#I need this dramedy to exist

[tehcherrya]

Somebody give me the rights to the LOTR cinematic productions so I can create a coming of age dramedy taking place during the seventeen years between Bilbo's 111th birthday party and Frodo leaving the Shire. I'd call it "The Shire Seventeen". It would not only include the Conspiracy as a backdrop but also a bunch of the development and growing up that was probably done within those seventeen years, that is entirely unrelated to the Ring.

It's a whole seventeen years worth of low-stakes hobbit Shire drama and shenanigans, guys-- I need that cozy comedy content.

[livingfandomly]

I keep seeing people online hate on Agatha and, let’s be honest, hating on marvel has become the trend. For a universe that has existed on screen for almost 3 decades now, its output of good quality content is actually commendable. Are some projects completely shit because they’re trying to focus on faux feminism and inclusivity? 100% yes. But it’s like nobody wants to give anything under the “superhero” tag a chance anymore. I understand that audiences need breaks from certain content to want it again but, I will say, this targeted hatred to marvel is very much a consequence of the fact that if something gets too good then it has to turn sour. As a long-time comic book fan I agree that there have been nearly unwatchable projects like She-Hulk and the animated series was unnecessary. But Loki? Amazing show. Moon Knight? Baller. WandaVision? So innovative and unique. Falcon & Winter Soldier? Cute little bromance fuelled action dramedy. And you know what, I’ll come out and say it, Ms. Marvel and The Marvels were only hated on so aggressively because they’re all female led. Were they a little shit? Yes. Did they deserve that much hate???? Fuck no.

But let’s get back to Agatha. It’s a show that has a genuine plot line, the cast is amazing, it’s full of intrigue, the visuals are stunning, they’re not meandering about. They have a well thought out story unfolding. The best part? They’re not being faux about their feminism, or at least it doesn’t feel like that at all. They’ve managed to create a show full of women, all of whom are extremely intriguing characters, it’s so very sapphic and it’s proud about all of that. I fucking love this show. It’s dealing with generational trauma, with how much your upbringing and parents matter and it’s doing all of this while adding to the mcu. Am I confused about Billy? Fuck yes. But you know what, I don’t care about that right now because I’m getting to watch a show I enjoy. It’s really not that hard for people who don’t like it to simply state exactly that and then shut up.

I will never understand the human desire to shit on something that someone else genuinely enjoys…

[decepti-thots]

something that is very interesting rereading early MTMTE is that the comic is actually very much written with the assumption a ton of its readership are specifically pre-existing IDW comics readers, which can sometimes be difficult to remember because of the fact that a lot of people wound up coming onboard to MTMTE from outside the fandom in the end and now it has a reputation as an entry point as a result. this manifests in a couple ways throughout the first couple major arcs. one obvious one is that the Overlord stuff functionally makes it a sequel of sorts to Last Stand of the Wreckers, at a time no direct sequel was planned. but my favourite is that there's a kind of narrative trick the comic pulls with the leadup to the payoff Remain in Light gives us for Magnus.

the Magnus we get in early MTMTE is not the Magnus we get in earlier IDW comics. he's very exaggerated; where phase one Magnus is a by-the-books stickler for not so much as bending rules and someone we see struggling to maintain that sense of moral uprightness in the face of the war and the people around him being far less dedicated to staying on the straight and narrow like him, it's completely turned up to eleven in early MTMTE. phase one Magnus would not be doing endless doorframe audits, or throwing people in the literal brig for crooked badges. but this doesn't necessarily register as a change in character so much as a change in genre. MTMTE is also a dramedy with heavy emphasis on the comedy side of that in a way no other IDW comic is, and the shift in Magnus' characterisation therefore feels like 'well in THIS genre, that's what that archetype is like', rather than a diagetic shift in character. even if you come to MTMTE straight off those prior comics, it is very much a 'roll with the genre shift' thing rather than a 'hm. Magnus is acting… weird' thing. you let it go.

there are a couple indications this might not be the case early on. Rodimus especially seems to be under the impression that Magnus is acting uptight even for him, with his insistence on waving it off like 'he needs to relax, Swerve can you get him to chill on Hedonia because my guy is REAL stressed' and the like. (this makes sense- Rodimus is the person on the ship who has actually been directly interacting with Magnus regularly pre-MTMTE.) but it's not super obvious and not heavily emphasised.

which makes the eventual post-Overlord and RiL reveal, which is that Magnus has in fact been acting weird because he's having a breakdown that has largely gone unremarked upon by his shipmates, really really good. Magnus has not been doing doorframe audits because he's the comically uptight second in command acting as straight man for genre purposes; Magnus has been sending Rodimus a million memos a day and losing his shit over nothing because as someone whose entire identity as 'Magnus' is rooted in a wartime role he escaped into, he's been having an existential crisis now the war is over and he has no purpose and doesn't know what to do because he never expected to have to play that part in peacetime. the entire time the genre shift was somewhat obfuscating the fact this characterisation was a thing that is in-universe relevant, which also then reflects back on the fact Rodimus is like. hm. probably should have noticed that, now I feel like an asshole for not realising. (the scene where he and Rung discuss those unread memos, post-Overlord.)

it's a small thing, but it's a really effective misdirect for the payoff Magnus gets in RiL that reads a hell of a lot more clearly on reread and rewards that chance to revisit the early issues with that knowledge. of course that wasn't just a gag, of course he's actually slowly losing his shit slightly, he cannot go five seconds without making it clear he is Stressed As Hell. but until you get to that actual reveal, there's just enough room for the comic to let a reader assume it's, you know, we're in a comedy now, we need a hilarious straight man, and Magnus is it. it's great! all the stuff MTMTE pulls to simultaneously obfuscate the Magnus/Minimus reveal while also making it feel completely reasonable on reread is great. really good use of reader bias there.

[waitmyturtles]

As I did last week, I have more constructive criticism for Jack & Joker, so, trigger warning again, please fly away if you can't deal with objective criticism of your faves.

What frustrates me about the construction of this show is that it's tripping on its own feet. And I shouldn't use the indefinite article; I should call out director Tee Bundit directly, because we saw him do this in spades in Step By Step. Tee did everything he could to avoid building a real narrative romance between the SBS leads, and the emotional beats that succeeded their late-series intimate breakthrough were not syncopated properly to match the development of a convincing relationship.

The incomplete beats at hand here are not as bad as they were in SBS. What's keeping me going on in Jack & Joker is that, at least, we are getting separate emotional development trajectories for Jack and Joke -- and a nice, hearty head-smack from Ah Mah at the end of the episode, towards Jack and his inclination to shut down and keep his shit internal. Ah Mah is trying to get Jack to know how to act as family, and she did the same with Joke's father earlier in the episode.

Like I said last week, I think this show has some really wonderful family-related thematic gems like the ones I just mentioned for this week's episode. Yin and War are acting these themes out with heart. Jack's in a really tough spot. The robber clowns will get together again next week to try to get him out of his tough spot.

And I know many of us are upset with Joke's dad, as I am, too, he's a real piece of shit, but his scenes with Joke struck me as very real to the experience of an insanely strict Asian dad. I've written about this too many times to count, but the ability of an Asian parent to cut their kids off like that is a concept that majority Western culture hasn't contemplated, except in instances of religion, sexism, bigotry, etc., but anyway -- that kind of cut-off doesn't exist as part of the everyday Western mentality about parenting, whereas in Asian parenting styles, to reject the patriarchal hierarchy could mean permanent separation, as Joke's dad has enacted to Joke. The fact that the motherfucker reconsidered AFTER EATING JOKE'S FOOD struck me as deeply sexist ("the way to a man's" blah blah, UGH), so I'm glad Ah Mah told that bitch off, but I did think those scenes were done well and realistically.

Anyway, where this series is absolutely lagging is in the EDITING. All these rich people games. I think there are many more concise narrative ways that we can be told that the rich play with the lives of the poor, than to give us bloated scene after bloated scene of literal gaming. Forget metaphors! Just give us some well-written, snappy dialogue about how these rich people are total assholes! We'll believe it!

And at the same time, I'm feeling bad for Rose, honestly. She likes Jack! She has no idea her crush on him is caught up in this Boss bullshit. She's gonna be hurt! And they're gonna rob her house now? I mean, I think what Tee is saying (I think?!?!?!) is that what comes to her, she deserves, because she's as scummy as the rest of the other scummy rich people (Ajahn Pichai, was that you?!). But like, this is her dad's shit?! So she gets automatically blamed because she's a nepo baby? I mean, I guess, if you're a reader of New York Magazine, that's reasonable thinking, but like, some of us are moral thinkers here!

