#I've been rewatching a lot more lately and there's so many moments where i just know current dnp would make a gay joke

[lesbianwithchainsaws]

I've gotten so used to post-coming out Dan and Phil that now rewatching old videos feels so weird. Where are the gay jokes

[somehow-a-human]

Moonlight Serenade & Good Omens &... the TV show Lost...?

DO NOT ASK NEIL ABOUT FAN THEORY.

The music of Good Omens is something I have been ACTIVELY avoiding turning my focus on. The risks of hyperfixating and spiraling into it are HIGH. There are so many elements to get lost in, repeating motifs like Dies Irae, tolling bells, character themes... but I digress.

Could I hold out forever? no. and something finally pushed me over the edge. Wait for it..... Lost. Yep. The TV show Lost. WAIT WAIT, don't leave! STAY WITH ME! I promise I don't *think* I'm crazy and I have a point here!

Why Lost? And what does it have to do with Moonlight Serenade and WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH GOOD OMENS?! Well my lovelies continue under the cut with me and keep an open mind...

Okay so... Lost. Yes, the insane 2004 mystery plane crash island adventure drama. It's a wild ride, and a masterpiece and a little bit crazy, but overall pretty damn good. I've been on a rewatch spree and wouldn't you know it... parallels between lost and Good Omens popped up in my brain! I mean they are both intricate mysteries so it makes a tad bit of sense but there was one little detail that *might* be a *clue*, or just an easter egg if anything. I promise you don't need to know anything about Lost to follow this :)

First off, what are some of the recurring themes that Lost the TV show and Good Omens have in common you might ask?

Life & Death

Alternate timelines & Time Travel

Literary Allusions (Catch-22, The Bible, A Tale of Two Cities)

Prophecies & Premonitions

Symbolism of Black & White/ Light & Dark

Yeah okay that tracks, but look there are 121 episodes of Lost and 12 episodes (so far) of Good Omens so there's bound to be some overlap for these two.

You'll be thinking about now, "BUT WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH MOONLIGHT SERENADE?!" I'm getting there, shhh, lemme pet your hair gently and keep giving you background information to build it up shhhh...

If you've never seen Lost there is a very good chance you're mighty confused at this moment, so let me reassure you, you don't need to know anything about it to understand the connections I'm going to make. A brief synopsis is: Oceanic flight 815 crashes on an island. The plane crash survivors quickly discover the island is more than it seems to be and holds many secrets and mysteries. A lot of people die, most of them are murdered, it's giving Lord of the Flies if it was in the horror genre. That's honestly all you need to know.

Time Travel & Alternate Timelines

Time travel is cannon in Lost. It's super confusing and I'm not even going to try to explain any of it here. It's honestly just not worth it. If you'd like to try and read about it, the abridged version is here, but I don't think the details are important. Just know it's real and confirmed and exists.

Okay so, *SPOILERS FOR LOST WILL FOLLOW* In Lost season 2, episode 13 "The Long Con" two of the plane crash survivors are trying to find a signal on a radio they've found. While scrubbing they come across a signal playing Moonlight Serenade by Glenn Miller. One character mentions it must be from somewhere nearby, but the other counters that this type of radio can pick up signals from anywhere in the world. There is a beat and then another character jokingly adds "Or any time. Just kidding, dude."

It's later confirmed that the Lost characters in 2004 are indeed picking up a radio signal from 1940 that is playing Moonlight Serenade, a product of time travel.

Congratulations, you've made it to the point where I'm going to bring Good Omens into the mix. In season 2, episode 4 "The Hitchhiker" we open seeing Aziraphale driving back from Edinburgh late at night/early morning. Uncomfortable with the darkness and silence he asks the Bentley to "play something that's got a bit of swing? I'm in the mood for something modern."

The Bentley obliges the angel, as she always will, and we are shown a shot of the radio specifically lighting up, so we know she's tapped into the radio to play this for Azi, but there is no channel selected.

Compared to Season 2, Episode 3 "I Know Where I'm Going" when we see the radio is playing and does display the channel.

But hold on. Okay maybe it just isn't showing the channel, that's fine, but Aziraphale asked for "modern"? Moonlight Serenade is most certainly not modern. It was recorded in 1939! I'd say in 2023 it's anything but modern, maybe not in Aziraphale's long lived opinion, but certainly in the Bentley's opinion, given she's only a 97 year old car.

I think you can see now what I'm saying here. I think the Bentley picked up a radio signal from 1940, maybe 1941? Episode 4 is of course our 1941 blitz magic show bullet catch flashback extravaganza, so... it makes sense. I know we like to headcanon Crowley and Aziraphale listened to A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square in the bookshop in 1941 after the bullet catch, but what if they listened to Moonlight Serenade on the radio instead?

What does it mean?

A reference to this small moment from Lost could be a nod to the first hint of the canonization of time travel in that series. We know Crowley can control time to some extent and we can see some evidence of time discontinuities and possibly time weirdness in season 2 so is it a hint that timeline funkiness IS happening? Do I want to get into the fact that the main character in The Hitchhiker, the Twilight Zone episode this episode is named after, is actually dead? No I don't, not now anyway.

Or it's just an absolutely lovely little Lost easter egg.

SO! There it is... weird little connection that I couldn't get out of my brain. It just seemed a bit too... ineffable.

As always this is all for fun and all for fans! Don't ask Neil about these things, they're for us to have fun with. And something else that I don't think some people on here understand about meta-analysis; the goal of it is not necessarily to be correct. It can be, if that's your thing. Refuting peoples posts, theories, analysis, and headcanons because you personally don't agree with them and telling them they're wrong and stupid doesn't achieve anything. Meta-analysis is an exercise in critical thinking and creative writing. You could write meta about how Spongebob is a critique of the loss of christian values in modern society and you wouldn't be right or wrong, you'd just certainly be a person who wrote that for sure though. Just, be kind to each other, share ideas, you're allowed to disagree with someone's ideas or have different ones of your own but don't be cruel in saying so, don't call someone stupid, that's just silly.

Love you all, do something kind for yourself today <3

ps. The moment I see Michael Sheen with blonde hair come January I'm gonna bark like a dog, that's all. Thanks.

[waitmyturtles]

Turtles Catches Up With Old GMMTV: The Eclipse OGMMTVC Rewatch to Reexamine "Genre BLs," Along With a Critical Take on Branded Ships

[What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far. Today, I take a look at my very first GMMTV series that I ever watched, The Eclipse, to examine its prowess as a "genre" BL, and to take a critical stab at the branded ship model vis à vis a successful narrative.]

HELLO. Due to BIG SUMMER LIFE (!!!) (WOW -- work trips, work changes, new projects, the regular family stuff, so much travel!), I've been a couple months delayed on getting some words down on my recent rewatch of The Eclipse for my Old GMMTV Challenge project, but I'm glad to take some time now to talk about this show.

I'm at a point in the project where my syllabus (pasted at the bottom of this post) will take me into the territory of many shows that I've already watched since starting my Thai BL journey in the fall of 2022, shows that I watched while they were airing, such as Moonlight Chicken, Bed Friend, Be My Favorite, and others. (I will be offering short, non-rewatch notes on some of these shows as I go along in the chronology.) The Eclipse is one of these.

I wanted to specifically give The Eclipse a full rewatch for a couple of reasons, the biggest one being very personal, in that The Eclipse was my very first ever-EVER GMMTV series (!!!). And, the only Thai BL I had watched, in the late summer and fall of 2022, prior to The Eclipse was KinnPorsche.

So! At the time of my watching The Eclipse in 2022, I had nooooo idea who First Kanaphan or Khaotung Thanawat were; I didn't know about the existence of branded ships in Thai BLs yet; I didn't know about the prevalence and regularity of side couples in Thai BLs, as VegasPete had been my first exposure to that; I didn't effing know about the fabulousity that is Neo Trai, none of it.

I simply just watched the show on the recommendation of a dear mutual. And, fuck, man, I totally had expected WAY more salacious material in The Eclipse coming off of KinnPorsche! At first, I was like, Thailand is WILDIN', and then it was just the GMMTV-PG FirstKhao smooches, which was fine, they were great, ha! I wasn't disappointed, but lmao, that was my mindset and understanding of my very brief introduction to Thai BLs at that very moment -- I thought it was all guns and butts and mafiosos and pool sex.

Besides rewatching The Eclipse with my now-very-experienced Thai BL glasses on to fix ALL of those past assumptions, I also wanted to rewatch the show in the understanding that filmmaker and former politician, Golf Tanwarin (the first transgender member of parliament in Thailand's House of Representatives) was addressing homophobia and leveraging their screenplay to talk about themes of stifling conformation in Thai society vis à vis the fictional environment of the Suppalo boys school. I want to demarcate this moment as an important one: at this point of my syllabus, the late summer and fall of 2022, the Thai BL landscape exists still mostly within the no-homophobia bubble, with only a handful of shows (He's Coming To Me, Secret Crush On You, etc.) stepping out of that bubble to grab the theme of homophobia and really wrangle with it frontally by way of familial and social acceptance.

