#and a few episodes of doctor who. (nice enough show. too long imo.

[funkyness]

Sorry to inflict supernatural knowledge on you but there are in fact TWO other supernatural guys who aren't the mishapocalypse one (and yes, jared padelecki is one). He's the other main character that wasn't fucking the mishapocalypse guy and is therefore often forgotten about

i always forget that there's more than 2 supernatural guys but yeah adncfj i just remembered. based on the gifs I've seen on tumblr, this is the extent of my supernatural knowledge:

it's about two brothers with a very shitty dad (dead mum i presume. killed by monsters question mark). they're human, they drive an old car, and hunt "supernaturals" that are just hot people with contact lenses. there's a groundhog day episode where wednesday repeats itself. Misha is a guardian angel (? who joined later in the series and is in gay love with the homophobic brother. also he slapped him or smth and now the homophobe has a handprint of misha on him. misha went to hell bc he had feelings :( love fucking loses of course

[discoscoob]

"What Loki got wrong – and Doctor Who got right Redeeming a villainous character isn’t easy but the Disney Plus series could pick up a few tips from the BBC’s flagship series.

We all love Loki – the God of Mischief, Lord of Chaos, a wannabe tyrant and murderer with a twinkle in his eye and a spring in his step. So where on Earth (or rather, in the multiverse) did he go during his eponymous Disney Plus series? When Loki was first proposed, I was intrigued to see a Marvel spin-off that focused on an amoral, self-serving character. But over the course of its six episodes, we saw Tom Hiddleston abruptly deliver a reverse heel-turn, transforming a character that had always skirted in grey areas of villainy into a fairly bland, heroic type who just wanted to save the universe.In the final episode, Loki was offered the chance at universal war and chaos, a throne or a quiet home life in the background. The mind boggles that someone who tried to rule the planet just a few weeks before and apparently revelled in disorder would so quickly plump for the third option, no matter how nice his new friends were. .Maybe Loki needs more ‘good’ characters to bounce off for him to play the fun bad boy, as he had in the Thor movies. Maybe creating a Marvel series with a morally ambiguous lead, à la Rick and Morty, was never on the cards. But there was a way that Loki could have redeemed its central character without completely compromising what made him interesting in the first place. In fact, it’s been done before in a different series.A few times over the course of Loki, viewers had compared it to Doctor Who, mainly because of its general time-travel premise (what are the officious TVA except Time Lords with a dental plan?) and especially after episode three saw Loki and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) trapped on a dying world. In fact, many commented that Loki did ‘Doctor Who’ better than Doctor Who itself, thanks to a higher budget and bigger stars. (Though did Loki have a sonic screwdriver? I think not. Case closed.)And I actually think Loki could learn something from Doctor Who, more specifically, from a storyline that saw an iconic villain try to change their ways with Cast your mind back to 2017 and Peter Capaldi’s final series as the Twelfth Doctor. A major throughline of those episodes was the Doctor’s attempt to redeem his old nemesis The Master, then played by Michelle Gomez as Missy. Initially reluctant (and not before a few final backstabs), Missy did end up playing the hero, only to be cut down by an alternate version of herself (AKA her predecessor in the regenerating role, John Simm) before she could reveal to the Doctor that she’d finally come over to his side.Crucially, during this process Missy was often as unpleasant, irascible and darkly funny as she’d ever been at her most villainous, regularly still insulting and belittling the Doctor and his friends even as she did gain more empathy and something of a moral code. She didn’t just completely gain a new personality, in other words, and the story was more moving and believable as a result.Of course, Loki is changed by what happens to him over the course of his series – the “journey” he goes on, as Jonathan Majors’ He Who Remains puts it, is needed to put him in the position where he’s willing to take over the TVA himself. But what we see him go through on screen doesn’t feel like enough to justify such a change in the character – or why the show would choose to make him so much less entertaining.If Loki had always been how he appeared in the finale, he wouldn’t have lasted as long as he has in the MCU, let alone get his own spin-off. Make Loki fun again! It probably doesn’t help that we’ve seen an onscreen version of Loki’s journey already which did a better job, with the ‘older’/original Loki’s arc in 2017 Marvel movie Thor: Ragnarok making a much better case for his gradual turn from self-interest to semi-heroism, though still with a trademark blend of arrogance and style (including bellowing “Your saviour is here!” as he rescued the people of Asgard).Maybe it helps that, in that film, he plays second fiddle to Chris Hemsworth’s Thor. Maybe Missy’s story only worked in Doctor Who because she wasn’t the main character, and similarly had the good

Doctor to bounce off (though if someone does want to make a Missy TV show, I’m in).Whatever the reasoning, something still feels a little off about this newly heroic Loki variant. Time for, if not a pruning, then at least a bit of a redirection if season two is going to find its glorious purpose"

reading this article rolling my eyes first off Missy went by a different name, also was not really a redemption of the master but that version of the master e.g missy which still don't know where this version is suppose to happen cause imo missy was the master but unlike the master had more redemptive qualities, wanting to be the doctors friend again/wanting to change but never getting the chance/past version didn't want to change, while this version feels like always on a path of redemption to the be killed off and the master comes back still evil, most likely missy version of the master will never be mentioned again/ never see this version again. also have they watched the Loki show, he literally learns he dies in the future, his stuck in a unfamiliar place by a very powerful organisation, also his self serving persona has always been a façade mostly, people can suddenly want to change which imo Loki hasn't really wanted to as Thor as pointed out about him going round in circles and him never seem to want to change in Ragnarok he was still not really change even though he shown he can be a better person, he also betrayed thor show still self serving. but Loki in the series makes sense his perception would change, his lost him home, his free will, Thor, learns he died/dies, and can't back to his timeline, but find it unbelieveable that Loki whole attitude would change... i think people need to pay more attention/don't really understand Loki, also he is still fun 3 episodes in just because his not acting like a clown and shown to be vulnerable and shown be more genuine and wanting be a hero doesn't mean they completely stripped his personality, hopefully we see his fun personality back next series. the reason he lasted in MCU so long is not just because his fun etc but because his a complex character, if i remember correct his fun personality didn't really come out until the dark world and then ragonorak in Thor he was angry and bitter and avengers was angry and bitter and wanting to rule earth. also we saw his fun personality up until episode 3 as slowly began to stop clowning around and become more genuine through Sylvie, also good friends didn't just change Loki, it was already in there it was a journey he always destined to go down as saw in the films which now some what reset in the series for another journey but thing is Mobius and Sylvie not just better Loki but his also bettered Mobius and Sylvie, also makes sense he change his self serving behaviour as learns even gets the throne or what he thought was his glory purpose he still not be truly happy, just like Sylvie and just like Mobius at The TVA. i feel some just don't really go into who Loki character is or just like his boring now if his not there being smug or clown or him finally actually being genuine = bad telling of redemption ok *rolls eyes*

I 100% agree! Reading that made me roll my eyes too, until I got to your part of the anon, that was a relief to read.

[sanstropfremir]

would love to hear ur thoughts re. these street woman fighter's performances and who you would personally vote as the "better dance crew" in how they interpreted each other choreos and the song.

this was for their first elimination round (ep4) and it was interesting to hear from the judges + why they gave the points they did. (i'm not entirely sure if you're watching the show's episodes. they are roughly 2 hours long. so if you would like more context, pls let me know! i wrote brief comments underneath each one as well as the winners [spoilers ahead!]. assuming you are not: for this mission, each crew is paired with another crew and they have to choreograph one of the soloist songs. songs were "split" into two parts: part one [would be one song] and part two [another song]; one crew would choreograph one part and follow the other's crew choreograph for the other part.)

1. boa - eat you up (want choreo) + better (ygx choreo). dance crews: ygx vs want

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCfK_qWAhM0&ab_channel=MnetTV

winner: ygx. boa gave 151 pts to ygx and 49 pts to want (the biggest gap in points between crews), sharing that although want choreographed eat you up, ygx was more cohesive (pointing to how want wore hats and it was messy). additionally, ygx had better stage presence and was able to capture the camera more. also, because ygx is the only crew to have a b-girl and use it in their routine, the judges applauded want for doing the best they can.

2. cl - doctor pepper (wayb) + hello bitches (prowdmon). dance crews: prowdmon vs wayb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEEpZ9SrvaE&ab_channel=MnetTV

winner: prowdmon. judges shared that doctor pepper's routine is a trademark of wayb and that they should have been the standout. however, they felt like prowdmon did it better.

3. hyuna - crazy (4minute) (coca n butter) + i'm not cool (hook) + lip and hip (hook). dance crews: hook vs coca n butter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1ikpPKEA30&ab_channel=MnetTV

winner: hook. the two dance crews are VERY different in terms of style. coca n butter is described to be more hip-hop while hook is definitely more reflective of the current/newer trends. (when hook was first introduced in the show, they were known as the crew who was famous only for tiktok dances.) the judges shared that hook was more fun and interesting, given their stylistic choice of wearing the pink wigs. whereas it seemed for coca n butter, they felt like something was lacking (they showed something but it didn't feel they did.)

4. jessi - what type of xx (lachica) + nununa (holybang) + gucci (holybang). dance crews: holybang vs lachica

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtZzI11oyqc&ab_channel=MnetTV

winner: lachica. (this was the only battle where both crews came in v close pts. whereas for the other crews, there were huge point-gaps.) judges had a hard time choosing, sharing that for lachica they were more detail-oriented while holybang had better teamwork.

-

imo, i agree with the judges' choices. though i would have to say i think wayb did their routine (doctor pepper) better than prowdmon. they stood out to me then, but when it came to the second part (hello bitches), prowdmon was better. i loved lachica's performance - it was v clean + reminded me of something a kpop group would do (which like, the crew largely works with kpop acts like chungha, boa's better, etc. so it makes sense).

-

this was LONG. thank u if u do read it and post! i miss the kingdom "era" when u would post weekly reviews. the two are v different but this new mnet competition show is the only one i'm invested in. i'm not sure if it's big internationally? i know it is v popular in korea right now. while i've only seen i-fans talk about the show as it relates to chaeyeon (want) because she's an idol. - swf (streetwomanfighter) anon :]

omg this is so long and well organized, forget me writing reviews anon you should do it!! i'm not currently watching the full episodes but i've been catching the few clips that pop up in my youtube recommended occasionally, so i definitely don't have all the context but i'll take a crack at it!

ok so my assumption/from what i can tell, they have a bit of leeway to alter the competing group's choreo as needed to better suit numbers and formations. i also went and found the individual versions of these because why did they make them so small on the split screen, don't they know i'm old and wear glasses. also: MNET FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY STOP MOVING THE FUCKING CAMERA. WE DO NOT NEED SCROLLING VERTICAL BOOM SHOTS OF THIS. just keep the same lens at eye level it's really not that hard. this is like, one of the worst possible ways to shoot dance it is SO annoying. ok i'm done bitching about that let's go.

1. boa - ygx vs want i agree with the big point gap on this one, and i think want made a couple of choices that were not cohesive enough, and obviously they also got set up to fail by ygx. actually i think both groups made choices that were not particularly good, but ygx had more of the skills to back up what they were doing than want did. breaking is very difficult and requires a lot of upper body strength and a higher centre of gravity, which are two physical traits that are less common in women. personally i wouldn't have tried to break to better because although boa songs do have more of a beat than other idol music, it's still not at all the right type of music for breaking. it's gotta be fast, breakers rely on speed, because it's all about momentum; they're literally throwing themselves around the stage. here's the final from battle pro 2019 for example. the music is basically beats only; heavily lyric based music, like idol music, is bad for battling in general because there isn't a lot of consistency. i have more to say about this but i'm getting off track. basically by choosing to handicap the other team (because they don't have a bgirl at all) they shot their own bgirl in the foot because the song is too slow to properly show off her skills. i applaud want for making bold choices, like the hatwork and attempting the breaking, but ultimately when combined with their styling the performance looks disjointed. also they have some formation cohesion issues that make it look a bit like they'e struggling to keep up, even with their own choreo.

