli and gilli challenges him about his choices:

i know how it feels.  i understand.

then you understand why i have to fight.  if uther is killed, so what?  how many of our kind have died at his hands?  how many more will?  it's time those with magic fought back.

gilli - 

you can't tell me what to do!  

you need to learn to use your magic for good.  that is its true purpose; it's not meant for your own vanity.

i'm not going to apologise for who i am!  you can be a servant and - and pretend you're less than them -

no, that is not what I do - 

no?!  you're defending the king!  protecting a man that would have you dead!

i'm protecting you!

you've been pretending for so long now that you've actually forgotten who you are.

merlin gets so upset by this.  he’s visibly shaken, and on the verge of tears, and he weakly protests, and then the next shot is of him lying awake in his bed, agonizedly stewing over it, because deep down he knows that gilli is right.  

this conflict has never been resolved.  i would add, as we move toward the spot where i am now in season 5, that it’s not so much that merlin has “forgotten” who he is, exactly, but that he’s been forced to abandon who he is, for the sake of his mission.  and most of the time he tries not to think about that, because it’s the only way he can survive, but he feels deeply conflicted about it still.

watching 5.11, it is so easy for me to get frustrated at merlin, because i feel like he should do more, in this episode, and do the Right Thing, but honestly at this point the only way for him to do the right thing is to reveal himself.  that’s it.  there is no other option for him.  we’ve exhausted all other avenues; there is no other step he can take.  he is trapped, in his current situation, and his deception is not just hurting him, now, it’s...it’s an abdication of his responsibility to everyone like him.  

i don’t like saying that.  because in real life it’s never okay to just say like...’oh, you need to out yourself because you have a responsibility to the community.’  that’s never okay.  a person’s primary responsibility is to their own safety, when they’re living as a marginalized, threatened person.  

so in real life, i would never say that.  but this is fiction, first of all, and it’s more complicated than that, for merlin, because he is already in a position of responsibility over these people, whether he wants to be or not.  the decisions he makes are things that impact their lives.  

and secondly - how threatened is he, really?  he is supposedly the most powerful sorcerer who’s ever lived.  do we really think arthur could successfully get merlin up on a platform and hang him?  do we really think arthur could hold merlin in a cell?  when merlin was newer to intentional magic and unstudied, absolutely, yes.  but now?

the risk merlin faces now isn’t necessarily to his life.  it’s to his lifestyle.  he might have to leave camelot.  he might lose all his friends.  and these are valid fears and i UNDERSTAND, because merlin has never felt safe and he has so rarely felt loved and i UNDERSTAND how paralytically frightening it is for him to consider doing anything that would jeopardize even the tiniest bit of belonging that he has been able to scrape together for himself, but i do not see that he has another option - not one that doesn’t poison his soul, at least.  he knows that what is happening to kara in this episode is wrong.  he tells arthur “free them both.”  he knows that’s what should have happened.  but then arthur executes her, and merlin does nothing to stop it, and i hate to put one more burden on merlin’s young shoulders but the fact of the matter is that this cycle of violence will never end until merlin ends it himself.  merlin cannot continue to stay trapped here between the dictates of destiny and his own sense of right and wrong.  it is killing him, and now it’s killing other people, too.

it is not a crime to fight for the right to be who you are.  

merlin desperately needs to remember that.  he needs to remember it for his own sake, not just for the people around him.  he is one of them.  their struggle is his struggle.  it is not the magical community’s fault that merlin has more information than they do - how are they supposed to know that arthur is supposed to be some kind of great saviour?  without knowing that, why would they ever choose to bow to him?  he has done nothing to earn their trust.  they have no reason to approach this situation the way merlin has, with infinite patience and a willingness to suffer constant injustices.  

merlin has to understand that.  he has to know that.  he can’t condemn them for fighting for their freedom.  they haven’t done anything wrong.  and i think he does know that, deep inside.  but he is trapped, where he is now, and the only way out is for him to tell the truth.  

the truth will set you free.  it might upend your entire life, but it will set you free.  and it is past time that merlin was free.  from camelot’s oppression, and from the oppressive dictates of destiny, too - if destiny had shut up for two seconds about ‘don’t trust mordred,’ we wouldn’t necessarily be in this situation now.  

i guess overall this episode leaves me feeling pretty grim.  and sad, i guess, because honestly like - it’s hard to for me to even root for arthur, as we enter the finale.  i can’t condemn mordred for running away to join the rebellion.  i don’t think morgana’s ideals are exactly pure, obviously; we’ve already seen several seasons ago how her goals have slid from ‘liberation’ to ‘power’ - but mordred is only motivated by the fight against injustice.  he’s in it for freedom.  and i can’t fault him for that, because he isn’t wrong.  i can’t fault him for giving up merlin’s identity, either, because merlin’s been treating him like crap from the very beginning (and again, yes, it’s more complicated than that - merlin is in an impossible position; he has reasons to trust all of the people who make prophecies at him - but still.  that doesn’t make mordred less wronged.)

so it’s kind of like - i’m going into the finale feeling like i shouldn’t really be rooting for our heroes.  which is kind of...depressing.

i mean.  yeah. 

he kind of does.

[popculturebuffet]

Paul Dini’s Jingle Belle: “Sanity Clauses” review or Santa’s Court Ordered Family Therapy Holiday Special

Merry Christmas everyone! I”m finally back on the reviewing reindeer after a week out with a cold, aside from the usual ducktales review, and it’s once again a comission from friend of the blog and the only guy who pays me for reviews weirdkev27. If you have your own holliday hyjinks you’d like me to review I do reviews of television and comics for 5 dollars an episode/issue, wtih variable prices for trades in comics case depending on length. Hit me up via my dm’s here on tumblr or send me an ask for my discord if you want to know more. WIth that plug out of the way away we go.  This one was a bit unusual... in that when Kev bought it up I assumed he was going to buy a few issues of Jingle Belle, Paul Dini’s creator owned character we’re talking about today, and just have me review those. What I didn’t realize is he was buying me the full package, a collection of pretty much every jingle belle tale, as well as the released after it “Handmade’s Tale”. one shot. So yeah, while I had’nt really thought of rules for this kind of thing before from now on your free to buy a work for me to review... just keep in mind i’ts both not required for me to review something, and will not wave the commission fee as I use those fees to pay bills, buy things I need like charger cables, and just generally keep my bank account afloat while I look for a day job. 

