#and also technically succession except it’s not a sitcom

[strangerathecinema]

i love me some sitcoms where the core found family is just the worst group people you’ve ever seen in your entire life. and they’re all gay

[flowerbloom-arts]

I suppose you could say they're a... Match made in hell........ (Design from Treehouse of Horror XXV, s26 ep4)

(Over-analysis of ChalmSkinn under the cut.)

Disclaimer: I know I'm overanalyzing silly gags and concepts from a silly animated sitcom that in its current state has what one could only describe as a rough approximation of continuity (and that the spooky anthology episodes in it are non-canon). Just let me exercise some media literacy for a bit.

Okay so like... What is it with Skinner, Chalmers, and being a two-headed creature? What is that meant to represent?? Once is a gag made in humor and twice is a little eyebrow raising, I think.

And it's not like they're using this as a gag because they have a kind of antagonistic relationship and it'd make for easy bickering jokes, it's actually the opposite! These representations of them with a shared body happen as a representation of them getting along!

ChalmSkinn Productions is their own production company that they originally used to submit films to the Sundance festival, and that episode was one where they got along the most, by far, as the two had a shared goal in being successful in the film industry.

(please ignore the video play bar at the bottom, thank you)

Now, the logo for the company when it got introduced as a concept was very different, it was a globe where Skinner and Chalmers' heads would spin on its surface (though, one could argue it's still their two heads attached to one thing which is roughly a similar idea to the shared body thing), but the association still applies. The company is the result of their two heads joining in an amicable way.

Demon ChalmSkinn (that's what I'm gonna call them) on the other hand is extremely fascinating to try and deconstruct into something of thematic implication.

They are... Technically not Skinner and Chalmers themselves? But they are a parallel version of them in this hell school dimension that Bart and Lisa discover and it's full of other demons that parallel characters from Springfield Elementary, so Demon ChalmSkinn might as well be Chalmers and Skinner for the purposes of this Treehouse of Horror segment.

And, given the vague idea of what Seymour Skinner and Gary Chalmers' relationship is like, you would expect the writers, when sticking their heads on the same body, to make them bicker, right? Have the Chalmers head yell at the Skinner had for some reason?

... They don't do that! They don't bicker at all! In fact, they are very much in sync in a non-hivemind sort of way, they don't interrupt eachother and they seem like very pleasant dudes in general (well, except for the part with they skinned Bart, that was a little uncool).

It's like... What are the writers trying to say with this, specifically? It almost feels like the fact they get along well is the joke.

You expect them to not get along? Well, they do. Their relationship in the regular world is so bad that it's better in hell.

And that's weird, right? If that's the joke then it sure as hell (heh) doesn't feel like it gets acknowledged as a joke. Why avoid such an opportunity for easy jokes? It clearly has to be some deliberate representation of something about their relationship, right? Why do they get along more when they're conjoined than when they're apart?

Maybe, just maybe this is saying something about the inseparability of Gary and Seymour, that they are unable to truly break apart from eachother and are actually far more miserable for it. No matter how many times Chalmers fires Skinner or plans on firing him or just gets annoyed at him for being a spineless kiss-ass around Gary, there's just no severing them. Perhaps a commentary on the status quo nature of the show.

One of my mutuals also suggested that these two would actually be happier if they were together instead of apart, that being stuck together makes them more whole and pleasant than just the sum of their parts.

Their relationship has been characterized by this great, invisible divide of some sort, where a blurry amalgamation of admiration and desperateness clash with an apathetic no-nonsense attitude. If they could just somehow bridge that divide and come to a deeper understanding of eachother then... they'll be happier for it, and maybe they'll be... Together. And inseparable.

If the episode Road to Cincinnati is of any indication, their relationship seems to be heading for a dynamic shift, almost definitely a positive one. Now that Chalmers finally sees Skinner as more earnest than placating, maybe we'll see a Chalmers and Skinner that will evolve into something more. Something metaphorically resembling that two-headed demon they are in hell.