2. cl - prowdmon vs wayb i agree with the judges, i think prowdmon bodied the wayb choreo. i actually thought that was their choreo at first. they have the best presence that i've seen of all the groups and the performative "hard bitch" attitude fit in with their genre setting. wayb had several mistakes and synchronization issues that in my opinion made them look sloppy in comparision to prowdmon, who were sharper and had two more people to put into formations. 3. hyuna - hook vs coca n butter ok personally i don't like either of these choreos, but i'm agreeing with the judges here, i think hook's was the mildly more engaging. i can tell that they're very young and do mostly short form tiktok content because i see a lot of eye catching moves, but i don't see a lot of strong connective tissue between those moves. they have good ideas but they also really struggle with putting people into formation and balancing it out well. it doesn't help that they're a seven member crew going up against a four member one, so they have three extra people to figure out what to do with. there's a lot of empty space where there are members waiting in position for a group formation. it also doesn't help at all that they (mnet) appear to just be rawdogging the songs together without any kind of mixing, which is a huge detriment to groups that have to choreograph for two in their section. i'm not cool and lip and hip have two totally different feels and kudos to hook for at least trying to get them to at least visually be cohesive when mnet is go girl giving us nothing sonically. coca n butter has much more of an old school hip hop style, so putting these two up against each other was (probably a random lot draw) an interesting choice. personally i would have been more interested to see hook against want with the boa tracks and ygx against coca n butter with the hyuna tracks. however, i think the reason why coca n butter's stage felt like it was lacking is because they tried to emulate hyuna, without having the stage presence or the weirdness of hyuna. it feels like they're trying too hard and there isn't really any personal character in the piece, versus with hook, who embodied hyuna's weirdness a little more authentically and took a completely different direction. 4. jessi - lachica vs holybang lachica took this one easily, although their formations were a bit wonky for nununana, they covered it fairly well and i think they managed the best transition between songs (between nununana and gucci). they were sharper with good stage pictures and had a good gimmick with the double fringe on the gloves and hats. holy bang had some issues fitting their extra person into the what type of x choreo, but they did well with their own choreo. however, like with coca n butter and hook, because lachica took a new visual spin, this felt too derivative of jessi, so it wasn't that interesting for me to watch. i do think they are one of the groups on the stronger end of skills and presence. --- as far as visually what performances i liked the best, since would this even be a writeup by me if i didn't talk about design, here's a quick breakdown:

prowdmon - got some rudimentary setpieces, got a theme, got some fun variations on a uniform look; excellent for what i assume was limited budget capacity and also it's a dance crew show.

lachica - great continuity of effect in costuming with the fringe, and using the gloves as a mouth/lip effect was one of the most interesting choices of these routines.

hook - the pink wigs and the black latex on the checkered floor was a nice gimmick that was a bit of a nod to hyuna's weird without being too derivative. i'm not expecting a whole lot because these are dance crews but i think this was a decent amount of styling effort.

want - they made a bold choice with the hats and even though it didn't quite pay off for them i still respect it.

coca n butter/ygx/holybang/wayb - ygx and wayb did basic hip hop type styling and while it's absolutely fine, it's just boring. holybang went for a directly inspired jessi look, and although yes bodysuits, overall it wasn't that interesting either. coca n butter get props for doing a costume change and actually incorporating that into the choreo but it feels too much like it's trying to be hyuna weird with the caution tape strapped over their tits and asses.

---

as a final note/question to you, my lovely invested swf anon, what's the format of the show? are there stages like this every episode to review? if these were from the fourth one only, is there anything worth me reviewing in the first three? i'm not particularly interested in the aggressive competitive nature of the show and editing so i don't particularly want to watch the full two hour episodes, but if you think it's worthwhile for me to review stuff then i will. otherwise if there's a set structure (like with kingdom) i can seek out the stages specifically and review them if i know what i'm looking for.

[hopevalley]

Season 8, Episode 5: What the Heart Wants

I was going to try to follow my scene-by-scene format for the entire season, but I’ve been getting a lot of migraines recently, presumably from staring at the computer too long, so I don’t want to spend all morning working on typing up the play-by-play for this episode.

Also, for what it’s worth I think this episode lends itself to plot discussion better than some of the previous episodes...at least in some sense.

And as another head’s up, it’s back to being critical for me. ;P

Storylines:

School Ends/Graduation/Parent-Teacher Conferences

The Dress Shop/Rachel

Postal Service, Ned

Bill’s Uniform, Nathan’s Vacation

Carson and Faith

Henry

Elizabeth and Lucas

Clara’s Dilemma

--

School Ends/Graduation/Parent-Teacher Conferences

This plot felt a little scattered, but for once it wasn’t the kind of storyline they foisted too much drama upon. After years of every single function possible being besieged by bullshittery, it’s a relief to see one go off without a real hitch.

The beginning scene with Robert hugging Elizabeth was sweet. I enjoyed the Canfields immensely and am intrigued by Angela’s role in the story long-term (PLEASE let her befriend Allie!). Nathan...eh, I have thoughts—but I’ll talk about that a bit soon. The actual ceremony was cute and kind of fun with the kids singing. 

Neat Thing I Noticed:

Continuity? Cat Montgomery is still listed as Emily’s mother. ♥♥♥ I don’t know why but this made me really happy???

-

Complaint Corner:

Parent-teacher conferences should have been in this show from a much earlier point, and so should graduation have been. If there was a point to this celebration (the first year in a while anyone was old enough to graduate) that would have been a nice touch, too. It just managed to feel sliiiightly out of place.

I’ll forgive the “everyone in town goes to the graduation” thing because this is 1918...something like this would be a whole-town affair IMO. Invite everyone and have a nice get-together/party, probably on a Sunday afternoon after church but Hope Valley does whatever it wants, so...eh.

The threat of merging Hope Valley with other schools doesn’t fit in this scenario and it feels like they ripped it directly out of Tales from Avonlea which was almost rage-inducing to me.

Look, school mergers happened a lot in the early 1900s, especially around the WWI mark, but it wouldn’t be hitting a rural western town just yet. They don’t have any way of getting these kids to other towns for schooling. Where would the next closest school be? It would have to be pretty large and modern to merge multiple schools together.

*Adjusts nerd glasses* This felt forced and completely unnecessary. If anything this guy could be telling Elizabeth that they’re working on building a modern school somewhat close by, and could even have her involved in some decision-making regarding layout. Then they could bring in a “merger” storyline next season without it feeling out of place.

It mostly just felt dramatic for the hell of it, and it was boring, as was this man’s threat that Elizabeth had no right to teach a blind student. As if they’d accept Angela at a better school? As if her parents could afford top tier education for her? PLEASE.

Now it’s time for Nathan. The man chose to go fishing instead of to the parent-teacher conference? It makes him look like a tool. This isn’t about him or about Elizabeth; it’s about Allie. I understand why he didn’t want to go, but he should have done it anyway. It would have taken five minutes of his time. 

His flippant attitude annoyed me because it went completely against his character as we know it, but Elizabeth’s lecturing was irritating, too. For a moment I thought we had Lorigail back on the show...

I think Elizabeth was well within her rights to warn Nathan about the effect his work has on his ward, but that inquiry took like a week AT MOST. Heck, let’s be generous and say TWO WEEKS. Allie’s concentration suffered for two weeks. There was no need to say more than, “Hey she worries about you and her work suffered for a bit during that time frame, just so you’re aware.” 

I think what annoyed me about the math program thing is that...Elizabeth being a teacher would probably be VERY WELL AWARE that MOST of the parents to her students aren’t good enough at schooling to assist their kids with their homework. I dunno, it just feels out of place for her to tell Nathan that she wants to put Allie in an accelerated “program” and that Allie might need his help with her homework. It’s even more out of place when he admits he used to bribe his sister to do his work for him. Like. It’s very possible he’s not that good at math and isn’t capable of helping. (But maybe that will be a plot down the road...?)

“Or a tutor...” BITCH WHERE IS HE GONNA FIND A TUTOR IN THIS TOWN?! It’s super annoying to see dialogue like this that feels completely out of touch with the reality these people would be living in...lol. But also if she needs a tutor to stay caught up in an advanced program, she probably...shouldn’t be in the advanced program.

I don’t know how to feel about this whole thing here: “Nathan, you are Allie’s world. You’re the only father she’s ever known, and as she grows up you will always be the measure of the quality she’ll look for in a man as she chooses who to marry.” 

On one hand, it does fit the situation (he seems to think everything is behind him but Elizabeth’s words are kind of a caution that 1) his actions still have an effect on Allie, and 2) every day he’s teaching her by example). On the other hand, it seems almost wildly inappropriate to bring up? At the same time, it’s probably not wrong that Allie will measure other men (friends, acquaintances, potential future romantic interests) against Nathan’s example.

I dunno. The conversation felt disjointed. 

I think what they were going for was Nathan just feeling too awkward and weird about being with Elizabeth to want to be there for the conference, but...he interacted with her quite normally after the inquiry and stuff (even after she’d broken things off with him), so...it feels out of place. Like maybe this should have taken place right after the breakup and not weeks later?

Anyone else have thoughts on this and why it doesn’t feel quite right?

--

The Dress Shop/Rachel

This plot wasn’t what I would call a waste of time (rather, it’s worth having it mentioned now), but part of it was completely pointless and stupid. The whole Rachel getting lost thing was tacked into the promos to stir up drama, but nothing happened and there was nothing worrisome even going on. YAWN.

Rosemary’s desire to do something meaningful and different with her life is super interesting. I’m very curious to see what they decide to do with her if Dottie does sell the dress shop.

Also, Rosemary finding the book under Rachel’s bed was pretty funny.

But yeah, I didn’t really find much in this plotline to care deeply about. I guess I am pretty interested in knowing who might be purchasing the dress shop and/or if this decision is to bring someone else onto the show (a female love interest for the man who doesn’t win Elizabeth’s heart in the end, or even to bring back an old character*) or to take the dress shop out of the equation entirely... It’s also just as possible that Rosemary/Lee or Clara/Jesse end up buying it themselves down the line... Thoughts?

*I can’t begin to imagine who would be the best fit for this in this case, though. Who would have the money to buy her out?

--

Postal Service, Ned

Ned is just honestly so cute and fun. I love him. He’s really been doing well this season and seeing him wander around town delivering mail door to door was kind of nice.

Also, he’s one SMOOTH operator! Look at him, talking about putting a bell on the door so that he and Florence won’t be caught off-guard if they’re in the middle of...something. 

Oh my, Ned. What might customers be...interrupting? :3

Continuity? Not only was the ulcer from last season brought up, but the horrid cabbage juice was, too. :’) It was a nice touch. And these two had just enough screentime to be kind of fun/interesting without also taking up too much time.

--

Bill’s Uniform, Nathan’s Vacation

Nathan got his vacation and Bill is in charge...again. This happens an awful lot. I wonder if it’ll actually impact the next few episodes or if it’s just here for the hell of it.

I love Bill a lot and I want to brag up his character in this episode a bit. I’ve complained many times in the past about him being written like a Grumpy Old Man Yelling at Clouds but this episode was super respectful. He got his scene with his uniform. Nobody interrupted it. There weren’t even any words. I quite liked it.

But it also felt kind of...pointless? I don’t want to judge it too harshly yet. Like the dress shop plotline, this could actually be going somewhere in the next couple of episodes. 

Plus, unrelated to the uniform, it was nice to see Bill acting fatherly toward Clara. While it sort of came out of nowhere for the wedding, I appreciate the attempt at continuity there. Plus, so far this season, I’ve felt like Bill’s almost been a father-figure to Clara, Fiona, and even Nathan, so I’m enjoying that a lot.

--

Carson and Faith

CONTINUITY? The show finally remembered that not only is Carson actually a surgeon, but that was his original passion. It’s not that they completely forgot (S5 had him performing surgery on his sister-in-law, after all), but giving Carson a PASSION makes him a way more interesting character to me. 

And also, finally, this feels like a REAL high-stakes plotline for him and for Faith.

I really liked Faith’s take on things. I know, I know, I’ve been rooting at them to break up, but the reason is mostly because they’re just so BORING together. I’d rather watch Henry twirl around in a chair for an hour than suffer through date scenes with these two.

It’s not that I’m against a doctor wife/husband team. I’m not. I just think Faith was a much more interesting and cool character on the show before Carson showed up and usurped her place (and completely overshadowed her for literal seasons). This plotline for Carson might actually be interesting. Like, a fellowship? For modern surgery? IN BALTIMORE?!

I hope this is Faith’s way of saying she wants a break and/or a break would be good for them. I can’t picture her leaving Hope Valley without any trained medical staff, let alone long enough for a fellowship... 

But if this goes through, what will they do with it? Would they really write Carson off the show? To be perfectly honest with y’all, I’d be fine with that. At least it’s the type of write-off that makes a lot of good sense (unlike some of the other ones we got). I guess this is just another “wait and see” plotline which is uhh...the theme of this episode, huh? Anyone have thoughts on this?