But... since I hadn’t firmly established any of this yet, and since Kev’s gift means a bunch more commissions from a guy who not only made sure I could afford Christmas, but who has provided me steady work while i’m out of work... this one’s on the house.  So with all the jargon settled, who is Jingle Belle? Jingle Belle is an indie comics character created and owned by Paul Dini in 1998. Paul Dini is an animation god, who thanks to this review I know more about his career than I did before and as much as I always should have. Dini got his start in the 80′s, writing for everything from He Man to Gary Coleman Adventures, before getting called up to the big leagues for Tiny Tune Adventures around the time of the animation renaissance. To my shock, as  I wasn’t aware he wrote for that fine program, he wrote 35 episodes including my personal favorite Prom-ise her Anything.  But while a talented comedy writer, his main talent would show when he moved on to Batman the Animated Series as a writer and story editor. He was one of the main creative forces along with Bruce Timm, with the two going on to make the DCAU, aka some of the best superhero shows ever made, after already making easily one of if not THE best with BTAS. And Timm’s influence showed, Co-Creating Harley Quinn with Timm, and writing the series best episode Heart of Ice, which reworked Mr Freeze from a hoaky silver age villian into the tragic and thoroughly sympathetic character he’s been since that episode. Seriously that’s another one to add to the review pile.. which is giant and sentient at this point. And seriously EVERY episode on his imdb page credits is an utter classic and one I remember fondly. The guy is one of the most talented and seemingly nicest guys in the business and both the world of batman and the world of animation owe him a LOT.  So to my surprise, I found out in the 2000′s he had a comic, Jingle Belle.. then for whatever reason just never dug into it till now. But now post digging Jingle Belle is Paul Dini’s long running series of one shots and series at various companies following the adventures of Santa’s rebellious teenage-ish daughter.. techincally she’s in the 200′s but still looks and acts like a teenager. The idea came about when he got a christmas card from Stephen Speilberg, and wondered how the kids of famous folks dealt with that and if they resented their famous fathers. And whose more famous than santa?. The series spins both out of that brilliant idea and out of Dini’s love for sunday comic strips, back when the panels were larger and creators were given more freedom to go nuts, though even today i’ve seen plenty of great stuff so it’s not all lost pauly.  So in that spirit rather than one long ongoing Jingle Belle is instead a series of one shots, stories in anthologies and what have you, one and done stories more focused on the comedy. The comic has bounced around from various publishers, starting as something pitched to Oni Press, home of Scott Pilgrim and not much else, and has bounced around various publishers since, most recently ending up at IDW, where the trade i’m reading from comes from. So how does a great concept from one of the world’s most creative minds shake out? Let’s unwrap this present and find out. 

We open with an appropriately christmasy rhymey opening as we get the story of Jingle Belle: She’s the daughter of santa claus and mrs. claus, in this case the Queen of the Elves. Which isn’t established until the next story but whatever. And as you’d expect she grew up a cheery, rosey little girl who loved helpiing dad in the workshop.. then everything changed when puberty attacked. 

As you can see Jingle is now your standard Bratty Teenage Daughter sterotype. At least in this story. See this initial story feels much like a pilot: It’s clear things aren’t ironed out 100% for the idea, and i’ts more a self contained way to get across the general idea, that being Santa has a rebellious teen daughter, via what comes off as an snl skit in comic book form. THat’s not an insult, it’s a GOOD snl skit, and I am genuinely surprised only one movie company’s attempted adapting this comic: the concept is great. I’m just letting you know what i’m working with is all. 

So naturally as a high concept comedy skit, Jing soon, after sharing some cigarettes with the local eskmo boys and accidently lighting her Reindeer’s butt on fire and wrecking her sleigh and some surrounding property, Santa is at his witt’s end and we end up in family therapy. And honestly.. Santa in a family therapists office is a great concept. IT’s why I compare it to a sketch: It’s just a simple one line proposal that’s really damn funny and really damn eye catching. It’s often REALLY hard to get a good santa parody going, so I admire how well he pulled it off here.  But what really centers it is Jing giving her side, making her a bit more than the mostly one dimensional bratty rebellious daughter she’s been pegged as. Oh sure tha’ts still mostly what she is here, I’ll leave it to later stories to flesh her out hopefully, but she gives vallid reasons WHY she acts out: She points out no one even knew Santa had a daughter, and she has no songs or specials or any of that about her. The most Santa can offer up is “Jingle Bells” because the boys say “jingle all the way”... which really, especially in 2020, just makes HIM come off worse for not only slut shaming his daughter, but that the best defense he can offer is “Well some local boys talk about how you boned them that counts right?”. 

That.. poorly aged joke aside Jingle brings up another good point on how sh’es on his shit list.. errr.. naughty list. Still a good gag. And yeah the therapist is understandably surprised Santa dosen’t give his own daughter presents, though his wife does give a valid counter to that: He has to hold a higher standard than anybody. 

And that’s why I’m really intrigued by this concept and want to read more: WE have plenty of stories about Santa’s kids, i’ll grant, from him adopting a kid like in elf, to him passing on the legacy with films like Arthur Christmas and Fred Claus, or even just films about his legacy, like the Santa Claus, aka that time Santa died and his clothes forced Tim Allen into a job he dosen’t want with weight and beard gain he didn’t ask for via yuletide mummy’s curse to become the new santa and nearly loose custody of his child. What i’m saying is the concept is inherently fascinating and The Santa Clause is deeply terrifying if you stop to think about it for two seconds.. as is the sequel what with it’s Nazi Robot Santa Claus Tim Allen. Yes really. 

But this one’s unique in that it’s not about the legacy. Oh sure Santa tries to get Jing interested, and his last attempte wound up with them having to take the bus, another great gag and i’m glossing over most because this is a very funny little comic, but the main focus is more on what kind of pressure that puts on a kid: wouldn’t you rebel too if your parents wanted you to be perfect and to follow in the family business of being basically a perfect human being? Jing herself sums it up perfectly towards the end of the story. 

Granted after a tearful hug, Jing internally says “that new snowboard is mine.. but i’ts hard not to feel that a godo chunk of this is genuine. Sure she’s playing her parents a bit but.. you’d crack too if your dad was freaking Santa. I’m really intrigued to see where this goes both comedically and character stuff wise. 

So we end on another christmasy narration bit as Belle plays good for a while, snapping only when it docent seem like she gets her snowboard. A comedy ending and an eh one. Not the best honeslty, I feel the comci would’ve been better ended just at the snowboard is mine bit, but i’ve seen worse. 