However, I have to admit something as I write this review. During this recent rewatch, I had the benefit not just of my past historical chronological viewing of old shows behind me to judge The Eclipse's success as a show and as a messenger of deeper themes past straightforward romance; but I also had the benefit of foresight into the future, seeing how First and Khao served as a branded couple again in Only Friends, a series that, I believe, flopped in its narrative end due to the show prioritizing happy endings for its branded couples, rather than taking the time and the risks to break the branded ships up (or, at least, rock their foundations) to offer sophisticated social commentary on casual sex, as the initial marketing for Only Friends had initially promised.

In other words, I had critical glasses on for FirstKhao's performance, not necessarily for the actors themselves (well, kinda, lemme be for real), but I also wanted to understand better how The Eclipse centered THEM as an IT, a tangible IT, the branded ship, either against and/or vis à vis Golf's underlying critical messaging on social conformity and homophobia.

Unfortunately, through that critical lens, what I gained out of this rewatch of The Eclipse is a confirmed judgement that the common Thai BL structure of very much CENTERING a branded ship, especially emanating out of GMMTV, the central home for branded ships in Thailand, will almost CERTAINLY render a show attempting to make higher messages a weaker one in the end.

I found myself FULLY enjoying The Eclipse out of the FirstKhao sequences. When I first watched The Eclipse in 2022, I was a Thua hater, and I engaged for the very first time with @respectthepetty and others on subsequent defenses of Thua's outing of Akk and Ayan in the context of Akk and Ayan acting like loose-cannon-dillholes themselves. (This was a fabulous intro to my engaging with others on Tumblr, by the way, and I remember this discourse fondly!)

This time around, with the blessing of hindsight, I fully appreciated Louis Thanawin's FANTASTIC performance at the end of the series, as an overly frustrated and overwhelmed student wrangling with his sexuality, his attraction to Kan, and watching Kan's own struggles with his own sexuality, along with dealing with an overbearing stepfather -- and all of that happening while he was watching the hypocrisy of Akk slowly warming to Ayan, while Akk simultaneously punished The World Remembers gang. Louis, as Thua, fucking nailed it, and was an utter cutie at the end with Kan (including in Our Skyy 2, swoon). And forget about Neo Trai: Neo as Kan was one of the best performances I've seen of Neo's, as a student struggling literally to the second to manage his outward displays of automatic attraction to Thua for the sake of maintaining a façade of "order" for the Suppalo environment.

How does all of this impact my thoughts on FirstKhao as a branded ship, and AkkAyan as a fictional couple in The Eclipse?

There was so much great commentary on mental health, on social pressures and conformity, and on the reliance of history to contextualize and engage in suppression, in this show. The show hit hard and impactfully on these themes. As I just mentioned, the story of Thua was a welcome inclusion of the various ways in which homophobia impacted the Suppalo environment on micro- and macro-levels. The story of Dika is also gutting, and I appreciated The Eclipse for never turning an eye away from Ayan's continued suffering at losing his uncle so traumatically. (I also understand that there was quite a lot of conservative protest against The Eclipse in Thailand, and that the show being shortened by two episodes may have been related to this, along with the show airing during ongoing student protests.)

Unfortunately, I believe The Eclipse tripped on itself when it stepped away from these themes to move to more lighthearted moments with AkkAyan. I think the centering of this ship led to a number of key unfulfilled narrative moments, including a key factual skip later in the series, when Ayan indicates to Akk that Akk had made a promise to reveal his work against The World Remembers, a promise that did not have prior reference in earlier episodes.

This isn't to say that a budding couple can't have sweet moments. And we saw a tremendous amount of trauma coming from both Akk and Ayan, with Ayan's ongoing anger at Suppalo, and Akk's fear of rejection for his and his family's financial state, leading him to embody Suppalo's culture of suppression for the sake of his own survival at the school. These very-deeply messed-up fictional boys absolutely deserved and needed love.

But I found myself taking the most notes on this show when I felt the tones of previous scenes of protest, trauma, or attack were juxtaposed against getting Akk and Ayan together for a subsequent scene, especially later in the series, when their flirtation continued to grow. I felt this particularly during the outdoor Twitter scene in the bleachers, when Akk and Ayan were using tweets as a means of finding out who was running the counterprotest Twitter account, which was placed right after a particularly brutal attack against The World Remembers. I needed to flip my emotional attention back to a practiced GMMTV routine of watching a ship continue to warm up to each other for memorable and meme-able moments, and I found that juxtaposition jarring.

As opposed to Not Me, GMMTV's first "genre" BL that played with a sandbox outside of romance, The Eclipse was on steadier feet. While Not Me really tried to play around de-centering a shipped pair in OffGun, it truly stumbled in rushing back to inject romance throughout the storyline, particularly with DanYok taking up unexpected and discordant room (ACAB, YOK). And outside of GMMTV, we've seen many "genre" BLs actually work really well, most notably to that point in 2022, the crime-driven Manner of Death (MaxTul, my beloved), which balanced a developing romance with a legitimately interesting and unwinding mystery, all with a sharp and solid screenplay that didn't stray from its intended purpose. (Maybe I'm getting my hopes up too soon, but we're seeing "genre" BL doing well right now with 4 Minutes, and GMMTV has another, riskier, "genre" BL coming up in its crime-driven series, Kidnap.)

GMMTV, however, demands something economically from its shows, a sellable final product that can be transmogrified into fan meetings, branded items, and most of all, enduring and memorable legacies for the branded ships that center most of its BLs. At the time of The Eclipse's airing, both First and Khao had been previously paired with others (First with Gawin Caskey in Not Me; Khao with Podd Suphakorn in Tonhon Chonlotee), and the sao wais had been eagerly awaiting the debut of FirstKhao, and were fed nicely.

I can't say, quantifiably, if the majority of the global Thai BL fandom, or even the majority of the GMMTV fandom, are sao wais who only watch GMMTV shows for branded ships and guaranteed happy endings between shipped actors that only partner with the same person over and over again. I also believe that at this moment in time (in 2024), that we may be seeing differences in preferences emanating from fandoms based in Thailand, China, elsewhere in Asia, and globally, particularly in Europe and North and South America, between fans that will willingly support branded ships through very bad narrative shows, versus fans that prefer well-scripted shows above all else.

I think, after the economic earthquake that was the airing of 2gether in 2020, that GMMTV made a hard-turn decision to prioritize series that centered repeating branded ships above all other kinds of investment in other shows, including excellent screenplays.

I say this not to bemoan the opportunity for Thai filmmakers to have economic success. If these shows are making coin for Thai creatives -- maybe even the kind of coin that will allow these creatives to have more artistic freedom in their futures -- then I cannot begrudge that at all, and I wish these artists economic success.

But from a critical viewpoint of artistically narrative success, I'd argue that the last truly great narrative show of GMMTV's portfolio is 2021-22's Bad Buddy, featuring a branded ship in OhmNanon that I'm sure the network wanted to use again, one that both Nanon Korapat and Ohm Pawat knew they didn't want to repeat. Since then, while we've had a small amount of storytelling gems out of GMMTV like Moonlight Chicken, Cherry Magic Thailand, and Cooking Crush, most of what's come out of that studio has been mediocre for the past few years, with some aching stumbles having been had in shows like 23.5, Wandee Goodday, and My Love Mix-Up Thailand, which is airing now.

A major complaint across social media right now about My Love Mix-Up Thailand, centering Gemini Norawit and Fourth Nattawat, is that the show rushes to create meme-able moments between them, which is more in line with GMMTV's bottom line of engagement first. My Love Mix-Up/Kieta Hatsukoi is an utterly beloved Japanese manga and dorama. While G4 fans are drumming up the level of social media engagement that GMMTV judges "success" on, many other general BL fans have been left disappointed by the show's pulling back from honoring certain moments of hilarity and connection with the original Japanese source material (how could Fourth NOT go into the trash can?!).

I posit that it was 2gether's 2020 airing that encouraged GMMTV to make the pivot from investing in well-crafted screenplays, and taking risks to split ships up -- as the network did with Tay Tawan in 2019's 3 Will Be Free -- to center the branded ships.

And I think 2022's The Eclipse is an excellent example of the result of this decision-making: that while The Eclipse's core ideas within its screenplay were admirable, and much of the acting and romance outside of the branded ship were great to watch, that the show's needing to leave the central path of the narrative central story to spotlight the FirstKhao ship to create engagement-worthy moments ultimately took power away from the show and its message.

Only Friends -- a late-2023 show that initially marketed itself on breaking up ships and celebrating casual sex -- came back around in the end to scold any of us fans that wanted to see the ships sink. The dynamic between First and Khao in Only Friends was incredibly similar to their dynamic in The Eclipse: First acting as a tough-guy character who couldn't help being simp-ly swept away by an overpowering character played by Khao. I'm afraid the same will be repeated again in Jojo Tichakorn's next show, The Heart Killers, and I'd like to be proven wrong there, but.

It's incredible for me to reflect on what I know now about The Eclipse, and how this otherwise-excellent show was, in my eyes, economically impacted by the casting decision to prioritize a branded ship over the narrative cohesiveness of a screenplay. GMMTV has only committed even more to this path since The Eclipse's airing.

For the sake of excellent actors like First, and especially Khao: I hope they can have the future opportunity to spread their wings and act with other actors (as the very extreme majority of actors in entertainment get to enjoy), to shake off the economic prioritizing of branded ships in order to access better screenplays and stories. They deserve it, as hard-working creatives, and I'll certainly support them outside of the branded ship model, one that I believe is showing artistic wear and tear as more branded ship shows keep narratively sinking.