--

Henry

Henry barely had any screentime, but I do want to say he is #relateable. The man is back at work for ten seconds and already exhausted. SAME.

Also, I appreciate that he’s ready to be back in the oil business. At what cost? I know people were worried they were gonna kill him off, and I really doubted it, but now I’m starting to wonder where they’re going with this exactly. Yet another wait and see moment LOL!

--

Elizabeth and Lucas

Some damn fine scenes for Lucas and Elizabeth in this episode. Mostly the scenic ones. :P

I enjoyed the agreement to a date. The horseback riding stuff was pretty cute. 

Complaint corner? I don’t know. I have petty complaints. Even though the celebration for the kids was a town-wide event, and therefore Lucas was invited, it still felt out of place to see it brought up. Maybe it should have been mentioned as a town celebration from the start?

Then Lucas’s comment about not wanting to make things awkward for Nathan (who is actually a parent and there) makes a liiiittle more sense. I do think it was good of him to not go, even though he wanted to spend more time with Elizabeth, but it gave off a weird vibe, like, “Look at how good and wholesome Lucas is!” Is that intentional? I’m not...sure...?

For what it’s worth I already felt like Lucas was an honorable person in this regard. He loaned Nathan money, after all. Maybe he should have told Elizabeth he views Nathan as a friend and doesn’t want to hurt his feelings unnecessarily and/or if he was there he’d want to hog her all to himself or something cheesy. Hm.

My other complaints are:

Elizabeth running to the saloon would be WAY faster than all this getting set up at her house...?? Who thought this made sense?

Elizabeth’s dress looked like a nightie she bought at Kohls.

Too many damn candles.

Characters Do What Plot Dictates Even Though Plot Makes No Sense. More at 11:00!!

I have no further comments on the dress. It needed sleeves or something so it looked more like a dress and not like a nightgown/piece of lingerie.

I think the candles might have been on purpose to parallel Jack...but I hated it lol. Fire hazard? HAVEN’T ENOUGH THINGS IN TOWN BURNED DOWN/EXPLODED?!

I didn’t hate the date scene! But I never feel like Elizabeth has any meaningful conversations with Lucas and it’s starting to drive me batty. 

Could we get uhhh something of substance please? It has to be surface-level nonsense on purpose. Right? RIGHT?

(And no, discussing a book for ten seconds on-screen is not “intelligent conversation” okay...?)

It’s really a shame because I’m starting to actually warm up to Lucas a little bit in this season but it feels like the conversations are just...kind of stilted and she’s not really into dating him—just agreeing to it because he’s the only option. 

And I can’t believe I’m saying this, but...he deserves better than that. 

Don’t get me wrong, by the way. If it’s part of the story and it’s revealed as such down the road, I’ll be fine with it...but I always worry they’ll just skip important relationship milestones and/or important conversations and expect us all to just accept it.

Kiiiiiind of looking forward to the rainy date scene in the next episode, though. I’m Team Nathan mostly but I’m keeping an open mind and I think I might actually enjoy it. Hopefully they’ll get some good scenes together that don’t feel like this one did.

--

Clara's Dilemma

Clara’s fears about running the salon without Fiona...are legit. LOL.

Also, this little bit was funny (between Mike and Jesse and Bill):

Anyway, if Clara was that worried about it, she should have just...told Fiona no? I hope it comes up down the road. Poor Molly??

I genuinely don’t know how I feel about Clara and Jesse’s involvement in this episode. I guess it was okay. I liked Clara’s scenes with Bill. I thought the idea of Clara and Jesse buying into the cafe was a nice one. Jesse having “invested” their money and lost it all, though... They did a similar plot with other people in what...Season 5 was it? Or was that the start of S6? He didn’t even say what he invested it in? But he admits the money is all gone? 

I think that’s what was missing from that scene. “I invested it in X, hoping to make us more money, but it didn’t work out and we lost everything.”

I’m not going to criticize Jesse’s characterization, only because sometimes character "growth” doesn’t happen for the better of anyone involved. My biggest worry here is that it’ll be solved by the end of next episode....but I hope that’s not it.

Like, I think they did better with Frank and Abigail if we’re going to talk about a man who didn’t know how to live like he was in a committed relationship. It made more sense with Frank, too, being older and single most of his life. His bouts of selfishness felt realistic.

Jesse feels like he’s somehow getting worse and worse as a person as the show goes on. I’m kind of at a point where I hope he and Clara divorce, because he’s so damn selfish it’s embarrassing. He’s off having a beer while his wife works multiple jobs? And then he has the audacity to act like they should save money when he just blew all their savings? 

I’m sure it’ll work out fine but I hope Clara puts herself in charge of the finances at the very least.

As to investing failures, I liked how they did that with Henry and Abigail. That was the kind of tension and worry that felt natural to me—like she trusted him with her money after he’d proven himself untrustworthy ten million times throughout the years, and he failed and had to uhh admit that. 

Jesse straight up betrayed Clara. Which, if it’s dealt with in a satisfying way...I think can be a good plotline. I just worry about it actually being dealt with properly. That’s a huge stumbling block in a relationship. And why is he continually getting worse as a person? There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. 

Gasp... it’s almost like it’s just plot because they feel like they have to give someone something every damn episode.

--

Which brings me to THE FINAL

COMPLAINT CORNER (The Big Boy™ Complaints)

The show has really struggled with finding its footing. I wish they’d take notes from better shows with ensemble casts (cough cough Road to Avonlea cough) without also ripping off their storylines (cough school merges cough).

My #1 complaint at this point in Season 8 is the SHEER AMOUNT OF THINGS GOING ON EVERY EPISODE.

I want continuity, so I want to see things happen naturally over a season, but my God do we not need to have mindless pointless crap in the episode. Rachel getting “lost” for ten seconds wasted literal MINUTES of screen time that would have been MUCH better allocated to basically anyone else in this episode.

And I don’t think it would bother me so much if it wasn’t also shoved into the promo like it was supposed to matter. It didn’t matter. Nobody cares. Why was it allowed to stay in the episode alongside stuff like Clara and Bill’s conversation?

Or Lucas and Carson’s?

I think they want to appease all the fans in every episode by giving them scenes of their favorites, but what did Henry sitting in his chair accomplish in this episode? Rachel getting lost? Jack not sleeping well/missing his mom? The school superintendent?

Did Bill trying on his uniform have to be in this episode? Did Jesse and Clara’s problems have to come fully to light right now?

When every episode is formatted like this, with 10 plotlines all interconnected slightly and going on at the same time, I feel like...nobody gets the spotlight they deserve when they deserve it.

I cANNOT believe I’m saying this, but this plotline for Carson, especially if it will end with him leaving the show for a while or permanently should get the focus it deserves. But it won’t if we get tiny snips of it here and there and then BOOM decision made because Reasons.

And again, I know I’ve said before that I want more continuity throughout the season, but... the best way to do that is to tighten up the plots. Have fewer of them per season and give more screentime to the ones you choose to pursue. 

--

Anyway, I’m still enjoying the season, but I hope they keep some of this kind of stuff in mind for next season. They don’t need plotlines for everyone in every episode. They need the plotlines they choose to write to be worth their screentime.

Sorry this was sloppily written and all that. Hopefully it makes sense. Very curious to see y’alls thoughts. Feel free to make your own posts and @ me, or reblog this or comment!

[evakuality]

Druck, s5, episode 9 - belated thoughts

Hmmmm, this first clip is very heavy, isn’t it?  But at least Nora has told someone exactly what’s happening with her without trying to hide it or lie about it or twist things in any way.  It makes a lot of sense that she’s wary of being like her mother, but like Kiki said, she just needs help.  I know I keep saying this, but I think where this season really shines is in the interactions within this family.  I enjoy the new friendships and I really do like Josh, but I don’t find any of those sections of the story as compelling as the family stuff.  So I’m really glad that this moment is just Nora and her sisters sort of vowing together to work through things together.  A significant part of what’s happening (eg the fact that Nora has hidden it for so long that it spiralled out of control etc) is due to Nora’s ‘training’ as part of this family and it’s absolutely right that it’s the family that should help her out of the situation.  I also like that while we got a few really tight, claustrophobic and oddly framed shots on Nora at the start of the clip, by the end things were more distanced and ‘normal’ - she’s not quite so caught up in feeling trapped and strange without knowing what to do about it.

Very interesting question: how am I supposed to trust you if I have no idea who you actually are?  That’s the big problem here as it always has been.  Nora has tried so hard for so long to act like everything is fine and put on a face as someone she’s not.  She’s done it in so many situations for so many different reasons but the outcome is the same: no-one does know who she truly is.  It’s completely understandable that Ava feels this way.  Is she blunt about it?  Yes.  But actually asking for answers is far healthier than trying to brush it under the carpet and pretending nothing has happened.  It’s super uncomfortable in the moment, sure, but in the longer term it’s going to be better to have addressed it than not.  It’s a real shame, then, that Nora didn’t take the opportunity to talk about it.  I get why she wouldn’t (she’s only just trusted her sisters - the people who know the whole family situation - with it, it’s still scary for her), but it’s still a shame.  Still.  At least Nora now knows where Ava stands and what she wants - to know the real her.  And Ava’s absolutely right.  Nora has done some shitty things lately so she has some explaining to do before they can truly be friends.

Interesting place to tell some of her story, but at least Nora has said something of what’s going on.  And it’s good that Ava (who I love but who does have a really strong sense of right and wrong which is very black and white without much nuance) has heard some of what might motivate someone whose life experiences may be different to hers.  It (hopefully) gives her something to hang her understanding of Nora on so she can feel less angry and upset at her.  Josh and Ava have been quite opposite in how they’ve approached Nora’s issues and their little argument here shows why.  On one hand, one thinks you stand by your kid no matter what doing whatever you can to help them, and on the other there’s a strong sense of what’s right.  The uncompromising supporter vs the tough love approach.  Whereas, the middle way is probably the best one in terms of what’s actually best for Nora.  Which I guess they’ll learn soon enough.

 It’s interesting how hostile Nora is at the start of this clip.  Considering that she clearly wanted the doctor in an earlier episode to tell her what was wrong and ‘fix’ her, it’s quite a change.  But of course she’s seen her mother committed, she’s terrified of being like her mother and that she may never recover, and the doctor was so dismissive of her that of course there’s no reason for her to trust that this one will be any different.  She’s clearly not comfortable with the whole process, but it’s a start and it’s good that Kiki explained how things are for her and what therapy (and a sister) can and can’t do for you.  And it’s also nice that it’s reinforced by Josh in the next clip.

She obviously cares what he thinks (so it looks like she’s right that things are better in terms of being able to feel, in that she cares about someone else’s opinion) and her nerves when she says she saw a therapist too, and the way she kind of looks to him for approval is really interesting.  She’s finally starting to tell the truth and not trying to hide behind her facade, and it’s obviously tough for her to do it.  It’s nice that he’s the one she tells after her sisters.  She trusts him with her vulnerability in a way she doesn’t with the other girls.  And again, I don’t blame Ava at all for her response - she has a history that puts her in one sort of frame of mind and it’s completely 100% understandable - but her reactions and her forthrightness aren’t conducive to Nora opening up to her in these early days.  But also, I think it’s very mature of her to want to just be friends with Josh at this point.  She’s still trying to work through all this stuff, and getting back together with him rn would imo be a bad idea.  He has, as they discussed here, a supporter/saviour complex and that’s nto what she needs at the moment.  Now, I know where this goes because I’ve seen gifsets etc and I have to say I wish they hadn’t done that.  Right here, this is a good thing for her to decide.  She came straight off the quite tough situation with Constantin into this relationship and then everything went to hell around her and she fell apart.  Time to herself, to be herself is key rn, and time to work out if this relationship really is something that is good for her.  If they wanted these two to be together, I wish they’d either addressed this part earlier in the season to give it more build up or that they’d left it until later - either as a minor story in another character’s season or as a subplot in a Josh season.