This shit is complicated, and for an episode that was ONE HOUR. AND. 21. MINUTES. LONG., we could have a shorter AND clearer episode that could have scrubbed at the grout of these otherwise very interesting moral quandaries. But instead, we got video games from some dusty-ass rich boy who needs a goddamn bath.

I know, I know we haven't gotten the intimacy payoffs for any of the implied couples yet, and maybe this is part of YinWar's intention in having so much control over their script. But I did wonder if I was watching a Series Y/BL, or if I was watching a dramedy instead. I don't really care what genre it's in. But what I would like is for the themes to be crystal-clearly focused so that us, the viewers, can lean into what the cast and showmakers WANT us to care about -- which, thematically, I'm unclear on at this moment.

[rescue-ram]

Now I'm curious, how would you adapt a modern version of Mash?

Oh man thank you for giving me pretext to ramble about this. I have too many thoughts about Cursed Hypothetical MASH Reboot.

Genre Change MASH is from the golden age of sitcom and is one of the best examples of the genre. Tragically, really good sitcoms don't get made, and the shorter lengths commissioned mean we wouldn't get space for the sillier or more experimental episodes that make MASH so charming and memorable. This is also why any remake or reimagining could never replace the original. There's also less "suspension of disbelief" with modern audiences, so I think modern MASH would have to have a more grounded setting and consistent time line, so RIP time loop. I think the modern genre that would best fit MASH is dramedy. Classico MASH already had elements of "get 'em laughing so they cry harder" and Hypothetical Remake MASH would play that up. Basically, we're gonna "Better Call Saul" this bitch.

In writing out my ideas below, I realized hitting the main plot beats I imagine makes this sound like. Depressing. Which it kind of would be! But I want to emphasize that in my mind's eye this would still tonally be a comedy right up until It Isn't. Similar to BCS, characters encounter obstacles, handle them in very funny ways, but things Keep Happening and compounding and at the end you realize all those funny things have added up to something horrific and inevitable.

General Thoughts In my beautiful mind, this is five twelve episode seasons, each corresponding to a roughly six month period- the first two seasons are 1951, climaxing with Henry's death, first episode or two of season 3 is Trapper leaving/BJ arriving and then 3/4 is 1952, and the final season is 1953 and the ceasefire. Fortunately, because the characters in MASH are pretty well fleshed out with a lot of traits I think they could be turned into dramedy characters pretty easily, and you can take the Big Things that happen to them and play them straight/expand on them into proper arcs. Also, pulling in more historical details could be really interesting, and an opportunity to unpack how Fully Evil the war in Korea was. In reading more memoirs from doctors who served in MASH units, I was struck by how much contact with international forces they had, and the surprising amount of contact with their Chinese/Korean counter-parts. I think more of both of those things would be fun to incorporate into Hypothetical Remake.

Expanded Roles for Nurses We need more women. And fortunately, we got them! Even though there is Not A Lot of existing canon, I really do think we have enough on the recurring nurses to act as seeds for fuller characters. I would love to see Kellye developed as a supporting character from the start. Struggling to articulate this, but I think a deeper perspective on anti-Asian sentiment could be explored through her, possibly with some connections to the history of colonialism in Korea in particular. The character was described as Chinese and Hawaiian, but given her credited surnames of Yamato and Nakamura getting a little into her Japanese heritage and the resentment of Koreans towards the Japanese could be interesting as well. I also think "Dish" Schneider's conflict, torn between loyalty to her husband/fiancee and her attraction to the handsome funny guy who relentlessly flirts with her, could be a source of drama. I also really like Ginger's recurring "thing" with Trapper in canon, and expanding that into an actual friendship and digging into the racism and taboos against interracial relationships of the period would be interesting. You can take Margie Cutler as a young and inexperienced nurse and give her a little coming of age arc. I would also love for Knocko McCarthy to be a foil for Margaret- as the second most senior nurse, she chafes under Margaret's command and kind of collaborates with the Swampmen to subvert her, culminating in Margaret calling her out that if she didn't side with them against her, they'd hate Knocko too, and them growing closer over the series.

Ho-Jon and Expanded Roles for Korean Characters Many have written about the shitty representation of Koreans in MASH, and Hypothetical Remake could remediate that significantly. I think giving Ho-Jon (or a similar new character) an expanded role would be good, with more ties to his family out of camp and conflict over whether or not supporting the occupying American forces and the south is the right thing to do or the expedient thing. I also think there's some dark comedy to be mined from a slightly subversive Ho-Jon taking advantage of racism and being seen as ignorant or interchangeable to get away with shit. Would love for Black Market Guy to be a recurring character. There's also a great real life story I read where a MASH surgeon formed a bond with a Chinese doctor after accidentally connecting to a PLA radio channel, and I think that could be adapted into a really fun source of comedy (bonding with "the enemy" over shared indignities, surprising similarities, etc) and ultimately drama (Hawkeye finds out about a US or ROK attack that will cripple that doctor's unit or put him in danger- does he say nothing, knowing hundreds will be injured or killed including maybe his new friend, or does he commit treason and risk prison or death to warn him- and how does he live with not knowing what happened when he has to choose inaction?) Any of the Very Special episodes could be adapted and expanded. And of course, Hypothetical Remake would have Korean writers, or consultants, or at the very least a goddamn baby name book so we don't end up with a dozen characters just named Kim, or worse random syllables.

Radar I would love to keep Radar as one of the main POV character throughout the whole series and use his unique position to bridge between different storylines- he's an enlisted man so he has that perspective, he's close with Hawkeye and the surgeons, he's assisting Henry/Potter so he has ties to command, give him a friendship with a nurse and you're set. Given the comedy-to-tragedy arc of dramadys, I would love to take the book detail that he enlisted with dreams of glory and becoming a general and lean fully into that. He starts out season 1 as a sweet naive farm kid flying by the seat of his pants to figure out his job, he gets more and more enmeshed with the military over the course of the series, currying favor with the brass to pull strings to help the unit/his friends/himself, and it ends with Potter giving him a recommendation for officer school- an outcome fully framed as a tragic loss of self to a corrupt institution.

Hawkeye I think Seasons 1 and 2 in particular could be driven by the Hawkeye and Trapper committing outrages and crimes in the name of justice/not giving a shit, and then having to spend the rest of the season engaging in more outrages and crimes to Bugs Bunny their way out of consequences. The central tragedy arcing through the series is the Destruction of Hawkeye Pierce. He starts out determined to stay himself, stick to his principles, and not let the army change him. The glimmer of hope at the end is that he has survived and gets to go home, but At What Cost. I also think making him bipolar makes the most sense- early season Hawkeye hints he's had highs and lows before, but always managed to cope, but under the increasing stress his mental health gets worse. Insomnia due to overwork triggers a manic episode (adapting Dr Pierce and Mr Hyde) about halfway through S1, with a major change in his relationship with Trapper associated with that, and his first on screen depressive episode triggered by Henry's death, which gets him his week of R&R he goes AWOL from. He holds it together through S3 with increasing amounts of self-medication for BJ's sake, and S4's overarching storyline for him is a fully Catch-22 expansion of The Late Captain Pierce with increasing levels of franticness to resolve it, and S5 is a full blown "I'M NOT EVEN SUPPOSED TO BE HERE" crisis culminating in the equivalent of GFA, and a brief psychotic episode triggered by his mood dysregulation and moral injury. An expansion of The Late Captain Pierce would be a great source of absurdity and drama, the ultimate consequence of his alienation of Everyone In Bureaucracy or Command (they all dislike/hate him for his antics and disrespect in S1-3 and no one wants to help him in his predicament, with a few spitefully refusing to help outright), and necessary to explain his presence in Korea in 1953 since his enlistment should've ended by then (since key members of the bureaucracy Hate him they refuse to count the months he was "dead" as part of his service, and his father is in too poor of health/financially strained from his cancer scare to advocate for him successfully stateside). I also think "playing straight" all the nurses breaking up with him after Ceasefire could be interesting. Like, S1 Hawkeye is a ladies man who's saying all the right things and juggling multiple relationships, but after they realize he doesn't Capital L Love any of them they start to distance from him- not unfriendly, but less a source of support. That alienation from others, first with the nurses at the end of S1 then others in camp, causing a vicious cycle of increasingly erratic behavior leading to less support etc culminates in his breakdown towards the end of the series.

