#Leave it to beaver full episodes

[spacefinch]

Wild Field Trips headcanons: the Frogwater Pond Gang

(this is for my Wild Kratts/Magic School Bus crossover AU if you're curious)

First of all, the so-called Frogwater Pond Gang consists of the following kids: Gavin, Ronan, Jenny, Katie, Aidan, and Nolan.

HC's for each of the kids:

Jenny:

The second oldest of the gang.

Full name: Jennifer Kitt

Likes to watch birds.

Favorite animal: raccoon

Sometimes her friends and family affectionately call her "Jenny Wren." Out of the MSB kids, Phoebe does it the most often.

She never leaves home without her purple backpack or her pink tennis shoes.

In her backpack: acorns, a pocket bird guide, Fig Newtons, a notebook & pencil, extra hair ties, a water bottle, a guide to mammals, and a raccoon plushie.

Biracial (need more HCs on that)

Has two siblings, one older and one younger. I have not thought of names or personalities for said siblings.

Keeps button quails as pets. For the non-bird-experts reading this, button quails are not actually quail. They are in the order Charadriiformes, making them shorebirds.

Gavin:

The oldest of the Frogwater Pond Gang.

Full name: Gavin Johnson

Favorite animal: Largemouth Bass

"Average fourth/fifth grader knows at least 10 species of fish and their biology" factoid is actually a statistical error. Fishes Gavin, who spends all his summer free time fishing, reading about fish, or visiting the aquarium, is an outlier and should not have been counted.

Proud owner of two fishing trophies. The first one is the third-place trophy he won in the contest prior to "Bass Class." And the second is obviously the one he got in the actual episode.

He gets along really well with his little brother Ronan, and his cousins Aidan and Nolan. In fact, you'd think he has three younger brothers instead of just one!

As seen in the "Animals Who Live to Be 100 Years Old" episode, his weapon of choice is a broomstick.

Ronan:

Three years younger than Gavin, and two years younger than Jenny.

Full name: Ronan Johnson

Favorite animal: Wild Turkey (but blue jays are a close second)

Likes playing soccer, hockey, and other field sports.

Most likely to find a weird bug or critter and bring it home. It happened with the milk snake AND the praying mantis egg case.

For the purposes of this AU, Gavin and Ronan's last name is "Johnson" and so are their cousin's last names.

Favorite book series is The Lord of the Rings, which his parents read to him and his brother.

Named his pet hognose snake "Tolkien." Which led to this exchange over email one time.

"Tolkien is having his first ever egg. It's. Not going well."

"TOLKIEN IS A SNAKE. HE'S MY SNAKE. MY PET SNAKE. HE IS EATING AN EGG. AUTHOR JOLKIEN ROLKIEN ROLKIEN TOLKIEN IS NOT BIRTHING AN EGG."

(Gavin told him that J.R.R. Tolkien's full name was "Jolkien Rolkien Rolkien Tolkien" and Ronan believed it for an embarrassingly long time.)

Katie:

About the same age as Jenny.

Full name: Katherine Akiyama

Favorite animal: Pileated Woodpecker

Loves being out in the snow. (Favorite activity: sledding!)

She's the one who had the idea to build a tree house in the backwoods.

Enjoys drawing and writing.

I headcannon her as Japanese-American, but I don't know what else to do with that hc.

She speaks a little bit of Japanese, but not much.

Her other favorite animal is the snowshoe hare.

The name "Frogwater Pond Gang" for her friend group was also her idea. (All the friend groups in her favorite books had cool names, so her ACTUAL group of friends needed one, too.)

100 percent a daddy's girl.

Aidan

The third oldest of the gang (After Gavin and Jenny, in that order).

Full name: Aidan Johnson

Favorite animal: American Beaver

Co-founder of the "Creature Club" alongside Katie. (They meet in the tree house that Katie's dad built.)

He and his family moved to the Frogwater Pond area a few years before his little brother Nolan was born. (And a few years before the pond even existed!)

Has a pet hamster. (This is actually canon, but I don't remember if the hamster canonically has a name.)

Nolan

The youngest of the gang. (Five years younger than Aidan)

Full name: Nolan Johnson

Favorite animal: Box Turtle

Very energetic, always ready to go on an adventure.

Often imitates his big brother and older cousins.

Other notes:

Jenny, Katie, and Aidan are about the same age as Mikey (Carlos's younger brother) and Evan (DA's younger sister) in this AU. It's an interesting dynamic, since you have:

Eldest sibling (Aidan)

Middle children (Mikey and Jenny)

Youngest sibling (Evan)

Only child (Katie)

In addition to Tolkien the snake, Gavin and Ronan also have a pet cat named Lightfoot. She's a tortoiseshell with white paws, like socks.

The first MSB kids that the Frogwater Pond Gang met were Phoebe and Ralphie, who come to their neck of the woods almost every summer.

More on the cats:

Lightfoot (named after Gordon Lightfoot) is one of Brandy's kittens. The others are Joxter (currently living with the Terese-Tennelli family), Cleo (currently living with Katie), and Scotty (currently living with Uncle Brian).

Backstories for the other cat's names: Brandy is named after the song "Brandy, You're a Fine Girl," Joxter is named after the character in the Moomins series, Scotty is named after the Star Trek character, and Cleo got her name from a song that Katie's dad used to sing to her.

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s3 ep 22: Real Life

Another Doctor episode that somehow didn't end up making me like him any better. While it was meant to humanize him, he didn't end up altering his backward attitudes much, and it was a huge downer at the end. It just made me sad, more than anything.

The Doctor creating a holographic family for himself in an attempt to be more human is an interesting idea, but despite living on a ship full of real people, he for some reason thinks that a family is some sort of 1950s 'Leave It To Beaver' nonsense. It seems far fetched for the Doctor to have even encountered the sort of 'Father Knows Best' attitudes he displays here, since they would be way out of step with the 24th century society Star Trek presents. Though the actors are very good, and the over-the-top sacchariness of the opening scene is funny, it makes the Doctor look very self-absorbed to design such a subservient adoring famliy for himself that lives only to praise him.

When he invites B'Elanna and Kes to meet his holo family, B'Elanna calls him out on his gross old timey attitudes, and offers to adjust the program to be more realistic. When she does, and the Doctor gets confronted with children that argue and cry, and a spouse who has her own life outside of him, the Doctor clings to his weird 1950s attitudes and attempts to rule over them by telling them what they are and aren't allowed to do, which obviously doesn't work. Though it's a valuable lesson for the Doctor to learn, it feels anachronistic that he would have these attitudes to begin with, especially the edict that his holo son isn't allowed to have anymore Klingon friends- um, wtf?! I could understand if he'd said, 'you're not allowed to see these friends, specifically, because of your behavior when you're with them', but 'no Klingon friends, Klingons are bad and violent!' is just... insanely racist. The Federation has been allies with the Klingons for a while at this point- that someone would program a medical hologram with such backward attitudes, and that Starfleet would give it a pass, is just plain bad. Idk why Voyager displayed such crappy attitudes toward Klingons when Next Gen and DS9 spent so much time and effort expanding Klingon culture and lore so well. (My suspicion: misogyny. Worf's Klingonness was always something wonderful and noble that everyone respected, whereas B'Elanna's Klingonness was often presented as an obstacle to be overcome. The message is very clear: it's cool for men to be Klingon, but for women it's 'too much'. Smells like sexism to me.)

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew is busy investigating a series of spacial anomalies in the hopes of harvesting some energy from them. In the middle of this, we have a cute scene in the mess hall where Tom catches B'Elanna reading a romance novel, and decides to read it too, so he'll know what she's into in the future. (Knowing Tom, he'd probably dress up and roleplay it with her- idk why Tom has so many haters, he's doing it right! If I met someone who'd read my silly escapist romance fiction so they could better act out my fantasies with me, I'd marry them on the spot!) They have a Bogie-and-Bacall-ish exchange of very obvious double entendres, but their cute flirty scene is interrupted by the appearance another spacial anomaly. Back on the bridge, they try to figure out how to get close enough to it to collect the energy without damaging Voyager.