I really enjoy these sibling scenes.  They swing between being angry or upset at each other and sniping and being unpleasant to these really lovely connected, sweet, caring moments.  It all rings very true and I like that they emphasise that no matter what they may throw at each other sometimes, they are there for each other.  It’s nice.  On the other hand, I think this little moment with the girls is a bit rushed.  I wish they had actually talked a bit more about everything - Ava looked quite guilty when she asked for a hug and she really didn’t need to.  She had no way of knowing what was happening with Nora and I don’t like that they go straight into this sleepover on the stairs with no resolution to the things that were said previously.  One small comment from Nora in class shouldn’t be enough.  I mean sure that may come next episode but I wish in that case that they kept the reunion for then too.  Ava went from ‘I can’t just ignore this’ to literally just ignoring it.  

Anyway, an interesting episode with a lot going on.  I think Nora is coming a long way, though she obviously has some way to go yet.  I hope they deal with some of the issues I have in the next episode but overall I think they’re dealing with the big stuff really well and it’s nice to see Nora starting to come out of it.  

[charlienozaki]

I enjoyed your rankings very much, would you mind doing one for their kindness and also for their fashion sense XD?

Thanks! Okay, sure! Though I think, for kindness especially, my answers will be entirely subjective, but I’ll give it a go! 

(Disclaimer: This got long, so if you read it all, then you get—nothing in return. 😂  But thanks for doing so!)

Okay, so, kindness. It’s kind of difficult to rank this tbh, because I think, for some of the Straw Hats, their expression of kindness differs a lot when they’re dealing with strangers versus people they care about. I’ll try and consider both. And in the interest of keeping the word count below 10,000, I’m going to stick their fashion ratings at the end of each little entry. xD I’ll include my favorite outfit of theirs too. 

1 - Sanji - This one’s tough, and I have a hard time choosing between Chopper and Sanji, but I think I’m gonna have to give it to Sanji by a small margin. It’s kind of expected, given everything that’s been said in the manga recently, but honestly, out of everyone, he’s the most likely to help someone out, even if they’re an enemy, as he’s proven. Of course, there’s the whole male enemy versus female enemy thing too, but he’s always gonna feed anyone, no matter what, and we’ve seen him unable to let his family die despite the terrible things they’ve done to him. So, gotta give it to him. 

Fashion rank - #1 (TOP TIER. WELL EARNED IMO).

I freaking love his Whole Cake prince outfit, with the cape. And his wedding outfit. And all of his outfits. :’) But I think my favorite has gotta be the dorky, oversized sweater from Strong World. 

2 - Chopper - Chopper’s bumped out of first, but juuuust barely. I think we’ve seen him give a little more apprehension about treating enemies in the past, but ultimately, like Sanji, he’s going to help anyone in need, even if it means healing people who’ve hurt the crew. World’s best doctor has to be able to help anyone! 

Fashion rank - #6 (He wears some cute things, and bonus points for being able to keep them on when he transforms. :|…)

Again, another movie outfit, but my favorite’s the fucking cow from Film Z.

3 - Usopp - This boy takes third, I think. He’s fiercely protective of his crewmates and the ship, even more so after the timeskip, and we’ve seen him show concern and emotion for plenty of people outside of the crew as well. 

Fashion rank - #5 (I fucking love Usopp’s fashion sense though, even if it’s wacky. Just everything he wears, his hats, his crazy costumes. My god).This one from Movie 6 is simple by comparison, but it’s my favorite because HIS HAIR. 

4 - Nami - She actually has the potential to be very kind and compassionate, I think, and the potential to be caring and nurturing, particularly to kids. She’s very empathetic, so long as people don’t act like complete doofuses around her. And we’ve seen her dedicate herself fully to causes before even the rest of the crew did, i.e. the kids at Punk Hazard or forgiving Hatchan and not blaming Jinbei for what went down with Arlong, one of her best character moments ever, in my opinion.

Fashion rank - #2 (She could, arguably, be number one, considering she definitely shows the most active interest in looking good. I’m just partial to Sanji. xD)

Picking a favorite of hers is hard because I love so many…..I’ll avoid movies this time and go with her Thriller Bark outfit. She always looks cute with her hair up, and this outfit was pretty unique compared to her usual fare.

5 - Brook - I’m gonna say Brook’s kindness comes next, considering the whole Laboon thing, and also because he generally is polite and tolerant of others…unless he’s asking to see their panties… He’s even polite to enemies.

Fashion rank - #4 (I mean, he’s hella fab. Ya got the suits, you got the rocker outfits. Dude’s got style).

Bless this outfit that he wears for like 0.5 seconds in Film Gold. 

6 - Luffy - Aaaahh this is getting tough, and honestly, these last few could change around. I ranked his kindness low, comparatively, but Luffy honestly doesn’t give a damn about most things unless it affects his friends, so I think that’s why he got bumped down for me. Of course he is kind. He wouldn’t have all these people on his crew if he wasn’t. But until something affects him or his friends directly, it’s not of much concern to him. 

Fashion rank - #9 (HA. We’ve seen him wear fashionable things, sure, but not of his own choosing really. He clearly does not care about fashion one bit. xD He’s over here wearing sandals with suits - which is adorable - but he just doesn’t caaare, so that’s why I put him dEAD last).

I love all the ridiculous T-shirts and stuff he wears, but….come on. Future Pirate King here. He’s gotta look the part. So Strong World is my favorite.

7 - Robin - UGH, but see, she has proven herself to be a kind person! Especially post-timeskip, now that she’s opened up a lot more. She fucking loves the crew so much and is so sweet and motherly and playful with them. And she’s even begun to show that side to others too. With Law and Momonosuke and Koala and even freaking Barto and Cabbage Cavendish. I guess she just got bumped down because of how heartless and closed-off she used to be before she started trusting people again. It’s a (relatively) new thing to see her so uninhibited, so that’s the only reason I didn’t rank her higher here. Also she cried over fucking Ryunosuke for fuck’s sake. (#1 saddest OP death).

Fashion rank - #3 (She’s not as openly into fashion as Nami, but damn, does she know how to look good. I love her sophisticated style.)

Her Movie 6 outfit with the big hat is fabulous. And her Film Z dancer outfit with that leopard-print skirt. And I also love her original cowboy hat get-up in Alabasta. But everything with her striped sweater dress from Strong World, the glasses, the ponytail, the cute necklace, how her sleeves cover her hands. Just kill me. 

8 - Franky - Again, I feel bad he ended up so low too because he’s not unkind. He can be super chill and cool with people outside the crew, but I don’t think we’ve really seen him make too many bonds with, or show much interest in other characters, aside from the Water 7 crew. At least none that instantly come to mind in this hardly-researched, rambling post. xP He’s a good guy, and he’s obviously there for the Straw Hats 100%. He’s just not as openly compassionate as some of the others (despite his tendency to get emotional over things xD). HE’S A ROBOT FOR GOD’S SAKE.

Fashion rank - #7 (He’s got an idea of what he likes, so I gotta give him points there, as compared to just throwing on whatever burlap sack is available. And I also have to give him credit for somehow working clothes around all his post-timeskip modifications. But I wouldn’t exactly say he cares too much about looking….normal and polished. Bahaha.)

 I still love his outfits for how absurd they are. The freaking braids in Dressrosa. The JKLMNOPQ shirt. And the one in Zou that just says I ☀ HT. WHAT DOES IT MEAN?! (Seriously though. What does it mean). His outfits make me laugh so much. In the end, I gotta go with this one from the Heart of Gold special because I just lost it at that goddamn hair. 

9 - Zoro - SIGH. SIGH SIGH SIGH. We’ve seen him be kind. We have. We have, we have. With Chopper. With Usopp. With kids. WE’VE SEEN IT. We know he is. But he’s also Zoro, and he does things his way. And even if he’s obligated to help out because it’s what the crew is doing, he’s not usually going to show any emotion one way or another, or go out of his way to do some philanthropic thing. He wants the booze for himself! He’s similar to Luffy in a way, but Luffy has such an infectious personality and is outwardly passionate about helping the people he cares about. So our local former demon pirate hunter who not-so-secretly turns to mush when it comes to the crew must come last. Tbh, he just got lost finding number one. 

Fashion rank - #8 (And this poor child is losing the fashion race too. xDDD He’s at least got some clue of what clothes are functional and practical for moving around in, but other than that, he and his captain give no fucks. I mean, in the Episode of Luffy special, when the crew does their adorable little fashion show, they gotta practically fight him to get him to wear something ridiculously normal. Can only imagine how it went down to get him into suits.) 

But the suits. THE SUITS. Goddammit. Now, see, Zoro’s my favorite until death do us part, so everything he wears I will instantly love….. Anything from Strong World is good, and his Armani suit in Film Z. THE GLASSES. The glasses. The dad outfit - camo shorts and stupid baseball cap - from Film Gold. His Skypiea outfit with the tank top and goggles. And the Dressrosa mustache disguise. His skull hoodie from the Kaze wo Sagashite opening. His Zoro White dress from Marchen Time. (I have to include it). SHIRTLESS. I mean. I could go on.My favorite has to be his suit from Film Gold though. I just think it’s so hilariously Zoro - to wear the fucking suit jacket and vest and shit….but over the battle outfit for later. Everyone else gets all nicely dressed and he’s over here, finally having had enough of the dumb formal wear shit.

IT’S OVER. Sorry it got so long. I hope you survived the length. Thanks for the question though! 

[marrowskies]

that post i promise is here

and it’s long

imo you can see moffat's failings even in the episodes he's hailed for. like okay so one of the things is that in empty child everybody lives, but the everybody lives thing gets twisted as the show continued under him because... well... he's the doctor! everybody lives!

EVERYBODY.

LIVES.

EVERY. BODY.

THE time lords? his entire race dead to separate it from the original show in a definable story driven way that elaborates on an aspect that the doctor always had? terrible decisions he's had to make for the sake of good, even though he dislikes making horrible decisions that kill people????????????????????????? WHICH MAKES THE DECISION REALLY BAD???????????????????????????????????? AND DIFFICULT?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

fuck that shit the doctor is awesome! everybody lives!

"JUST THIS ONCE?"

HOW ABOUT JUST THIS EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME EVEN IN RETROSPECT BECAUSE FUCK YOU. I WANT THE DOCTOR TO BE AN INFALLIBLE MESSIANIC PIECE OF SHITTY WRITING but not in like an interesting but flawed way that RTD always tried to do even if he didn't always succeed but at least messianic bullshit was presented as a FUCKING FLAW and not just another DOCTOR IS AWESOME HIS FLAW IS JUST THAT HE IS TOO AWESOME ALL THE TIME

LIKE okay so I've seen that post going around that's like HAHA LOL NUWHO FANS DON'T KNOW THAT THE DOCTOR WAS ALWAYS MORALLY AMBIGUOUS BECAUSE IN THE FIRST EPISODE HE NEARLY KILLED THAT ONE GUY WITH A ROCK BECA-FUUUUUUCCCCKKKKKK OFFFF

that scene is so poorly indicative of what the doctor's character would become that it's been post-explained TWICE in TWO DIFFERENT FORMATS OF THE SHOW. YES the doctor can be morally ambiguous YES he has done horrible things and HE WILL GO ON TO DO HORRIBLE THINGS EVEN IN CLASSIC!WHO - but that is typically, for the rest of the show's existence, brought up as a THING HE'S GOTTA DEAL WITH, not some bullshit as "but he knows best" fuckery. the way that the Eight Doctors deals with it isn't half bad, actually, considering he basically confronts his younger self as a cocky "i know best" kind of idiot who hasn't had the 7 lifetimes to understand that it's not the right thing to do (especially when by now we understand that he's been living on an entire planet of "snarf snarf we're the best and lower lifeforms are primitive and pointless" assholes)

this argument also bothered me because OF COURSE nu!who fans would think this! there are lines all over the series indicating how awesomely badass the doctor is, how wonderful, how amazing, how just so fantastically remarkably brilliant and good he is to the point that MOFFAT RETROACTIVELY REWROTE THE FOUNDATION OF THE REBIRTH OF DOCTOR WHO ON THE SIMPLE INSISTENCE THAT THE DOCTOR WOULD NOT DO A BAD THING. of COURSE there are people confused about the mixed messages the show is giving them! is he an infallibly good awesome messiah? IS he MAYBE perhaps SOMETIMES BAD? oh, let me just HINT AT THAT A FEW TIMES but OVERALL NAH! HE GOOD! good is always a real, quantifiable thing that you are, and difficult decisions are... never difficult! because there's always a good one!

moffat's ALWAYS been like this! even in empty child i will argue! even in blink!

blink and empty child are often bandied about imo as "when moffat was good" and the video makes a point about how moffat is good in small doses, but empty child and blink are recycled so constantly that you realize that moffat's shit stank from the beginning much in the way that s4 sherlock reflects how sherlock has always been shit. empty child's premise worked because it was out of context with moffat's overall writing - how everyone ALWAYS lives, how women are ALWAYS WRITTEN through his perspective.

blink is so caught up in its obsession in being a cool thing for cool people that it shits on its own premise eventually. that becomes more clear when moffat brings it back constantly. but it's still pretty evident in that episode alone

"you can't look away from the angels because that's when they move"

"well we've figured it out! so we'll keep an eye on them now!!!!"