Trapper My beloved boy ♥️ who has less of an arc and more of a vibe in existing canon, so we get to make some shit up whole cloth. Either keep the book/movie canon they were friendly in college, or make them childhood friends- not close, but some kind of pre-existing relationship. First episode is them stealing a jeep and bonding as they get into Shenanigans and Danger on their way to camp. Some people have the headcanon that Trapper lost a brother in WWII because of Wayne Rogers' acting choices, and I think a backstory like that could be interesting. He starts out a little ambivalent about the war, not wanting to be there and very aware of the human costs, but also feeling he has a duty. As he and Hawkeye get into more and more Situations trying to expose war crimes or fix injustices and even basic supply issues and are met by indifference or incompetence, he gets disillusioned. After Hawkeye's manic episode, he decided the one Actually Good thing he can accomplish is keeping his friend sane until they can get back home, since he starts to increasingly see his medical work as futile and the UN intervention as hopeless/harmful. They get closer and rely on each other more and more in S2, and in my based and gay pilled vision this is explicitly romantic and sexual, albeit with serious ambiguity if they would've had this relationship outside the trauma of war. Towards the end of S2, Trapper starts to get sick, and it turns out stress and increased alcohol & tobacco use contributed to an ulcer- it almost seems like he'll be sent home, but as in Classico MASH he begins treatment at the 4077th- and then Henry dies. Hawkeye spirals and they have to send him away, and then Trapper has to help pick up the increased work load. His symptoms get worse and he tries to cope and hide it, and develops peritonitis. When he realizes he's going to be evacced to Tokyo and then back to the States, he has a bit of a fucking meltdown. Mission Failed, he can't be there for his friend, and he blames himself because it was partly caused by his alcohol abuse. This is not just me being a Trapper simp, he has to go home before his enlistment is up for plot reasons since we no longer get the benefit of fuzzy timeline, and the genre convention of dramedy is you always Reap The Whirlwind at the worst possible moment.

BJ Ironically, I don't need to change anything about BJ to turn him into a dramedy character. He already has a "negative character arc", and you just take the major beats of that, set them in a linear escalation, and tighten them up. He starts out bright eyed and idealistic, determined to keep his head up, do his duty, and get out. Hawkeye meets him at the air field, having missed Trapper. Hawkeye blames himself for Trapper's health problems, and wants to do better by the new guy, offering him support and guidance. BJ bonds with him through the craziness, but as stress increases he starts acting out in small petty stochastic pranks, and then Peg's letters and missing his family build his anger, and he lashes out at Hawkeye because he suspects (in that "he's not right but he isn't wrong either" way) that Hawkeye's friendship isn't really because of BJ himself but because BJ is Trapper's Replacement. He suspects Hawkeye and Trapper were more than friends and he's simultaneously jealous and repulsed- he wants to totally replace Trapper and for Hawkeye to like him best, but he also loves Peg and misses her terribly and resents Hawkeye for "making" him want him. His chaotic unhinged repression is funny until it's briefly terrifying, then sad. As Hawkeye's mental health deteriorates, he tries to be supportive, but is ultimately overwhelmed by the intensity of Hawkeye's crisis and pulls back, though they mend things somewhat at the end.

The Hawkeye/Trapper/BJ Nexus In summary, our core duos are codependent trainwrecks, but while TrapHawk are more of an enabling and felonious "Thelma and Louise" style folie a deux, BJ and Hawkeye are more of an epic highs and lows "if you can't be with the one you love love the one your with" "hand in unlovable hand" mess.

Margaret Don't have nearly as much to say about our girl because I suck and have been writing this for almost 2 hours now because I'm insane but she has one of the best character arcs in MASH and Hypothetical Remake would really just intentionally start laying out her conflicts and growth from episode 1. She would also have more independent story arcs of trying to manage the nurses, and navigating advancing her career in the face of sexism. I would love to see her messy and complicated relationships with powerful men explored more fully. She bonds with Frank first to have a relationship where she's more in control than with her superiors, then as an ally to push back against the TrapHawk Chaos, then as she grows more confident (and TrapHawk get in over their heads) she is able to let go of the cloak of power military pretensions give her and be more herself.

Henry and Potter Henry remains a lovable incompetent. The one headcanon I have I'd like to use in Hypothetical Remake is that he's pretty severely dyslexic- I base that off his mispronunciations and malapropisms and canonical issues with reading (in Classico MASH doing things like holding a paper upside down or not being able to read maps and the words on them). He got through med school by having his wife read his textbooks out loud and type his papers, and brute force memorization. This is part of why he over relies on Radar to manage his paperwork and is easily scammed into signing off on things- he really can't tell what he's signing unless he uses all of his focus to decipher the text, and he's a trusting person so he rarely does. @marley-manson I LOVE your take that your ideal Potter is the exact same character in the show but the narrative treats him as an antagonist, and that is the vibe Hypothetical Remake would have.

Frank and Charles Again not a lot to say here, secondary characters and minor antagonists, but they would remain big sources of commentary but their pathos would be played up more in a dramedy.

Mulcahy Again, not too much different from canon, just more intentional building of a tragic arc. A smart sensitive guy who grew up poor and thought the church would be a path to respect or maybe even greatness got told to be a math teacher by his diocese, enlisted as a chaplain when the war broke out as part of his personal quest for meaning and significance, is confronted by the horrors and damage to innocent lives but still tries to believe in a greater purpose and good to what's happening, struggles with feelings of powerlessness and futility, and when he's finally able to do something heroic loses his hearing, which costs him his vocation- he's permanently disabled and would be unable to return to his old role as a parish priest/school teacher.

Recurring Characters Sidney my beloved ♥️ We bring back Sam Pak as a returning character. Also General Hammond and other members of the brass. I think Oliver could work really well as a recurring character.

Klinger Whole bundle of thoughts on this guy I wanted to save till the end. Because I adore Klinger, he's incredibly funny and one of the kindest and most principled characters on the show, and he's also incredibly 70s and I don't think could work as he was in a 21st century dramedy. I can see three potential paths to adapting him. A) Lean into the young, brash, hustler side of his personality, and he's a straight guy who thinks the craziest thing someone could do is wear a dress. B) An explicitly gay character who refuses to admit to being gay for a discharge because he finds the idea of being judged less than or broken for his sexuality incredibly offensive, but did drag back in Toledo and also refuses to stop being himself just because he got drafted. C) Principled pacifist serving as an orderly because of the draft who refuses to wear the uniform and started wearing dresses as a protest against bullying/abuse- oh, your gonna call me a sissy and steal my clothes because I refuse to use a gun? I will not only wear a dress, I will zhuzh it up into something amazing, because I would rather wear this outfit you intend to humiliate me with than that damn uniform.

[henrysglock]

Oh but you need to remember, stranger things is apparently never that deep and foreshadowing doesn’t exist, unless it’s something that can be interpreted as “byler endgame proof” or some other shipping material of course.

😔🎤

You're so right. My bad. How could I forget. Unless it's about byIer or WiII Byers it's simply Nawt that deep. Henry's story could never be as deep as byIer's romantic dramedy. No, no. He just gets a normal average backstory with no deeper levels of oddness. Ignore all the blatant differences between his three backstory retellings. Those are errors because the Duffers and Kate are stupid dumb-dumbs. Unless it's about byIer. Then they're fucking insane mastermind geniuses. So on and so forth.

[hellomynameisbisexual]

“I’m not even sure bisexuality exists. I think it’s just a layover on the way to Gaytown,” Carrie Bradshaw famously said in the offensive, misinformed 1998 episode of Sex and the City in which she dates a bisexual man. These words are still painfully seared into my brain. How could a sex columnist, a character written predominantly by gay men, have such a limited view of queer identity? Nearly ten years later, a 2016 episode of HBO dramedy Insecure sees Molly (Yvonne Orji) finding out that the man she’s seeing, Jared, nonchalantly had a sexual encounter with another man. After exposing her biphobia to her friends, another character declares Jared to be gay. Ultimately, Molly and Carrie both decide, despite the chemistry and their attraction, that they could not get past their own compulsory monosexuality to continue dating a bisexual man. Why does television, a medium primed for long-form character development and storytelling, continuously fail at representing bisexual men?