Tom ends up taking a shuttle, and getting trapped in the eye of the anomaly, which has some gorgeous visual effects that look like a glowing sunset. It's one of the best cgi effects they've done. His shuttle is nearly destroyed on the way out, but Voyager gets him out with only minor injuries, which send him to sick bay. The Doctor gives him an angry lecture about his reckless thrill seeking, and Tom realizes that the Doctor is upset about something other than him. He admits to Tom that his holographic daughter suffered an injury playing Parises Squares, and is about to die. The Doctor shut down the program and plans not to go back ever again. Tom once again steps up with compassion and insight that he rarely gets credit for, and tells the Doctor that if he wants to truly understand what family means, he has to take the bad as well the good. He urges him not to give up on the program and end up stuck in that moment forever, but to face it, and say goodbye to his daughter, and find solace in grieving with his family, the same way the Voyager crew find strength and comfort in adversity together.

The Doctor goes back, and it's one of the most utterly heartbreaking death scenes you will ever see in any Star Trek episode. The child actress who plays his daughter does an absolutely amazing job portraying her fear and panic so convincingly, I cannot watch her without crying. The Doctor shows the most genuine concern and sensitive bedside manner he's ever displayed to anyone as he tells her that she's dying, and stays by her side. His wife and son come to be with her too, and the three of them are there together when she dies. It doesn't matter that they're holograms, it's an unbearably painful scene, wherein the Doctor learns an extremely hard lesson about what living a real life means. The episode ends on the three of them crying over her body, and it's just... a lot. It's so sad, and it's such an emotional wallop to end on that. This is one of those ones you really have to take a bit of time to emotionally recover from afterward.

The one thing that takes away from the ending is knowing the Doctor doesn't continue with his family program ever again after this. I get why they didn't, from a Doylist perspective- it would be a lot more work to add two more characters to give him the wife and son throughout the show, but it feels like a bit of a let down that the Doctor abandons it after fighting so hard to get through the worst of it. Still, it's an important character study piece for him. I'm just not sure I want to be that emotionally devastated for the sake of the Doctor's character development, which I actually feel kind of stagnated, and even went backwards, over the run of the show.

Tl;dr: This story was well acted and had some good things to say, but I feel like it didn't actually do enough to make the Doctor a better person to justify the emotional wallop it hits us with at the end. Well done, but a downer.

[journalofawinchester]

It's Coming! Next Week - I Promise

I will be starting to blog regular, detailed posts of the progress from start to ongoing to finish of creating an as close to screen accurate as possible 99% hand written replica of the infamous John Winchester Supernatural Journal.

I have been extremely busy collating/researching and deep diving into all corners of the web to painstakingly piece everything together.

It's coming along very nicely.

The first post regarding the Journal I am hoping to publish next week. Not entirely sure which day quite yet as both myself and partner work full time and have busy lives with 2 children...but I promise it is coming and I hope you'll like it!

With the wait in the balance I wanted to share our recent experience at the recent Comic Con Wales which we attended on Saturday 10th August this year; and met the one and only Jensen Ackles; along with his Wife Danneel Ackles as well as DJ Qualls (Garth); Samantha Smith (Mary) and Mark Sheppard (Crowley)

It was a great eventful day and we really enjoyed ourselves...so much so that we have booked again to go in November, to Comic Con Liverpool to meet all the Supernatural Guests - Alaina Huffman (Abbadon), David Haydn-Jones (Ketch), Felicia Day (Charlie), Jake Abel (Adam), Jensen Ackles (Dean), Jim Beaver (Bobby) and Mark Pellegrino (Lucifer).

Hopefully the Journal will be completed enough by then for some autographs from the cast :)

I'll leave you with the Comic Con Wales photos and a just a teasy sneak peak at my Wendigo Page of the Journal. I created this page after what can be deciphered from Season 1, Episode 2 (Wendigo) and Season 1, Episode 10 (Asylum); along with great help and credit to @creatingjohnwinchestersjournal and @waywardjournal

Until Next Week! :) ....

[jbird5by5]

Saddened to learn of the passing of Actress Phyllis Coates (1927-2023)

Phyllis Coates, the first Lois Lane television ever saw, has died.

She was 96.

The actress died on Oct. 11 of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills

The actress first appeared in the first full-length feature film to star the DC hero, 1951's dark Sci-fi movie Superman and the Mole Men, the success of which soon led to a syndicated television series, Adventures of Superman. Coates portrayed the journalist for 26 episodes before departing the series at the conclusion of the first season.

She was replaced by Noel Neill, who had played the character in previous Superman Columbia serials, and the show lasted another five seasons.

Born January 15,1927 in Wichita Falls, Texas, Phyllis Coates moved to Hollywood as a teenager with intentions of enrolling at UCLA. A chance encounter with Ken Murray in a Hollywood & Vine restaurant landed her in the comedian's vaudeville show. She started out as a chorus girl and worked her way up to doing skits before moving on to work for veteran showman Earl Carroll and later touring with the USO. Coates got some of her first motion picture experience in comedy short subjects at Warner Brothers and then graduated to roles in early '50s films. After a one-season stint with the Man of Steel (George Reeves on Adventures of Superman (1952)), she began to divide her time among TV, B-movie assignments and serials at Republic.

Throughout her career, she'd be seen in series like The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, and Leave It to Beaver, and in 1994 appeared as Lois Lane’s mother in an episode of ABC’s Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. She also appeared in several classic films, like I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and Girls in Prison, The Incredible Petrified World and Panther Girl of the Kongo. She also appeared in the film Invasion U.S.A. (1952) with future Lois Lane Actress Noel Neill.

My Condolences to Family and Friends.

#R.I.P. 😔🙏🥀

[miceysfandomcreations]

DHMIS Episode 9, and the Nuclear Family

I wrote a video essay script for a class. Tagging @littlemoondarling Here it is:

Visuals, text, [length/minutes]

Loop the DHMIS series opening over and over

Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared is a tv series based on the viral internet videos of the same name. It is known for its surreal horror, zany humor, and medium blending in a package of a supposed kids show. From puppets to animation to live action. The original YouTube series could be considered a quintessential part secret-kids-media-not-what-it-seems-not-clickbait genre of horror, like Five Nights at Freddy. While I subscribe to the theory - 

Game Theory’s DHMIS original series videos thumbnails float across the screen

That the original series was about the corruption of children’s television by executives and advertisers, this new series seems more interested in the characters. It also has more to say about a wide variety of topics. This leads to today’s video: Family.

[ 1.2 min.]

Switch to a frame of the family song from episode 9

Loop to job montage from episode 1

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared’s world is a broken, nightmarish world where things don’t make sense wrapped up in bold, primary colors. It is through this usage of surrealism, that it points out the hypocrisy of real-life societal systems. Things may not be this way one-to-one, but it sure feels this way. For example, in episode one, Red Guy snags an upper management job and ends up not having to do anything, like picking up trash, because the trash bin does it for him. Or how the Duck doesn’t mesh well with the workplace,

Loop Care Hound song visuals 

so he gets sent to the ‘care hound’, fed a song that makes no sense, fed some pills, and when none of that works, gets confronted with this:

Show Care Hound

And gets turned into a happy little office drone. Now get back to work!

[1.2 minutes]

Back to family song

In episode 9, DHMIS applies this level of fantastical lampooning to the concept of the family, or more specifically, the nuclear family. At the start of the episode, our three intrepid heroes try to open a family bag of chips. Then, these two:

Show Todney and Lily

Proceed to interrupt them and claim they can’t have those chips, because they aren’t a family. The protagonists proceed to argue against them, saying that they either fulfill parental roles (even if they can’t agree on who the dad is), that they all live together and share the same lawyer, and Yellow Guy even has a biological dad. 