Final Thoughts: A really good story. WHile it’s rough around the edges, clearly Dini and others have buffed them out over two decades, and i’m really intrigued to see more of this this holiday season and others. Again some parts, mostly playing Jing being sexually liberated for “OH HAW HAW SHE’S A SLUT” laughs is cringe inducing, but most of the jokes have aged well and for a pilot it’s not bad. I really look forward to reading more of the character and diving into her this season and beyond. 

Until then be good to one another, have a happy holidays and always remember: There's  always another rainbow. 

[secretradiobrooklyn]

May Day Edition | 5.1.21

Secret Radio | 5.1.21 | Hear it here.

1. Zia - “Helel Yos”

This song has been in our heads in a big way the last few weeks. Zia was my first exposure to pre-revolutionary Iranian rock  — sometimes called “psych rock,” though I can’t tell if that’s a designation he would make himself. But to be fair, I have no idea what he’s going for. Nonetheless, those little whistles he does get under my skin and into my brain. I wake up in the morning singing “helel yoza, hella hella helel yoza”… This is from the late ‘60s, I believe. The whole album (also called “Helel Yos”) is pretty excellent, and includes the song “Khofrium” from our last broadcast. A recent favorite and highly recommended.

2. Shin Joong Hyun - “Pushing through the Fog” 

Somehow stumbled on this collection of South Korean music, and it has been mesmerizing. Shin Joong Hyun is a great example of something I love discovering over and over again: someone working within a language and a genre, but also expressing a completely unique personal style that extends beyond those general qualities and into startling specifics. This song is from “Beautiful Rivers and Mountains: The Psychedelic Rock Sound of South Korea’s Shin Joong Hyun 1958-74,” which blows my mind, because the tones, and especially the bass and drums, sound so completely of the moment. It’s sold out at Light In The Attic’s store, so we’ll be keeping our eyes out for it in the wild, because these are going to be some crucial liner notes. The brief version on their site describes him as a guitarist, songwriter, producer, arranger, and talent developer. He began by performing for US troops in Korea post active war time, became a bewitching guitarist and songwriter, then started producing other bands in the region, and a string of hits developed. It sounds like his story includes a really harsh period of intrusion and disruption by the government… but as far as I can tell he survived to the current day, and even helped oversee this collection.

3. The Traces - “Je t’aime moi non plus” - “Thai Beat A Go Go Vol 2”

Ummm… I would LOVE to know what words they’re singing. This chummy Thai version of Gainsbourg’s super sensual “Je t’aime, moi non plus” is such a weird listening experience. I think one of the singers is either drunk or hearing the song for a first or second pass. What are they saying?!

4. Annie Philippe - “On m’a toujours dit”

I really love the energy and style of this track and many of the Annie Philippe songs I’ve heard, which makes it aggravating that the first thing one finds online in English about Philippe is a condescending, limp writeup on her by Richie Unterberger that tries its best to ignore how delightful her voice is and how pleasurable the arrangements are — luckily the dude mentions that Paul Mariat worked on her albums, who also arranged Charles Aznavour. I love the florid colors of French pop from the ‘60s with hothouse arrangements and wide-flung voices. The ebullient drums and electric guitar, the confident harmonies and tucked in little organ and horn licks are all pure joy.

5. T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou - “Houton Kan Do Go Me” 

While we were in the Illinois woods we received some very welcome records from Germany’s Analog Africa label which included “The Skeletal Essences of Afro-Funk,” a collection of songs by pretty much our favorite band in the world, T.P. Orchestre. These songs that explore some of the facets of the band that “Echoes Hypnotique” and “The Vodoun Effect” — both gorgeous, keystone records — hadn’t gotten to yet. The language is Fon, the style is Jerk, and the composer (though not the singer, I think) is Bentho Gustave, T.P.’s bassist. pretty sure the singer is Lohento Eskill.

- Hailu Mergia & The Walias - “Musicawi Silt”

The Walias is the band that Hailu Mergia was in when he first came to America. I seem to remember a story that they were disappointed with the trip, went home to Ethiopia and broke up, but Mergia stayed and kept developing his keyboard style, which did a few decades later (!) actually win him wide recognition and acclaim. This is some of his earlier work, not in the director’s seat, and you can hear so much of Mergia’s style woven into the band’s arrangements. I love how it sounds like he’s just playing pure electric current — it barely sounds like an organ to me, more like uncut groove tone.

6. “Newsies” clip

In celebration of May Day, we present this inspiring tale of unions forming in the streets of New York. 

7. Sexe a Pile - “Pas Méchant”

Another recent record score, this one from our other most favorite label, Born Bad Records in France: “Paink: French Punk Anthems 1977-1982.” One thing I love about this song is that the chorus always makes me think of “High Class” by the Buzzards, a song that never got nearly enough love as far as I’m concerned.

8. The Replacements - “Customer”

Dave got me thinking about the Replacements and before I knew it we were deep into “Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash.” So wild and loose and pissed off and sincere the whole time. You can really hear Westerberg yearn to be great but also sneer at himself for taking something seriously. It used to sound so unhinged to me but now it has become an album about being young and scared of yourself 

9. Plearn Promdan - “Ruk Kum Samong”

Well, this was something we didn’t see coming — the Thai music we’ve heard up to now has been more ’50s influenced. It sounds like a four-piece rock band surrounded by a drum circle. This is part of what’s apparently known as Luk Thung underground. There’s been some very good stuff so far, I look forward to finding out more. 

10. T.P. Orchestre - “Azanlokpe”

I got a little obsessed with T.P. Orchestre for a while there, and was trying to listen to every single recording that Discogs offered — which is a LOT, because they were super prolific. This is one of my favorite finds so far. I wish I could say which singer this is; it was noted as Melome Clément but I don’t think that’s him. So many talented people in this band!

11. Francis Bebey - “Super Jingle”

Francis Bebey contains multitudes. I’m pretty sure he records all of these parts himself. I think he’s just a master of rhythm — all of the instruments weave a tapestry that he can then cavort upon. The body of the song is so hypnotizing, the lead so akimbo. 

12. Dalida - “J’ai revé”

One of the highlights of the 2017 St. Louis International Film Fest was the biopic of her life. This is early Dalida. As far as Paige understands, she’s the French Lady Gaga for people who were clubbing in the ’70s and ’80s. The story of her life has some really sad shit, but this take on Bobby Darin’s “Dream Lover” is full of life.

- “Newsies” reprise

Radical sincerity sometimes requires references to musicals.

- Petch Pintong - “Soul Lum Piern”

I love this track and know nothing about it except that it was collected on “Thai Beat A Go Go Vol 4.” Those collections have turned out to be full of riches!