Twenty-five years after that infamous Sex and the City scene, bisexuality (for the purposes of this piece, I am using bisexuality as a term that encompasses all people with the capacity to be attracted to more than one gender, including those who identify as bisexual, pansexual, fluid, queer, and more) on television has made significant strides—from young-adult programming like Euphoria, Riverdale, and Gossip Girl, to adult dramas like Game of Thrones, The Magicians, and obviously, The Bisexual. Bisexuality is no longer relegated to a very-special episode, and is slowly leaving the realm of bad, misinformed jokes. According to GLAAD’s 2021-2022 Where We Are on TV report, queer representation on television is at an all-time high. After two consecutive years of decreases, bisexual representation increased by one percent over last year: nine non-binary characters, 124 women, and sadly, only 50 men. Fifty may seem like a solid number at the outset, but consider the quality of these representations. Aside from a few stand-out examples, like Nick Nelson (Kit Connor) on Netflix’s much-loved Heartstopper, many are relegated to supporting and recurring characters, at best, and stuck in tropes, at worst.

Maria San Filippo is an associate professor at Emerson College whose research focuses on screen media’s intersections with gender and sexuality. In 2013, she published The B Word: Bisexuality in Contemporary Film and Television, a pathbreaking monograph on the state of bisexual representation in both mediums. “Bisexuality was only beginning to be central and recurring, rather than peripheral and episodically one-off or short-lived,” she said over email. “Bisexuality’s representational legibility has been expanded; it’s less easily deniable as ‘just a phase’ when bisexuality becomes an ongoing character trait.”

Broadly speaking, on-screen storytelling has struggled to construct bisexuality in ways that reach beyond the word landing at the butt of jokes or framed through the lens of disgust and abjection. Nowhere does it fail bisexuals more than television, a site of endless discursive possibilities. Television’s long-form narrative offers unique opportunities to watch sexuality unfold over time, but rather than exploring and showcasing every permutation of bisexuality, bi men on television are far and few between.

“Bi+ male representation has always been the biggest challenge,” San Filippo said. “Bisexuality threatens heteropatriarchy and phallic authority, and so must be hidden or, if acknowledged, desexualized and disparaged through mockery or else hypersexualized as in porn (and even then bisexuality is rebranded as ‘gay for pay’).” She said it’s not unlike the uncommon sight of male frontal nudity on screen, which she explores in her 2021 book, Provocauteurs and Provocations. “Dan Levy’s character David on Schitt’s Creek is one high-profile example of recurring, more nuanced male bi+ representation,” she said. “We need more.”

The phallic authority, as San Filippo calls it, is not as threatened when it comes to the representation of bisexual women characters, who were more than double as numerous in the 2021-2022 television season. Nate Shu, a bisexual comedian based in Boston who spoke with me over Zoom, suggests that feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey’s work on patriarchal ideologies in film still applies here. Mulvey’s seminal 1975 essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” uses a psychoanalytic lens to look at the way women have been depicted in film primarily for the pleasure of the male viewer. She coined this theory the male gaze.

“Lesbian and bisexual characters are more attainable when they’re female because there’s something for male viewers to hold on to,” he said. “A bisexual woman is still an attainable woman to a straight man, whereas a bisexual man is both a threat and an anomaly.”

These conventions are sewn into the fabric of on-screen storytelling, a part of the canon of cinema that queer storytellers are working hard to reform. But despite this hard work, bisexual stories are still too-often made palatable to viewers through a handful of storytelling tropes: the coming out story, reasserting the status quo of a relationship or identity, or hinting at a character’s dishonesty or shiftiness (it pains me to bring it up, but Frank Underwood on House of Cards is a great example here).

The CW’s 2015 musical-dramedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend showcased one of the more fleshed-out bisexual men on television, Darryl Whitefeather, played by Peter Gardner. His unapologetic musical sequence on how he’s “Gettin’ Bi” was an audacious and refreshing moment for a middle-aged character embracing his sexuality—despite his entire storyline being framed around coming out. We tend to see these coming out narratives again and again, to the point where it begins to feel like viewer manipulation. The coming out scene will only lead to the catharsis of Heartbreaker-level tears if it feels earned through a character’s arc of self-suppression and pain. However, the gay blueprint has already been established, and thus the coming out story is relatable and palatable, rather than depicting a character already living their truth.

Shu, who identifies as bisexual and biracial for the sake of alliteration in his comedy (as opposed to pansexual, a term to which he more closely relates), asked me poignant questions: “What is queer representation? Having a character make an off-hand comment and it’s never acknowledged—that is a queer character, but it’s not a queer story.” His ideal bisexual representation allows characters to be authentic people living outside of constructed narratives that are more viewer-friendly like the coming out story. He could only name one example of an Asian bisexual character on television that he felt somewhat seen through—Magnus Bane, played by Harry Shum Jr. on the Freeform supernatural drama Shadowhunters. “It’s tough to get out of the boxes of what culture, film, and TV have defined for decades,” Shu said.

Marvel has been a site of critique around its inability to flesh out queer characters in an authentic way, awkwardly suggesting that all superheroes are heterosexual. The 2021 Disney+ series Loki made headlines for a 20-second scene where the titular character confirms his bisexuality after admitting he has been with princesses and princes in his past. This kind of casual bisexuality has become more commonplace in the streaming era, to the point of forgettability: Bill Pargrave on Killing Eve, playing Eve’s MI5 boss until he was eventually stabbed by murderess Villanelle, also identified as bisexual in a passing conversation. Other examples include Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace) on Halt and Catch Fire and the titular character (Tom Ellis) on Lucifer. Does the off-hand knowledge of a character’s sexual fluidity, without an in-depth exploration of his sexuality, qualify as queer representation? Perhaps a better question would be, does it make bisexual viewers feel seen and understood, and add to monosexual viewers’ understanding and empathy of bisexuality?

At the end of October 2022, Kit Connor came out as bisexual in a bitter tweet after months of being hounded and online bullied by Netflix Heartstopper fans, some of whom accused Connor of queerbaiting for playing a bisexual character. The fall-out made me wonder why any actor, let alone a bisexual actor who may still be processing or figuring out his sexuality, would want to play a bisexual character in the social media age. “I think some of you missed the point of the show. Bye,” his tweet read.

Not to center myself in the discourse, but I can’t help but wonder how a more thorough cultural understanding of bisexuality would impact my own dating life as a gay man, what the dating pool might look like if there was a more rigorous acceptance and visibility of bisexuality and fewer “discreet” men refusing to send you photos of their faces on dating apps with fear of being outed in their real life. The latest 2021 Census data coming out of the United Kingdom suggests there are currently nearly as many bisexual-identifying individuals as gay and lesbian survey respondents combined. These numbers feel hopeful, to me. Previous generations grew up dissatisfied by the range of representation on television, leading to iconic shows like Pose that shifted the course of television at the intersections of queerness and race. I can only imagine what the landscape will look like in 10, 20 years as the bisexual-identifying Gen Zs—the queerest generation yet—make their way into creative fields. We’ll have to watch and find out.