Show Roy

These two don’t like those arguments, and say that a family requires  “a full set”. They proceed to sing a weird little song on what supposedly makes up a family, like having a landline. They song is supposed to spell out FAMILY, but actually it spells out this:

Frame where Duck spells it out

[1.2 minutes]

Go to clips of T&L’s house

Anywoo, the twins take the three to their house to meet their family. Red Guy tries to find his own family, AKA people who are red like him. Duck goes back and sings about he doesn’t want to be in a family (he secretly does). Yellow Guy gets coerced into being the twin’s family mother so they could qualify for a family discount for a tub of chicken. Yellow Guy’s father, Roy shows up to save the day and is implied to eat that broken nuclear family. The gang reunites, and open their family sized pack of chips, only to see that there are only two left.

Intersperse with clips of mentioned plot beats

There are many things to take away about DHMIS episodes, just look at the vibrant theory community surrounding the show. From the way I see it, this episode is about the pitfalls of not only striving for a nuclear family, but also performing as one.

Photos of TV nuclear families

Todney and Lily’s designs call back to an American TV era starting in the 1950s, of shows centered around a traditional nuclear family. Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best, The Brady Bunch. Breadwinner husband, stay-at-home wife, 2-3 kids, and a house in the suburbs. According to PBS’s The Rise of American Consumerism, the traditional nuclear family structure had its boom in the 1950s, with the baby boom and post-war economic opportunities. And within that boom came consumerism, AKA the way to do a nuclear family ‘right’. According to the article:

“Consumer spending no longer meant just satisfying an indulgent material desire. In fact, the American consumer was praised as a patriotic citizen in the 1950s, contributing to the ultimate success of the American way of life.”

If you wanted the ‘right’ domestic life, you had to have cars, TV, fridges, toasters, vacuum cleaners, and of course, traditional gender roles.

[3.2 min]

Go back to family song and family rules frames

DHMIS criticizes these arbitrary rules for familihood through this twisted sort of nuclear family and the junk they consider to be quintessential for a family, even disqualifying the actual family members. I mean, it’s the 2020s, how many of you guys have a landline?

Go back to episode climax

The climax, where we learn the family’s nefarious plans, can even be a commentary on how our societal systems reward traditional family structures, while leaving those who aren’t in nuclear households in the dust. 

Stock footage of homes

For example, home ownership. According to the Tax Advisor, the number of people cohabiting together is increasing, but because they don’t have an official document stating they’re married, home ownership tax laws become infinitely more complicated. And let’s not get into taxes in general for nontraditional families.

Episode ending footage

You can even take the ending, in which a family sized pack of chips only yields two, to be a commentary on the rising costs of living and supporting a family, even when it is nuclear. According to CNN, the average cost of a middle-income household to raise a child to age 17 has soared to over 300000 dollars thanks to inflation. Given the current economic situation, we’ll probably see more households with nontraditional living structures will probably increase as time goes on.

DHMIS opening footage

So what does DHMIS say about this? Well, it’s quite simple. You shouldn’t need to kidnap people or give your blood to a tree to be a family. Sometimes, all it is, are three people who care for each other, stick together, and share a lawyer.

[3 minutes]

[total time: 9.8 minutes]

Works Cited

Kelly, Claudia. et al. “Tax Issues for Nontraditional Households.” The Tax Adviser, 1 Apr. 2017, 

www.thetaxadviser.com/issues/2017/apr/tax-issues-nontraditional-households.ht

ml. Accessed 14 Nov. 2023.

Maruf, Ramishah. CNN, “It Now Costs More than $300,000 to Raise a Child, Thanks to 

Inflation.” CNN, 

www.cnn.com/2022/08/29/success/child-raising-costs-rise/index.html. Accessed

 14 Nov. 2023.

PBS. “The Rise of American Consumerism | American Experience | PBS.” Pbs.org, 

WGBH Educational Foundation, 2019, 

www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tupperware-consumer/. 

Accessed 14 Nov. 2023.

[heckyeahladylovelylocks]

German Audio Play, Episode 8

Thanks again to user Alarda on LadyLovelyLocks.org for posting this, though we only have the synopsis for this, episodes 1-4 have full english transcripts :)

This episode is called “The Magical Forest Burns”

Synopsis:

“It starts with Matti and Tatzel walking trough the Forest into the direction of the swamp on a nasty rainy day. Their reception at home was not a very friendly one, after hearing what they've done. The Lady has even got ill after her child had been taken away from her. So, they try to find their way to Rah's nest, while Duchess RavenWaves and the witch Lazulila are celebrating that all has gone so well with the kidnapping of Lady LovelyLocks' child. For that "little joke" as they refer to it, Lazulila promises her, to rebuild the castle of StrongHeart's father for her at midnight. In the swamps, Matti and Tatzel have met Knabberjahn, who knows the whole story already, and promises them to show them the way to Rah's nest. They're almost there, as they see Rah approaching. They hide and are to afraid to come out of their hiding place - and when Knabberjahn wants them to go on, they've fallen asleep. At midnight, Lazulia rebuilds the castle as promised. But something goes wrong- the whole building is terribly lopsided. In the morning she sends a letter to Castle LovelyLocks through the Comb Gnomes, saying that Lady LovelyLocks and Prince StrongHeart will only get their daughter back if they hand over the Land of Light to her. ShiningGlory and Prince StrongHeart agree to not telling the Lady about this, because she is already very ill, but StrongHeart swears to get revenge upon the Duchess. Daylight has returned to the Swamp as well, and Matti and Tatzel awake to find Knabberjahn gone - and the golden egg as well. They decide to go home and tell the others that they suppose that Rah has his egg back. It takes them all day to get back to the Magical Forest, because they get lost several times. Not sure of their reception, and if they will get anything to eat at all, they decide to roast some corn-cobs. Then Rah's back overhead again, and they run back to the Forest - leaving the fire burning... As they realize they've forgot it, it is already too late: the undergrowth as already caught fire.Meanwhile, Lady LovelyLocks has woken from a terrible dream. She saw the Magical Forest burning and lots of animals and Trolls swimming in the Misty River. She wants to know what has happened to them and goes to ShiningGlory. Prince StrongHeart comes looking for her not much later, having found only her empty bed. The two can't avoid the Lady's questions any more and have to tell her about the Duchess blackmail. After a while, Lady LovelyLocks remembers her dream, and ShiningGlory takes a look into his crystal ball, seeing, that the Magical Forest it truly burning. But the fire is not magical, so he can't put it out, except with rain clouds, but he doesn't really needs too: the beavers flooded the Forest with water from the swamp and the Nebelmoog has put mist over the Forest, so the fire is out very quickly.Matti and Tatzel tell the other animals, that they are responsible for the fire, and that they're sorry, and want to make up for it. Most of the animals accept that, and aren't angry. Later Knabberjahn tells Matti and Tatzel that he has given the egg back to Rah, and that he has been very understanding. After having heard this, the Lady asks Prince StrongHeart to go and bring their daughter back. He promises her that he will and the MC ends with him riding away to keep his promise very early the next day.”