13. Atomic Forest - “Obsession ’77 (Fast)”

OK, these guys seem really interesting. They’re an Indian psych-funk band, which was apparently totally unheard of there, and they only released a single album — and that one only after they broke up. Because that album is full of great stuff, most notably (at least to me) this track, their story is almost too perfectly suited to the obsessions of vinyl collectors worldwide. Now-Again Records re-released the album in 2011, and we ran across it just a couple months ago. I really enjoy the sense of narrative in the song — what’s happening in the foreground keeps evolving and remaining legitimately interesting.

14. Metak - “Da Mi Je Biti Morski Pas”

I’m proud to say that these dedicated rockers are Croatian, and this track from 1980 rocks like a seafoam T-top Stingray. This is from a 7” with “Rock’n’Roller” on the flip.

15. Mai Lan - “Les Huîtres”

Paige found this amazing playlist on Spotify years ago, and this is finally the way she started getting into more contemporary French music. It sounds like she’s from a musical and artistic French-Vietnamese family. “Les Huîtres” is from around 2008. Kind of feels like 

16. VIS Idoli - “Maljciki”

We found a video of this Yugoslavian ska while looking for something else entirely. I did learn that this is political ska, and that they were frowned upon by the government. One account has them being indulged by the government; another has them under threat of punishment. I do love knowing that ska is a political form and not just a genre. I have no idea how they would feel about the Croatian rockers a few tracks back, and I hope none of them did any harm to one another other during the terrible ‘90s. 

17. Para One, Arthur Simonini - “La Jeune Fille en Feu” - “Portrait of a Woman on Fire” score

Did you see “Portrait of a Woman on Fire”? We highly recommend it, for a lot of reasons but definitely for the passage of this song. It sounds great here, but at night, by firelight, with all the nuns and farmwomen on the island? 

18. The Space Lady - “Ghost Riders in the Sky”

- Sleepy Kitty - “Western Antagonist Reflection”

19. Mikyas Chernet - “Ziyoze”

Marc, this is the song I was talking about stepping into the Teddy Afro position. It’s definitely not the same, but you can hear the modern Ethiopian pop feel running through it. It helps that I first heard it while picking up an order from our favorite Ethiopian in STL, which is also where we first heard Teddy Afro. The dancers are on POINT in the video, and they’re rockin a couple of new styles that I hadn’t seen yet.

20. Nazir Ali - “Lad Pyar Aur Beti”

Listen to the giant smiles in their voices! This is from a very recent compilation. That female voice has to be Nahid Aktar, or at least it sounds just like her; I think the protagonist-sounding male voice is Ali’s. There is a brief appearance from that Oscar the Grouch-sounding guy from last episode’s Aktar song. It’s so cool how the song shifts into new mode after new mode as it goes. 

21. Nathalie - “L’Amour Nous Repond”

22. The Fall - “L.A.”

This period of The Fall is surely our favorite — wherever Brix E. went, the songs were great. And now, with vaccines coursing through our systems, we can feel our thoughts casting their way to LA and San Francisco…

23. Akaba Man & The Nigie Rokets - “Ta Gha Hunsimwen” 

Analog Africa’s most recent release is “Edo Funk Explosion Vol. 1,” with tracks from the late ‘70s and ‘80s in Nigeria’s Benin City. Akaba Man is described as “the philosopher king of Edo funk.” The whole album is full of good tracks that only get better with repeated listens. This one has a bed of sounds that could happily go on for hours or days.

24. Gérard Manset - “Entrez dans le rêve”

Paige: “If you ever want to hear Lou Reed sing in French, this is the best we’re gonna get.” 

- Johnny Guitar - “Bangkok by Night”

We heard the “Shadow Music of Thailand” album a while back but haven’t dipped into it for too long. This Santo & Johnny style reverbed-out dream of the ‘50s lives eternally in Thai psych guitar.

25. David Bowie - “When I Live My Dream”

We do not condone the killing of any species of dragon, and I can only trust that neither dragon nor giant was harmed in the making of this fantasy.

[sweetsmellosuccess]

The Best (and Worst) Films of 2017

Determining what you deem to be the “best” films of a given year – or the “worst,” for that matter – is something of a drain. First of all, what, exactly, is your criteria? Do you choose the films that made the most impact on you? The ones that months later you still remember in vivid detail? The ones that seemed the best made? Sometimes, a film you dismiss one year you eventually come to realize is actually very, very good. Other times (though more rare), a film you absolutely loathed comes around for you and you realize you made a huge mistake in your original harsh judgment. Ultimately, it has to come down to the most basic and inexcusable of fallacies: It just feels right to you, for whatever reason, and shut up, it’s my list. This obviously makes these year-end lists little more than a document of my utterly subjective whims in a given calendar year, so take any of these so-called lists, no matter how definitive they want to appear to be, with a giant salt-lick block. Withering disclaimers in place, let’s go ahead and do this.

The 20 Best Films of 2017

20. Wind River Taylor Sheridan’s directing debut – a whodunit conducted on reservation lands in frigid Wyoming, lead by a BFW hunter (Jeremy Renner) and a neophyte FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) -- does have some glaring weaknesses – he does seem preternaturally fond of the whole “female agent in over her head” dynamic, and there is certainly some White Guy in Native Lands stuff that might turn people off. But one thing he does get right is the landscape, in all its pitiless beauty, and a sense of just how thoroughly American society has largely turned its back to the plight of our country’s native peoples. It’s a murder mystery with more of a political kick than you might expect. Full Review

19. Logan Just when the superhero genre had about exhausted its bag of tricks, James Mangold’s more haunting vision of a Wolverine (played for the last time by Hugh Jackman) old, riddled with guilt and doubt, and loss of purpose felt like a revelation. The lion in winter, whose adamantium claws were still in effect – and to particularly bloody purpose, with the application of the hard ‘R’ rating – became a version of the character we hadn’t seen before, and one that proved to have much more emotional complexity. Full Review

18. The Meyerwitz Stories (New and Selected) I realize Noah Baumbach, with his archly literary sensibilities and dynamic wordplay between admittedly sad sack, often dislikable characters, isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But I’ve always found his stuff riveting, and here, with a full-blown cast (including Dustin Hoffman, Adam Sandler, Emma Thompson, and Ben Stiller) and a bevy of characters whose intricate interactions yield emotionally rich scene work, he’s in fine fettle. Sandler, proving once again that he’s capable of far more than brainless, lazy fart comedies when pressed by a good director, is very strong, and Hoffman, playing an irascible, egocentric aging patriarch, is excellent. Full Review