[kissingdeadgirls]

year in review

Movies 

sweet smell of success  maybe the best movie i have seen in my life. everyone talks about how good the script is, and may i be honest with you? much of the dialogue is carried by the charisma of the actors. holy shit.  shadow of a doubt i honestly don’t love hitchcock! more fun to think about that i had actually watching it. i will eventually get around to reading diane negra’s book.  caligula / ultimate cut  one day ill make a 4.5 hour cut and then you will all be sorry, until then it's the salo we have at home. challengers i would jack off in the theatre about it  love lies bleeding  honestly the ending when lou kills daisy was the pivotal moment for me, transformed from a death of casual misogyny, to the apex of any good romance: there is just simply something wrong with these women  monkey man  MONKEY MAN GOOD! it’s one of the visually most stunning films i have seen. he kills a guy by slitting his throat with the knife in his mouth. i kept showing this to people. i will continue to show this to people. the lion in winter  a winning defence of heterosexuality 

rewatched:

lawrence of arabia  it is unfortunately just that good.  jacob’s ladder  sorry the first time i watched this i was wrist deep in vnv nation and banana fish: helplessly 13. it suffers the same fate as bigelow’s strange days where the really insane technical mastery has become common place so u night be tempted to be underwhelmed, don’t.  salo  most beautiful movie ever made

and outside of contention: 

i saw the tv glow (because anything that makes me cry a lot stands on its own)  creep, creep 2, the creep tapes for the perverts only! i spend a lot of time talking about how i am put off by the facade of wholesomeness in american sitcoms (that in this essay i argue that they really truly have a rotten heart...) to then have spent the last 2 months going insane about nathan for you except he's a serial killer. i desire him carnally.

watched about 90 movies this year, but half were marvel slop or rewatches or both.

games 

1000xresist signalis  clickolding  how fish is made mouthwashing  anatomy / kitty horrorshow 

have been pretty burned out over video games and then remembered that i am a pervert and every time i play a triple a game i am only asking for disappointment, and um, i love video games, i love jank, and i love horror

i also got gross in to archive 81, and the only started the slit verses. every time a podcast posts transcripts an angel gets her wings <3

and on ytbe the video i made everyone watch: Perfectly Recreating Egyptian Mummification... To Taste It & a video for a guy repairing an electron microscope

[cartboss]

An idea for lovers of black culture, erotica and cartoons

Before we get into this idea, who else is excited for the proud family reboot ? Proud family was one of my favorite cartoons and it also is a portion of what encouraged me to post this idea, along with it being black history month.

My idea is a a story/ comic telling the erotic sexual adventures of the black folks that lives in one city . That city is called SOUL CITY.

Soul city is the name of the both the city and the story, to describe the city, let's take snippets of Chicago, Atlanta, Hollywood, new York city , Miami, and las Vegas and put them into one ultimate city , that city is soul city . This city is a paradise , despite having a large population of wealthy and successful people, there is no corruption, the jobs are high paying and the prices are always fair ( hey , the fantasy doesn't have to be limited to sex) . It's very technology advanced , similar to fictional cities like wakanda, capsule corps city and san fransokyo .

The plot is is different stories going in in one city , mostly revolving around the characters and how they mix with each other. One big part of the plot depends one the occupations, when it comes to occupations I want to avoid strip clubs and brothels , I always felt it was so contradicting and redundant to include jobs tied to sexual entertainment in a fictional story where all the girls are beautiful and slutty . Now there might be a few certain exceptions but strip clubs and brothels are pretty much non existent in this story. But the other jobs equal all kinds of interesting storylines. Here are occupations I thought of for soul city : fashion, store workers , musical industry , scientists, chefs , office workers , assistants, barber's, sport players , construction workers, repair crew, firefighters, doctors, cops , lawyers , judges , journalism , and superheroes ( yes , superheroes, it's a fictional story, use your imagination guys)