"well you can't because they can turn lights off for no reason!"

"what? why?"

"because FUCK YOU IS WHY also there would be no tension going into this final scene if i didn't make some bullshit up to make your solution pointless but anyway let me also ruin this two seasons from now by letting you see US MOVE"

blink's premise is fucked just mildly enough that we can ignore it and then because moffat has been squeezed of what creative juice he had left and then fucked it up some more, but more flashily! with budget! and guns!

god and his stupid fucking "crying is happy for sad people" just fuck entirely off moffat, yes? keep the preteen "i'm sad because i'm emotional and deep" shit to your 40 year old journal you keep up to date on how misunderstood and genius you are.

i haven't even gotten to the fact that sherlock isn't even sad or validated when moriarty dies. he isn't like well that fuckhead who was fucking with me is dead but at least crime is over. the video doesn't even go into a core aspect of sherlock holmes which is that he solves crimes because he wants crimes solved. that he maybe solves this stuff in particular because he cares about people and dislikes bad things because he’s a person, even if he does morally ambiguous things for the sake of a mystery. one of holmes’ enduring traits is supposed to be THAT HE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT PEOPLE. that he wants murder to have justice, that he wants a thief to be caught, and if he didn’t want those fucking things he wouldn’t solve crimes, he’d be fuckin mycroft. THAT’S BASICALLY LITERALLY THE WHOLE FUCKING POINT OF MYCROFT AS A CHARACTER, TO SHOW WHAT SHERLOCK WOULD BE IF HE WAS AN MISANTHROPIC PIECE OF INCONSIDERATE SHIT, holing himself up in an intellectual elite club full of uncaring shits who work in underground politics i mean i know that gets sort of elaborated on later on but CHRIST sherlock!sherlock would fit right fucking in at diogenes, except it wouldn’t be silent because he’d constantly need people to tell him how fucking smart he is all the fucking time

i'm so sick of this character on a fundamental level because moffat isn't the only one who does this - yes he's the one who has unfortunately laid waste to my current enjoyment of two of my favorite stories - and for those of you who counter often with "well you don't have to watch it" - you're right. I don't. and i've honestly never given Sherlock the time of day past its bullshit Orientalist episode, but as a fan of Holmes it is literally impossible to say that name without people pouncing in with how awesome Sherlock is. it's impossible to talk about Doctor Who without someone talking about the more recent season. DO YOU SEE? DO YOU SEE HOW UNAVOIDABLE.

Moffat as a writer has always capitalized on a particular archetype, the misanthropic genius. the misanthropy can be on a scale, but the genius part is paramount. the misanthropy adds a mystery to the character - because he doesn't LIKE people, his inner machinations lay undetect, but this can be done through various means. sometimes it's just done through being so sheer genius that they cannot be understood, like sherlock-archetypes almost always are, or they're so WACKY that they cannot be understood. whatever the case is, they're sometimes unlikeable, and are paired with people who don't UNDERSTAND them, but *understand* that they are so brilliant that they cannot be understood and therefore put up with whatever shit bullshittery they might be going through. (usually they're queerbaited because that character tends to be male)

here are some examples i can think off the top of my head: kingkiller chronicles, big bang theory, pure genius, dirk gently as written by douchebag mcfuckface Max Landis, frankenstein as written by douchebag mcfuckface Max Landis, most main male characters in stuff written by douchebag mcfuckface Max Landis, stargate atlantis (shared by mckay and shepard), basically every single adaptation of Holmes that didn't understand the fucking point (including house), arguably Elementary too tho that's actually dealt with in the show as a real tangible character flaw, Ender's Game, honestly as much as I love LeGuin - Wizard at Earthsea, and Catcher in the Rye to be honest, and... and... god what was that show about the guy who takes a FUCKING PILL TO BE SMART? (looked it up: Limitless), Will in Hannibal, APB WHATEVER THE FUCK THAT WAS?, HONESTLY JAKE FROM BROOKLYN 99 ALSO TOES THE LINE FOR ME especially in the early seasons but Jake is a NICE. BOY. AND christ the list goes ON and it NEVER ENDS WE ARE STILL WRITING THIS STUPID FUCKING CHARACTER.

this. shitty. character. a deep, philosophical, genius so beyond our normal human being's conception that they don't have to be nice to be liked. they just have to be smart. beyond smart. amazingly, stunningly, inconceivably smart. so smart that even their bad thing is a good thing. even their bad decisions turn out to be good ones, and their flaw is some manufactured bullshit like drugs! (House) or unfairly poor! (Kingkiller) or possibly autistic! (bbt). none of these aren't real, actual that real people have to deal with, of course, but they're USED in these cases to artificially insert a character "flaw." (and being an addict or poor or autistic isn't a fucking flaw! fucking stop it!!!!) the ultimate male wish-fulfillment character. don't require physical attractiveness or humor or charm or kindness or money. just smarts. then the women will love you!

this character has been around for so fucking long in media i feel like we've been tricked into thinking it's a good character. it's in so many well known classic things because shitheads like moffat and joss whedon and max landis and patrick rothfuss have been around forever, perpetuating their own bullshit since forever and i'm fucking sick of it. it's the writing equivalent of a white guy with acoustic guitar. a lazy, self-serving piece of writing that only serves to help the writer put his head up his own ass in an attempt to outwit himself with the most uninteresting archetype that exists. this is worse to me than the DREADED Mary Sue, because Mary Sues don't tend to be FUCKING ASSHOLES that people LOVE ANYWAY. They're just blank slates for people and that's FINE. everyone needs that at some point in their life! DO WE NEED MORE WHITE GUYS BEING AMAZING GENIUSES BUT WACKY ASSHOLES BUT SO GENIUS THAT EVERYONE LOVES THEM???? DO WE? DO WE NEED TO PERPETUATE THIS EXHAUSTING PERCEPTION THAT BEING RIGHT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN BEING KIND????????

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

[undefeatednils]

Just 13 YouTubers I Love

Internet videos: certainly the dominant kind of content I currently consume, and it’s one which allows for very diverse voices on different issues. So I wanted to showcase some YouTube channels which I watch, all of which are relatively unknown (all of them are below 200k subs, and only six of which are above 100k subs). Now please note that I can’t watch everything, so keep that in mind please. Anyways, I’m gonna sort them based on the subscriber count in ascending order. Enjoy!

#1: Laura Kate (aka Laura K Buzz)

Laura Kate’s channel isn’t super popular, but this video game journalist isn’t a complete unknown. She’s host or co-host on several podcasts, including The jimquisition Podcast, and has written for both gaming and general outlets such as Destructoid, Kotaku UK, and The Guardian. Her channel consists mainly of gameplay, though my favorites are her opinion pieces and news coverage. Oh and she recently started a podcast with the two girls from Geek Remix (you’ll hear more about them later; spoilers) talking about videogame-inspired pornography, which is super unique, tasteful, and fun. Bonus point: she’s an very out and proud transwoman in a cismale dominated landscape, so her presence is doubly welcome. And to be honest this is really just a big shout-out to her work overall and not only her YouTube channel, so... Check out her stuff.

#2: Jackson Bird (jackisnotabird)

Jackson Bird is a YouTube icon, despite his criminally low subscription count. He’s been active on YouTube over six years, mostly as a vlogger and both in front and behind the camera at the Harry Potter Alliance, but he has two other claims to fame: first of all there is his Grade A “why isn’t this a trend?” show Will it Waffle, where he tests if certain food items (and occasionally non-toxic non-food items) work if put into a waffle iron, and secondly he is an LGBTQ rights and education advocate for as long as he’s been on YouTube... Which makes a lot of sense for a bisexual transguy who’s been very open about his gender identity and transition. Overall his content (outside of his vlogs on his side channel) are a bit sporadic but definitely worth a look.

#3: rantasmo Three words: Needs. More. Gay. Rantasmo has been creating his little show on LGBT culture for over seven years now and it’s delightful and educational. In his videos, where he for instance covers topics like Game of Thrones, beards, Undertale, and The Wizard of Oz, he examines how LGBT people are portrayed and treated, what queerbating is, and lots more stuff. None of his videos are super long, like rarely do his videos last longer than 9 minutes, but they are still very entertaining and educational, so I highly recommend binging on a few of his more recent episodes to get you started.

#4: No Small Parts Productions I love watching movies and I presume you do, too. And occasionally you just notice either certain actors who you swear you’ve seen before but don’t know their name, or they just stand out in general but you have never heard of them. No Small Parts is a YouTube video essay series which covers exactly that. Run by bit-part actor Brandon Hardesty, No Small Parts provides lovingly crafted retrospectives on the lives and works on character actors. Thus far Hardesty has covered people like Crispin Glover, André the Giant, Darlene Cates, Scatman Crothers, and several others. It’s super fascinating, and all episodes are over 20 minutes long. He also has started to expand the channel to talk more about underrated movies and other related stuff, so it’s gonna be interesting to see how this channel develops. 

#5: rewboss

Andrew Bossom is a British man living in Germany... And as a German who is very much entrenched in the culture of the “traditional anglosphere”, that alone makes his videos appealing to me. Rewboss is a culture guy, and it shows. The German language, customs, travel destinations... He talks about it all and has been doing so for years. He originally even did half of his videos in German, but eventually dropped the habit because his German viewership didn’t really need it anymore. But anyways, Rewboss has been a YouTube educator for ages now, and he has even dabbled in helping other YouTubers, so a bunch of his older stuff might be of interest to you if you wanna get some basics in regarding the topic of online video. I’ve been a fan of his work for years and I think he deserves your attention, too.

#6: KyleKallgrenBHH (Brows Held High) My love for cinema is shining through again, this time with professional movie critic Kyle Kallgren, host of Brows Held High. Brows Held High looks primarily at arthaus movies, the avantgarde, the artistically noteworthy entries into the cinematic canon, though occasionally you also get William Shakespeare (basically every June), as well as yearly retrospectives and thematic analysis of both movies and occasionally other media like video games or theater. So if you are looking for very “high brow” stuff, Kyle is your man. Just be warned that some of the material he covers can be a bit NSFW visually and audibly, so keep that in mind once you tune into his work.

#7: Innuendo Studios

And we’re back at video games again, at least for the most part. Innuendo Studios, run by Ian Danskin, is definitely part of the more intellectual portion of this list but his videos are still very much approachable. Theories on authorship, genre death, the nature of coolness, and narrative are all explored here in a bunch of wonderful video essays ranging from short-ish to over an hour long, with that particular example being a series of videos about the psychology and history of Gamergate from a feminist point of view. The videos might be scarce but they are super smart and well-sourced. Dive in, you’ll definitely enjoy Ian’s work.