17. Berlin Syndrome Another film I thought would do better than its limited-run-straight-to-video release might indicate, Cate Shortland’s cat-and-mouse thriller about an Aussie tourist in Berlin (Teresa Palmer) who has a brief affair with a German man (Max Riemelt) before he abducts her and keeps her locked in his apartment for months on end. The film is smart and riveting – featuring yeoman work from the two leads, and a pulse-tripping last act that welded me to my seat – and, in this unofficial Year of the Female, featured a strong-as-nails heroine standing up to the worst sort of male oppression, a perfect metaphor for 2017. Capsule Review

16. Free Fire Amongst an admittedly soul-searing line-up at the 2016 Toronto Film Festival, Ben Wheatley’s absurdly entertaining shoot-em-up struck me as exactly the kind of elixir I needed to pick myself up off the floor. With a sterling cast – including Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy, and Oscar-winner Brie Larson – and a can’t miss bottle-episode premise – a pair of gangs during a gun-buy gone bad are forced to square off against each other in an abandoned umbrella warehouse in ‘70s-era Boston – work to make this thing pop like a series of firecrackers. I actually expected it to be a bigger hit than its more modest returns indicate, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it picks up steam after repeated viewings on cable and streaming services. Someday, it will get its due. Full Review

15. A War Quietly, Tobias Lindholm has been making tremendous films over the last decade, either working with director Tomas Vinterberg, or on his own helmed projects. This military drama stars “Game of Thrones” actor Pilou Asbek – a star in his own right in his native Denmark – as a captain of an outpost in Afghanistan forced to make a difficult, but totally understandable, decision that leads to his having to endure a court martial hearing. Asbek is absolutely masterful, and Lindholm has a way of creating difficult and complex narratives that puts his characters and his audience in a moral quandary. Full Review

14. The Salesman Every film from Iranian auteur Asghar Farhadi is a cause for celebration, and this film – an interesting meditation on repressive misogyny, Iranian social politics, and Arthur Miller – is no exception. The film utilizes Farhadi’s trademark tightly wound, concentric narrative wrapped around a central core mystery. While it’s not quite at the level of some of his best work (including A Separation, and The Past) it’s nevertheless a fascinating film further probing deeply into the human condition. Capsule Review

13. Strong Island I had the pleasure of watching Yance Ford’s deeply moving doc, about the murder of his older brother and the ways his loss devastated her once-happy family, at last spring’s True/False festival. Here’s what I wrote about it at the time: “Shot in a pastiche of styles – for most of the interviews, the camera keeps a respectful distance, but for Ford’s own confessions, he shoots almost uncomfortably close, almost daring us to look away – the somber themes are greatly enhanced by the addition of inspired poetic visuals: an angled roof against the blue of the sky, snow swirling in air against a dark night, a particularly haunting overhead shot of the grease stain on the concrete outside the garage where his brother lay down to die, which untether the film from clear narrative delineation, and send it into spiraling layers of grief and acceptance. The result is uncompromising and almost impossibly raw.” Capsule Review

12. Wonder Woman Just when we were all ready to take the DCU and chuck it into Zack Snyder’s garbage disposal, along comes Diana Prince, who revitalized the entire comic book genre, and breathed new life into what had been Warner Bros. desultory foray into comic book universes (a life almost immediately put back on life support after the disastrous Justice League debacle this past fall, but I digress). Gal Gadot’s star turn as the heroine of the summer could not have come at a more precipitous time, given the political wave of female empowerment, and Patty Jenkins’ film was thrilling and ground-breaking. DC might have only given us one winning film this year, but it certainly was a doozy. Full Review

11. Graduation Cristian Mungiu’s narratives always challenge his protagonists in deeply disturbing ways, either by dint of the oppression they are under, or the moral quandaries he elicits. His latest film, about a well-connected Romanian doctor (Adrian Tetieni) who uses his influence to illicitly aid his stricken daughter (Maria Dragus) on the eve of her college entrance exams, is another master study of moral nuance and precise scene composition. A single, wordless shot of the doctor coming home with his wife (Lia Bugnar) sitting in the kitchen tells us everything we need to know about their marriage, which is fantastic filmmaking. Mungiu greatly helped spur the Romanian cinematic revival over the last two decades, this film continues to cement his considerable legacy. Capsule Review

10. The Unknown Girl Recently, the Dardennes Bros. have been quietly making some of the more ethically absorbing films of the last few years. In 2014’s Two Days, One Night, we got to see the plight of a depressed woman attempting to get her old job back by pleading with her co-workers; here, we follow an obsessive doctor, Jenny (Adèle Haenel), after a young woman is murdered after first trying to gain entry into her small clinic after hours. Jenny devotes most of her time and energy not to try and solve the crime, but only to discover the identity of the woman so she can notify her family. You get the impression the Dardennes – whose previous oeuvre contains many unflinching dramas – want to lay out the ways we need to respond to our fellow human beings in order to be truly happy with ourselves. It says something that their protagonists stand out so much for simply just doing the right thing. Capsule Review

9. Personal Shopper Kristen Stewart has become far more than a starlet; she’s a bloody force of nature. Working again with Olivier Assayas (their previous collaboration, Clouds of Sils Maria, was also very strong), the two have made a film so filled with provocative energy, it can’t stay in one place for very long. Part ghost story; part fashion treatise; part character study; part Millennial ode, it moves in so many directions, you can’t catch your breath. Rather than feel scattershot, however, it’s anchored by Stewart and her undeniable screen presence. It will be fascinating to watch the rest of her career play out as she gets older and her muse carries her in different directions. Full Review

8. My Happy Family One of the joys of going to a festival like Sundance (and having critic friends with excellent taste) is getting to catch films you likely wouldn’t have seen under normal circumstances. Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß’s Georgian drama concerns a middle-aged matriarch (Ia Shugliashvili, in a fantastic performance) who suddenly decides to move out of her busy apartment where her vast extended family live, and move into her own flat where she can hear herself think. To her husband’s consternation, no matter how tightly the thumbscrews are applied, she remains resolute, which comes to make more and more sense as the drama unfurls. Currently on Netflix, I can’t recommend this one strongly enough. Capsule Review