[llycaons]

Section Five: Part XV

Shenanigans: COMEDY. boy do I love a laugh

*CEO Billionaire Lan Zhan* by detention_notes

summary: you all knew this was going to be on here. the greatest transformative work in existence. parody of lonely, stoic ceo lwj, impoverished hyperactive wwx, coffee shop meet-cutes, and the various absurdities of tropey wx fic. both canons are joked about work issues: none author issues: none! this author is great

*Marital Prospects* by Vamillepudding

summary: in an canonverse AU where the war never happened and everyone lived, now-sect leader jzx is increasingly annoyed by wwx’s refusal to leave koi tower after jl’s birth. in order to get him out of their hair, he attempts to match him up with nmj. it may be a cliche, but hilarity indeed ensues lwj is perfectly repressed and insane, jzx is smug and stupid, nhs is trying to stay out of it, nmj is slightly maniacal, and lxc has concerning standards for acceptable behavior from children. absolutely hysterical, especially the finale. wwx is oblivious-to-engaged in seconds flat, but the rest of it is so funny I don’t even mind work issues: none author issues: xiyao

*Fatherhood’s Calling by Fortune_Maiden

summary: burial-mounds-era jzx, realizing that jyl sees wwx as a sort of son, attempts to step up as a father and irritates literally everyone around him in the process. one of the funniest things I have ever read, flat out. either canon but feeling more novel-verse work issues: none author issues: has written lxc/nhs

*The Hangover: A pre-wedding Dramedy* by natcat5

summary: an absolute blast. many povs, many crimes, and many characters converge in the night before the xuanli wedding, ft. betrayal, car chases, petty vengeance, kidnapping, fistfights, manipulative crying, lost phones, getting blackout drunk, awkward getting-along prison time, and gay awakenings there are four works in this series, and I think they’re all great except the last one - it’s a bit generic, not a comedy, and not super in-character, but that’s okay since it’s fairly discrete anyway. highly recommend the first one - nhs is a treat. this is loosely based on the hangover, which I’ve never seen, the author has apparently never seen, and which you need no knowledge of. either canon, except for xy - see below work issues: none, but the way xy is treated requires a note. he’s closest to his novel self, but he’s also relatively harmless? like, he’s this weird destructive teenager apparently much younger than xxc and sl, who are like, babysitting him as his parole officers or something. certainly not the quasi-romantic manipulation that’s featured in cql author issues: none

*The Fault in Our Stars by Vamillepudding

summary: god, this one is so funny. modern AU wwx and lwj, both fabulously wealthy and famous, meet by chance without realizing who the other is. for various rather silly reasons, they both assume the other is barely scraping by and then independently commit to appearing poorer than they are to avoid embarrassing the other with their fabulous and unreasonable wealth. really funny. these guys are completely out of touch with reality work issues: none author issues: xiyao, or else their other one would be in this section too

*Making an Effort by bosgood

summary: wwx and jc are struggling to endure jzx’s terrible beercycle bachelor party until wwx sees someone he’d rather hang out with instead. short, really funny, and sweet, especially the author’s note work issues: none author issues: jl/lsz

*give it to me straight by JSM氏 (Senforza)

summary: modern au, a cracky teen comedy where jc melodramatically and self-righteously suffers in the dawning knowledge that he’s the token straight of the friend group. I laughed out loud the entire time reading this work issues: 3zun is mentioned but never actually shows up, nhs identifies as pan, and there’s a scene where jc talks about like, waking up and witnessing wwx and lwj having sex?? maybe?? honestly I just didn’t take any of it seriously, this is mostly teenage jc being a hot mess author issues: background 3zun in their other fic

stray cat strut by ScarlettStorm

summary: not technically a comedy, but quite lighthearted and silly nonetheless. while out nighthunting, canonverse lwj finds an exceptionally intelligent black spiritual cat in the forest who helps him defeat a yao, and adopts him. turns out that cat is a cursed wwx, and attempts to break the curse commence. it’s kind of hornier than interested in the tender romantic feelings, but the get-together was really nice and fun and I liked it all quite immensely. short and satisfying. lwj’s small but significant connections to his mom were very sweet. and they hang out with a some brothel workers in a really lovely chapter quite jiang-friendly, to the point where some of the author notes had me screaming bc no, myu would actually hate wwx whether jfm was dead or not?? anyway, a good time. and just to clarify no, it’s not bestiality. either canon but more towards cql bc of the jiang treatment imo work issues: none author issues: feminized wwx and nhs, pansexuality...just general annoying choices in their other fics

Happily single by moonwaif

summary: little apple pov! postcanon, wwx contemplates getting a husband for her so she won’t be lonely, but little does he know she’s got the best friend she could hope for. the characterization for her is appropriately sassy, and the ending is surprisingly sweet. novel canon work issues: none really, but the everyday thing is mentioned, so ugh author issues: xiyao and 3zun

you’re not hardcore unless you live hardcore by lesbianspirals

summary: it’s wwx starring in the school of rock, baby! this hilarious work is surprisingly faithful to canon themes and characterizations, though I think it gets a little corny by the end and the romance is not its strong suit. it’s still a super fun time. work issues: none author issues: none

*Hangin’ With The Raisin Girls by Dhillarearen

summary: postcanon oneshot on the epic romance of sect leader yao/sect leader ouyang. there are footnotes. I cackled work issues: none author issues: jl/lsz

The Ghost of Gusu Lan by twinky_dyke

summary: jgy is dead and he’s haunting cloud recesses. follow him as he makes a nuisance of himself, judges everyone he comes across, and ineffectually tries to ruins wangxian’s romantic moments. says cql canon but it reads more like novel to me work issues: none author issues: genderbends

*The Word of Your Body by Elcief

summary: HOUSE MD CROSSOVER BABY! I searched for this as a joke and then found it and immediately loved it. post-jinlintai stab wound, wwx and lwj stumble through a portal into new jersey, where wwx is immediately taken to the ER and lwj wanders around a comics convention looking for him not the most serious of fics but the characterization isn’t bad! charming and interesting and funny. no wilson or cameron, but house himself is enough of a delight to carry the world. won’t be as fun if you don’t know the show house, but worth reading for a little dimension-crossing goofs work issues: PM kiss mentioned :( author issues: none. mostly goofy crossovers and comedies

Best man for the job; a detailed treatise on Chief Cultivation by Aerlalaith

summary: postcanon lwj is dragged into reluctant respect for jgy’s sense of organization and competence as he takes on the mantle of chief cultivator. quite funny and in-character. either canon work issues: none author issues: dubcon

Forget Me Not by Vamillepudding

summary: postcanon wwx and lwj lose their memories at different parts of their lives and are told by other characters they’ve gotten married when in fact they haven’t actual gotten together yet at all. but it’s completely okay. some other characters have to babysit them and it’s kind of charming to see how they interact. it’s sweet, they make out a lot. cql canon work issues: none author issues: xiyao

thunder only happens when it’s raining by ScarlettStorm

summary: you know how rainstorms always accompany drama and tragedy in the show? what if the characters noticed that and panicked when it started to rain because they thought something terrible was happening? a goofy little meta fic. cql canon by design work issues: none author issues: they’ve done some really weird things with feminizing wwx

Twin Heroes of Tigers by FrostyAngst

summary: I found this silly little fic incredibly funny. does it make sense? no. what canon does it follow? no idea. is it in-character? kinda! check it out and have yourselves a chuckle work issues: none author issues: wwx/nmj

Back to Start

[orbiorbster]

THE GALLAGHERS REVIEW PART 1: FIONA GALLAGHER

(Gonna start this by saying that I have recently finished the show in terms of s1-9 and will include opinions I have on it, but these reviews will only focus on each person in the Gallagher household and their romantic relationships. Part of this is also to kick off discussion so if I missed something or someone lmk!)

This show has one of the strongest plots to a dramedy I think I've ever seen. From its characters to its stories to the way it depicts the struggles of lower class for those in a large city, most of the show worked in a clever format made just for it. Even though Frank is the ambassador of what it's trying to represent, I take Fiona as the most rounded of the family. In fact I believe she is the true main character. Every gallagher is a protagonist but she herself is the center.

Even without her caretaker role in the family, she's one of the few characters I can say consistently grows and develops as a character. Each of her relationships-both good and bad-reflect back to her as a person and where she's at. Her flaws were dimensional and her conflicts with others were justified. Plus she's a damn good older sister character that I feel a lot of people could relate to.

I also feel that the mistakes she makes as a character hit harder than most of the others because of just how much effort she puts into breaking the cycle her parents included them in yet she falls right back into. Progress being nonlinear is a brutal realization she represents greatly.

I would say I have less grievances with her and more with the pacing and time given between her and her relationships, so I'll get into those now-

JIMMY/STEVE

Do I think Jimmy's persistence to be with her was sweet? Not really! Do I believe he was one of the bests to her? Not even close! But do I believe he was one of the bests? Yes

The thing with Fiona's exes is that they either lack compatibility or lack personality, and though he didn't treat Fiona exactly the best or even regarded her needs in certain situations, he is the best in terms of personality. When he left for good his absence was as clear as day because no one had the same charm or screen time. You would consider him a seperate character with his family interconnecting with the Gallaghers. He had such an interesting impact on the show which I enjoyed watching, but don't believe it was good for Fiona.