[Alright! So, where am I on the OGMMTV list? I've actually already finished the next show on my list, GAP The Series, this summer, and I hope I can pen that review in short order to get this series back on some kind of timely track.

HOWEVER, HEH HEH, that's actually going to be a bit difficult for me as, per the recommendation of a couple of BL elders, I am backtracking chronologically and tackling 2022's The Miracle of Teddy Bear, Thailand's first queer primetime, broadcast channel-level lakorn, which consists of 16 90-minute episodes, which, woof. Despite its hefty length, I am terribly excited to watch a show (a lakorn, EEEE!) out of the usual Thai BL bubble, one that I understand has been potentially misunderstood and/or mis-marketed to BL fandoms over the years. For the sake of its primetime airing alone, it holds an important place on the OGMMTVC syllabus. And I can't wait to take a crack at a Thai major channel's first attempt to make queer content and BL-genre-influenced content a primetime offering.

This means that, once again, My School President has been held at a delay, but I will get to MSP soon, I SWEAR! (And....oops. I'm thiiiiiinking that I might watch My Love Mix-Up after MSP at literal warp speed, literally 1.5x, to do another piece on branded ships vis à vis G4 and Au Kornprom in 2022 vs. 2024. We'll see. I may not wanna do that to myself, but... but! For science?!?! Maybe.)

Here's the updated OGMMTVC syllabus for your perusal. ONWARDS!

1) The Love of Siam (2007) (movie) (review here) 2) My Bromance (2014) (movie) (review here) 3) Love Sick and Love Sick 2 (2014 and 2015) (review here) 4) Gay OK Bangkok Season 1 (2016) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 5) Make It Right (2016) (review here) 6) SOTUS (2016-2017) (review here) 7) Gay OK Bangkok Season 2 (2017) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 8) Make It Right 2 (2017) (review here) 9) Together With Me (2017) (review here) 10) SOTUS S/Our Skyy x SOTUS (2017-2018) (review here) 11) Love By Chance (2018) (review here) 12) Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cuts (2018) (no review) 13) He’s Coming To Me (2019) (review here) 14) Dark Blue Kiss (2019) and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again (2018) (review here) 15) TharnType (2019-2020) (review here) 16) Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey (OffGun BL cuts) (2016 and 2017) (no review) 17) Theory of Love (2019) (review here) 18) 3 Will Be Free (2019) (a non-BL and an important harbinger of things to come in 2019 and beyond re: Jojo Tichakorn pushing queer content in non-BLs) (review here) 19) Dew the Movie (2019) (review here) 20) Until We Meet Again (2019-2020) (review here) (and notes on my UWMA rewatch here)

21) 2gether (2020) and Still 2gether (2020) (review here) 22) I Told Sunset About You (2020) (review here) 23) YYY (2020, out of chronological order) (review here) 24) Manner of Death (2020-2021) (review here) 25) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 26) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake Of Rewatching Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (re-review here) 27) Lovely Writer (2021) (review here) 28) Last Twilight in Phuket (2021) (the mini-special before IPYTM) (review here) 29) I Promised You the Moon (2021) (review here) 30) Not Me (2021-2022) (review here)

31) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 32) 55:15 Never Too Late (2021-2022) (not a BL, but a GMMTV drama that features a macro BL storyline about shipper culture and the BL industry) (review here) 33) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) and Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (2023) OGMMTVC Rewatch (Links to the BBS OGMMTVC Meta Series are here: preamble here, part 1, part 2, part 3a, part 3b, and part 4) 34) Secret Crush On You (2022) (review here) 35) The Miracle of Teddy Bear (2022) (watching) 36) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here)  37) KinnPorsche (2022) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For the Sake of Re-Analyzing the KP Cultural Zeitgeist (part 1 and part 2) 38) Honorable Mention: War of Y (2022) (for the sake of an attempt to provide meta BL commentary within a BL in the modern BL era), with a complementary watch of Aam Anusorn’s documentary, BL: Broken Fantasy (2020) (thoughts here) 39) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 40) The Eclipse OGMMTVC Rewatch to Reexamine "Genre BLs," Along With a Critical Take on Branded Ships

41) GAP (2022-2023) (Thailand’s first GL) (review coming) 42) My School President (2022-2023) and Our Skyy 2 x My School President (2023) 43) Moonlight Chicken (2023) (tag here) 44) Bed Friend (2023) (tag here) 45) La Pluie (2023) (review coming) 46) Be My Favorite (2023) (tag here) (I’m including this for BMF’s sophisticated commentary on Krist’s career past as a BL icon) 47) Wedding Plan (2023) (Recommended as an important trajectory in the course of MAME’s work and influence from TharnType) 48) Only Friends (2023) (tag here) (not technically a BL, but it certainly became one in the end) 49) Last Twilight (2023-24) (tag here) (on the list as Thailand’s first major BL to center disability, successfully or otherwise) 50) Cherry Magic Thailand (2023-24) (tag here) (on the list as the first major Japanese-to-Thai drama adaptation, featuring the comeback of TayNew)

51) Ossan’s Love Returns (2024) (adding for the EarthMix cameo and the eventual Thai remake) 52) Dead Friend Forever (2024) (thoughts here) 53) 23.5 (2024) (GMMTV’s first GL) (thoughts here)]

[eros-thanatos89]

meta/thoughts on BCS

Oh, man. I've never posted meta, or just thoughts on shows before, but I'm trying to give myself permission to be as cringe as I want and to ramble on the internet about the fictional things that I think way too much about. So here goes, my first meta post!

I just rewatched BCS S5E3 "The Guy For This" (let's be real: mostly for thirsty reasons, because I wanted to see Lalo and Nacho looking pretty in the garage scene with Saul) and Goddamn, it just smacked me in the face and reminded me what a pivotal episode it is in so many ways.

One of the many recurring themes that I love to see explored so well in both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul is the many ways that people deal with (or don't) the consequences of their actions, and this episode is just chock full of that, as well as setting up the first steps down the "bad choice road" or the road ahead for so many characters.

In that garage, Saul really steps into Saul as we know him in Breaking Bad. By taking Lalo's money (even if under duress) he's taking the first step into leaving Jimmy behind and becoming the *criminal lawyer* we all love/love to hate. Jimmy's pattern of avoiding the consequences of his actions or uncomfortable emotions like the guilt over Chuck's disgrace and death is running away: by escaping into his scams, and by literally running away from himself, choosing a new identity--he's not Jimmy anymore; he's Saul, so he doesn't have to lug around Jimmy's baggage. And even though he tries to backtrack from this first step onto the bad choice road leading to him becoming "un amigo del cartel", when he tries to suggest that Lalo find another lawyer, it's too late. As Nacho tells him, "When you're in, you're in."

And Nacho would know! Speaking of running away, Nacho has been trying to evade or escape his problems for so long: first by setting up Tuco to avoid having his side hustle with Pryce discovered, and in this episode, trying to convince his Papa to run away with him to Canada. The scene where Manuel confronts Nacho at his house never fails to break my heart. Nacho is so desperate for Manuel to escape with him to a new, safe life, and Manuel is so adamant that Nacho face up to the consequences of his choices. Which ultimately, he has no choice but to do. He has to confront what he's done and give himself up to save his Papa's life, just like Manuel encouraged him to do so long ago. But by giving up his life rather than turning himself in to the police. It's so damn tragic.

And then there's Kim. She's always running away from the poverty and instability of her past by so doggedly pursuing success as a lawyer. I love how this episode highlights her increasing dissatisfaction with Mesa Verde and her yearning to pursue more meaningful pro-bono work so she can use the law to help people like the little, powerless girl she used to be. The confrontation between her and Mr. Acker is stellar. Kim has this rare moment of vulnerability, letting down her walls to share a story of her childhood struggles with Mr. Acker in a genuine attempt to connect with him, only to have him scoff at her and accuse her of making it up to manipulate him. You can tell his tirade about her being ultimately a selfish person who tries to comfort herself with acts of charity really rankles her because it goes so strongly against her sense of self and represents everything it seems she's afraid of becoming, and so much of what she resents about Howard: the entitlement, the sense of ease and privilege, the self-congratulatory charity acts (don't get me wrong, I really like Howard, pompous as he can sometimes be, but I think this is how Kim views him). By the end of the episode, when she escalates Saul toying with a beer bottle on the balcony into throwing them into the parking lot, you can already see her pivoting and taking those first steps down the road that ultimately leads to the plot against Howard, which she justifies to herself in the name of using the Sandpiper money to fund her pro-bono work. And then in the end of the series, she both runs away AND atones for her actions by moving to Florida and living a life literally leeched of all color and joy, and is just doing penance by living a muted, mediocre life.

Domingo's arc in this episode is so crucial, too! Lalo and Nacho recruit Saul to feed him the information to undermine Fring, but when he meets Hank and Steve Gomez in prison, it starts him on the road to transforming from Domingo/Ocho Loco to Krazy 8. Ultimately leaving the cartel (I like to think because of the loss of his friend Nacho) and setting himself up as an independent dealer and even snitching on his own cousin, Emilio; which then leads to his collision with Walt and Jesse.