7. I, Tonya One of the true surprises at last year’s TIFF, Craig Gillespie’s black comedy plays out the life and times of Tonya Harding with verve, wit, and absolutely brilliant performances, none more so that Allison Janey’s scene-stealing turn as Tonya’s witheringly acerbic mother. “Through a series of recreated interviews with the participants, screenwriter Steven Rogers has a grand time, breaking 4th walls, and giving glorious, epithet-spewing life to its decidedly lowbrow characters. Admirably, it also manages to make salient points as to the nature of celebrity culture, and the simple, one-dimensional character forms that American society so adores. It’s a colorful noisemaker, with a strand of barbed wire wrapped around the handle.” Capsule Review

6. Lady Bird Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut was a spiky, scintillating reverie on teen identity, and the difficulties of holding onto those things that most matter to you even as you strive to open yourself up to totally new experiences. “At its heart, too, through all of its sweetly comic undertones -- and laugh out loud bits of extemporaneous dialogue that flows through Gerwig's script like a guzzle of warm syrup -- it's an emotionally powerful evocation of the way loving parents and their children have to forge a way to learn to live apart from one another. "I want you to be the very best version of yourself you can be," her mother tells her at one point, and Lady Bird's struggle to figure out just who that might be is thoroughly captivating.” Full Review

5. The Florida Project A kind of reimagined Little Rascals, but set at an Orlando residence motel on the dirty outskirts of the strip outside Disney World, Sean Baker’s film is filled with the vitality and spark of life, even as the lives it depicts are difficult and often suffering. As far as the children of these hard-scrabble parents are concerned, the whole area is like an unsupervised playground. Featuring fantastic performances from the children – and a wondrous turn by Willem Dafoe, as the building manager – none more so than impossibly young Brooklynn Prince, the film is smart, sassy, and, at the end, extremely moving. Full Review

4. Get Out Much digital ink has already been spilled (um, generated?) in praise of Jordan Peele’s stunning directorial debut, a brilliant comedy/horror-based dissection of racial politics in this country, but here’s just a bit more: Peele’s film is so tightly constructed and carefully put together, it works equally well on multiple levels. That a film so loaded with racial politics can also be so damn entertaining is a marvel that needs to be seen multiple times before fully appreciated. Full Review

3. Phantom Thread Not that there was any serious doubt before but Paul Thomas Anderson is so fully in control of his craft he can make a riveting, emotionally wrenching film from a fussbudget dressmaker who likes his breakfast to be eerily silent. It helps when you have the luminescent efforts of a fantastic cast – lead by Daniel Day Lewis, in his reported last ever film role – but PTA is also the man who put that cast together and got such fantastic performances out of them. It’s a love story from a particularly obtuse angle – in this way, somewhat reminiscent of PTA’s earlier Punch Drunk Love – but takes such vibrant risks along the way, it’s all you can do to keep from applauding midway through. Delicate, fussy, nuanced, and absolutely gorgeous to look at (thank you, DP PTA!), with a wondrous score from Johnny Greenwood, it’s almost shockingly good. If this is indeed Day-Lewis’ last film, he’s gone out with a hell of a swansong. Full Review 

2. Call Me By Your Name I have written more about this film, and the year’s best winner, over this year than I can ever remember doing before. Hence, I quote but one of my various musings thusly: “The film’s first couple of hours are perfectly entertaining, but is in its closing scenes that it goes from engaging to sublime, including a monologue from [Michael] Stuhlbarg, consoling his now-bereft son, that is truly one for the ages. The closing credits, set over a long, single-take of Elio’s face in front of the fire, will sear your soul.” Full Review

1. A Ghost Story Ladies and gentlemen, David Lowery’s powerful meditation on love, time, and the fallacy of human legacy was the only film this year that very nearly dropped me to my knees in anguish as I departed the theater. You can actually view it as having something of a happy ending, but even so, it strikes nerves deep in your cerebral cortex you never even knew existed before. “It’s a film of felt, quiet spaces, whose emotional intensity builds in small increments to become at times almost overwhelming. It goes places you don’t expect, and keeps you there, frozen stiff in your chair, as it comes full circle. It’s definitely not a film for everybody – if, for example, you require three full acts and complete character arcs, you might want to take a flyer – but for the people who can hang with it, it has an enormous amount to offer.” Full Review

Other Worthy Mentions:

47 Meters Down, A Gray State, Abundant Acreage Available, Atomic Blonde, Baby Driver, Bad Day for the Cut, Beach Rats, Beatriz at Dinner, Blame, Did You Wonder Who Shot the Gun?, Dunkirk, I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore, Jane, Killing Ground, mother!, Quest, The Cage Fighter, The Endless, The Force, The Square, Thumper

The 5 Worst Films of 2017

5. Mary Shelley “Unfortunately, working from a truly terrible script from Emma Jensen, Al Mansour’s film is at best inartful, and at worst, the kind of simplistic, every-scene-has-a-point! pabulum that would embarrass a high school English class. Each element of Frankenstein is foreshadowed (here, Mary learns about galvanism; here, she sees an article about sewing body parts together, et al.), as if all she needed to do to write the novel was to pluck them directly from the sources. Even the film’s strongest moments – where Al Mansour, the worlds first female Saudi director, gets to show 18th century male oppression at its most vile and condescending – get watered down under that lead weight of a script. Everyone deserved better.” Capsule Review

4. Hostiles “Cooper confuses macho bravado and grittiness for any kind of verisimilitude – there are a staggering number of plot holes, and character inconsistencies – including the continual presence of a pretty frontierswoman (Rosamund Pike), whose family was wiped out by a group of marauding Comanche – that only serve to move the meandering plot forward. Worse yet, the action sequences themselves are both incoherent, and oddly designed (one of the oddest choices is putting us outside a closed series of tents in one scene, such that the action sequence is totally lost on us). The male actors sport very real and copious facial hair, as to suggest the worthiness of the project, but any filmmaker that can take a pair of powerhouse actors like Bale and Ben Foster and reduce them to this level of low-wattage really needs to self-examine.” Capsule Review

3. The Promise “Worse than any of its stylistic decisions, however, is to take something as horrific and criminally under-represented as the Armenian genocide and saddle it with a hokey love story that is virtually lifeless on its own. Naturally, the timeliness of the film -- taking us back to another age where virulent nationalism ran rampant, and minority groups were targeted as the subjects of its wrath -- is all too sickeningly relevant in the age of Brexit and Steve Bannon's type of exclusionist populism, but even there, the film either falters on the side of its overbaked plot, or sticks its more relevant political points in blithely didactic lurchings. ("This whole country is a graveyard," one character says.)” Full Review