TONY

Tony was sweet and also a natural integration into how the Gallaghers originally get out of their degenerate crimes. Like of course one of them has a close connection with a cop in order to bail them out of serious shit, and of course that same cop protecting Fiona and her family would be the competitor to the bad boy who wants Fiona regardless. However he felt more like a tool for their plots than a fully rounded person. His family was just offscreen mentions, and he only returned to the picture when something was needed.

He also has a caring affection toward his community, which is surprising considering he's a cop in downtown Chicago. I knew he wasn't any real competition.

ADAM

V was absolutely right he's 100% the discount Jimmy. He's just alright, I forgot he even really existed. I can only give grace because his compatibility was in a means to help strengthen Fiona's conflict. He represented Fiona's struggle to let go of Jimmy and that independence outside of the kids she truly yearns for. Like finally a male character being the support tool for a female lead.

MIKE

Mike has the opposite problem of Jimmy. I don't think he stands out very well compared to the rest of the ex cast, but I'm gonna be honest he's truly the best relationship Fiona ever really had. He wasn't just a symbol for what she wanted or needed either, he actually got along quite well with her. He's a lot better than Adam and I felt their connection was going to mean a lot like FINALLY a real relationship that can fight with Jimmy. Too bad she fucked that up

ROBBIE

Fuck this asshole for being a really good affair arc. I personally don't like affair arcs because their cliche at this point but they threw this one out of the park. He didn't even get a lot of screen time, but here I could tell it was intentional, because his impact was what's really important. He showed Fiona she still wasn't ready for that full independence because it requires accountability that none of the Gallaghers had. He also showed that disastrous cycle of her family she's managed to avoid for years. Just because she was the best caretaker for the rest of the family doesn't mean she still wasn't psychologically impacted by their behavior. From ending things with Mike to the drugs left with Liam her character needed this wakeup call as a way to continue her growth.

GUS

This is when the pacing for her relationships began to stumble a bit. Not to say that Gus was a terrible one, but the contribution he had to Fiona wasn't there. Yes he was meant for Fiona to learn her impulsiveness and accountability still needed time to learn, but how it went about wasn't necessarily amazing or anything. That plus Jimmy felt out of nowhere. Like the scene where she finally lets Jimmy go was amazing, but that seasons story had nothing to do with it, more so the previous ones helping build this up. Also he is written to be antagonistic after, but his actions are a little justified.. Fiona started this and their pettiness is what made it continue. Instead of Gus leaving for tours, or the other characters telling us how to feel about him, they could've taken the time to show how his personality wasn't nearly as great as Fiona expected and her rose tinted glasses needed to be ripped off the right way. That would've helped with the relationship after.

SEAN

I NEEEEED JUSTICE FOR HIM. It irritates me so much how much they built on him just for him to be thrown out like another Jimmy when he's NOT. What about him or his personality showed that he would've abused drugs for that long without telling Fiona? HE ALREADY TOLD FIONA?? Then what showed he would straight up lie about it?? The entire point of him not wanting to be with Fiona in the BEGINNING was his truth in the struggles to stay sober, and yet FIONA grew and maintained herself for him then vice versa. We already had this together. He was (at first) honest all the way about his conflicts and it was Fiona who had to learn to open up and actually communicate instead of wanting to immediately axe what they had.

What I believe should've really happened is, yes, Frank still does continue to ruin the wedding, but either A) let the paid killer actually go through (esp since they REALLY wanted us to consider it, being a cliffhanger and everything) or B) have it just be a LIE to RUIN the wedding and have Fiona's family antics be the ultimate reason a relationship ends. She even says in the first season most men see how her and her family are and can't stand it by a year, yet NONE of the previous exes really show that. Sean also doesn't want his kid to truly interact with all of them, let alone integrate them as family in law? Right here would've worked so perfectly to say that Fiona's attachment and their dynamic had to be changed.

FORD

Quite literally the same problem as Sean except he doesn't even have a personality. He's not even subtle in representing a reflection of Fiona, he's just a lesson for her to learn. The end of their relationship means not a thing. He was as clear as a wine glass he had nothing to do with children. If he had a struggle with his previous wife, what is the point of making more? He slept with a lesbian for what purpose, writers, what purpose. He gets upset at Fiona and her flakiness for what purpose. If the only personality trait you give him is HONEST and RELIANT, him lying about a wife and child he doesn't care about makes NO sense. Again, use this time to give Fiona a chance at reflection, that it is ultimately HER decisions and HER failures that ruin a relationship. If you're not gonna make a dimensional character have them support the real one! That would make her downward spiral more realistic! She can find another tinder date, writers, please!!!

Everyone else I do not feel has the importance of the above. They are either summary of Fiona's character or are not a real relationship.

CONCLUSION

Fiona is an amazing character, but her relationships and their pacing could've used more work if they truly wanted to have them. She had a lot to add on the message and stories they wanted in this show, and her departure of the show was imo the real goodbye.

[bluiex]

journalist au quick updates: gave scar a therapist. grian’s mum is an asshat. bigb works in the coffee shop that scar stops by everyday and gets a kick out of listening to scar complain about grian. they all are hybrids and magical creatures but they all work very mundane jobs. college SUCKS. bdubs also gently exists in the background. if this was a netflix show it’d be my favorite dramedy ever. mumbo is a film major and is chronically unemployed [nobody wants to film in their town because there’s a dimwit nutjob of a man who thinks everyone who has a camera is the Government]

basically it’s slowly becoming the mix of some good homoerotic drama and a crackfic. and i will be drawing a few of the photos to put in the fic when i post it. [might take awhile bc i’m working on a witchsmp animatic rn] -bird

OMG IT SOUNDS SO GOOD AN SO FUNNY SO FAR!? Bruh take all the time you need! I'm gonna be here vibrating and so excited when you're done!!

[panelshowsource]

it seem so 😔 it's amazing to hear he's recovering well enough to write a whole show and do a whole tour! i have a feeling it won't be filmed, so it would be great to hear any of your experiences if you get a chance to see the show. (maybe you can send me a summary? i'm sure he'll talk more about it all then, given the synopsis for the tour :')) off the back of sean, rhod, and janey godley, i was just thinking about how the generation of comedians i grew up with are hitting more vulnerable years, which is very sobering, but i digress...

here are the tour dates for anyone who missed the announcement!

here on panelshowsource? because i was busy and not online :)

sorry anon, you sent this a couple days after his bday and i don't think i'll do belated posts. i actually wanted to do something for it, but i was just busy with life and didn't get enough of a head start (i usually need 2–3 days prep time). next time!

yes i totally agree! i like daisy on the show because she clearly loves music (the way she's always hyping up the identity parade artists is honestly really wholesome and appreciated) and she is a riot — even if she's exaggerating, better that someone is exaggerating having fun than not. i guess that's where daisy and jamali balance each other out, some episodes lmaooo greg is a textbook ham, so daisy getting such a kick out of his RIDICULOUS jokes — which makes greg so happy — plus greg and noel already having such a comfortable (and often silly) rapport makes them such a solid 3. greg and jamali have definitely gotten more comfortable with each other, too. they're a fucking random bag of people but i think it works! that show is a hot mess of good, goofy vibes

yeah, sometimes! just depends on the interviewee. last new one i listened to was probably ed byrne? i was just listening to a john kearns one since (spoiler alert for this ask post) someone asked for a collection folder for john — it's a sweet one. to be fair, john is just a sweet man. i'm not crazy about richard herring — he's fine — so sometimes i'll quit mid-way if richard is making it too much about himself or complaining too much (you know how he is). but in general i don't think i've missed anything significant bc i got bored or skipped an ep. do you recommend one?

sure! they're honestly one of my faves ever. obsessed with them. i was just thinking about what chaos jimmy + jon + joe + roisin are, generally the episodes when joe is filling in for sean. jimmy already loves a derailing, and you can tell he gets such a kick out of both joe and roisin (same way he gets a kick out of rob beckett, honestly), and jon really lets loose with those three — they're SO stupid hahahaha like this has to be one of the most random, stupid episodes ever i love it so much

it will be my pleasure doing research for such a gifset 😈

i have added him to the collection folder!

linked to some typical panel shows + added his radio 4 series, his latest radio dramedy with tim key and his sitcom top coppers (both added to the secondary masterpost), a couple sketch things, a couple youtube things :) i also collected his podcasts + a few random episodes i don't host on drive and added the links in a doc which i added as well (i'll go back and do that for the existing collections this weekend!)

enjoy!

ps. working on nish, mike wozniak, and david & victoria folders

—

WATCH LINKS MASTERPOST / FAQ / TAGS / ASK

[prstmmprhdl]

Sooo I was tagged by @nanomooselet (sempai noticed me ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) no but really woooow a person with so much such cool trigun meta knows I exist? I’m literally starstruck)

But I’m stupid and I don’t know who to tag in return :( I’m not even sure I know how to see who I’m mutuals with? I’m a technological granny that’s all anyone needs to know about me lol

But the questions are actually different:

Last song: Not Found by Buck-Tick. That’s a great song, I kinda forgot existed and actually expected to listen to Mudai (which means “No name”, so, it’s not that weird to confuse the two).