And the scene with Mike in the bar! The way he's barely holding it together as he tries (not very successfully) to drink away the pain and guilt caused by killing Werner just a few episodes before (S4E9) and is so triggered by the postcard that reminds him of their conversation is so powerful. I just love how he encounters the group of guys who try to intimidate and rob him and he defends himself in this episode, but we later see him intentionally return and seek them out in S5E5 "Dedicado a Max" in an act of self-loathing and roundabout self-harm via taking a beating and not even trying to defend himself.

I'm rambling, but these shows make me litcherally mentally unwell with how fantastically nuanced and textured the writing, acting, visual storytelling, music, everything is! I'm just going to be ruminating on all these many facets of accepting consequences, atoning, and/or running away affects these characters and the arc of both shows and the world they inhabit for the next long while....

[wikiangela]

Weekend WIP Game

tagged by @jesuisici33 <3

Rules: List your WIPs below (if you only write one fic at a time, feel free to include future WIPs/ideas!) then answer the following questions. Then, tag as many people as you have WIPs (or more)

1. WIP List:

alive shannon

sick eddie

buddie coffee shop

new buddie chris' school

roommates

bi eddie

buddie death cast fic

cheating fic

untitled natalia fic

buddie 2x01

5+1 nicknames

coffee buddie

2. Which of your WIPs is currently the longest?

alive shannon with 20k words so far

3. Which WIP do you expect will end up the longest?

alive shannon, since it's kinda a canon rewrite and I still haven't decided to which point it's gonna go, we'll see when it'll feel right to end it haha

4. Which WIP is your favourite to write/the most enjoyable to write? Why?

once again, alive shannon haha - it's just so fun to explore what all those dynamics could've been, and giving Eddie and Shannon some closure, and I love exploring Shannon's character, too, speculating on her thoughts and motivations, and diving into everyone's heads, and I'm so excited to see it all develop!!

5. Which WIP do you find the most intimidating to write? Why?

I think it's either alive shannon or the cheating fic alive shannon bc I've never written s2/s3 buddie and I wanna get their characters semi-right, and I don't remember a lot of details so I need to get on with my rewatch lol - and also writing Shannon's and Eddie's feelings on their relationship and how it all ended is not easy haha and the cheating fic bc it's so not my thing but a song inspired it and it got stuck in my head and it's happening haha and I hope I'll make it make sense haha

6. Which WIP do you experience the most self-doubt about. Why?

tbh all of them - some more, some less, but there are moments, especially lately, when veeeery often I'm just like: everything I write sucks wtf

7. Which of your WIPs will you seek out a beta/sensitivity reader for? Why?

@giddyupbuck agreed to beta the alive shannon fic, and I spam them with snippets if I'm in doubt and it's sooo helpful fr ily <3 and I'll need alive shannon beta-read bc it's gonna be so long, and I keep changing my mind about things bc of how many ideas I have, so I just need someone else to look at it and tell me if everything makes sense haha - and Ro's helped me so much with some previous fics so they have my full trust with my baby that is the alive shannon fic haha

8. Have any of your WIPs been struck by the curse of writer's block?

all of them at some point lol - a few of these are actually on hold bc of that - I will get back to them tho!

9. Which WIP has your favourite OC? Tell us about them?

as of now there's no ocs in any of these, but we'll see haha

10. Which WIP is the sexiest?

cheating fic and maaaaybe coffee buddie (if I'll ever get back to this one) - no actual smut in my wips yet atm

11. Which WIP is the angstiest?

buddie death cast fic - if you've read 'they both die at the end' you know why lol this is not gonna have a happy ending

12. Which WIP has the best characterisation (in your humble opinion)?

so far I'm loving everyone in alive shannon so I guess let's go with that haha

13. Which WIP has the best scene setting (in your humble opinion)?

oh I am so bad this - but maybe let's say buddie coffee shop au bc i think it's the only one where I put even a little bit of focus on the setting lmao

14. Which WIP have you worked the hardest on?

alive shannon, been thinking about it and making notes for months before I started writing, and I don't think i've ever been this invested in a fic

15. Which WIP do you have the highest expectations for? Why?

alive shannon - - like I said, it's my most precious baby, and I'm so excited to not only write it but read it, and I hope it's gonna be as good as it is in my head, and I hope I'll make the story make sense with Shannon there, but also keeping some important buddie moments from canon hah

16. Do you dream about any of your WIPs?

not sure if i've ever dreamt about a wip, but i do get new ideas in my sleep sometimes lol

17. Do any of your WIPs have particular complexities that your other fics don't?

alive shannon will have switching povs which i rarely do, so it's gonna be a challenge to write three distinct voices - and diving into Shannon's head and feelings and motivations will also definitely be hard

18. Which WIP is the funniest or has the most humour?

I think sick eddie - he's so ridiculously stubborn and difficult istg haha or buddie coffee shop with how fucking awkward buck's being

19. Do any of your WIPs contain outside POVs or a deep dive on a character other than the main ship? How are you finding that process?

yep, once again, alive shannon - it's as much a buddie fic as it is a shannon fic, so it's not exactly outside pov, bc I'm just excited to focus on her equally as much, on how she's settling into their lives, becoming a better mom, being involved in Chris' life - she's gonna have as much focus as buddie sns it's not easy, bc it's alternating povs and once I get stuck in Eddie's head it's hard to leave, but so far it's been fun

20. Tell us one thing we don't know about one or more of your WIPs

uhhh, I think I share like everything lol okay, so maybe: alive shannon will definitely go at least up until s4 and will include Eddie dating Ana 👀 purely bc I want a buddie-shipping Shannon to be like wtf eddie??? also, there will be more than one mcd in the death cast fic and coffee buddie was loosely inspired by a small thing from luke cage lol

no pressure tags: @daffi-990 @fortheloveofbuddie @elvensorceress @gaydiaz @diazass @thebravebitch @silentxxsoul @shortsighted-owl @eddiebabygirldiaz @arthursdent @diazblunt @911onabc @eddiediaztho @housewifebuck @lover-of-mine @gayhoediaz @rogerzsteven @watchyourbuck @hoodie-buck @monsterrae1 @ladydorian05 @forthewolves @honestlydarkprincess @wildlife4life @theotherbuckley @weewootruck @thewolvesof1998 @disasterbuckdiaz @loserdiaz @underwater-ninja-13 @giddyupbuck @hippolotamus @eowon @callaplums @spotsandsocks

[mrbensonmum]

TV Show - Dr. House | House M.D. VII

Unstoppably we are approaching the end of the third season (currently at S3E20, House Training), and I'm wondering, as my memory refuses to reveal, what major event occurs that causes House to reform his team or leads to drastic changes. Yes, I admit, I'm really looking forward to seeing Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) and also Martha M. Masters (Amber Tamblyn), although I think Masters might take a little longer to appear.

It's quite exciting when you've seen everything already, can remember a lot, but a rewatch helps to put all the puzzle pieces back in the right order. Yes, one could think about it, but I enjoy the suspense.

One of the scenes that made me laugh a lot back then has already come up, namely when House compares a patient's body to the German railway system. Back then, the comparison might have been somewhat accurate, and yes, even in the original, he makes the same comparison with the same cities (Berlin & Düsseldorf), but unfortunately, the German trains, whether regional or long-distance, are nowhere near as good and punctual anymore. I've been wondering the whole time if it was like that back then, but no, today it's definitely worse. Just thinking about how many times I got stranded at a train station last year, BIG UFF!

Otherwise, after the Tritter thing, things are moving rather slowly, and I don't think that's a bad thing at all. The highlight, of course, is the romance between Chase and Cameron, although it's almost over by now. I vaguely remember a wedding in the future and maybe even a divorce? No, I'm sure about the wedding, but I don't think there was a divorce. Oh, I also remember the big bus accident involving Wilson's girlfriend. There's a lot more to come!

Speaking of which, I think the dynamic between Wilson and House has changed a lot since the incident with the prescription pad. At first, it seemed like everything was over and they had no future, but now the connection seems stronger than ever. We also saw that in the story with Cuddy, when they both tested each other to see how far they would go. And then just saying "Night House!" "Night Wilson!" to each other, that's a true bromance, ladies and gentlemen! (I know, I'm late to that party!)

But now there's a very heavy episode on, as once again, an important topic is being addressed, one that often unfortunately gets overlooked in every society, Alzheimer's & dementia. Foreman's mother suffers from Alzheimer's, and I know, it really affected me back then because my grandmother died of Alzheimer's, and my mother is showing the first signs of it now. This disease steals the mind first, then the body, and we should talk about it much more and do much more against it. I know what it's like to watch a person lose themselves in the darkness of this disease, and believe me, you wouldn't wish it on anyone. Once again, a topic highlighted by the series and one that should continue to be addressed. I'm currently wondering if House is airing anywhere on regular TV in Germany, but I don't think so at the moment. That should change because yes, it can be fun and enjoyable for about 45 minutes, but it's also a topic of conversation that might find resonance in the workplace or similar institutions, and suddenly a disease is lifted from its obscurity and brought into the real world. THAT'S IMPORTANT! However, there is another important aspect in this episode that must not be overlooked. Doctors make mistakes, and these mistakes can end up being deadly! Of course, nobody wants to talk about it in the real world, and doctors usually don't admit to such things. It's another issue that's hushed up, but the series brings it back to light, brilliantly! Also, the fact that House performs an autopsy afterward for research purposes may seem strange and odd at first, but it's also about finding out where things went wrong. Yes, it's also to stroke one's own ego, but it's also to prevent such things from happening again.