[baronvonkrieger]

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966)

For today's October film, I chose another film that cemented my love for spooky old houses. "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" was released in 1966, and since that was about the time "Munsters Go Home" was released, they often were a double bill together. This was one of five films Don Knott's made for Universal, where he plays an underdog, who ends up proving himself, in spite of himself. In this case, the old Simmons House is a known murder house, where a couple died twenty years earlier, and the nephew of the man who died there, wants it bulldozed as soon as possible. The popularity of a three inch filler piece about the murder at the Simmons house written by Knott's character Luther, leads to the publisher of the paper having Luther spending the night, after which a full story of how haunted Luther finds the home, creates a sensation with the local Spiritual group, which means the Nephew who was looking forward to bull dozing the house, is now finding himself at odds with a spiritualist who blocks his efforts. By the films end, we find out why the Nephew was so determined to have the house flattened. Don Knotts is great as Luther, but two things that really contribute to my love of this film, is the musical score, and the Simmons house. The music is by Vic Mizzy, who wrote the Addams Family theme song, as well as the musical score for the series. Then there is the house, which is located on Colonial Street at Universal Hollywood. That the house resembles the Bates House from Psycho, is that the tower on the house, was removed from this facade, and placed on the facade of the Psycho house. There are some episodes of "Leave it to Beaver", where this facade can be seen without the tower. By 1966, the a reconstruction of the tower was back on the facade, and much more recently the facade was used as the home of Elvira's Aunt Morgana in "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark"(1988). As a child (I was nine when this film came out) It really bothered me that someone wanted to demolish this fascinating old house, and it was one of the reasons I became a preservationist.

[definitelynotplanetfall]

when i was a kid i was convinced that leave it to beaver was called that because it had a character who could transform into a beaver.

this was exacerbated by the fact that we did not get tv land and did not watch a lot of tv in general, so opportunities to verify this were not forthcoming. occasionally there would be snippets of it when we went on vacation, but my parents always wanted to turn it off and for some reason refused to say why. they just sort of gave off this air that it was bad or sinister, and it baffled me why they were happy to plow so many hours into boring drivel like the andy griffith show but so avoidant of the mysterious forbidden show where people could shapeshift into woodland creatures. (and like, of course i never saw that happen because i never saw a full episode. it was an old tv show! they weren't going to do the beaver thing in the first half, that's not how things were paced back then, they probably didn't even have the budget to do it in every episode, etc.)

similarly my dad hated the song "john jacob jingleheimer schmidt," probably because it was annoying and stupid, but he denied that that was the reason, i was like four and i said something like "what, is it annoying?" and he just shook his head and gave this pained look like he didn't want to explain the birds and the bees to a four year old, but also that it was somehow dirty and lowbrow and he was disappointed that i did not instinctively want to avoid it. this convinced me that john jacob jingleheimer schmidt had some kind of intriguing dark secret for years.

[talkingpointsusa]

Candace Owens might be the stupidest Daily Wire grifter

Welcome to the blog, I hate you already. (source: The Candace Owens Show at Daily Wire. Episode was posted on February 2nd, 2024)

Candace Owens is the only one of the major Daily Wire four that I haven't covered yet. This is because she was on maternity/"I pissed off Ben Shapiro" leave and she only got back from that early January.

Candace Owens isn't a true believer. She briefly ran an anti-Trump blog until she decided to "come out as a conservative". Coincidentally that coming out has made her quite wealthy. Also she paled around with Kanye West when he was at the peak of his antisemitic public outburst and is part of the Charlie Kirk sphere over at Turning Point too so she strays even further right than a lot of Daily Wire grifters with the exception of maybe Matt Walsh.

Anyways, lets get into it. Candace starts off the show by talking about groundhog day and then starts the show off by dropping a slur....I'm already annoyed.

00:20, Candace Owens: "But onto more serious news. People on X are saying the Nikki Haley is showing signs of clinical retardation on the basis of a post she shared. It's very serious and we need to talk about it."

Dropping a slur within the first 20 seconds of your show is wild even for the bizarre media ecosystem that we inhabit on this blog.

00:30, Candace Owens: "Plus, later on in the show we are going to be discussing Sexyy Red. Let me tell you, it pains me to have this discussion. I fought my producers for two weeks, it is an artist, and yes the time has come, we do need to cover her."

This is something that a lot of these guys do that I find really funny. Oh yeah, your producer forced you to do this. Definitely not you just sniffing around for clicks. No, your producers dragged you onto your show to do this.

Anyway, Candace really hates Sexyy Red.

02:06, Candace Owens: "She's kind of a big deal. But she became a bigger deal last week when I declined to cover her because I was so physically sickened by what I was looking at, when she hosted a baby shower for her second child and she was with her baby daddy."

This is so obscenely overdramatic. So this woman's baby shower got a little dirty, who gives a crap? A big part of her image is being pretty raunchy so it's kind of whatever. The thing that Candace is pissed about is a photo she posted of her "baby daddy's" head in between her butt cheeks. It's stupid

If this woman chooses to make that her brand identity, whatever. More power to her. It's not really my thing so I don't watch it. It's that simple. Also, if you have ever seen RM Brown videos you've at least got to respect Sexyy Red for giving us the glorious sound drop of Ben Shapiro saying "bootyhole waxed down".

03:35, Candace Owens: "What we are seeing right now is a decline in culture full stop, but particularly in black America."

Whenever these people talk about cultural decline I always wonder what era of culture they yearn for. Is it like a Leave It To Beaver type situation with the parents sleeping in separate beds or something? Also, aren't these guys supposed to be free speech warriors?

"I want free speech....as long as the speech being practiced is only stuff that I like."

03:43, Candace Owens: "So the question is; how does somebody this grotesque, somebody this filthy, get a platform? Certainly it can't be happening organically."

"I can't comprehend somebody who I don't like having a following."

Candace does realize that people on this big orb that we call Earth have different and varied tastes and as a result people you might not like sometimes become popular.

She plays seven seconds of the music video for Pound Town and laments the decline of civilization.

04:37, Candace Owens: "What culture is that? Who's culture is that? Please spare me this 'It's black culture.'"

This may come as a shock to Candace but absolutely nobody is saying that Sexyy Red is representative of black culture. I mean, yeah as a black musician she's certainly a part of black culture but there are other aspects of black culture that you can consume if you don't like Sexyy Red. Culture is a complex thing that doesn't only include music, let alone only one artist.

04:44, Candace Owens: "I'm so glad we're covering this by the way, this is what we should be doing in Black History Month. We should be covering black present because it matters more."

Didn't you just say that your producers basically had to drag you into the studio and you had a two week long battle so that you wouldn't have to cover this?

Also, Candace Owens has some pretty deranged thoughts on slavery so her saying that we shouldn't talk about black history is pretty on brand.

05:26, Candace Owens: "And so I looked into who platformed this young woman, actually. Who is the record company or the media conglomerate that's behind her. It turns out that first it was an independent record that picked her up in 2021 but in 2023, and the reason why she's starting to gain so much popularity, a media company called Gamma started distributing her."

The reality-based explanation for why Gamma started distributing her is that they simply saw that she had the potential to gain traction and thus earn money. Keep in mind that she went viral in 2018 and collaborated with Summer Walker in 2022, both before Gamma started releasing her music.

Gamma most likely saw that this person was getting popular online and decided to capitalize on it. That's how the record industry has worked since it's inception. Find new talent that has the potential to attract an audience and capitalize on it.

05:54, Candace Owens: "The two individuals that started Gamma, one of them came out of Apple, his name is Larry Jackson. And the second one of them came from Interscope Records, he has a ton of clout in the record community, the music industry so to speak. And his name is Ike Youssef. Lets keep following this, lets keep going down this."

You mean to tell me that this startup record company picked up a startup artist who was gaining traction? Man, something sinister must be going on here!

This right here is what happens when you have conspiracy theory brain rot and you need to try and make something out of nothing.

06:16, Candace Owens: "Ike Youssef, people might want to stand out and say 'OK, who is this guy?'"

Oh gee, really? I wonder why Candace Owens' audience would hear a name like "Ike Youssef" and instantly regard that person with suspicion. Hmmm....

06:21, Candace Owens: "Now when I hear the name Youssef it instantly singles to me that this person is either Muslim or Jewish, Arab perhaps."

Ah, bingo!

06:34, Candace Owens: "I remain convinced that a Muslim exec and a Jewish exec would never put a Muslim and a Jewish artist that was putting this sort of music on the airwaves onto their platforms."