Favorite color: green. Deep moss green is the best, but any hue is great.

Currently watching: ugggh. Thanks to my husband I watch ongoings now ( >___>) they are suddenly really good. Everybody knows Dungeon Meshi, I think. It’s already a cult classic as a manga and Trigger continues to make history. I’ve juuust finished Frieren and Apothecary Diaries, Bucchigiri and Warumono San no kyuujitsu, Yubisaki to renren and Majyo to Yajyu. Have started Yoru no kagame wa oyogenai (PLEASE WATCH IT. JUST FOR THE CINEMATOGRAPHY ALONE! PS - god I love the way anime of this new decade uses “camera movement” and colors. Tengoku daimakyo and Chainsawman are probably the best examples here, but this slice of life/music dramedy already looks amazing) and Shyuumatsu no train wa doko e iku (this is boringly simple in the art department in general but the promise and the visualization of the surreal parts is really good, I’m hooked!). Gmg. I do watch movies as well, like, Poor things and Aliza Frankenstein are extremely good. Dune is very beautiful. Mami Wata is a black and white gem of a movie. But I think I should shut up already.

Sweet/savory/spicy: savory I guess? However I’m not a native English speaker and had to google for some time as I’ve previously considered savory not a taste, but… a feel? Dunno.

Relationship status: married. As for friendship, it’s mostly online as most my beautiful ladies live far away ~_~

Current obsession: Trigun. And. Like. Really. It is an OBSESSION. I love all the characters, I literally fall asleep and wake up with them on my mind. I’ve made myself a felted Vash toy. I’ve watched Stampede twice (don’t look at the number of things I watch. Without my husband I can’t finish shit. But this! I’ve screencapped every second of it it seems. I’ve read manga in English and Japanese (and sometimes badly translated to Russian for the lulz - there’s so much swearing it’s basically a different story). I’ve committed two art pieces for the first time in my life. I’ve put art on my walls and my laptop. And I even returned to reading fan fiction after almost a decade of staying away from ao3 (no shade here, I just never loved anything as much as to need any additional materials. Except for Hannibal. But that show was too perfect and didn’t need anything but deep analytics on the symbolism). Hmh. I want to plug “Becoming Eden” by Lenipes here. It’s so good it has become a fourth trigun “canon” for me.

Last thing I googled: how does savory taste lol

Hehe. That’s so long. I guess I just wanted to vent a bit?

Who can I tag? @6wings-manyeyes @esotericbird

Sorry to bother you. No pressure and all that~ just a little tag game to get to know mutuals better.

[nitrateglow]

Thoughts on Popi (1969)

Popi is one of the older Alan Arkin films I hadn’t seen yet and it’s probably the weirdest of his early work. It’s a Chaplin style dramedy about Abraham, a Puerto Rican-American widower (Arkin) living in Spanish Harlem who concocts the most batshit insane scheme possible to get a better life for his two young sons, who are routinely tormented by pigeon-decapitating young hoodlums and temptations of a criminal life. He plans on sticking them in a boat off Miami and making it look like they’re Cuban refugees in the hopes that the Coast Guard will pick them up and then turn them over to the authorities to be given a better life with an adopted family, preferably the rich kind looking for humanitarian clout.

This element of the film is satirical, but the satire might be lost without the proper historical context. This Letterboxd review breaks it down better than I could:

It’s a satire of Cold War politics and a stinging rebuke of the United States’ tendency to praise some immigrants seeking a better life for themselves, especially if those immigrants provide good optics for the world press, while forgetting about the rest. It’s also an unusually sophisticated exploration of the tensions that exist within the United States’ Hispanic community, which is most definitely not monolithic. Following passage of the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, Cubans were granted unique status under U.S. immigration law: regardless of how they arrived — either “legally” or “illegally” — they were guaranteed a fast-tracked path to citizenship, mainly as a way of sticking it to the Castro regime.

Though having a non-Puerto Rican actor play this part is problematic for modern viewers to say the least, Arkin’s characterization is very interesting in how it sidesteps easy sentimentality. Arkin doesn’t make Abraham the most likable guy-- his plan is genuinely insane and actually more dangerous than he realizes, he refuses to listen to his far more rational girlfriend Lupe (played by a woefully underused Rita Moreno), and he’s pretty slap-happy when disciplining his kids (though this is probably just another reflection of the time, if my father’s stories about my Oma going after him with a rug beater when he was a kid in the late 60s is anything to go by). However, you never doubt he loves his sons and would die for them if need be. He has some genuinely touching moments because of this.

The movie around this satire and this performance isn’t entirely satisfying though. The first half is very padded out with lackluster slapstick that could have been comfortably pruned out. Arthur Hiller’s direction does well in emphasizing urban squalor and giving some scenes immediate, documentary verisimilitude, but I can’t say the tonal variety of the piece is handled in the best way. Most of the comedy didn’t land for me at all. I did like the bittersweet, borderline unresolved ending though-- it reminded me of contemporary works like The Graduate or I Love You, Alice B. Toklas which also conclude in unexpected ways, not allowing the audience an easy happily ever after.

[michelleelizabethtanner]

Super love your work! I know you get lots of asks, but I was really curious so I hope you don't mind answering another question. Dean said he and Stan had known each other for 20 years or something like that in season 4. Do you think they were friends first before he met Ruby and Beth? And how come we never heard any lip from Stan to Dean about him cheating? You've mentioned before that at the end of the show, Ruby is in the same position as Beth was when the show started, meaning Stan kind of became her Dean (to a lesser extent because ew, no one else in the show is that bad lol). What do you make of Stan, this supposed law-abiding goody-two-shoes, seemingly letting Dean's bullshit slide?

I guess what I am trying to understand is if these 4 people who have known each other for years were all friends before or did they each become "friends" through their spouses? Because Stan sure as hell could not care less about Beth and Dean doesn't seem to give that much of a fuck about Ruby.

And I want to understand why the hell someone like Stan was ever friends with Dean or why he would entertain continuing that friendship post pilot episode. I can understand his reasons for distancing himself from Beth in season 4, but I cannot wrap my head around why he'll stay friends with Dean.

I would love to hear your thoughts!

Ooo, these are such good thoughts, Anon! And I appreciate the ask and your kind words! I’ve definitely spent time contemplating this and running the gamut of emotions about Stan and his complicity in excusing and enabling toxic male behavior. As with most inexplicable behaviors and dynamics on the show, I think it’s much more layered and complicated than this dramedy showed us. I truly will never understand how they set up these extremely thought-provoking characters and situations and then just focussed on the dumbest things!!! Why not explore some of these concepts that actually impact society and people would find relatable?

Basically, I don’t think the Hills and the Bolands ever lived in the same universe. The Beth/Ruby relationship seems extremely disproportionate to me, with Ruby playing the sidekick to Beth’s constant need. Ruby has always represented an escape from Beth’s abusive home life. So did Dean, but Ruby actually loved Beth, which created this transactional relationship between them where Ruby constantly was earning her keep by making Beth the priority. In every situation we’ve been shown as these two women grew up together, Ruby and Beth participated in each other’s lives on Beth’s terms.

And again, this is difficult to really pinpoint because we were shown so little, but why was absolutely nothing shown of Stan and Ruby when they were young? I think it speaks volumes that the three “main characters” were all given histories except Stan and Ruby, who are explained in the broadest strokes possible and we are given no flashbacks of who they used to be before their adult lives. Hence all your questions, Anon. Ruby exists on the show in her sole purpose of propping up Beth, and that’s how I’m viewing their relationship.