I won't manage to finish the end of the third season today, but there was another remarkable appearance. In the last episode (S3E19, Act your Age), part of the supporting cast of Bones made an appearance. We saw Joel David Moore and Carla Gallo. And in the episode before that (S3E18, Airborne), Pej Vahdat was one of the passengers or Foreman's substitute.

A little thank you to everyone who diligently reads and shares my Dr. House posts. I'm just doing this for fun, but it's cool that it's well-received and my little analyses are being shared. Thank you very much!

[alloveydovey]

Hellooooo, dramas from this past month :) I had a lot of fun watching most of these, which hadn't been happening lately.

The Story of Park’s Marriage Contract, 2023 (kdrama) 7.5/8

A woman from the past travels to the future where she meets a man who resembles her deceased husband. In need of a wife, he strikes a contract with her, and blah blah blah, you know what happens next.

The chemistry was there 100%, the comedy too, but overall, I think it was just a mid watch for me. I was three episodes away from finishing but was struggling big time because I was getting bored.

The Romance of Tiger and Rose, 2020 (cdrama) 8

A scriptwriter ends up inside her own creation as a side character who dies early on in the drama and has a really bad reputation.

This was hilarious. Laughing out loud alone type of hilarious. It didn't make any sense at all, and it was extremely silly and sometimes even frustrating, but both actors were so great with the comedy (Zhao Lusi the actress that you are), so everything was just fun and romantic and cute... and weird enough, emotional af as well. I love these types of dramas where, after watching, you kinda feel empty inside lol. Comfort drama material? 100%

My Demon, 2023/24 (kdrama) 8

A demon becomes powerless after crossing paths with a cold heiress (who he obviously knew in their, guess what? Yes, past lives)

Kim Yoo Jung and Song Kang (his character is everything) were so cute in this! Their chemistry was definitely chemistring. I loved the concept and all, but for some reason, I couldn’t put my whole heart into this drama, which resulted in me being a bit disappointed. I’d get bored sometimes. I still don’t know if it’s my problem though. Maybe it wasn't the right time to watch it since I had been watching so many dramas with similar storylines. I’ll give them this, though, these two were truly a comedic duo™️

My Man is Cupid, 2023/24 (kdrama) 8

A love fairy accidentally shoots himself with an arrow and ends up in love with a human, condemning him and his group of cupids to 500 years on Earth. In modern day, he gets entangled with a veterinarian who might be connected to what happened in the past. Also! Murder mystery.

This one just goes to prove that liking a drama is all about vibes for me. Is this different from what I’ve been watching? Nope. It’s not better than the other ones above with similar premises. Yet somehow, unlike the others, it got my attention way more, and I totally binged it. Even when this particular one had some very confusing, probably so-so writing, moments. Granted, it has Nana in it. Nana makes everything worth it (Jang Dong Yoon was cute as well lol).

My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, 2010 (kdrama) (rewatch!) 7.5 ⭐️

A cute gumiho saves an irresponsible rich kid who wants to become an action star by giving him her bead. Both of them gotta stick together while he heals.

Like I said back when I first saw this, COMFORT!! And I was in the mood for something silly and sweet after the same themes over and over again. I can't get over how cute Shin Min A and Lee Seung Gi are in this.

Falling Into You, 2022 (cdrama) 9

A student-athlete wants to do high jump but doesn't have the required height for the sport, so a postgraduate student-coach decides to take him under her wing and train him. Noona love story ensues.

So... I have a lot of mixed feelings about it because, all in all, I think this is one of the best cdramas I've watched. It's beautifully shot, the music is incredible, and the pacing, story, characters, and acting are all impeccable. Aside from Meet Yourself (fav ever) it's truly one of the most naturally acted cdramas I've seen so far as well. Even outside the romance part, everything was really good.

Now, was it inappropriate? For me, at least, I think it was. This young student is supposed to be 20, and his coach is said to be about to turn 28. They are both consenting adults (let's put it that way), but the power dynamics thing is still there. Overall, it was a nice surprise, and I completely binged it.

Welcome to Samdal-ri, 2023/24 (kdrama) 9

After a scandal, a famous photographer runs back to her hometown. Her ex, with whom she had an intense fallout (childhood friends to lovers), is there, and it seems like neither of them has moved on. (Also about family, and grief)

From the moment I saw Shin Hye Sun and Ji Chang Wook's pictures next to one another on a tweet saying they were going to be in a new drama together, I knew this was going to be a 10/10 in my books. Maximized joint slay. Add the hometown cha cha cha vibes, and you have an amazing tear-jerker drama. The rest of the cast is a great complement as well; their acting and their stories just make everything really emotional (I cried a lot lol), but it is 100% worth the watch. I'll be honest about one thing, though. As much as I loved it, it took me a while to finish the last two episodes cause I feel like they dragged the story a bit.

Princess Hours/Goong, 2006 (kdrama) 8

In a reimagined modern SK, a girl from an ordinary family gets hitched to the crown prince because of a promise both of their grandparents made in the past. A Diana x Charles x Camilla drama ensues (but like, with a happy ending).

This is what I like to call DRAMA™️. The type you hate everyone's behaviors, and you laugh, and you hate the ML, but you also want him to get with the FL, and you start hate watching, and then you giggle when they share moments and completely forget ML is a really shitty person lol. I started this cause I got sick, and I got way into it. ML being a major asshole and the FL having no self-respect (like the good old dramas and telenovelas) aside, I enjoyed binging this, and I can see why it was so popular. Their romance, though deeply flawed and a product of the time the drama was made, had some great moments, slow burn and natural as well. I was lowkey hoping for a happier ending, tho, but it was cute enough. Also, music bro, that main song is never getting out of my head. Comfort drama material: 100%

Playful Kiss, 2010 (kdrama) 5

FL confesses to ML, and he rejects her harshly. When her house collapses, her father moves them in with an old friend, who ends up being ML's father.

So after Goong, I thought I'd probably be able to watch this. Wrong. Shin's got nothing wrong in comparison so Seung Jo. Seung Jo is probably my most disliked ML ever lol. I binged this, hoping it'd get better, or just like Shin in Goong, he'd change a bit after getting together with FL. But nope, he remained an asshole throughout the whole thing. Gotta love that consistency. Comfort drama material: 1% (I saw the comments on Viki, and I don't know how people rewatched this, lol.)

[rescue-ram]

Finished my rewatch of S1

This has been my first experience binge watching MASH- I don't think I've ever watched more than 4 episodes in a row before, and usually not in order. So it was really interesting actually watching the show this way...

Hawkeye- his characterization stood out to me. While he's definitely not doing a Donald Sutherland impression, his portrayal is closer to movie than late series. Very laconic. In "Bananas, Crackers, and Nuts" there's a line where Frank calls him "a rock" which retrospectively feels like a joke, but in S1 isn't- he's clearly very stable and pretty unflappable.

I actually was tallying the amount of times Trapper and Hawkeye explicitly hook up with nurses and the crimes they commit lol and was surprised by how low the number is for both lol. Between the two of them they hooked up with women in 7 episodes, though they're referenced as doing it more often and they flirt/get shot down/refuse sex a little more often, bringing total up to 12. Only two episodes really featured pranks, which was also surprising

I know Major Fred C. Dobbs is in the running for worst MASH episode but I liked it lol. It was funny and had some quality TrapHawk moments, and the Hawnk kiss at the end made me laugh even as I added it to the rap sheet

Just tallying up the days that pass on screen gets us to just over 3 months, giving me little a hope for my horrible timeline ldkkdjf

I really liked the recurring characters- they didn't have a lot of depth per se but they made things feel fleshed out. It was nice having recurring nurses I could recognize and I will miss my boy Ugly John. God that we lived in the alternate universe where the writers had figured out what to do with Oliver...

Also was thinking about how a lot of the racist moments kinda come from the writers trying to engage in a neutral-to-well-meaning way but alas they were all white guys raised in a white supremacist culture and cannot escape that influence so it comes out horrifically dated, but I think they do try more in the early seasons

I had forgotten what a minor character Mulcahy is in S1. He gets a couple little moments, but I think Margie and Dish have more scenes lol...

Trapper my baby Trapper, he does not necessarily have a lot to do besides be lovable but he does it well. Him providing pediatric care for local kids is deffo going in my note document for Shit Trapper Is Doing lol...

Henry and Radar's relationship 🥹 I really liked both characters, scamp!Radar is so good, and Henry is so funny with these little moments of genuine wisdom and compassion... Good shit

I really liked both Margaret and Frank, not a lot to say beyond that, but they're just so good. Just enough nuance to make 'em pop.

Gaaaaah many more thoughts than I can type, but in conclusion I Love MASH

[brandonxdylan]

Did anyone else ever watch Saved by the Bell: The College Years? I have to admit that I kind of love it, completely unironically. I realize there are lots of people who have a genuine affinity for the original series, and I do too, to an extent, but I haven't really watched that since I was a kid, whereas I get the urge to rewatch the single season of TCY every few years or so. I'm not entirely sure what it is about it that I find so appealing - it's not like it's outrageously funny, and it is occasionally very cringey. For instance, the canned laugh track is legitimately out of control. Anyone who watched the original series would probably have expected this, but considering that this was a prime time sitcom aimed at a slightly older demographic, the (presumably non-existent) studio audience is very vocal for every little thing, and it's a bit much. Also, Zack is truly a sociopath. He was in the original show too of course, probably even more egregiously so, but the fact that this series was going for a more realistic, grounded vibe makes his deranged behaviour stand out even more (although it must also be said that this version of Zack was very much a part of my sexual awakening as a young gay kid, and so I've historically been willing to overlook a lot of that).