#8: Stop Skeletons From Fighting (formerly The Happy Video Game Nerd)

We all need positivity in our lives and SSFF is definitely the kind of positivity I think the video game crowd should try to emulate. SSFF is an examination of videos from a very critical but also loving point of view, looking at forgotten or maligned games and looking for what they can teach and what they did right and wrong; looking at certain aspects of video gaming history, including behind the scenes information... All that and more has been part of Derek Alexander’s work for several years now. If you wanna learn more about what makes good video games good and you do already watch Extra Credits, then do yourself a favor and check out Derek’s videos. I can also recommend his pre-SSFF stuff, back when he called himself the Happy Video Game Nerd, a character he created as a response to the negativity-focused reviewer culture during YouTube’s early days as exemplified by the Angry Video Game Nerd and the Nostalgia Critic, though of course those videos are relatively ancient. #9: Jenny Nicholson Confession time: about seven years or so ago I was quite into My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It was a good show back then and I was always a sucker for fun musical numbers, so it was a nice fit (plus I didn’t know how toxic the brony subculture was becoming so that didn’t hamper my enjoyment of it). But anyways, I actually stumbled across Nicholson for the first time during that time period because she was making an abridged series of MLP: FIM called Friendship is Witchcraft, which was and IMO still is hilarious. She voiced all of the female characters (except Celestia), and when Hasbro was putting an end to it via copyright strikes, I lost sight of Nicholson... But earlier this year I rediscovered her and her wonderful, wonderful snark. If you enjoy nitpicking apart blockbusters, especially Star Wars, then Jenny is your gal. She could give screenwriting classes, her stuff is that good and funny. She’s also recently been hired by ScreenJunkies to host the Star Wars-centered Millenial Falcon, which I also recommend if you love the old SW like myself. Also we have officially passed the 100k subscriber threshold, so we’re talking about the popular kids now! #10: hbomberguy British people are inherently funny- and smart-sounding, even though most aren’t (I’m sorry British people; feel free to make as many Germany-bashing jokes as you’d like). But hbomberguy definitely is both smart and funny. Whether he is talking about (British) politics, responding to YouTube “skeptics” or MRAs, or ranting about media for hours, he’s always a joy to watch and hear. Probably one of my favorite videos of his is his almost two hour long masterpiece “Sherlock is Garbage, And Here’s Why”, in which he finally managed to put into words why Sherlock’s fourth season was the worst and why Moffat is just a horrible, horrible showrunner including on Doctor Who, which is something that has hampered by enjoyment of Doctor Who and I was’t even fully aware of it and can finally express myself on this topic the way I’ve been wanting to for ages, and that should be enough of an endorsement from my end.

#11: Folding Ideas Dan, the Foldable Human, is an expert on editing, working behind the scenes in the movie industry, how YouTube works, and how culture shapes media. I honestly can’t even summarize this channel even further because I’ve hit the nail on the head and just want to you watch this Canadian guy and hear him talk about mostly movies. “The Art of Editing and Suicide Squad” is a very good starting point in his videography, close to 1 million views, and it is everything you need to know about this channel in a 35 minute long package. Just check out at least that video and if you like what you’ve seen, dig deeper. You most likely won’t regret it.

#12: Lindsay Ellis (The Nostalgia Chick) We have reached “the big ones”! Lindsay Ellis has been in online video for almost a decade now and she has mastered the art of the video essay. She’s been looking at media from a feminist perspective for ages now and her body of work speaks for herself. 90-ish episodes of The Nostalgia Chick, 23 episodes and counting for Loose Canon, where she examines how different characters have been portrayed throughout the years, thus far nine long-form video essays, and her recent series The Whole Plate, where she covers the basics of film studies by looking at Michael Bay’s Transformers. Check out her stuff, I implore you. You will spend hours watching her content and learn so, so much!

#13: Geek Remix (Mari and Stacy)

You love fun let’s plays hosted by several people but think that there should be more women doing so, too? Me, too! And that means you’ll probably enjoy Geek Remix, aka Mari and Stacy, who are two lovely ladies playing so many games! Night in the Woods, Dragon Age Inquisition, Resident Evil 7, Life is Strange, Contradiction: Spot the Liar, and so many more. Otherwise you can also expect theory videos, conversations about human sexuality, easter egg listings, and a lot of other fun stuff on their channel, which with about 147k subs is definitely the most popular channel on this list. Special shoutout to my friend @hella-flawless-amythyst who introduced me to them, so if you get sucked in by Mari and Stacy’s charm, you can “blame” her, too (if you actually blame her I will hunt you down though). So... That was my list. Lots of stuff on there, sadly nothing music-related if you were looking for that (but if you speak/understand German, I highly recommend Bina Bianca, who is just adorable and is an honorable mention), but I hope that you’ve found a channel or two that might interest you. This took ages to write, by the way xD

[thimblings]

AHHH!! YES!! um. prepare your eyes, this is gonna be a long, rambly post because apparently i have A LOT OF FEELINGS and i can’t just list things like a normal person. and i also kept remembering podcasts and the list JUST KEPT GETTING LONGER. so. GIANT TEXT POST, i am so so so sorry. also, there are actually a few on this list that i’m not caught up with (some i’m like REALLY behind on) but i’m still gonna rec them... 

Welcome to Night Vale is the one i’m sure most ppl know of (although! if you have not read the novel, i’d HIGHLY recommend getting the audio book version. Cecil Baldwin does a great job of reading, and the “Voice of Night Vale” sections actually feature guest stars. i really want Cecil to do more audio book recordings omg). but!! along that same theme (radio show in a strange town w/ supernatural themes), King Falls AM is spectacular (ben and sammy are just! a freakin delight i love them). IMO it starts off feeling like it’s trying to be like WTNV, but within a few episodes it finds itself and becomes something unique (i say this bc i was initially put off by the first episode for that reason, and later came back and gave it another shot and enjoyed it immensely). it’s funny, it made me cry a few times, and i reaallyyy really really need to catch up with it. sammy stevens also has….just….a really nice voice hahaaaa The Truth is a great one. it’s mostly one-off short stories, but they’re generally really high quality and the plot of most of the episodes is really thought-provoking or just interesting in general (there’s one ep about aliens who find the Voyager craft with its recording that’s just really charming to me). the tagline “movies for your ears” is really apt. a lot of the stories veer on the side of unsettling/creepy, and it’s great if you like horror stories. i’d also recommend The Black Tapes and its sister podcast, Tanis. i love horror and unsettling mysteries, so these are right up my alley (Tanis is definitely more in the sci-fi/horror genre, but i like how it also digs into real unsolved cases and events). these are relatively well known, at least in that my friends who don’t listen to podcasts have listened to TBT at least. but they’re still great to check out if you haven’t. Limetown is really good, but ends on a cliffhanger and as far as i know there’s no immediate plans for a season 2? (i remember reading something about  them in talks for a TV show? which would be cool, but i’d miss the audio format of it). the first season is worth listening to, because it is really interesting and the audio production is pretty top notch - just be aware that a second season may or may not happen. what i’ve listened to of Hadron Gospel Hour so far is SUPER enjoyable, but i’ve only listened to the first few episodes.  arsPARADOXICA is FANTASTIC (at least the first season and a half that i’ve listened to). sally grissom is a great character and a brilliant and  scientist and i’m just really in love with her. this is a nice podcast because it has very capable women in it and the concept overall is really fascinating and handled really well. The Cleansed, set in a post-apocalyptic US, is well written and overall well produced (there’s one ep that still sits with me, because of a scene that truly unnerved me, just in the music and the atmosphere and the dialogue just ahh) and i’ve been meaning to pick it up again. In that same vein there’s We’re Alive, which is of the zombie variety. i’ve only juuuuust dipped into that one, but i’ve enjoyed what i’ve heard so far. this one has been around for a long time, like WTNV, so there’s a lot of episodes and a lot of content available. THE BRIGHT SESSIONS! i’m really really fond of this one and i just really love it, please listen. it’s about a psychologist who works with people who have “special” abilities, and all of the patients she helps are just so! precious!! i just love them a lot. Wooden Overcoats is a GREAT podcast that is pretty much the audio version of all my favorite British comedies that i watched growing up (think Fawlty Towers, Are You Being Served?, etc). it’s a comedy podcast about two competing funeral parlors (one of which is owned by the Funn’s). it’s exactly my kind of humor, and everyone involved just seems really great and kind. Antigone Funn has great lines and HONESTLY i’m surprised i haven’t seen more people quoting her and this podcast because it’s just! really great. and i don’t THINK this is a sister podcast to WO, but i always associate the two because they have some of the same people working on them but - Hector vs The Future is great. again, i haven’t listened to many episodes, but i’d still recommend it. it’s slightly different than other podcasts on this list because it’s actually filmed/recorded in front of a live audience. Homecoming is a short podcast (only 6 eps and the eps are pretty short) that i THINK is meant to be part of a larger, written universe (which i want to check out). it’s about soldiers with PTSD. this one actually has some well-known people involved - both Oscar Isaac and David Schwimmer voice characters and do a great job. The Darkest Night is another one with big names involved - Lee Pace is the narrator, which alone makes it worth checking out. overall, i’ve enjoyed it, but some episodes veer into areas i was kind of uncomfortable with (Tic-Tac-Toe is the one i’m stuck on and why i haven’t finished it yet ahh).  AND OK i really really really like space and space stories and space adventures, so my favs all have that in common hahaha Wolf359 is kind of like. okay, it’s about three people and an AI on a space station, light years away from earth - and the communications officer records his reports by pretending he’s doing a radio show. it starts off fun and humorous and things are great and then before you know it, you are going to be driving from Wichita Falls to Dallas and have to pull off on the side of the road because you’ve started sobbing while listening to it in your car. this podcast is fantastic, with a great cast of characters and strong women and DOUG EIFFEL and just. it’s very good. (i am ashamed to admit that i’m actually SUPER behind on this one. p much, i’m at the point where kepler and crew are on board but i’m only a few eps into this storyline). THIS is actually the podcast that really got me on board with the whole audio drama scene and just like….SCOURING the internet for more that would captivate me in the same way. This one is actually ending with this last season, which i think is a good thing? it’s very plot and character focused and i’m glad that they’re telling a complete story and HONESTLY! i’m just really excited to see where everyone involved goes from here. EOS_10!!!!! similar to Wolf359, it’s about a space station. there are a LOT more people there though (it’s more like an intergalactic hub). it’s about a doctor, his recovering alcoholic doctor-boss who he’s trying to help, a nurse who is spunky and maybe a bit psychotic, a hypochondriac alien-former-prince, and a “alleged” “terrorist” living in the cargo bay. idk this podcast just makes me incredibly happy. the writing is witty and fun, the characters are lovable and flawed, and i’ve listened to the whole two seasons at least 3 times because it just fills me with joy (my favorite dynamic always: assholes who are friends and they love each other but they also just….insult each other constantly. and somehow they save the world? but they’re still assholes). the universe of this show is really interesting without ever feeling like an info dump, and the unfolding mystery is very intriguing. WARNING: this show has been on hiatus for awhile, so there are only two seasons right now. but honestly??? it’s completely worth it. (obvi i’m hoping a third season will eventually come, but i enjoyed the first two enough that i love it regardless haha). and, finally, my current obsession. The Penumbra Podcast. it’s pretty much everything i’ve ever wanted in a series ever - detective film noir, but in space (on Mars), and literally everyone is queer. there’s a main story line (”Juno Steel and the [blank]”) and then one shots between each Juno story. the one shots are fantastic and really show the strength of the writers - sometimes being creepy, other times just being entertaining. The Juno Steel stories are the main running plot, done in the style of old detective radio shows - but also kind of twisting and upgrading the genre to be more inclusive and diverse. Juno Steel is a canonically non-binary and bisexual private eye (also canonically grumpy, sad most of the time, and a huge nerd who laughs at his own awful jokes in HIS OWN MONOLOGUES), and is the type of character you want to punch for being frustrating but who you also want to just…be…happy and protect from the universe. the writing in this is fantastic and beautiful and all of the characters are captivating. even one-off characters have a ton of personality and just add to the diversity/representation of the show. the voice work is top-notch and just!!! it’s so good!!!!! i have so many feelings!!!! (Juno hits close to home for me, with his self-esteem issues and depression and just…yeah, so i gushed about him there. i have a lot of feelings about the other characters but i’ve seriously rambled so much already so I WILL REFRAIN. also? gushing TOO much about a certain someone spoils the enjoyment of getting to know them at the same time Juno does) i REALLY enjoy audio drama-type podcasts so that’s mostly what i listen to. i’m also really into true crime and weird theories and occult stuff, but i’m particular about the podcasts i listen to for that. basically, i get attached to a specific host(s) and it’s hard for me to listen to anyone else talk about similar things haha. so as far as that goes, i love The Last Podcast on the Left (haha i get a bit nervous rec’ing this one because it’s really offensive, mostly in the early eps, and is def not for everyone but honestly!! i just love these boys a lot, and they discuss p much everything i’d ever be interested in ever). this one also led me to listen to Page Seven, which is celebrity gossip but honestly just really enjoyable to me. Two of the hosts from that show (Marcus is a LPOTL host as well) also do another show called Sex and Other Human Activities, which i’ve listened to a bit and enjoyed and deals with a lot of different issues - like sex, but also delving into depression and different things the hosts and their friends have gone through. but as far as non-fiction podcasts go, that’s pretty much it? i’m still planning on checking out Radio Dispatch, but that’s honestly mostly because it’s Molly (from Page Seven) and her brother and like i said, i have a problem. other podcasts i know of and have been meaning to check out: Hello From the Magic Tavern, The Adventure Zone, Pleasuretown, Lesser Gods, Tales of THATTOWN..... and ok, probably others but this has gotten excessive i am so sorry friends (some of the links may accidentally be wrong and i am very sorry)