That being said, consider the world Stan was living in. To him, Ruby is the star. He and Ruby are the primary relationship. Their dreams, their family, THAT’S what matters. And he was very patient throughout their lives as Ruby made Beth an enormous priority, in ways that Beth didn’t appear to fully reciprocate. I don’t think Stan and Dean were besties in high school. I think they knew each other. Dean was sporty. Arrogant. A jock. Stan was probably kinda nerdy. He doesn’t appear to be from an especially privileged background. Dean was from an obviously very wealthy, WASPy family who (I’m just gonna say it) probably wouldn’t have welcomed Stan or Ruby with open arms. How could that have ever been a proportionate friendship? How could Beth’s life becoming more and more like the Boland’s life have ever been something Stan would embrace or feel any personal accountability to?

Beth modeled her very being after Judith. Who else would have been her role model? Her own mother was a source of shame and trauma for her. She viewed Dean as a way out. His family was the “right” kind of family. His family is how you’re “supposed to be.” Beth became Judith. Hence why she resented Judith so much. Because she was always defensive and always made to feel like Dean did her a favor, rescuing her from her problematic home. No matter how much she tried to cover it, she was always that girl from the dirty house with the empty refrigerator, with the wild sister with broken limbs because no one was watching them or taking care of them.

So while understandable why Beth wanted out and why she wanted to build this pristine life, that life was modeled after a history that directly opposed people like Stan and Ruby. Beth either ignored it or, more likely, didn’t even see it. Because she didn’t live that reality. Ruby probably felt it, but she loved Beth so it was just how things were. Stan, I imagine, felt that resentment much more acutely. He never made the choice to worship the Bolands. Ruby did. And he went with it because he loved Ruby. But when Dean inevitably became what rich white men become, Stan didn’t say anything. Because it wasn’t a surprise and it wasn’t his responsibility to deal with. He had already put up with enough of the Boland privilege. He couldn’t have been expected to then step in to rescue this woman who made her own bed and chose to lie in it. Beth’s traumas, while valid and still traumas, aren’t the only traumas in the world. Ruby and Stan lived in an entire world not built for them, and spent their time smiling through it. So to Stan, if this white woman can so easily excuse the casual racism of their everyday lives, why would she not also excuse the casual infidelity of her own husband? I imagine he just figured that’s what these people are. Blindly privileged and complicit in their own downfalls because of their entitled complacency.

I don’t really see Stan as EVER being Dean’s “friend.” Not in the way friendships are reciprocal and invested relationships. Stan became someone Dean leaned on because he didn’t have anyone else. Stan resented Beth so much by season 4 that he just went along with anything that would get the Bolands out of his life. And the funny thing is, the shock on Beth’s face as Stan finally aired his resentments showed that she had absolutely no idea that she wasn’t the star in his life. That he didn’t appreciate having to sacrifice for her whims – not just in crime, but ALL their lives. They tell the story of how Ruby called Beth when she went into labor with Sarah before she called Stan. That isn’t a cute or funny story. That is a story of a privileged woman holding power over Stan’s wife and control over Stan’s very life. Who wouldn’t be resentful of that?

So this kind of went on a little. Sorry about that. This is just how I view these two couples and their history. There is no way to avoid consequences of social inequities when they are everyone’s reality. I think the show could have taken some “risks” and actually explored these topics instead of burying them under ridiculous side plots and unnecessary comic relief. Beth’s casual racism extends to many of her relationships, including the one with Rio. She wanted to be a leader in his operation while actively holding herself above the people making that operation happen. This is a theme and a lived experience I think most of us can relate to in some way and can think consciously about as we watch these fictional relationships flail in the wind.

[anonil88]

Me watching younger and older YJ fans push for less adult storyline and knowing to keep ratings the writers may just do that.

But, fr fr I'm a little sad if that does happen, we finally get adult queer representation that isn't one note and people aren't so here for it. I really hope the next season is more balanced of slow to fast and visually more horroresque. Still it was personally refreshing to see someone with a black queer family and think that could be me in 20 years sans the sleepwalking cult stuff. Then to see a full ensemble of women in that age range struggling to hold their trauma in broken pots is nice. Especially because the show is not a dramedy like Hacks or a limited series like Mrs. America. This show is sits very in between Desperate Housewives and Castle Rock/Penny Dreadful. Which is a great space that needed more interest but those aspects may get shoved to the back of the freezer along with some of the more interesting adult plots. The story does need more room to breath and for other characters to get a starter course in the wilderness. Which may be the right move IF they don't get a full 10 episodes or more, but that doesn't mean it won't suck for a trade off to keep the seasons coming.

I love the 96/97 timeline I really do and get the need for it to take focus as were really in it now. Just would hate for that part of the story to completely wipe out the older storyline or postcrash and it turn into a Riverdale or Stranger Things type of show which it was not marketed as. The writers got me fully on board with more teen (and adult) Van going forward cause her role in the chaos is getting interesting af same for Akilah. But, as I get older, i am 27 now, I naturally am starting to find it harder to relate to the younger counterparts. Which is a little scary, but I think its majorly because that market of tv is saturated in a thats all we get. Everything feels a little like we jump from one show to the next and there is no reprieve or space from teenage angst or the pitfalls of youth. The shows not focused on that arent promoted as well or focus on things personally idgaf about like gold panning. Fountain of youth focused shows should exist and are important i usually advocate for them, but I just hate that studios might make it all the tv we get so that they can make money. With the strike going on we have 0 clue what will come out or be greenlit but with so much cancelled that cover the older age range, queer people, etc. and isn't business background i am a bit like hmm about where the tv market will go. The TV market often bends to the loudest voices and the biggest wallets.

Post strike and fair wages being given, a market that solely appeals to the younger market and those who don't want a deep plot is kinda terrifying. Amp up the action, visuals, and drama but delete the expose and complexities entirely because it will keep viewership is such a luke warm take. And im seeing a lot of that in fan spaces in general but currently online for yellowjackets. A tv formula like thatvfeels very hamster on a wheel to me. I settle for established older women and a wrench of trauma thrown into their lives, especially with queer non cis-men rep, cause there's not much for my age range that's specific to that age range. I don't think I could settle for "wilderness baby" theory 4000 and "Laura lee is alive" theory 700 for a full 3 more seasons with 0 Shauna playing frogger with her minivan.

[benoitblanc]

for the sleepover asks !!

give me an unpopular opinion you have about knives out, what you would like to see in knives out 3 and lastly can i please have some film recs (it can be whatever genre you want just films you think i should watchhh) 🩷🩷🩷

unpopular opinion about knives out: i literally do not think i have any. i guess i completely understand why the scenes with donna and jacob explaining the walt/loan shark subplot were cut, if that even counts as unpopular? it definitely fills out that branch of the family more but i think if they HAD to cut anything it really had to be that; it didn't really contribute to the actual mystery, and i would rather spend spare minutes getting to know the cabreras than the least interesting thrombey sect

what i would like in knives out 3: this is not going to happen but i would give my right arm for elliot and wagner to come back in some capacity. i LOVE them. from a more serious standpoint, i'd like at least a little more philip, and it would make me very happy if we did a big city mystery now and went to london. maybe blanc and philip are visiting philip's family or something when shit goes down i don't know. what i DON'T want is anything that pulls blanc's personal life into the mystery. if philip or his family gets involved, fine! but i DO NOT want a benoit blanc backstory. he's compelling enough as is he doesn't need one <3

film recs (you have asked the right person; i love reccing things):

little miss sunshine (2006) is a black comedy about a dysfunctional family attempting to drive their volkswagen van from new mexico to california to enroll their 6yo in a beauty pageant. if knives out didn't exist this would be my favorite film of all time. it's SO good

tick tick boom (2021) is a musical drama about a young composer trying to make his way in the nyc theatre world in the 1990s. bring tissues for this one

galaxy quest (1999) is a loving parody of the star trek franchise that revolves around the ex-cast of a popular sci-fi show being abducted by aliens who think the show is real. possibly the funniest film of all time methinks

clue (1985)... i do not know how to describe this film. it's a murder comedy and tim curry is the lead. please watch this movie

it's a wonderful life (1947) is a theoretically-christmas film that you've likely heard of. if not, the first two-thirds of this film are a heartwarming dramedy about a young man's relationship with his small town and the last third is an existential horror film. it's a classic for a reason!

much ado about nothing (2011) is technically a proshot of a play but i don't fucking care. david tennant in That Scene is the greatest performance an actor has ever given

sleepover asks!!!