2. Aardvark “A turgid, draggy drama (mostly around the premise that Slate’s character has to be an almost impossibly bad therapist to do to her patient what she pulls off here), a pasty comedy, coddled around a fantastically unbelievable premise and its flailing execution, the film tries to play with our sense of reality, using Quinto’s recurring hallucinations, but it doesn’t even want to bother to play by its own rules. It’s hard for me to imagine those talented actors reading this script and signing off on it, but here we are.” Capsule Review

1. Kidnap “As a means of conveying information, Knate Lee's "script" calls for Karla to talk incessantly to herself in the car, narrating her dilemma ("So now what's the plan?" she asks herself at one point, quickly concluding that she hasn't got one) pretty much so former Oscar-winner Berry has something to do other than grit her teeth and bleed out the nose. She also has a penchant for broad exclamatory statements ("Wherever you go, I'll be right behind you, no matter what!" and so forth). The effect is like overhearing a young boy playing with his GI Joes.” Full Review

Other Dishonorable Entries:

Axolotl Overdrive, Baywatch, The Mummy

Random Notes:

Inexplicably Overrated: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Biggest Welcome Surprise(s): I, Tonya, Lady Bird, Logan

Most Bitter Disappointment(s): Downsizing, Mary Shelley, The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Film That Critics Got Wrong: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Film(s) I Totally Whiffed On: Coco, I Love You, Daddy

Best Upcoming Releases of 2018

1. The Rider 2. Lean on Pete 3. Happy End 4. Chappaquiddick

[wingsoverbros]

"Who we are... if anyone figures it out, can you fill me in?" or "My thoughts on SPN 12.22"

Ok, since this finale night was a doozey *and* a double episode, I'm gonna take them on one at a time. This round, it's the first one, and I'll link the second episode here as well as posting the links in the usual places. On to our first episode of the evening...

For previous episodes: 12.01 - 12.02 - 12.03 - 12.04 - 12.05 - 12.06 - 12.07 - 12.08 - 12.09 - 12.10 - 12.11 - 12.12 - 12.13 - 12.14 - 12.15 - 12.16 - 12.17 - 12.18 - 12.19 - 12.20 - 12.21

Now, on to Supernatural 12.22 - "Who we are"

Now this was a great episode. After 2 episodes in a row where I was left irritated at the plot elements and wished for better treatment for certain characters, I'm glad to see an episode that was both well written and treated all of our hero characters with respect. It even did well with the bad guys, at least giving them send-offs that were in character and meaningful to the story at large (which was sadly better then the finale episode that followed it, but we'll get into that one next time.)

I loved that the episode showed us that the hunter community is deeply interconnected and in communication with each other, regardless of whether they're actively hunting, or just associated to active hunters. (I wonder if it extends to retired hunters. Did Dean or Sam have Cesar and Jesse on a contact list somewhere? Are they safe? I certainly hope so.) The episode was quite clever at how it showed us who is still alive in the Supernatural Universe, and I was delighted to find that both Garth and Bess are still alive and in contact with Dean (and that Dean's concern about the well-being of family extends to the well-being of family of his friends). I also deeply appreciated the unannounced appearance of Alex and her handy nursing school skills, and the mention of Donna as an interconnected hunter safe-house. Considering Jody has become Bobby, does that make Donna into Rufus? (At least she wouldn't make other do all the work on Saturdays...)

How kick-ass were Alex and Jody? Alex, despite her attempted separation from Hunting and monsters, clearly has superior fighting skills and a drive to protect her loved ones. Only someone on top of their game could have beaten off remote-controlled Mary with as few injuries as she seemed to have. I hope that in the future, she decides to amend her need to get away from Hunting and instead go along on hunts to use her newfound skills in medical care to help both hunters and the victims of monsters.

Jody continues to be absolutely amazing. With Hunters dropping left and right, she (with help from Alex) managed to survive Mary's attack when many others failed, and subdued her with what looked like minimal injuries to both. (I loved that she showed concern over Dean) It makes sense that Jody's house is now a local gathering spot for the hunting community, as her connections to law enforcement make her an invaluable asset to the community. Her actions during the raid gave me quite the thrill also, as it as clearly written in a way to make us concerned that she would make it through while simultaneously reminding us that she does this sort of thing in her day job as well. Of all the hunters there, outside the Winchesters, she's the one most equipped to survive a battle like that. (Although, I was surprised when she zipped up to the raid in her Sioux Falls Sheriff truck. That seems a bit conspicuous, although that's never stopped the Impala, so I guess that can be overlooked.)

You know, I was actually pleased when it was Jody who killed Low-rent Delores Umbridge. By having Sam kill the computer link (the Old men at MoL HQ are actually still alive? I'd guessed otherwise. Good to know) and Jody kill Umbridge, now the entire Hunting community in the United States has made a clear stand against the MoL. The Hunters were here first, thank you, and if you want it, prepare to die to take it. Granted, with the "Old Men" still alive back in Britain, this likely isn't the end of their story-line, but this setback should be enough to make them rethink how they go about doing things.

The episode actually surprised me once, when they showed us the pair of hunters who first successfully killed Dean and Sam way back in season 5. Considering everything that has happened and changed over the years, combined with Dean's threat at the time, I honestly expected these hunters to have been killed along the way. Whether by Dean, by Demon Dean, by Souless Sam, or by Cas at several points over the years, I expected that something had to have eventually caught up to them and killed them. Instead, those Hunter cousins had to have avoided the Winchesters and allies for nearly a decade, all while knowing that they did indeed kill them... and it *made absolutely no difference* in the long run. Imagine how paranoid that pair is now (it certainly explains them giving the guys the side-eye all episode). We they showed up, I was uncertain if I liked that development or not, but after some thought, I think I do. The fact that they're still alive means that even at their lowest points over the years, Dean and Sam still had more humanity then that pair of hunters did. They could have hunted them down, but they didn't. They let them live, because they were people and could still do some good. That polishes a bit of the tarnish off the boys, makes them look better. And it seems Karma will right the wrongs for them, as one of the pair didn't walk away from the battle.

Arthur Ketch was, however, irredeemable as a character, and I must admit to being highly pleased that he was killed in the end by Mary. Ketch has just gotten progressively creepier over the season, and his strange attachment to Mary was one of the darker things on this season, when you realize that he was likely using her brainwashing to keep her within his immediate grasp. Ketch is clearly not a guy accustomed to not getting what he wants. His reaction to Toni also point to him being extremely dangerous if his feelings change, and I'm glad that Mary snapped out of it and stopped him from hurting Dean. She chose a side several episodes ago, and I'm glad that Mary managed to wrench back her agency and make her point very clear to a psychopath that wouldn't take no for an answer.