[kierofrp]

thoughts on degrassi: next class season 3 :) it’s nearly 3,000 words because apparently i had a lot of emotions. 

i...honestly was expecting the worst. the way they refused to promote the show until the last second and the fact that everything was hush-hush... i was expecting it to be awful. but this season is the first season in forever that reminds me of the degrassi i fell in love with when i was growing up, and it honestly makes the last few seasons look a little garbage in comparison. i cried at least 1 time per episode - maybe i’m just in an emotionally vulnerable place, but everything was getting to me. every emotional beat held my attention and brought me so deep into the world. i don’t even have words. the characters were all realistic as hell - and all a little problematic in their own ways - and it was just... wow. and everyone actually got enough focus and nobody got too much screentime imo. even maya -who had the most important plotline (in my opinion) & has been degrassi’s princess for the past few seasons - even maya had an appropriate amount of screentime. i’m here for it. i don’t want this class to graduate, unlike clare’s class, who i was so damn sick of... i’m gonna go into each character (and their related plots) now while the emotions are still so raw.

zoe - i LOVED zoe’s storyline. i love her falling for rasha. i loved her finding herself and feeling secure and safe and having a friend group. i loved her being student counsel president. she is perfect for it. i love that they showed her actually being a president, not just throwing dances and bullshit like the past few presidents. she was actually doing well for the school and... killing it. i hate her mom, but i loved the way they portrayed it. it was seriously so realistic and it was hitting me hard as someone who just recently came out to my mom. that’s how it is for so many people who come out, but i love that she decided to refuse giving up her happiness - especially since its’ taken so long for her to achieve. i cannot wait for more gay zoe thriving and living for herself. she was one of my favorite characters this season. she has had so much shit happen to her, and for her to finally be coming into her own and finally finding herself, even if it means losing her mom... fuck i loved zoe so much and ana did such an amazing job. 

rasha - raSHA RASHA RASHA !!!!!!! i am so fucking in love with rasha. her claiming her faith the way she wants to, her crushing on zoe and being so fucking ADORABLE WITH ZOE i was so here for every bit of it and i wish she was only a sophomore or something because i need her to be the main character once the seniors graduate PLEASE. she was literally possibly my favorite part of this season. casting a+, acting a+, the only thing i could wish for would be more plots with different people. i liked her little parts with miles, i loved the stuff with goldi, i loved the stuff with zoe (gracevas who?)... i just want her to be more than just zoe’s girlfriend and goldi’s friend.

goldi - OK so.... i liked her storyline about her struggling with her faith. i liked her storyline with her struggling to accept beliefs that weren’t strictly muslim.. however, i wish they hadn’t made her a feminist. because although feminists are completely able to have their own beliefs on things like homosexuality and other ‘sins’, it reinforces the other parts of her that represent white feminism to me. she’s not intersectional. she’s a feminist about ‘equality’ with men and she’s a feminist about her hijab. great strides. but that doesn’t make her the poster child for feminism in my opinion. i’d rather her be the leader of the social justice club or something rather than feminism club (that, lol, doesn’’t exist now that it’s not convenient to the plot) 

winston - this is gonna be short lol but i DIDN’T HATE HIM THIS TIME AROUND OOPS. he wasn’t bad! this is the max involvement i want out of him. tiny doses of him are alright - he was cute with zoe/rasha/goldi, which is my top friend group this season, especially since zig’s friends are GAAArrrRbbbAAAAGGGEEEE)

zig - speaking of! i didn’t hate zesme. i actually liked them better than zaya. i liked that they were sexually active and (other than the gross slut shaming plot) were sex-positive and not ashamed of being sexually active. i’m here for it. i’m here for them having all of the sex they want. zig was a pretty small part of the season which i am... COMPLETEly ok with because i honestly... got sick of him the past few seasons. especially if the writers aren’t gonna flesh him out. i’m struggling to think of other plots other than the stuff with esme and his friends being absolute garbage which LEADS ME TO....

tiny - i liked him so much in the past but fuck but he was acting like garbage this season. other than the scene after 7 minutes in heaven where he says ‘you only like me when i’m the perfect science student’ or whatever to shay -- i liked that. and i guess i liked the period stuff with him. but he was acting kinda garbage. i’m ok with it because i love that they’re making these characters flawed and interesting and problematic. 

shay - i don’t,,, know. she was alright, i didn’t like the revenge bullshit because that’s so not shay. she’s not petty like she was acting this season. she’s never been petty. i prefer the plots about her scholastic life and her future goals. i liked that she didn’t get too involved in being extra and petty and dramatic, but this season she kinda became that person. it’s alright because again, i like seeing flawed characters and they definitely did that this season, but i did like when she was different than her friends. 

lola - BLESS. LOLA. she was interacting with so many people and interweaving with so many different plots and it was just...expert writing tbh. she had so much going on but it all made sense together. the abortion plot gave me chills, i love that they showed the doctor and they showed the procedure and that line about her not being the first 16 year old to get an abortion in the day... WOW. seriously. amanda’s acting deserves some type of award. she killed it. miles/lola stuff... i was a fan tbh. it worked. so well. i loved it all. i loved that she didn’t struggle with her abortion. i loved that she shared her story and wasn’t sorry. i have zero complaints. i don’t want her to graduate. she’s the first one in a while that i really am starting to care about. i care about her the way i cared about jt and manny and all of the characters in the old days. i’m in love with lola. i’m in love with lola being vulnerable and sensitive and a little petty and more than a vessel for mediocre one-liners. and that blue hair was stellar. i have such a crush on amanda and the fact that she’s a good actress (she’s improved a ton since the last few seasons) and she’s super beautiful... maybe my new fave? it’s a three way tie between lola, rasha, and frankie. hoping for single lola next season because she is SO MUCH BETTER than these dumb boy plotlines she’s been getting. she’s come so far from being the boy-crazy dumb character. she’s developing so nicely. yes yes yes. 

frankie - i’m mad that they dropped the racism plot. zero mention. everyone hated her and wanted nothing to do with her and suddenly she apologizes and nobody is upset with her at all? whatever though. i wish they just hadn’t done that because as i posted earlier, i related to her so damn much with her emotional issues. i hope they do some sort of plot with her being codependent and having emotional issues. i’m super clingy just like her - i give my all to my partners and i lose a bit of my identity, just like her. and seeing myself in her, seeing her not necessarily being demonized (in my opinion, other than the last bit with jonah) was meaningful. i just wish she wasn’t racist. i liked that the hollingsworth siblings were all interacting with one another throughout the season. i liked the continuity of her being kinda gross saying abortion was murder (its consistent)... sara is an amazing actress. 

jonah - garbage garbage garbage but i appreciate that he’s realistic and consistent. but he’s lowkey gross. highkey gross. he reminds me of jay or something. that whole friend group (zig, grace, jonah) seems to non-stop talk shit about everyone and it was gross, but agaaaain realistic and i appreciate that the writers are writing the characters like this. and i see my partners in jonah tbh when it comes to frankie. i hope to god grace and jonah don’t get together though, i’m not here for that at all. not in the LEAST. just be friends for fucks sake.

grace - here for it here for it here for it. not here for her putting up with her friends’ shit talking women and being shady because in the past she’s definitely not put up with petty drama, but whatever. maybe this is more realistic. her CF stuff is so unique and great and i’m just here for degrassi getting out of their comfort zone and writing unique stories and actually doing research to represent a disease and props to nikki for portraying that fear of dying and the conflicted emotions and i’m here for it so HARDCORE. and her being mad at maya, here for it. she was justified, even though maya was going through shit, she was so justified and i just loved nikkis performance. all i can wish for in the future is maybe a plot about her being native and dealing with the issues that go with that. and drop your gross friends, especially jonah. 

esme - she is SO intriguing and i’m so mad they’re wasting chelsea’s talent. the acting was out of this world and her emotional beats were so fucking awesome. if they don’t do a serious mental health plot before she graduates i will forever be mad at the writers. having her spiral even more after pretty much reliving finding her mom (with the maya situation) will be so traumatic. and chelsea would kill it. as i said with zig, i like zesme tbh, i love her being open about her sexuality and not ashamed of anything when it comes to being a woman. i didn’t like her shaming shay for having her period, but it seems about right for esme’s character. and again, problematic realistic characters. they’re high schoolers. they’re gonna be petty. and esme has some problems that would cause her to be bad with social situations and act in a way that gets attention.... more esme next year or i’m gonna riot.

miles - here. for. it. EVERYTHING was perfect. the lola thing made perfect sense. his acting was out of this world. the interactions with tristan were amazing, the whole plot was great. i wasn’t really into the play but i get that it was a good plot device. i think they could’ve had lola and him bond and have the same great plot without the play, but bringing tristan into it needed the play, and i think it was overall a good idea i guess. the play was well woven into the entire season. the whole season was just so well interwoven i was shocked. usually it’s off balance and people don’t intersect, but... they killed it.

tristan - i didn’t even care about tristan before now. at all. but it was so jarring to see him in a coma and then waking up and in the wheelchair... i started crying when he was in the wheelchair typing the words. he’s changed forever. and i love it. the bus crash is forever changing his life. he may never be the same, and i hope he graduates in the chair with minimal speech capability. i’m fine with him relearning speech but if he returns to the sassy, personable guy he was before the crash... it’d be unfortunate to waste this opportunity to make a memorable and unique plot. i hated his last scene about pizza. the ending was such a serious and melancholy beat and then they were like PIZZA!!! trying to be funny. and idk if it was supposed to be him incapable of expressing emotions with maya literally almost killing herself but he literally didn’t make one comment about the girl that he met on his first day of high school and was so involved with for Y E A R S... they were best friends. they may have had falling outs but come on. give us something. he could understand emotions with miles cheating on him and could have a coherent conversation and understanding when it came to that, so why not this? btw i appreciate him not being totally biphobic with the lola thing and understanding it somewhat. of course, he has limited speech so it’s not like he can spout off a bunch of biphobic bullshit like usual, and hopefully there are more important things than miles hooking up with a girl... i liked how he took it and although i don’t care one way or another about triles, i liked their resolution, and i definitely 100% believe triles is endgame. i’ll be surprised if it’s not. 

maya - the big one. i cried almost every time she was on screen because i related so much to her. i got her. i got what she was feeling and i understood every frustration and every action and everything she was going through. of course not 100%, but i got it. i loved the mention of cam and adam (although i would’ve killed for her to talk about how she thought suicide was selfish when cam did it and how she now gets it, i would’ve killed to hear her thought process there) but i was here for it. olivia is an amazing actress. she killed it. and i loved that she wasn’t a part of a lot of the plots. it really isolated her and it translated and it made sense with how isolated she was truly feeling. i liked the saad stuff - even though it was totally fucked up, i totally got it and i understood them finding solace in one another and the photoshoot stuff was seriously so interesting and (as i’ve said for 1,000,000 things in this review) SO UNIQUE. i’ve never seen depression handled the way they handled maya. i was never expecting to feel so strongly about maya but it was amazing. her slowly reaching her breaking point in the last couple seasons has been so masterful, and this was just perfect. the pill popping scene and the scene with katie and her mom where she was having one good night before she kills herself...that acting...you just knew. and it was heart wrenching. this has to be some of the best stuff degrassi has ever done. as someone who has seen everything since day 1 of tng, i’m seriously saying that this plot with maya - this arc that has been going on since cam’s death - is seriously some of the best tv i’ve ever seen. like amanda, olivia deserves a nomination or something for this. seeing katie was amazing - props to degrassi for that, considering in the past, like with clare, past family members just ceased to exist. 

gamer club - idc IDC IDC and if these are the motherfuckers who are supposed to carry the show after lola’s class graduates i’m sorry but i may lost interest. it wasn’t HORRIBLE but it just reminded me of the past few seasons that were just mediocre. they held my interest enough, but i’m not invested overly. baaz is annoying, vijay is a piece of human garbage, hunter is mediocre, and yael... yael has potential if she stops lowering herself to the level of these losers.

overall, this is the best season in forever. the stories were interwoven so well, the writing was great, the plots were diverse and unique and not tired (like they have been in the past few seasons)... it was so emotional. and so real. and it gives me hope for this franchise and makes me want to write on their staff and continue to make content like this. i want season 4. i want these flawed fucked up teenagers. the production value went up. the writing went through the roof. the acting wasn’t cringey like it usually has been. it has flaws, but overall... i’m singing praises and i have hope. shouts out to degrassi for reviving this franchise (hopefully) and getting it right. HERE FOR IT. <3

[hopevalley]

What are your thoughts on the direction the show will be taking? The 'new' direction, I mean.