But having said all that, I still just find the show to be a lot of fun and actually very comforting. Some of it's nostalgia, because watching stuff like this as a kid gave me a really specific idea of what young adulthood would be like. But it's definitely more than that. There's something about how contrived the whole setup is, and how the nature of it being a sitcom just makes everything feel so predictable and safe in ways that real life never is. The set is a perfect encapsulation of what any kid in the early-mid 90s would see as the perfect dorm room. I legit love the characters, I think they were honestly very well-developed and the chemistry and acting were genuinely great. Tiffani Amber Thiessen, as usual, kills it, even with material that isn't exactly Shakespeare. And I especially love Kiersten Warren. Bob Golic as well is a lot better than I think anyone expected him to be.

Not to get too deep about Saved by the Bell: The College Years (too late), but I guess I just really feel like we fucked up by letting the sitcom become an endangered species. There is nothing like this in the television landscape of the moment, which is almost impressive given how many fucking shows there are across all networks and streaming services. There's nothing this earnestly corny, nothing this stereotypically contrived, nothing this brazenly free of substance. Shows like this weren't afraid to be rose-coloured versions of real life - offering viewers a glimpse at the way they wish life could feel, where familiar struggles were dealt with, but always neatly tied up within 22 minutes. It's not realistic, but that was never the point. Even as I watched the show at 10 years old, fantasizing about how my own college years might be like the ones depicted in this show, I knew that in reality they wouldn't be. I don't think television owes us realism, and in fact I think that a bit of grounded escapism can be a lot more fulfilling and engaging than it gets credit for, and can also offer more catharsis than expected.

It feels like the only sitcoms we get now are a lot more self-aware, and are either so heightened that they forego realism altogether, or are too realistic to be breezy fun. I thought that the recent Saved by the Bell reboot was actually pretty great, but I can't deny that I missed the format of these older series, which didn't feel the need to telegraph that they knew how silly they were. We all knew it was silly. it was like an unspoken agreement between the audience and the show itself. You just don't see that anymore.

I don't know, maybe this just makes me seem old and out of touch. But I can't help that television from before I was born (or at least from before I was old enough to be watching it) just speaks to me in ways that current stuff never seems to. And it's not just because it's old - it's because it embraces a format that speaks to me, despite having long since fallen out of favour. But I can't be the only one who finds legitimate, sincere value in these old shows outside of the nostalgia factor, right?

Anyway, this post was originally about Saved by the Bell: The College Years and I fully went off the rails. Probably because I'm a touch buzzed, so you'll have to forgive my rambling. On the plus side, if this show didn't get cancelled, we probably wouldn't have been graced with TAT on 90210, since she went on to do that show right after TCY was cancelled. When God closes a door, he opens a window. Or something.

[madaims]

I got tagged

Sorry this is a bit late, I've been really poorly. I'm still feeling a bit crappy but fortunately (or unfortunately might be the case here), I've perked up a little bit.

I was tagged by the amazing @eomma-jpeg <3

Last song: Well according to my Spotify, it is Stuck With You by Huey Lewis & The News: Here

This is one of my favourite love songs ever, it's just so cute and catchy.

Currently reading: Bet you can't guess! haha

It's none other than Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Its like my favourite novel ever.

Current fic: Right now I'm reading an Aziraphale/Crowley human AU called Recommended Reading by Feral Tuxedo Here. I've just finished rereading Fledging by them too; another human AU where Aziraphale and Crowley are both single parents. Here

I'm also going to reread In The Meadow (A MillNai fanfic) by @eomma-jpeg again at some point too because it's just gorgeous! Here

Currently watching: I'm not particularly watching anything at the moment, although I'm thinking of rewatching Good Omens season 2 again. Got to do my bit make it get a 3rd season! My angel and demon need their happily ever after!

Next on my watchlist: Hmmmm.... I might probably catch up with the new Rurouni Kenshin anime and My Happy Marriage. Also might watch that One Piece movie just because, (I don't even like One Piece) and catch up with that new season of Ragnarok (that Norwegian norse god show).

Current obsession: It's a bit of both Trigun and Good Omens. Probably more Good Omens right now. Just because when I first watched it, I was going through a real bad patch in my life. It was the one thing I really got into, after reaching a point where I thought I couldn't enjoy anything anymore. It turned my lifeless shell into something a bit more well alive! So it holds a very special place in my heart.

As for Trigun, liking it has led me to re-enter the trepid waters of Tumblr and I've made friends with some really awesome people. One of said people has tagged me in this here thingie. Also, Vash will forever be one of my favourite characters, I see a lot of myself reflected in him. He's always going to be my blorbo, along with Meryl, Milly and Knives (and Wolfwood god rest his soul).

As for my tags I don't have many friends (unless you count all the bots) so I'll just tag the followers I think might be actual people: @veilder @stradivariholmes @suwisuwii and @maulsveenus

Can I also tag @eomma-jpeg again too? Haha

[aprillikesthings]

ugh my wired headphones are still hurting my head >:(

anyway

s3 ep2 huntara

ahahah I love this one

(if you're new here: i'm rewatching She-Ra for fic-writing purposes, and live-blogging my way through them making commentary and jokes and side notes about random shit. bc this is a REwatch there are many references to later plot points)

is that the Beta Kindergarten

(man I've been making a lot of Steven Universe references in these lately, but yeah I can't look at sandstone slot canyons without thinking "hrr hrr where's Jasper")

(wait has a Jasper cosplayer actually taken photos in one of these in like Utah? a quick image search says no. damn.)

how many times did I look at this establishing shot before I realized this part of the Fright Zone is the ruins of a ginormous spaceship

ALSO "day 135"? I noted yesterday that someone working on the show said sOMEWHERE that each season is about a year and I was like "ehhhh" but I guess that's not far off.

That makes the whole catradora arc even more angsty tbh. For some reason I thought the whole show took place over like a single year or so. But FOUR OR FIVE YEARS?? they pined for each other while trying to murder each other for MULTIPLE YEARS????

awwwwww

Listen. I love this ship. I'm always weak for "complete asshole with tough act is soft for one (1) person"

(tho lemme tell you. do not actually date those dudes irl. *sigh*)

why did so many 80's cartoons have extremely unrealistic quicksand scenes tho

gdi adora

The Crimson Waste is actually just a western bar full of furries. But seriously designing the characters in the bar must've been hella fun

AAHAHAAHH Adora being so, so blatantly gay for Huntara is one of my fave things

Did they need to establish that Adora is into women? Pfft, no. Did they still decide to show us Adora being absolutely smitten on sight for an older, big, buff, badass, butchy lady? YES.

Doesn't hurt that she looks likes this lol

like it's the least subtle thing on EARTH i love it so much

oh no now I want to look up fics

18 of them are explicit. well. I'm just gonna. leave that tab open.

ADORA. YOU COCKBLOCKED HER. RUDE.

lol there's a moment where Glimmer and Bow are like "ha ha we need to talk amongst ourselves" and turns around and Adora is still just staring at Huntara with googly eyes without noticing what Bow even said and lemme tell you, I've been that fucking obvious and oblivious

Huntara literally is like "oh my god you kids are gonna end up DEAD without me. FINE." Meanwhile, Adora:

Plot plot Huntara leads them to a trap and they get hit with tranquilizer darts and dropped into a pit.

that's just a nice shot tbh

EAT SOME DAMN SOUP your girlfriend spent TIME on that

she just refuses to be afraid of him

Anyway yeah this is when we find out he's just a clone of Horde Prime the Big Baddy of the series, Hordak is a "defective" clone, he was sent to "the front lines" to die and fell through a portal into Etheria. "with nothing but a broken ship, I built an empire..." the whole point of the portal is to bring Horde Prime through, which means that's what he was doing when he tried before and ended up with A Magic Baby (Adora) instead.

The animation in the flashback is clearly inspired by Lotte Reiniger which is super cool??

Back to the Crimson Waste, they've gotten themselves out of the hole, and Adora's upset because the whole point of this mission is her getting more info about Mara with the hopes of understanding her own past better

she's RIGHT

"...at least to me..."

LISTEN TO YOUR CUTE NERDY GIRLFRIEND YOU EMO BASTARD

She makes him a nice techy exoskeleton armor thingie

that's a start but c'mon I know you can do better than that

lolol the recorder baby critter KICKS HIM in an obvious "dude really????"

look at him!!! AAHAHAH

i'm gonna go over the image limit and tumblr's gonna cut me off and make me reblog this any minute now but this episode is jUST TOO GOOD

"I like being friends with you, too" ;_;

Huntara's "friends" make fun of her for being a softie while she swings the She-Ra sword around and then Glimmer drops in wooo

yeah I know this is a fight scene but eheheheh

and then they banged

okay they kept fighting but like, c'mon

the "sword point under the chin" thing is just so good and I loved the way they did the angles here

OH SHIT I forgot Huntara had heard of She-Ra

OH HO HO HOW THE TURN TABLES

Anyway Huntara does her little speech about how she also used to be a Horde soldier but left because Hordak was such a dick to his soldiers. "you would know, you were one of us."

called THE FUCK OUT

Huntara does her little "you can't defeat the Horde alone even if you're She-Ra" and she responds with "yah I'm not alone tho"

but also that shot is unnecessarily hot

....i've hit the image limit with two minutes to spare so I went back and deleted one because

hggghh

(not gonna get into how Shadow Weaver's face-touching thing is what made Adora do it here but yeah)

Huntara tells her minions to get lost, admits that the war scared the shit out of her and that's why she ran, but she knows that's bullshit and she promises to help Adora stop the war :D and then leads them to the place they were originally looking for: the ruins of Mara's ship!