First of all, that statement is seedy as all Hell because the implication is that there's a Muslim and or Jewish conspiracy to push music that Candace doesn't like onto the black community.

Second of all, could it be that the Muslim and Jewish community don't often consume that type of music? I know that there are a lot of Muslim rappers and a lot of Jewish rappers but those communities are pretty conservative over all and probably wouldn't consume music like Sexyy Red. Again, it's not a conspiracy, it's business.

Anyway, she objects to Larry Jackson being black because he's....platforming black musicians? She plays a clip of Larry Jackson being interviewed for the Huffington Post.

09:19, Candace Owens: "So what did we learn in that clip? Well we learned that Larry Jackson came from a two parent home, a stable household, parents married for 45 years. I did some more digging, he went to catholic school, he ran cross-country, he worked hard from the time he was young, he was winning awards because he had an interest as he was working in radio, got his foot through the door, did everything right in life so that when he got to the top he could feed the community filth."

Again, different strokes for different folks. Candace Owens isn't the objective voice of authority on music or really art in general. If people like it, who the Hell cares? Mind your own business and let people like what they like!

Anyway, she's done with this Sexyy Red story and now it's time to talk about Nikki Haley.

11:27, Candace Owens: "Honestly I don't even know where to begin on this Nikki Haley thing other than to say that I feel vindicated. I feel vindicated because a lot of people watch this show and I say things and people are wondering if I'm trying to be funny or mean but I'm kind of just reading the tea leaves. And regarding Nikki Haley, on the day she announced she was running I shared a story with you guys and I told you that it signaled to me that Nikki Haley is not that intelligent."

I'm not a Nikki Haley fan by any means but you probably guessed that already so I won't press the issue any further. However, Candace has this completely stupid story about Nikki posting some fan emails that she received. Candace thinks they are fake.

14:53, Candace Owens: "Nikki the screenshot you sent unfortunately, in that left hand corner, it says send."

Here's what I think happened here, I think this probably was a real piece of fan mail that Nikki's team transposed the text of onto some stock graphic representing unsent mail. That way you don't end up doxing some guys email without his consent.

They probably also changed this "Michael B's" full last name to just Michael B or used a fake name for the tweet because again, doxing some random guy who sent your campaign fan mail is a REALLY bad idea.

Again, I don't like Nikki at all but we've got to be fair here.

15:14, Candace Owens: "And unfortunately ladies and gentlemen this isn't the only piece of 'fan mail' that Nikki Haley shared. She also shared this, it's on lined school paper, notebook paper."

Again, they put the text from the real letter onto a graphic. Not everybodies handwriting is easy to read and using a graphic helps keep everything clear. Plus if you post the actual text of the letter you may end up revealing somebodies full name or accidentally posting an address on the envelope. Using a graphic helps keep everybody safer.

If I was Nikki I wouldn't have done this or at least found another graphic because of bad faith morons like Candace Owens, but it's obvious that this is what this is.

15:45, Candace Owens: "That was written again by someone who decided not to use their last name."

What would Candace rather have happen? Have Nikki dox her fans who send her messages? I feel like this is just Candace being intentionally obtuse at this point.

Anyway, this Nikki stuff has gotten old at this point. Onto the next segment!

18:22, Candace Owens: "Alright guys, moving on. So obviously, when the BLM riots took place and those of us who are willing to simply tell the truth about what was going to happen once you encourage criminality in the inner cities."

So, the story that Candace is covering here is that there have been a string of Walgreens closures in Boston that have led to community leaders speaking out.

The thing that the griftosphere has ignored whilst covering this story is the fact that these pharmacies provide vital prescription medication to the communities that they are located in. Many of the people living in these disenfranchised communities can't afford to travel long distance to receive their prescriptions. In short, Candace is arguing that people should be denied vital prescription medication because "That's what happens when you shoplift". Complete sociopath behavior.

19:15, Candace Owens: "While democratic rep Ayanna Pressley has never been accused of being bright, but this is exceptional, it is exceptional what he is doing here. She is condemning Walgreens for quote on quote 'racial and ethnic discrimination' because they made the business-wise decision to close their doors in Boston after losing a ton of money because they were being robbed."

Quite frankly, when peoples lives and vital medications are in the fray I don't give a shit about a multimillion dollar conglomerate losing money.

Anywho, she plays a clip from Ayanna addressing the house. Here's the full speech if you are interested in watching it.

21:38, Candace Owens: "She's actually very sure of herself in this utterly stupid analysis, condemning a business for moving out and saying that 'OK, well what's going to happen if we don't have access to diapers?'. Well you should have thought of that before you were robbing the diapers from their store, before you were robbing the food from their store."

First of all, I would like to see the stats that show that these Walgreens are experiencing large amounts of theft because Candace hasn't provided them.

Second of all, and this is the more important point, even if there are some thefts should people in that neighborhood who have children and or medical conditions be forced to suffer for the actions of the few? No!

Anyway, that's really it for Candace' show, nothing else interesting happens. She reads comments from her viewers, some of which conspicuously don't have their last names displayed in their usernames. I guess they were fake and left by Candaces' team.

Conclusion:

So, that was my introduction to Candace Owens. This particular show was a complete disaster and was also so utterly freaking daft. I mean, compared to other Daily Wire guys I would say that Candace is on the worse end (they are all varying levels of bad but still). The entire episode was covering absolutely meaningless stories interspersed with casual bigotry and conspiracy theory nudging. Anyway, cheers and I'll see you in the next one.

[art-of-manliness]

Podcast #883: The Naturalist’s Art of Animal Encounters

Whether you see some deer, have a fox cross your path, or spot a moose, there’s something disproportionately delightful about encountering wildlife. Even seeing something pedestrian like a possum feels really fun. If you’d like to have more of these kinds of encounters, and a deeper experience with nature as a result, my guest has some tips for making them happen more often. His name is Dave Hall, and he’s an outdoor educator and guide, as well as the author of The Naturalist’s Companion: A Field Guide to Observing and Understanding Wildlife. Today on the show, Dave and I first talk about the safety and ethical considerations around observing wild animals. We then discuss the best places to spot wildlife (and how it could be in your own backyard), whether there’s a best time of day to encounter animals, and the approach to take so that the animals don’t know you’re there, or if they do, feel comfortable with your presence. Dave shares the gaze to adopt to spy more animals and the signs that will help you find them. We end our conversation with how to practice what Dave calls “spontaneous acceptance,” which may allow you to chill with a beaver. Resources Related to the Podcast * Field guides and nature-related books that Dave recommends: * Tom Brown’s Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking by Tom Brown Jr. * Peterson Field Guides * Timber Press Field Guides * Tracking and the Art of Seeing: How to Read Animal Tracks and Sign by Paul Rezendes * What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World by Jon Young * Touching the Wild by Joe Hutto * Beaversprite: My Years Building an Animal Sanctuary by Dorothy Richards * Dave’s previous appearance on the AoM podcast: Episode #157 — Primitive Pursuits & Winter Survival * AoM Article: A Primer on Identifying Animal Footprints * AoM Podcast #739: Rewild Your Life * AoM Podcast #194: The Field Notes of Theodore Roosevelt Connect With Dave Hall * Dave’s website Listen to the Podcast! (And don’t forget to leave us a review!) Listen to the episode on a separate page. Download this episode. Subscribe to the podcast in the media player of your choice. Listen ad-free on Stitcher Premium; get a free month when you use code “manliness” at checkout. Podcast Sponsors Click here to see a full list of our podcast sponsors. Read the Transcript The post Podcast #883: The Naturalist’s Art of Animal Encounters appeared first on The Art of Manliness. http://dlvr.it/SlghTd

[askoverlordvox]

“Well, I’m required to check our pilots and various episodes, so sometimes I’ll put on ‘I Fucked Your Sister’ or ‘Vark Tank’, I started watching airball not too long ago, but uh… sometimes I’ll watch ‘Leave It to Beaver’. It’s an older show but I remember watching it growing up.” Vox clears his throat. “I tend to like those ridiculous, idyllic shows. Reminders of what life could be, I suppose.”