The characters are where things get interesting. This story technically falls into a crossover category, featuring black characters from different animated shows and movies , whether it be from Disney, marvel ,DC , warner bros , ect. And if you guys are fanartists or into fan art, we can also include OCs ( original characters ) in this story, but it doemst have to stop there

What you see here are real sexy black celebrities from the 1990s to the late 2000s. My idea is to make cartoon versions of them and put them in the soul city comic. That's a fun concept in of itself , to combine celebrities from different eras . Now I should address how some of the women in these pics don't exactly fall into a " natural beauty " type , well to be fair those kind of women who got their sexiness form plastic surgery would translate much better in cartoon form. To put into summary one portion of celebrities are the professional actors and actresses that do some modeling , the ones you often see on B.E.T. The other portion are rappers, singers and reality show stars who model themselves after folks like meek mill and Nicki Minaj . So like those characters you be seeing in shows like " love and hip" hop " or " real housewives ". Now in case you don't know , this concept of making cartoon version of celebrities and having them interact with actual cartoon characters has been done before let me give you some examples .

From left to right is fan art of singer Nicki Minaj, sitcom " the fresh Prince of bel air " , film " Friday " , and the sitcom " Martin " this really helps explains this part of my vision, taking real celebrities and making cartoon versions of them having erotic fun with each other. It also strengthens my statement about mixing celebrities and characters from different eras . Now some of you might say this is kind of creepy, well these celebrities do modeling and are well aware of how thirsty their fans out are, and they have much bigger fish to fry then a cartoonist making porn of their images . And I know for a fact that a lot of these celebrities honestly wouldn't even care about cartoon porn being made of them . If you are still uncomfortable , I got another suggestion , have the artist draw the celebrity and pass them as your OC , so that pic of Nicki Minaj could easily be a slutty fashion designer OC who just happens to look like a cartoon version of Nicki Minaj. Now to the art style , you might notice how most of the fan art has a proud family kind of art style , now using the proud family art style as inspiration isn't a bad thing , but just remember that the art style doesnt have to be limited to the proud family , the pic of Nicki Minaj ( or slutty fashion designer OC) was drawn taking inspiration from the art style of Bruce timm ( the artist of the DCAU) . Also the fan art of fresh Prince of bel air, Friday and Martin were drawn by nurri durr and the pic of Nicki Minaj was drawn by Terry Alex a.k.a T-rad. Going back to the proud family , it had episodes where real celebrities would guest star and meet the characters , two examples being Alicia keys and Mariah Carey ( both were very sexualized in their designs to). In fact , Oscar and Trudy proud's designs were based in the look of Martin and Gina from the sitcom " martin". There were also celebrities in the animted series static shock. That series was about a black teen superhero who used his powers to protect his city from superpowered thugs , it had a few celebs like Shaq and Romeo. So this one concept has limitless possibilities . We can have Trudy proud have a hot sex scene with actress nia long and rapper Megan the stallion for example .

This picture of a sexy black couple making love is a beautiful example of my vision and a damn good reason why this idea should be a comic . I tried to find the artist but they have gone off the grid, but they left behind a really good and sexy picture . The pic isn't even raunchy and yet it gets me so excited. Now my vision of soul city is a light hearted comedy parody type , the only thing that be drawn seriously is the sex scenes , and I wouldn't want it any other way . Even if I was able to commission any of this ( which I'm not unfortunately) I'm not even sure how this could be made into a comic , but the designs for the city alone could be a very fun group project. Maybe there will at least be a soul city fanfiction with a few visual aids . Honestly this idea is not limited to a porn parody story , I can totally visualize a sfw version of soul city or a full mature and compelling story of soul city .

This pic is my prime example of my vision, taking already canon cartoon black characters and mixing them with OCs and or celebrities . They may not be from the same media and are not in the same art style but that is part of the charm , regardless of their different designs they are all sexy black folk living in one city ....SOUL CITY.