AND EPISODE OVER

(gonna...see if any of those fics are any good 👀)

[thisbuildinghasfeelings]

Top Tarlos Scenes

Tagged by @strandnreyes ❤️

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and this is where I've ended up for now (we'll see if it changes once I do a complete rewatch):

The Engagement Scene in 3x18

This is simply the scene for me. In the first 24 hours after it aired, I think I watched it at least 50 times, and then averaged about 10 times a day for the next few weeks, then at least a once a day for months. Every single aspect of the scene is perfect. TK petting Carlos' hair to wake him, Carlos and his lizard trauma, the way Carlos starts out confused and sleepy and we can see him gradually realize what's going on and what it means (especially the moment when he kind of sits up and takes a breath--like he's realizing this is serious, it's really happening!), TK calling Carlos his husband before he even proposes, the abundance of soft and affectionate touches between them throughout the whole thing (don't even get me started on TK playing with Carlos' earlobe I will cry 😭), the tears dripping down both their faces, "TYLER CAN I SAY YES NOW", the forehead touch, that KISS...I could go on and on, but I'll stop.

2. The Soulmates Scene in 4x16

Before season 4 started, I assumed that the wedding would end up being my favorite of the season. But that was before I saw the soulmates scene! It's another scene that couldn't be more perfect and is so beautifully acted by both Ronen and Rafa. With the potential of a Huntington's diagnosis, TK is so scared (for very good reason), but what bothers him most is the thought of Carlos having to face it all alone. I love the way the scene progresses. First, Carlos is clearly very concerned and just trying to wrap his mind around what TK is telling him. Then, TK tries to give him an out and Carlos doesn't even get what he means at first. It's so far from anything he would ever consider. Once Carlos sees what TK is getting at, it's almost funny to him that TK would suggest such a thing. Nothing could be more ridiculous. But Carlos knows exactly what to say. This moment is such a perfect encapsulation of the Tarlos journey in season 4--the way they choose each other again and again with so much unconditional love. If he has to, Carlos will introduce himself to TK every day: "Hi. You're TK. I'm Carlos. And we're soulmates." 😭

3. The Wedding--specifically the vows--in 4x18

The one thing I truly wanted from the wedding was to see the vows in their entirety. We got that, and it honestly exceeded my very high expectations. The vows could not have been more perfect. (In fact, I love them so much that I'm currently spending weeks cross stitching them!) I adore so many lines throughout, but my favorite is "I vow to be the caretaker of your wild heart." They both ended their vows with heart 😭

4. The Decision to Postpone the Wedding in 4x18

This scene is the one I'm most obsessed with from the finale. I could not stop watching it in the days after it aired. It's a short scene, but it had a huge impact on me. The way it starts off with TK asking Carlos to come back to bed and offering to rub his back still makes me want to sob. Then we get a "Tyler," and TK knows what Carlos is going to say, and knows how hard it will be to say, so he doesn't make him be the one to say it. The part that gets me the most is Carlos' voice breaking as he says, "You better not," followed by the forehead touch that mirrors the one in 3x18. Even though it's such a sad scene, it's permeated with so much love throughout. It's truly one of the most beautiful scenes.

5. Coma Wakeup->Loft Scene in 3x04

Since these scenes are back-to-back, I've always counted them as one. It seems fair to me, especially when it's already so hard to narrow Tarlos scenes down to a top 5. At this point, "Hey, baby...breathe," is pretty iconic. Waking up from a coma to tell the love of your life to breathe is definitely soulmate level behavior. And then the loft scene just elevates it all. Seeing them so happy together in their home heals all wounds of the breakup and then some! My favorite moment is when TK looks around the loft and you can see him realize that this is real...he really gets to have this. He got scared and blew it up, but in the end that didn't matter because his soulmate, the love of his life, his future husband is there with his unconditional love, prepared to choose TK over and over again, just like TK is prepared to do for him.

No pressure tagging @autistic-lesbian-story-lover @bubblesandroses8 @maxbegone @three-drink-amy @fitzherbertssmolder @lonestardust @wtfuckevenknows @tarlosislife @valerileygreen

[cheerscoops]

I was tagged by the always lovely @sexybabystevie for this get to know your mutuals game. Thanks for the tag, Em! <3

Name(real or alias): Anna, but I've had people call me Banana my whole life - hence the userbanana tag

Age: 31

Country you live in: US

Fandoms: stranger things is the only fandom that I'm really vocally a part of at the moment, but I also love scream, the princess bride, broadway, taylor swift, and books

Why are you on tumblr(writer or reader or both): both. more writing than reading lately though

Favorite thing about yourself: I seem to be good at making the words go most of the time

Something you think you are known for: being the queen of angst and the co-captain of cheerscoops

Who are you in a friend group(partier, mom, talkative, etc): maybe the mom friend? I tend to be the one taking care of everyone else a lot. Just being the designated driver and making sure everyone stays fed and hydrated.

Who do you love the most: the joes <3 I literally cannot choose between the two of them most days

What brought you to tumblr in the first place: I made friends with some people in the eddie munson cult on facebook, and they encouraged me to join tumblr to post the steddie fics I was writing

Is there something you regret doing: not that I can think of

Top five songs: this is so hard for me omfg, but I'm just gonna go with the five songs I've been listening to the most lately - "end of beginning" - djo, "yeah sure whatever" - ben schwartz (don't judge me lol), "here comes the sun" - the beatles, "kamikaze" - jd eicher, "can I shower at yours" - amy shark

If you could go anywhere where would you go: I desperately want to go back to Scotland. it's my most favorite place I've visited, and I want to be back there. also, the cliffs of moher for purely fandom-related reasons

What is your hobby: writing fanfic, video games, literally all the crafty things, reading

Any tv shows you watching: I'm in the middle of a stranger things rewatch actually lol I finished season 2 right before I went to bed last night. other than that, I watch an episode of parks and rec every day during my lunch break at work, and I finally started s2 of the bear with my family last night!!! my biggest obsession right now though is claim to fame. I can't wait for the two hour long finale tonight!!!

What movie did you last watch: I mean, I fell asleep watching spree last night as I do every night, but the last movie I actually watched in full was the super mario bros movie which was surprisingly better than I expected it to be

Last thing you read(book, fanfic, etc): I've been in a reading slump lately just because I haven't had much time for it while getting ready to move, so I think the last thing I read was the second part of @roykentt's cheerscoops fic "tied me to you"

Last text message you got: from my friend who typically hosts our monthly gaming sessions: "no worries!"

Last text message you sent: texted to my friend from the last question lol: "Gonna be slightly late. Tried to get some packing done this morning and lost track of the time. I'll be leaving to head your way in the next 5 minutes"

Any pets: a pitbull/hound mix of some sort named Bogart. he's 107 lbs of baby who thinks he's a lap dog and I love him muchly

anyone who sees this and wants to do it can say that I tagged them. I feel like I'm being annoying when I tag too many people, but I'd love it if any of my moots did this <3

[journal-69]

5/29/2024

12:15 pm, the morning started with sun, but as the day creeps in the sky has clouded over. Today I woke up a bit late as I went to see a movie at 10 and then stayed up late talking to boys on Grindr. Currently I'm writing sitting at the kitchen table. The roommates have gone to work so I'm playing music loud and wandering around with ease. "Lucy Takes a Picture" by Youth Lagoon is currently playing.

Today I'm feeling moved by the movie I saw last night. at 10 pm I went to a showing of, "I Saw the TV Glow". The longer I sit with the movie the more I feel a connection to the story. It's been a long time since I've seen something that reminded me of the way I felt in junior high and high school. I so badly wanted to be outside of my own body, be the people I saw through the screen or online. The surreal nature of myself imagining scenarios that were me but not quite mine. I remember playing moments in my head how I wish I would have done things or just creating fantasy to escape. The thing I immediately noticed in the film was the lighting. The boy walks towards the girl reading a book and is lit from behind with a strong red glow. It's one of those opening scenes that really pulls you into the universe. It felt like a place or a feeling you know but it's not quite yours. There were parts where I felt quite emotional and nostagic but I do feel I need to rewatch it to get a better sense of it all... lots to process.

It makes me feel fortunate I got out of the town I grew up in. At times I felt like there was no one and nothing for me and if I didn't leave I would die. In a way I guess that's why I feel such a connection to the film. You can suffocate if you don't push yourself to exist in your truest form. It felt as though he never truly believed in himself and his power and thus the big bad got him in the end.