On the same point, I'm actually sad for Lady Toni Bevell. She fell as a victim to Ketch, off-screen and only momentarily noted, and it looked like she didn't even get a chance to defend herself. It's always a sad fate for anyone, even a somewhat villainous character, to be killed by an abusive ex. She deserved a chance to fight back, go down with a fighting spirit. Hopefully, wherever she ends up takes into account she died trying to right her wrongs and move on with her life. (And I really hope the MoL doesn't have the same "Death and Retirement" rules as Wolfram and Hart from Angel. Being stuck as a ghost with that lot would suck, unless she had a score to settle. Maybe she can help Mick drive them all crazy.) Also, I'd like to thank Berens for remembering her son back in Great Britain, and using him to make Dean give her a little slack. It's always good to see one of the writers remember story-line continuity on the little things.

It's been an observation of mine that every child bears the scars from their parents, regardless of how well they parented. The worse the job, the more scars there are. Maturity is basically how you learn from your scars and adjust to them, with some people doing better and some doing worse. Dean seems to have been more scarred over the years then Sam is, and his monologue this episode acknowledged that, as well as the reason why. Dean, at the ripe old age of nearly 5 years old, had to become the mother *and father* to another small child. Sam was insulated from the scarring by that, while Dean was essentially left out in the open.

Now, most of this wasn't totally anyone human's fault. Mary was murdered, so she couldn't be there, and John was not in the right mental place to be able to handle anything alone (I wonder if the mental manipulations of the Angels made that any worse?) However, both of them had choices that they made which made the situations worse. The demon wouldn't even have been in the house if Mary hadn't have agreed to let it in (although it turns out that the alternative is actually worse, according to the next episode), and John should have at least tried to moderate how he parented verses how he hunted. It's possible, we've seen a few hunting parents, even single parents. None of them have been quite as obsessive about it as John. So neither parent is blameless (especially since both characters are examples of how the show likes to take good characters and swiftly make them fairly unlikable under the theory that it makes them "complicated and deep"), but neither meant for it to happen.

Thankfully, Dean (and Sam) have been through enough over the last 12 years to realize that mistakes happen despite the best of intentions. They've certainly done their fair share. That makes this episode the perfect time for Dean and Mary to have this conversation. The crap of the last decade has made Dean mature, and put him in the perfect place to deal with the side effects of his childhood. This is the first version of Dean that is well equipped to have a healthy relationship with his mother, father, and brother. With all of the characters finally able and willing to forgive and adjust, they can all move on and create a good future. <examples needed - stopped here>

(I'd love to see the season 12 versions of Dean and Sam dealing with the John they had when he died. They all need closure.)

And after what comes next, I hope they get a chance to have that future.

Side note: If you look at them side by side, 12.03 and 12.22 make for perfect bookends for the season. Matching story-lines, where elements brought up in one (such as Dean's reaction to Mary leaving and Mary's adjustment issues) are finally addressed in the other (that long-needed monologue of Dean to Mary). You can really tell they have the same high-quality writer. Even if most of the other writers don't do well with continuity and plot threads, at least we have a few that write like a dream.

The Bunker designs *still* doesn't make sense to me. If Ketch was able to use a spell to prevent them from restarting and unsealing the bunker from inside, why not use magic as the way to seal the bunker and the emergency bunker over-rides were *inside* the bunker, just glued down with magic? Dean could have needed to get outside to break a sigil or something to break the spell, rather then hang the whole sequence on an impossibly stupid bunker design.

If I were them, I'd clean the debris out of that sewer tunnel, put in a seal-able emergency door, and charm it to be invisible. Just in case. It's always better to have a back door.

Considering how much of the MoL furniture and doors get damaged or destroyed in the bunker over the years, I figure they either have a bunch of replacements stashed around and Dean is raiding the rooms, or Dean's gotten rather proficient at fixing woodwork. Either way, excellent job there, Dean.

Observations:

I admit to cheering when Dean used the Rocket Launcher to blow through the wall in the Bunker. I've been waiting for years for them to use that thing, and from the amount of times it's been mentioned this season, I figured it would in fact be used in the finale. Using it in that confined space was a little nuts, though. I'm surprised Dean kept his eardrums. Nice Die Hard reference when shooting it, too.

The safety goggles joke amused me. Frankly, as much as the Winchesters used to get backhanded into walls and such, I've always thought they needed more safety gear. At least helmets.

The amount of spells and such needing Virgin Blood is astounding. So is the fact that they can fake it via purification spells. That makes Dean a virgin for what, the 4th time?

I wonder what happened to Ketch's motorcycle? (I'd have stolen it afterward, to be honest. It's not like he's gonna need it.)

The fact that Dean thought that he finally had the life he wanted at the very beginning of the season made me sad. It added another layer of angst over the scenes where Mary walked away from the guys, and helps explain Dean's reactions in episode 3 and 13. It also explains Dean's reactions in 12.19 and adds layers of feeling onto the fact that Cas has essentially now decided to trade his dedication to Dean (and by association, Sam) for a super-powered baby. No wonder Dean seems down the last few episodes.

I also feel for Sam. For years, He's craved something making the fight easy, something he doesn't have to think or angst about. The MoL gave him that, and then the Brits took it away again. Hopefully, he and the others can take what tools and info they received and reform a better version in the US for the Hunter community. A MoL, hunter edition.

"You're Lunatics! Action movie loving, cheeseburger-eating, moronic American lunatics!" - Yep, that's practically the definition of "American", especially American Hunters. Welcome to America, Lady Bevill. Death recommends the junk food, it's to die for.

Looking back at "The Raid" and "The British Invasion", I realized that I came very close to accurately predicting this episode, just as the finale episode of the season. Considering what happens in 12.23, maybe it should have been.

Also, it should be noted that Mary has continued the family Death Count for lovers. So far, only Dean doesn't have a notation on the "Sleep with them and Die!" chart. (Although, I’ve no problem if the show would like to imply something...)

This episode was fantastic, which was a lovely change after a series of progressively more irritating episodes beforehand. You can tell the episode was written by someone who both understood the characters and what plot elements make up an interesting and logical story-line, and was willing to give us a episode full of kick-ass ladies who thankfully manage to survive the episode. That's not something we get very often on this show. Sadly, the finale episode was not nearly as good, or as painless.

* * *

Ok, that was my viewpoint of the first episode of May 18. Next up, the finale episode, 12.23, which I’m working on now. It’ll be right here.