He was not going to give her the full list. That was at least a ‘two months dating’ territory.

Eventually…

Jenn makes it back to her apartment, Jeffie following close alongside her. After she had ensured everything was locked, she took a hot shower, changed, and finally sat down to review her employment contract.

She read through it twice and signed her name, the contract disappearing back to Vox.

Jenn grabbed the book she had abandoned before everything and read while Jeffie slept next to her on the couch.

@helluvahotelfan

Vox pauses what he's doing as the employment contract appears in front of him. He sits back in his chair, mulling over whether to file it or amend it. On the one hand, just because other things had changed didn't mean Jenn necessarily wanted a change to her job. She enjoyed working with the R&D teams. She could probably head up one of her own at this point.

His gaze went to the screen bank in front of him, at all the video feeds and logs he'd been reviewing, and all the ones he still had to check.

Setting aside the signed copy, Vox drafted a new contract to function as an addendum. The original would still be valid, of course. However, he thought she might sign this one- or at least get a chuckle out of it.

VoxTek™ Dating Agreement

I, @helluvahotelfan , invoke the infernal powers of Hell to complete the following agreement between myself and the Overlord, Vox. Hereafter, "the girlfriend" will refer to Jenn, "the boyfriend" will refer to Vox, and "the contract" will refer to this agreement, signed and sealed by a kiss.

Payment: to complete this contract, the girlfriend and the boyfriend pledge loyalty to each other and trust in each other. For as long as both parties agree, the terms and conditions of this contract are considered valid. Additionally, neither party can cause physical harm to the other while this contract is in effect without explicit and enthusiastic consent.

Terms: the boyfriend and the girlfriend agree to a mutually supportive relationship. Each party is responsible for vocalizing their needs and wants, to be fulfilled by the other to the best of their ability. Expected activities include but are not limited to: hand holding, kissing, hugging, cuddling, hanging out, watching TV or movies, listening to music, going out to eat, going dancing, and sharing meals. Surprises are authorized but only within reasonable levels of consent.

Conditions: This contract remains in effect provided both the girlfriend and the boyfriend wish to continue adhering to the terms. At any time, either party may request breaking the contract. The request must be accepted by the boyfriend.

Ground Rules: Date Nights are Thursday nights. This section to be amended as necessary.

Options: the girlfriend may, at any time, request to move into the boyfriend's condo. The girlfriend may, at any time, request a direct promotion to personal assistant to the boyfriend, in the hopes they can stop each other from becoming workaholics. Both parties may, at any time, request acts of affection to be fulfilled by the other when appropriate.

Hours: 24/7/365. April 29th will hereafter be reserved as a day to vent all lingering annoyance via pillow fight.

Signed and confirmed via kiss with the boyfriend,

Vox chuckles, nodding and throwing the contract at the nearest screen, where it digitized itself and hurried to Jenn, popping out of her phone in the same cool blue envelope as the first one.

He grabs his coffee cup and takes a sip. "I'm fuckin' hilarious."

[demofoods]

Leave it to beaver full episodes

Guests: Cheryl Holdridge as Julie Foster, Ken Osmond as Eddie Haskell, Than Wyenn as The Waiter.īeaver starts a conflict in the Cleaver household when he refuses to wear a coat and tie to a formal father-son football awards banquet, as all the boys had agreed they would only dress casual. When Wally discovers he forgot his wallet, there's a brief moment of panic as he tries to figure out what to do but the waiter just asks Wally to sign for the check, and all is well. His parents find the wallet, call the restaurant, and instruct them to put the bill on Ward's account, Ward being a frequent patron when entertaining business clients. Ward offers to loan Wally the money and all seems well, until Wally forgets his wallet at home. Julie suggests the White Fox, which is the most expensive restaurant in town. June and Ward suggest that Wally ask his girlfriend Julie Foster out for a dinner date at a restaurant of her choice, because he has often eaten dinner at her house and needs to reciprocate. See also: List of Leave It to Beaver episodes No. Wally is in twelfth grade and is finishing high school before starting his undergraduate education at the school referred to in several episodes as "State." Grammar School and is preparing for high school. In this season, Wally and Beaver are both finishing phases of their education. Rusty Stevens, who played Larry Mondello in the first four seasons, returns in flashbacks in the finale, " Family Scrapbook." Episodes were written by either the writing teams of Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher or Dick Conway and Roland MacLane.Īll four cast members appear in every episode. Norman Abbott, David Butler, or Hugh Beaumont directed most of the episodes. The closing sequence shows Beaver and Wally walking and arguing, leading to a chase to the house. They then get in their car while Beaver looks out the back window (which was removed for filming), smiling. He looks back to see Wally, who runs out looking back at Beaver, who runs out of the house at full speed, closing the door behind him. She then looks back to see Ward leaving the house with more picnic supplies. In the opening sequence, the camera shows the Cleavers' front yard and June walks out of the house with a picnic basket. Like the previous five seasons, the sixth season consists of 39 black-and-white, full-screen, half-hour episodes (with ads) shot on 35mm film. The sixth season of Leave It to Beaver debuted on ABC Septemwith "Wally's Dinner Date" and aired its last episode, "Family Scrapbook", June 20, 1963.

[starship-buccaneer]

I would like to present one of my favorite canonical Nickroe things:

In Season 1, Episode 19: Leave it to Beavers, One of the first things Monroe says to Nick after tackling him is, "I told you to use wolvesbane dude, I could smell you a mile off" to which Nick replies, "I used wolfsbane."

Monroe takes a quick sniff and says "Use more" before immediately diverting Nick's attention to his weapons.

I firmly believe this is because Monroe has unknowingly ingrained Nick's scent into his instincts, meaning he can pretty much pick up Nick's scent no matter what, and only realized it right then and immediately became embarrassed.

(Side note, Monroe absolutely let Nick roll over on top of him because Nick hadn't gained his full enhanced Grimm strength yet and there's no way Monroe, an adult blutbad, wasn't strong enough to stop him so essentially he just play wrestled him on the ground and let Nick get the upper hand to make him happy)

[wemakeitupaswego]

Every time I see this post by Moira and Jensen's comment I feel hurt.. This happened on the day of Misha's irked face and it was all too much back then. But I understand the bigger picture now.

Day after Spanish dub dropped and Destiel trended again, Misha dropped a video about it being a rogue translator and then later apologised for his judgement. Misha was hurt because of a misunderstanding and he thought fans didn't feel satisfied about Cas confession but fans were only feeling hurt towards how the show ended..Misha got it all later ,what it was all about.

And somewhere, Jensen fished this post out and left a comment that break and mend hearts at the same time. Remember! In Jensen's mind Handprint was Misha's idea. And He couldn't involve directly in this spanish dub incident because this isn't about him. Hell.. it wasn't even about Misha yet Misha got himself involved. In this post what I see is Jensen did his best and chose to back Misha up in a subtle way and told us at the same time to take it easy because Misha did his best and THEY did their best to make sure Destiel was acknowledged textually. He hasn't commented this way about any of the recent episode not the finale..not even close. So this comment was a take-note.

For me it also sounded like he wants us to be happy with what we got. Be grateful.. And we are! we certainly are.. Misha was told thousand times by fans that what is troubling the fans is not the episode 18 and Castiel's good bye. It is episode 20 and how they all got nailed. Ironically what fans shouted out most about is related to Jensen's character arc more than Misha's. Yet somehow Misha got intervened and fans got sensitive and hurt. Jensen optimised a subtle shield for Misha by leaving this comment.

What hurts is, Misha listens but I am not sure Jensen has a clue as to what is going on. He might check things up regularly and we wouldn't know what he takes in. Frankly we dunno if they know that they are not our issue. They never were.. Because we know they are as much of victims as we are in this massacre of a finale.