[trailerparkbubbs]

The way that season 12 kind of imitates a regular sitcom ending right up until the last episode is interesting and I think very true to the heart of the show. Like, in a traditional sitcom like Friends or The Office or whatever, all the characters go through character development and typically end up all in stable romantic relationships and ready to move on to the next phase of their lives and super happy and stuff. In the last season of Trailer Park Boys, we get this set up: Ricky and Julian are going to stop doing anything illegal, they’re going to get married to their respective partners, they’re going to run a successful business with Bubbles, and they’re going to finally break out of the toxic cycles they’ve been stuck in for the whole show and get that perfect ending. We even get a nostalgia trip at their bachelor party where they look back over their lives and how far they’ve come.

Except... that ending doesn’t work. Both of their relationships are dysfunctional and end up falling apart, they jeapoaridize their business, they sell shrooms to the yakuza, they do a whole bunch of drugs, they get in a high speed police chase, and they end up in jail, taking almost everyone they care about with them (the obvious exception being Trinity). They end up right back where they started, Bubbles ends up worse off than he started, and all of them are doomed to continue repeating their mistakes in the animated series. The dreamy, feelgood ending is subverted in favour of an ending that makes more sense for the characters but is also... kind of bleak.

Not that the ending is bleak in tone – they turn into cartoons, and the animated series sees them quickly getting back to their wacky hijinks – but it’s bleak in terms of its messaging and what it means for the characters overall, which is, to paraphrase Lahey, that sometimes shit-leopards can’t change their spots. I generally disagree with this as a message – everyone has the capacity to improve themselves, and everyone’s life can get better – but obviously those things are circumstantial and require a support net that the characters in Trailer Park Boys don’t really have access to. Plus, in order for them to really turn their lives around, the show would have needed to acknowledge exactly how bad things are, and it would have felt out of place for the series to end with the boys, say, going to rehab, or walking away from their friendships with each other, even though both of those things would have technically been healthy decisions.

On a less bleak, but still subversive note, that ending doesn’t make sense for the characters because it’s not what they want. Ricky doesn’t love Susan, Julian’s relationship with Candy is unsustainable since she’s a lawyer and he’s a criminal who’s lying to her, and Bubbles feels like he’ll be left behind if Ricky and Julian are both married. Ricky and Julian both fail at trying to get regular jobs because they’re compulsive criminals, and they enjoy doing crime – like, Bubbles’ whole “it’s time to suck some cock” speech to Ricky? We’ve known since season one that the main thing Ricky is good at and passionate about and can make money off of is grow ops. It’s illegal, and potentially dangerous, and it’s not what he should be doing, objectively speaking, but it’s what he’s wanted to do for the whole show. As for character development, Ricky and Julian are both only trying to change to please the people around them – namely Bubbles – which is inevitability going to lead to disaster because they’re not really changing, and they don’t know how to really change... they’re just pretending to be different people than they are and hoping it’ll eventually feel right.

[thefilmsnob]

A Quiet Place Part II: ***1/2 out of 5

When A Quiet Place premiered in 2018, it surprised viewers in two notable ways: we learned the co-star of a hit sitcom had the capacity to write and direct a great horror film and that this horror film actually had a lot to say, even though its characters could say little. More accurately, they were forced to say little lest the sound of their voices attract the disturbingly angular and unrelenting alien creatures that had no qualms about shutting them up…permanently. It was the perfect metaphor for an American presidency whose ‘leader’ wanted nothing more than to silence and persecute his detractors, something at which he was far less successful than history’s other monstrous dictators.

Following several delays this post-apocalyptic sequel had to endure due to a very real pandemic still going strong, A Quiet Place Part II is finally—thankfully—available for viewing and is once again written and directed by the dynamic John Krasinski, formerly the mild-mannered and loveable prankster from The Office. The first surprise from the original film remains true and therefore no longer surprising; Krasinski continues to be an exceptional filmmaker. Even his fine acting skills are on display again in a flashback sequence. It’s technical achievements like these that more than make up for a sequel that struggles to find something more to say.