Hmm, again with the tough questions! I think my biggest issue with trying to answer this one is that I have no concrete understanding of what this new direction might actually be. I guess if I was attempting to speculate, I’d say they’re going to try and move away from the intense drama of S5 (both in-show and on social media) and toward calmer pastures—er, plotlines. Or at least plots that aren’t so busy that there isn’t time to hash them out in the allotted screentime.

Honestly? I hope that’s the case. Like I said in an earlier post, the setting of this series allows for some pretty organic drama to occur; there’s no reason to make it hamfisted or to shoehorn characters into performing roles just for the sake of upping the ante, especially not when they have limited space to tie things up in.

Let’s talk an example.

Plotlines like the rattlesnake bite of S5 weren’t bad on their own, but they were handled in a way that made them a lot worse than they had to be. Jack Wagner’s acting wasn’t what made the plot hard to watch (it was pretty reasonable IMO). It was a combination of the things that led up to the bite that didn’t make sense and poor timing of what I’ll call “meaningful moments.”

Let’s look at the lead-in issues, first:

1) Bill escorting AJ to Cape Fullerton by himself on horseback in the middle of the woods (not on a known trail/road) with no explanation as to why this was.

2) Implying that AJ intentionally didn’t tie her horse up just so that she could ride with Bill.

3) The camera angle making it look like Bill got himself bit on purpose.

4) The lack of time/space placement in terms of where they are at that moment and how far from Hope Valley they are.

Look, I know Bill was throwing out his arm as a defense and putting himself between the snake and AJ, but that is decidedly not how it looked the first few times I saw it. And it doesn’t fix the fact that the main components that are necessary for this plot to work…also don’t make sense or aren’t clarified. Why would Bill take a random backwoods trail when there are obviously main roads or a stage/train option, and why would AJ (a grown woman who has taken care of herself just fine all her life) purposefully try to let her horse go? If they’re not far from Hope Valley, why not try to go back there?

They could have had a really nice, organic plotline, but the showrunners tried too hard to make things extra difficult for the characters (see: dramatic), and in doing so made them act in ways that…didn’t quite work. 

So for a few examples on how to write this particular plot so that it’s more digestible and interesting…

Let’s say that Bill decided to take the back way because AJ isn’t dangerous and he doesn’t want to humiliate her by having to keep her handcuffed on public transportation all the way to trial. 

OR…they’re delayed getting on the road in the first place/the stage is running late or held up and rather than wait for the stage another day or two and make her late to her own trial, opts for a route he thinks might save them some time.

Either option works perfectly well. It’s just a matter of not forcing the audience to extrapolate all of the minor details themselves. A short scene where Abigail or Henry questions Bill for riding out with AJ more or less free (when Henry was taken away in a cage) might do the trick. Not that Bill would ever admit to Henry that he was making this choice to be kind to AJ, but he might say enough (in words or facial expressions) to tell us what’s really going on.

In the “before it rains” scene, which was pretty pointless, AJ could try breaking the silence with an annoying comment like, “Are we there yet?” prompting Bill to drop a hint about how far from Hope Valley they’ve traveled.

Alternatively, we could get a fairly long silent scene between them where AJ and Bill aren’t speaking but keep glancing at each other when the other isn’t looking. Bill could fiddle with that telegram in his pocket—even pull it out and read it. That could promote a conversation between them, starting with AJ commenting on what he’s doing, that, if nothing else, isn’t wholly unfriendly.

AJ’s horse can still spook and run away in a storm, but it makes more sense if we play it as unintentional on her part. Maybe she was the one spooked by lightning and failed to tie it up properly in her fearful haste to get to shelter. That wouldn’t be hard to portray in a scene at all. Then her asking Bill personal questions out of nowhere would seem more like…you know, her acting on nerves (and genuinely just trying to make conversation to distract herself, especially if the character flinches or jumps when thunder booms right overhead). If Bill understands this, him bothering to answer her makes more sense, too.

To go one step further, Bill does try to chase his horse down, and AJ physically yanks him back and keeps him from getting very far or AJ goes after the horse herself (but can’t keep up with it and ends up having to come back).

Want me to keep going? Sure. Bill’s “24 hours” comment might be fairly realistic in this time period, but it sounds out of place in the scene. AJ could ask how long they have to find help. Bill could act upset about the situation, or afraid and admit he hasn’t been this particular way enough times to know where the nearest hospital or doctor is for sure. He could still spitball ideas at AJ and determine they’re not concrete enough to pursue.

Then the rest of the plotline doesn’t feel as contrived or silly. Bill and AJ spent the entire rest of that day and part of the night together before she left him to find help, but the only meaningful part about it is that her staying with him meant something to him. 

But why? She’d already turned herself in. She intends to go stand trial and knows she’s headed to prison (hence her refusing to take the dress with her). She’s accepted her fate. It makes more sense if we assume Bill just doesn’t want to be left alone, probably because he’s afraid of dying alone. That could be hinted at earlier. He could persuade her to stay, even if not in words.

Again, it doesn’t make sense that she’d wait to leave him until after dark when it’s unlikely someone else will find them. She’s kind of his only hope. If she goes at least he has a chance at living. A low chance is still a chance! So showing her having a reason to stay would be a smart move.

What might work? A few things. She’s afraid to leave him because she’s a wanted fugitive and maybe nobody will believe her and come to his aid anyway. He’s confused and she’s afraid to leave him because she might not be able to find him again even if she gets help. He keeps telling her, or asking her, not to leave, and comes up with some kind of ‘home remedy’ she can try on him that ultimately doesn’t work. Anything to lead the viewer to understand he’s more afraid of dying alone than he is of just dying. While we’re at it, him trying to keep her from leaving for Safety Reasons might be interesting, too. It’s possible he’d be worried about her walking around alone out there with no protection and all that, but if he says it, at least it would give us a lead-in to when they’re reunited that would help to alleviate the harshness of most of their earlier interactions in S5.

As a quick aside, the whole “Adeline…Josephine…Foster” bit was beyond cringey in its implementation but could have been really meaningful if timed appropriately, or led up to in such a way that when Bill said it, it felt like he was confessing something important. Part of that is timing. It felt crammed into a moment that had already given us a bit of meaning (“Thank you for staying.”“You’re welcome.”) and didn’t have room for more.

To make it non-cringey and something that we, the audience, could believe in Bill (as a character) saying in a moment of clarity or raw emotion, maybe he just calls her Adeline. 

And…maybe we move that to a new scene when she’s about to sneak out of the camp. She builds up the fire and he stirs a bit and there’s a short conversation that ends in him telling her he’s never known anyone like her and it’s a good thing…he thinks. Maybe he says more than that and she tells him not to say things he doesn’t mean, touches his hair, “It’s just the fever talking.” “Probably.” “Try to get some rest.” Covers him up, waits until he’s asleep again and softly apologizes to him. Then we see her quietly leaving the camp, a worried glance back at him like she’s not fully convinced she’s doing the right thing.

Now that would feel meaningful, like she’s making a hard choice.

Speaking of which… I’d like it so much better if the Mounties she ran into were a complete fluke and treated, by the characters, like a miracle. This could have carried into the next episode, where Carson makes some kind of comment (being a doctor, this might carry weight from him) about how fortunate Bill was, or is, to be recovering so quickly from something that, given a handful more hours, might have been permanently damaging to his body, if not something that could have outright killed him.

(I’d push for this mostly because it doesn’t make sense that Bill, a former Mountie, would be unaware of an outpost in the area, one close enough AJ could walk to it in 7-8 hours.)

That we don’t see what AJ’s up to is…meant to make the viewer consider the possibility that she just abandoned Bill to his fate and ran away again, but it’s such a cheap trick in this instance (and completely unbelievable without more lead-in) that it would be better to just show her trying to get him help. I’d take her stumbling around in the dark at a dead run, falling down and getting right back up again, over nothing. And I’d definitely take it over just having Bill wake up without her there and panicking without…ever really finding out why he’s upset for sure. (Again, is he worried about her? Afraid she’s run off and he’s failed at his job again like Henry accused him of doing intentionally, before? Afraid of dying alone and wants to find her so that he doesn’t have to? If he’s worried about her, having him check for his gun and finding he still has it would make that a good option.)

Show AJ really going out of her way for him. Why not? It makes her likable. Falling down and twisting her ankle and keeping on anyway? Sure! And then she stumbles on this little mill town or something and there just happens to be an escort of Mounties moving through heading somewhere for a job, and then she has to get them to come with her, convince them that she’s worth listening to. We’ve mostly seen AJ be incompetent so it might be nice to see her doing something well. Then showing her return to an empty camp tells us she’s good at remembering things/good with directions (because she’s found her way back) while also giving us a peek at her reaction to finding him gone, and that fear she’d have to feel, because he could be literally anywhere (and when she left he was in pretty bad shape so it’s not likely he’ll be able to call out to them even if he does hear them).

That makes her finding him feel rewarding. He could say he was worried about her, which would give us a moment where he admits something genuine and kind. (And I’d probably write that dialogue with him just earnest asking her why she didn’t take his gun, and then admitting he was worried.)

That helps the goodbye, just a few hours later, feel like it comes too soon. Like there could be more but can’t be right now. Like it’ll be coming later. Which is satisfying enough for these characters at this time, IMO.

The problem with these “fixes” is that they’d take at least a full episode to implement, one without scenes featuring other characters.

What I’m trying to get at is this: there’s nothing wrong with breaking up plots like this over a couple of episodes to ensure the whole story—or a lot of it—is told, and moreover, is fulfilling and satisfying when it ends.

The rattlesnake bite plotline didn’t feel satisfying because Bill was so cruel to AJ in earlier episodes that the lack of resolution between them, the lack of an actual conversation beyond that somewhat one-sided, “I care about you and I don’t know why because you’re mean to me”, ruins the attempt at resolution that the series gives us…which is a kiss. A kiss doesn’t make up for the things Bill said to her, intentionally digging at her to hurt her feelings (and in front of other people, too). We know he actually cares about her and did the right thing from the start because he shows her the telegram, but it still doesn’t feel like it’s enough.

While he was busy hurting and feeling bad and afraid of dying alone, they could have had an actual meaningful conversation.

Yes, I get that Bill was under the impression that she was using him, and that because he was feeling some attraction to her (physically and personality-wise), being used hurt him pretty badly, but a kiss doesn’t wash away the complicated interaction they’ve had. AJ deserved more than that by the end of the episode. I know she’s not everyone’s favorite character, but giving her and Bill a plotline that twisted both of them to fit into specific roles to force the story to work? Wasn’t doing either of them any favors.

With more screentime, more organic interactions between the characters, and raw emotion (especially from Bill, who isn’t very good at Relationships or Feelings), the resolution could have felt acceptable in the “for now” sense, because we’d feel like the characters would have the chance to work things out—that this is a temporary way to say, “Yeah there’s something between us and we’ll deal with/explore it later.” Or, “I don’t have the strength or time to hash this out right now but this is what I feel.”

After all, in the end, the first thing Bill did was try to right something he felt he did wrong, which wasn’t to say, “Hey I was trying to help you this whole time,” but, I think, showing her proof to ease her fear about her future. He felt guilty about withholding that information from her, knowing it frightened her (and she was brave enough to try and go through with it anyway just to get on with her life).

So there was an attempt at something good. But the scenes were so short and incomplete-feeling that the message ended up being lost in the drama. Again, unfortunate, because there was plenty of room in the basic idea of the plot for some really genuine interaction between these characters.

My point with this long rambling post, using one specific plot example, was to say that I think S6 might be moving in the direction of longer, more time intensive plots that are resolved a litttle more slowly and without as much hurry to tie things up with a neat bow by the end of the episode. It would make sense. The earlier seasons were pretty successful with their plot juggling, mostly because they only juggled 2 or 3 an episode, and didn’t always resolve them all within that episode. Doing this would benefit the series a lot, and would help prevent dreaded plotline faux pas like, you know, the rattlesnake bite plotline, which just felt crammed into a single episode when I think we can all agree, could have been interesting if it had been given the time it deserved. With more time, I feel like the showrunners would have had some better writing for it, too.