I am thankful I push myself and I hope that my energy I send the people I want to push themselves further is received. I want my mum to feel as though she can do anything she ever wanted. I want her to know her power and live her life in the way that she feels proud of herself everyday, I know am proud of her. She finds ways to embody herself more every single day. I want the same for my dad, and my brother, and my aunties, and cousins. I want it for everyone out there.

It's hard to leave a thing you know, the comfort and the security. Even if something might feel good at times. So many of us stay in these paths that are toxic for us, toxic relationships, jobs, towns. I want my mom to move away closer to her family. I want my brother to learn to communicate with our dad. And I want my dad to live in love and bliss and not in anger and unrest. I hope we can all find ways to communicate and nourish each other before it's too late, but hopefully that's not too soon.

Enough said, there is always much to worry about, but even more to love. Today I get to do things I love. I am writing, I am seeing my dear friend, moving my body, sharing delicious treats with people I love and I am existing in a body I am thankful to have.

[elinorwritesstuff]

I forgot that I sent you these messages a while ago. Because of that, I had to reread my message before. And, of course, too many errors on my part. I really hate noticing grammatical errors in my messages.

Sadly.. No. I've been distracted by some personal affairs happening in my life since the last time we talked. I'm still in the "research" phase in my writing. I write down notes any time ideas come to mind but I just haven't actually written any part of my story (for any fandom). But I'm wanting to. I blame personal events happening in life at the moment.

I'm most likely going to now. Like I already told you.. Asperger's is just one of my diagnoses. And I know for some autistic people, there are a lot who mask their autism to seem "normal" for people who may even judge them. I was never like that. I was the person who believed that I should be accepted who for I am, including my flaws (flaws being any disabilities I have in this situation). I never wasted my time pretending to be someone else. And, in a way, I feel the same way about fictional characters in my own story. I know original characters are often some idealized version of whoever you'd want that character to be. Well.. So maybe. Depends on the character. I don't know if this makes sense to anyone else. But I feel like I can't pretend to be a normal neurotypical person even if I tried, even for characters. Because I'm not "normal" in any way. At least based on what has been said to me before. Because I also tend to have conflicted feelings about myself, because of who I am as a disabled person.. Writing a disabled character may even help feel differently about myself. And if this character is involved in some relationships (romantic and platonic) with canon characters, that just might also help with accepting yourself in different ways in that way. Find ways to write yourself in characters that can be more self-loving, more accepting of yourself if you have mixed feelings about yourself.

If it wasn't already obvious.. I tend to have conflicted feelings about who I am as a person. So this could also be self healing in some ways. My feelings depend on how I'm feeling that day. Like today, I've really feeling completely self-loathing about myself in every way possible.

Exactly! That's how I feel. If I see an extremely accurate portrayal of a disabled character, either that person has that or is knowledgeable of their research. But then there are portrayals of disabled characters in media that are so horrible isn't even close to that specific disability. And then there are situations where the disabled character in written horribly, but you enjoy the character because of how the actor would portray that character. Which has happened a few times for me.

That's fine.

The Gangsta. fandom is how I found you. I've read most of the story, and I'll have to go back into reading it again soon too. Because I tend to enjoy a lot of interesting series that have smaller fandoms way too often. Not the first time that happened. The series should be so much more popular than it is. And I don't know why it isn't either.

I'm not a fast reader. So if there is ever a time when I'm watching this foreign show or movie, I have to rewatch a couple times to fully grasp what was said or done. Pausing, rewinding and pausing, rewatching a foreign media that I have interest in.. That has to be done a few times for me. If I watched it a lot, then I won't always have to worry because I've rewatched it enough times to know what happens in the series.

Okay, here's another six-month-late ask response. And I feel bad because I reply to your messages literally in my head when I read them, and then I take forever to write them down.

Okay so OF COURSE you found me through Gangsta; thinking back to your first ask it makes so much more sense. I will tell you a secret. The day before your first ask, someone liked a bunch of my DMC fics, and then I got my first ever follower on this blog and it was someone with a very similar handle, so I just kinda assumed it was you. I am not an L level detective.

And Kohske is such a great example of like, she isn't deaf like Nic (I don't think she has hearing loss, at least), but I know that she has a chronic illness (I think it's a form of lupus), and I feel like that affects how she writes twilights and makes them a much more interesting portrayal of the "I have super powers and also a disability" type character. Like, not to knock Daredevil, but instead of "I have a disability and a superpower that conveniently helps me deal with it," it's like, "I have super soldier powers, but also a chronic illness that sucks and affects me like it would anyone else." Like I want to believe that really good authors can do a great job writing outside their experience, but I also think her own experience must be part of why she's so good at writing her particular story. And the fact that she did such a good job with Nic made it much easier to jump in as a hearing person and write him.

Speaking of L, and what you're saying about not writing neurotypical characters, like I just want to throw it out there that I want to read works about autistic characters (canon or OC) written by autistic people. Like not just autistic characters specifically, I want to read characters with all sorts of things outside my experience. But like, I'm neurodivergent but not autistic (I was confused about whether I was neurodivergent for a long time, but apparently PTSD is "acquired neurodivergence," meaning that it comes from how life has affected my brain, and that explains why I have half the symptoms of ADHD and not the other half. But I'm going on a tangent.), and also selfishly I have some probably-autistic characters I want to write some day (I dream of writing an L/OC fic, and there's also a character from an otome I like that I want to write), and I've found the best way to learn to write something outside of your experience is to read things written by people who actually have that experience. So go write! (I mean if that's something you want to do right now.

And I really like what you said about the idea of writing canon characters accepting your OC as a way to help accept yourself.

[georgieluz]

Maxi???? What a basic choice (jks) my faves were mouse, matt dee and bisho lmao . I feel like leckie or sledge would get stuck in the tower for sure and everyone would just be howling. Leckie would bog the fucking buggy, forget just knocking the garage door off, and then refuse help to dig it out. Jay on shark duty would be so fucking funny, clinging to the jet ski for dear fucking life while someone is like its just a shark its not gonna eat you. I feel like chuckler defo has a picture of him fake kissing a dead shark or something like that one episode. Or snaf doing a jethro dislocated shoulder green whistle moment, high as a fucking kite just mumbling bullshit. Harries/AckAck sat in the tower with a lil lost kid is <333 paternal instincts kicking in. All lost kids/mums/drunk beachgoers/eddie love him. Hes rescuing sharks from the pool. Hes dressed as santa on the beach (?????). Hes in love with david hasselhoff.

The iron man challenge would be so competitive. Everyone (snaf) would fuck with each other like how they lubed up one of the boards. Snaf gives me Jessie vibes especially when he goes and surfs the massive swell on lunch break like nbd. Or when he is like “oh I can totally catch a rat no problem yous are all pussies” and it backfires. Ugh so many things u are a genius for connecting the two

Noo I used to watch it all the time. Then they started uploading episodes to utube and it was like bang lets go rewatch em all. Such good trashy TV. Shame more people don’t watch it

damn, anon </3 maxi rights!!

it's not rly about favourites in that instance tho, tbh, it's more about the sheer amount of episodes he's in and how much i've watched lately, like i've watched so much that both him and harries in a dress have appeared in my dreams lmao.. but that aside, i do like maxi a lot actually.. the firefighter thing definitely helps lol, like maybe it's basic but how am i gonna say no to stanning a firefighter-lifeguard hybrid.. like c'mon i'm gay, it's gonna work on me! i also think his work educating families about water safety is really nice too.

i don't think i have an official list of faves, i'd need to think about it more, but mouse is definitely one of my favourites too! top 3 for sure! the episode with him and matt dee having opposite extremes of good/bad luck was so funny! and i always love it when he appears in an episode. i really like gonzo, deano, chappo, and bagus too... bagus always makes me laugh, like you think he's gonna be all laddish but then he's actually not?? like he's funny and jokes around but then he has little moments where he's very open and i don't wanna say vulnerable bc that's a bit too deep for what i'm actually talking about lol, but like he doesn't try to act all like he knows everything or like he's a bigshot or whatever. idk. it's just refreshing? he reminds me of someone i know irl as well, so i feel like that probably helps. mario was so adorable too, he was definitely one of my faves. and i would say that i like harrison quite a bit too.. like he's gone from the sweet somewhat naive newbie to a pretty funny dude, so yeah, i do like him too. deano has such big dad energy, but like a dad who plays practical jokes on his kids, but who is also really wholesome. i really liked him in the bali episodes. there are a few others who i like too, but who haven't been in it as much, or i haven't seen the eps that they're in more of, so i don't feel like i know them well enough to call them my favourites yet.

poor jay on net duty, like i 100% can see it so clearly. just clinging onto the back of the jetski, refusing to get in the water, whilst whoever he's with is like "ohhh i think i spotted one!"

and snafu on the green whistle, ABSOLUTELY!! he would be talking sooooo much shit lmao but tbh his personality is kinda green whistle vibes already so would it even be that noticeable lol

i was watching the episode where he rescues the baby shark just the other night actually... very ack ack coded! can def imagine ack ack soaking up the love and attention of all the kids and families, and eddie standing to the side affectionately rolling his eyes.

i feel like snafu and burgie together would get up to A LOT of jesse antics! just imagine the two of them trying to get the rat out of the skate bowl.. absolute disaster.

right???? sometimes the world just needs a good trashy tv show that isn't a dating show bc we do not need any more of those, my god, but this type of trashy reality (or "factual" as they call it) tv.. yes please!