I just hope no one pulls a Jim Beaver stunt asking fans if what they got is not good enough. I respect Jim but Fans didn't get even bare minimum. Not even close.. I just hope Jensen knows that Destiel going full canon was not our only concern. I just hope he didn't limit us into "the fans who wanted to see two DILFs kiss onscreen but didn't get to so they lashed out". It was never about that. Destiel fans would have been happy with the bare minimum but we didn't even get that. And keep Destiel aside. What We really wanted was Dean Winchester and Sam Winchester to have the endings they deserve. And now when you look at it, at the end of the day, it is mostly Destiel fans who are the ones still mourning and fighting for that matter.

Jensen was alone in that writers room when everyone else was on board.. he is the only one who did not feel it in his gut the way ending was going. Now we are Jensen.. In ways, We are so much alike Jensen.

[beatriceeagle]

What do you think of later Veronica Mars seasons? Any advice for Rob Thomas? And (I guess about all VM seasons) anything you would change? Thank you

This got extremely long. I didn’t get into things I would change, and I didn’t give any advice; nevertheless, I have a lot to say about Veronica Mars.

The long and the short of it is that a lot of people discuss Veronica Mars as though it is a noir TV show, but it’s not solely or even primarily a noir work. It’s certainly noir-inspired; many of its characters are drawn from noir archetypes; it’s cynical enough about the status quo to be noir; you might say that it’s in conversation with the noir genre. But although noir detective fiction has plenty of hardboiled detectives (Veronica), dirty cops (Lamb), and femme fatales (Logan), where in noir do we place Wallace? Where do we put Mac? Where does Keith go? What about Meg? What about Duncan? (Poor, poor Meg and Duncan.)

By the time it exited its first season, Veronica Mars was just full of too many bright, funny, fundamentally likeable characters—characters who you fundamentally could not suspect of murder—to be classifiable as fully noir. Moreover, the central mystery that it left dangling at the end of the first season wasn’t about murder, or corruption, or betrayal; it’s about romance. Who is at Veronica’s door?  By the season one finale, Veronica Mars is first and foremost what it perhaps inevitably was going to become, when it aired on network television: an ensemble character drama.

Can an ensemble character drama be noir? Well, sure. Veronica Mars is. But in a long-term ensemble character-based show, the needs of the characters have to be served before the needs of the noir. People watched season one of Veronica Mars because they enjoyed the mystery (and the quips, and the romance). They kept watching because they connected with the characters.

Season one balanced those two needs nearly perfectly; that’s why it’s often held up as an all-time great season of television. Season two remains pretty noir (it is, after all, the season of the acquittal of Aaron Echolls), but the construction of its mystery gets overly complicated, and the personal plot—the character drama—tends towards soapy. It still balances well enough to be enjoyable, but it’s undeniable that there are problems with season two of Veronica Mars, and I think they come from trying to figure out how to incorporate the characters into an ongoing noir storyline. Wallace is simply not a noir character, but he gets sucked into a dead-end story about his missing father and a hit-and-run on a homeless guy for half a season. Duncan, once you establish that he’s not going to kill anyone in a blackout rage, is basically a bland, quiet, nice guy, and not in any way a noir character. So he has to go on the run with Meg’s (also not a noir character, therefore killed off) coma baby halfway through the season.

The basic construction of season two of Veronica Mars is that the cast from season one, now cleared of all suspicion in Lilly Kane’s murder, encounter a new noir mystery, populated by new noir characters: Woody and Gia Goodman and Jackie and Terrence Cook on the one hand, and Felix Toombs and the Fitzpatricks on the other. The main cast are organically enmeshed in this new noir set-up to varying degrees. Logan (who is perhaps the most naturally noir character of the show’s early seasons, above even Veronica) is fully integrated in the murder of Felix Toombs; he’s an obvious suspect, and although we don’t believe he did it, it’s understandable why everyone else thinks he did. Logan’s drive to clear his name (or at least stay out of jail) takes him to believable, if unlikeable, noir depths—which the show engages with! If the murder of Felix Toombs were the main focus of season two, it would probably be a pretty great focal point. But it’s not. The main mystery only touches Logan’s storyline for about one episode, where it’s a red herring, and the rest of the time Logan and the Fitzpatricks mostly operate in a parallel track, at best distracting from and at worst confusing the real plot.

The rest of the cast are involved in the main mystery, but their involvement is a tricky thing. Most of them weren’t on the bus when it crashed, or before it crashed. Most of them aren’t directly connected to the Sharks, or to the mayor’s incorporation plan. (Wow, season 2 has a lot of plates in the air.) Their connections are, by and large, second-hand. Wallace is dating Jackie. Mac is kind of dating Cassidy. Keith and Veronica just really like solving mysteries. And also Keith is running for sheriff I guess?

The thing is, those second-hand connections work to keep the show in the realm of noir. We don’t need Wallace to get involved in a hit-and-run, okay? He can just have a tempestuous and heartfelt but ultimately doomed relationship with a girl with a mysterious past. Duncan probably didn’t need to go on the run with Meg’s coma baby; he could’ve just like, gone to boarding school in Connecticut.

Season two is very aware that some of its characters are noir and some of them are not, because it leverages that fact to make the mystery work. Cassidy is on the bus, and then leaves before it crashes; Cassidy alone of the main cast is heavily connected to the incorporation storyline; Cassidy basically has a big red arrow pointing at him for five episodes leading up to the finale saying, “Hey, SOMETHING’S GOING ON WITH THIS GUY.” But Veronica never seriously considers him as a suspect, and the only reason that the viewer doesn’t (if they don’t) is because... it’s Beaver! Beaver’s not a murderer! Beaver’s not that kind of character. It’s kind of like how season one shows you Aaron Echolls beating a guy half to death, but plays “That’s Amore” over it, and you don’t realize you’re looking at a clue—or how The Good Place hid its first season twist simply by being a sitcom. If you don’t know what genre you’re operating in, it’s hard to be genre savvy.

But there’s a risk that comes with that kind of writing: No one was invested in Aaron Echolls, but I can imagine that someone might’ve been invested in Cassidy. I wasn’t, but someone might’ve been. He was in the main credits. He was dating Mac. In order to make season two’s mystery noir, and meaningful, and keep it connected to the main characters, they had to burn a character with some real work invested in him, and do so in a way that potentially broke faith with viewers who really liked that character and his relationships. (And that’s not even getting into the really unfortunate implications of the specific motivation and backstory they gave to Cassidy.)

Season three is just kind of a mess, for a lot of reasons. It’s not particularly noir; they’ve lost the overarching mystery, as well as the show’s central setting; they lean heavily into the character drama, but although Veronica Mars is an ensemble character drama, it’s not just an ensemble character drama, and it can’t and shouldn’t function without a mystery to sustain it. But more importantly, everyone’s a little out of character, so even if character drama were enough, I wouldn’t be all that interested in watching almost!Veronica get in her fifth fight with almost!Logan. That said, I think that leaning into character drama is a safer way to jump the shark than leaning into noir; at worst, the show is going to get messy and boring, which is basically what happens. And the ending of season three is a pretty bang-on noir ending, and falls out naturally from the weird, messy character drama. It’s not a good season of television, but there’s a reason that it didn’t destroy fans’ love of the show.

This is ~*unconventional*~, I know, but I like the movie, both as a fan and, when I try to step back and approach it somewhat objectively, as a critic. It is extraordinarily fanservice-y; I don’t think that’s a bad thing. There are, perhaps, fanservice moments that I find a little over-the-top. (One of them, alas, is the repetition of the “lives ruined, bloodshed” speech; Logan was drunk the first time he gave that, he doesn’t remember it, and that’s half the point!) But on the whole, the movie gets it. Logan and Weevil (and Gia, may she rest in peace) are inherently noir characters who you can insert into a mystery or a story about corruption or cynicism, and although we don’t want them to have done the big bad thing, they will operate smoothly within the confines of the system. Wallace and Mac are visitors from another genre; the make connections, they comment, their lives are sometimes affected, but they are not noir, and their stories should not be noir. Veronica and Keith are the pivot, constantly drawn into Neptune’s seedy network of crime, trying to root it out.