We’re treated to a drastically different opening, however. In contrast to the first movie’s preamble which was shrouded in fear and silence, Part II begins on a lively note with a flashback full of smiles, laughter and a little league game, a scene whose real-world equivalent would be referred to as ‘pre-Covid.’ And, although the original prologue ends with a brief burst of action, Krasinski transforms this idyllic picture of the American Dream into a chaotic action sequence with the small-town citizens running for their lives from aliens that have just crash landed on Earth. We’ve already seen these creatures at work, so it’s okay that a gradual reveal is replaced by all out mayhem, a change of pace that’s appropriately jolting without being gratuitous.

Following this revealing glimpse into the past, we’re back in the present where the story picks up right where the first one left off. After realizing they need to, in fact, make loud noise to defeat the monsters—and, in the process, demonstrating how to resist autocrats—the Abbott family emerges from their basement, equipped with the tools needed to survive their brutal surroundings. They’re also carrying a substantial amount of grief as their father, Lee, sacrificed himself to save them just minutes ago. But, if you’re wary about Krasinski’s absence, know that you’re in good hands with the remaining cast in their quest to find other survivors and spread their newfound knowledge.

We all know Emily Blunt is spectacular and deserved Oscar consideration for playing the matriarch Evelyn in the first film. Surprise, she’s still fantastic, but it’s the children who take center stage this time around because, let’s face it, if you want to get a message out today, you need a younger generation. That generation is represented by Millicent Simmonds who reprises her role as Evelyn’s daughter Regan. Simmonds is nothing short of a revelation. Deaf in real life as well as in the franchise, the 18-year-old proves you don’t need to speak to emote like a master thespian or be as interesting and capable as any of the great horror film heroes from Sigourney Weaver to Jamie Lee Curtis.

The even younger Noah Jupe, as her brother Marcus, is also invaluable, though not at the level of Simmonds when it comes to the more nuanced aspects of their craft. He has no problem with raw emotion, however; there’s a scene in which he gets severely injured, crying out in pain, and it’s so believable and intense as to be almost unbearable to watch. Quite simply, your heart breaks for the poor boy.

The concept of these films is what attracts moviegoers, but it’s the empathy we feel, so easily instilled in us by the cast and crew, which holds our attention. Countless horror stories fail because we really don’t care if someone dies. In A Quiet Place, not only do the complex individuals elicit our sympathy but the family as whole does as well. Their tight bonds and collective struggle pull you into their reality, making you feel like you’re part of the family.

Krasinski’s direction and Polly Morgan’s cinematography pull us in too. Their camera movement and scene composition are proof enough that this horror film is on another level. The duo has a shrewd way of keeping the camera moving when it might’ve otherwise been stationary or lingering on items of interest at the perfect time, techniques that aren’t simply examples of interesting filmmaking but ones that amplify suspense. Sometimes you wish they’d apply more techniques like these instead of the cheaper jump scares which should’ve been scaled down from the first film instead of highlighted. That’s old news.

So, then, what’s new? Well, certainly the world is richer and more expansive. There’s a new major character played by the enigmatic Cillian Murphy who replaces Krasinski as both a father figure and someone whose big, bright eyes tell a story all on their own. There’s also more ground covered as the Abbotts depart the confines of their farmhouse and even encounter new groups of survivors, some more friendly than others. The expansion of the setting is a natural progression for the series and quite a welcome one.

It’s also natural for the Abbotts to want to share the means to defeat the enemy with other survivors and take back their world in the process. This journey does culminate in a logical conclusion but one that feels a bit like a retread of the original, leaving you wondering if more could’ve been said. Yet, it’s impossible to ignore the film’s marvelous execution and technical achievements. Forgive the cliché, but sometimes it’s not what you say but how you say it.

[vanxcks]

and a movie

Abed Nadir lives in LA now, and there's something they still haven't done.

Word count: 1766

AO3 link in notes

“I want to make a movie.” Abed says it abruptly. It’s the reason he came, after all. And it’s important to make your point early in the conversation; otherwise it runs away from you.