It’s basically the Logan-and-Fitzpatricks storyline from season two, but updated so that a) Veronica and the rest of the cast is actually involved, and b) Logan is a much more likeable person. And it turns out that that’s a totally solid engine for a movie! And because it’s so fanservice-y, we spend time with all of the characters, even the ones who aren’t really entangled in the noir plots. Mac gets stuff to do. Wallace gets stuff to do. Piz... gets... poor Piz.

Season four leans heavily on the noir. So heavily, in fact, that the characters who aren’t natural noir characters are virtually nonexistent within the season. Wallace doesn’t have a storyline; Mac doesn’t appear because Tina Majorino refused to be in the season, since she wouldn’t have a storyline. Weevil, whose noir tendencies have put him on the outs with Veronica in between the movie and season four, has a story, but it’s not one that’s heavily tied to the main plot, and he’s not around much.

Structurally, season four is similar to season two, in that the main cast encounters a new mystery full of noir characters: Patton Oswalt, Matty the mini-Veronica, that politician and his family, those cartel hit men, Veronica’s bartender friend Nicole. The difference is that in season four, the main cast has functionally been pared down to three people: Veronica, Logan, and Keith. Oh, and Dick. Dick’s still hanging around, I guess.

Because of that, we spend virtually all of our time in season four with Veronica. Sometimes a little with Logan, sometimes with Keith, but mostly Veronica. We see her making friends with Nicole; we see her taking on Matty as a protege. We see her fight with Weevil; we see her fight with Logan. 

Oh boy, do we see her fight with Logan. Because there are so few subplots to distract from it, Logan and Veronica’s relationship is, in many ways, the story of season four. For a show trying so desperately hard to cling to noir and run from character drama, season four isn’t really about corruption; it isn’t about power; it isn’t about cynicism or brutality or the ways that Neptune has been and always will be bad. It’s about a relationship, and what happens to it when one person (Logan) is trying to move on to a healthier place, but the other person (Veronica) is still stuck in old, toxic patterns of behavior.

Nearly everything in season four is in some way about the Logan/Veronica dichotomy, or about their relationship with each other, or about the way that Veronica is pathologically stubborn and guarded and suspicious, and how that kills her relationships. It’s the thematic underpinning of the Matty storyline; it’s what the Nicole storyline turns on; it is, whether the show understands it or not, the devastating backdrop of the few scenes in which Weevil appears.

This is all fine and noir, but again: It comes to its fullest fruition, it finds its highest stakes, the season’s arc reaches its climax, in a romantic relationship. Which the season is, fundamentally, devoted to the psychological exploration of. And when Veronica decides that she can commit to marrying Logan, that is a key moment of character development, in a show that has historically been an ensemble character drama, in a season of television that has been, at least for Logan and Veronica, at least partially a psychological character drama.

And then Logan blows up.

And look, I am not opposed to killing characters. I’ve defended the death of Lexa on The 100 on this here very blog. But Logan’s death is 1) stupid, 2) at a stupid time, and 3) for a stupid reason. He dies moving the car across the street, just at the culmination of a major psychological arc about toxicity and moving on and opening yourself up to others... so that Veronica can stay toxic and guarded, I guess?

It renders any character development we’ve seen from Veronica in season 4 pointless. It cuts the character development we’ve seen from Logan for over a decade tragically and meaninglessly short. And it does it all in the name of taking a hard turn into “pure” noir, so that Veronica can go investigate mysteries in other towns, unencumbered by a troublesome cast that viewers are unwilling to suspect of murder.

The problem is that that cast is a lot of what’s good about the show. Maybe there are people who watched season four of Veronica Mars and came out of it thinking, “Ah, yes, what this show needs is even less of the ensemble cast,” but I was not one of them. The Veronica of season 4 is not a particularly likeable person. Veronica, on her own, was never all that likeable; what she was was funny, and understandable, and righteous, and decent. She had people around her to be likeable, to provide you with an entry point into her mind, to show interesting sides of her you might not otherwise see, to call her out when she crossed a line, and to give the show a lightness that made it fun. The bomb that blew up Logan may have made the loudest noise, and had the most final impact, but it wasn’t what killed season four; that happened when the writers sidelined Wallace.

It is, I’m sure, difficult to balance being an ensemble character drama with being a seasonal noir mystery. (Jane the Virgin ran into similar trouble, in the long run, balancing being an ensemble character drama with being a telenovela.) Nevertheless, Veronica Mars is both of these things, and blowing up the ensemble to service the noir is inevitably going to alienate viewers, because viewers have a reasonable expectation that the shows they’re watching will continue to be the same general kind of show. And because many viewers were drawn to Veronica Mars at least as much for the characters as for the mystery.

So my very, very longwinded opinion on the later seasons of Veronica Mars is that I think the show has an identity crisis, and I don’t think it’s going to resolve it any time soon. It may not be resolvable; honestly, television might not be the best medium for ongoing Veronica Mars stories at this point. But I have very little interest in watching any further seasons produced, so it doesn’t matter much, from my point of view.

[sam-winchester-admiration-league]

Ok so I guess I liked the ending, but like, I'm really really sad. Sam had to live a whole entire long life without Dean and Dean only waited moments. Was he with Eileen? And after all these years, the way he died was just a simple MOTW. I'm heartbroken and I'm still crying. Like I can't top thinking about it, and I'm seeing so much hate. SO much. Jim Beaver was bullied into deactivating his twitter. My stomach hurts and I don't know what to do now. I'm crying. AGAIN.

You know how in Titanic we saw pictures of Rose’s life after she lost Jack?  It showed her accomplishements but there were no pictures of her husband.  From her relationship with her granddaughter we know she was a good wife and mother.  The exclusion of Rose’s husband is not meant to sideline him but to show that Rose honored Jack’s dying wish for her by living a full and happy life.  This is why we don’t know who is Sam’s wife and only have a faint vision of her because it’s not about her, it’s about Sam honoring Dean and carrying on the Winchester legacy.

When Sam and Dean entered the barn to confront the vampires I was a bundle of nerves knowing they no longer have Cas or Jack to heal their fatal wounds.  I think we all knew it wouldn’t end well for our boys.  It’s why monster hunters rarely live to Bobby’s age, even less gets to retire and spend their remaining days in a nursing home.  Monsters are no less dangerous than demons and angels and I think we sometimes forget that.  

Dean actually seemed.... relieved that he’s going to die before Sam.  As much as it hurts us that Dean couldn’t be part of Sam’s life on earth, I think it would hurt Dean more that Sam didn’t get his chance at a normal life with a wife and a kid.   What shocked us was how early in the episode Dean died, but it had to happen so we can see Sam live the remainder of his life growing a family of his own.  Most of us didn’t want the Winchester line end with Sam and Dean, that’s just human nature.  

This end up being the best case scenrio for two very different needs.  Dean needs Sam with him, he wasn’t interested in visiting his parents or his friends but since time works differently in heaven, Dean only has to wait a short time for Sam to arrive.  Sam needs to experience normal life and that takes 30 to 40 years.  After 15 seasons the show was very clear that it’s either a hunting life or a normal life, there’s no in betweens or compromises.  Sam would never leave Dean, so Dean is the one that has to leave.  

Jim Beaver will be fine, this is not his first rodeo, he’s been through much worse when he lost his wife.  The bitters and haters will eventually leave because there’s nothing in Supernatural for them anymore, there really wasn’t before.  Then the fandom will be calmer and just a few flare ups of passionate opinoins. So please take care of yourself, these things are beyond our control and we can only control our own behavior and take care of ourselves.