“You know I’m not a producer, right?” his friend asks.

“I know that. But I wanted to be able to air the idea out. See if it’s Hollywood-ready. I know what I’m doing, but a second opinion can’t hurt. Besides, you seem to have some success.”

His friend laughs. “I mean, a couple movies in, I guess my opinion counts.” Abed cracks a smile. “What’s it about?”

“Friends. Not the show. Friends of mine. Old friends, actually. From before I moved here.”

“A movie based on your friends?”

“I was thinking my friends could be in it, actually.”

“So, a biopic?”

“Yes. I could document some portion of their lives.”

“You mean it would be a documentary.”

Abed pauses and then says, “Technically, yes, but six seasons and a documentary doesn’t have the same ring to it.”

“Sorry?”

“Nothing.”

Abed doesn’t have a roommate, but he does have friends. People that he hangs out with regularly—going out to dinner after work, having movie nights where they all bring different snacks. They have bad taste in movies, but so does he. He’s the first to admit Kickpuncher isn’t a masterpiece. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t still have his costume hanging in his closet for emergencies.

Or non-emergencies. But only if they involve watching the movie alone at two in the morning and acting out the scenes as they go. Those are acceptable.

In high school, he didn’t think he’d ever have any friends. He thought he was stuck in the underdog role, the nerd that got his books knocked out of his arms, the kid that no one wanted to be partners with. Although Abed had never actually gotten his books knocked out of his arms. He thought it was a ridiculous trope. He’d fit into the rest of the categories though.

At some point at Greendale, he’d thought he would never again have friends like the study group. These were the days, the short period that would change their lives forever. The period that they would eventually have to leave behind, but that nothing would ever measure up to again. He’d expected to spend the rest of his shallow life thinking back to these four (five, six) years with his found family. As it turns out, though, tv shows are short because of budget, because of the inability of writers to churn out more, because of low viewership. And just because they’re short doesn’t mean there isn’t more to the story. He’s happy now. He’s comfortable.

That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a picture of that first halloween up on his bulletin board, though.

“So, what exactly would this documentary be about?”

Abed cocks his head. “I don’t know. It would be about them. It would be about them and...I guess it would be a little bit like Friends, except funnier. I mean, the relationship and drama of it. Although the emotional bits were always my least favorite. I liked the action episodes the best.”

“The action episodes from Friends?”

“No, from when I was at Greendale.”

“Oh, sorry, yes, the episodes from when you were at Greendale,” his friend says, and Abed can tell it’s sarcasm, but he can also tell that it’s not mean.

Abed nods. “Yes. Maybe I should do something more whimsical, like that. It’s not exactly in the sitcom format, but the show never was.”

“And by whimsical, you mean…”

“Oh, you know, paintball fights, eerily accurate homages, the like. Genre-bending stuff.”

“That’s what college was like for you?”

“I told you,” Abed says. “Genre-bending stuff.”

--

Everyone still keeps in touch. Annie visits the most. She’s happy, and he’s glad he told her to take a forensics class. It’s better for her.

She visits and she asks how he’s doing (well), what he’s doing (he’s working on his portfolio before he starts trying to get a big title—it’s an important step), and where his new dreamatorium is (he doesn’t have one. He’s grown past the need for childish things like that. He doesn’t need a designated room for rendering imaginations. He’s an adult. He can do it anywhere in his house now.)

Annie’s doing well, too. She had to intern for a few years, but now she’s properly training at the FBI Academy. (“Basically, I’m, like, really fit now,” she says and laughs. “And they let me carry a gun.”

“But you already had a gun.”

“What? No I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did. Troy and I found it in your bag when you moved in.”

“You searched my bag?”)

--

Abed and Troy talk to each other sometimes, when Troy has cell service. It’s not often.

Troy didn’t bring a DVD player (which is ridiculous, Abed should have helped him pack), but he did manage to buy a crappy portable one from one of the places he’d stopped for fuel and food. Every several weeks they call, put the same DVD in, and then count down to play. Troy’s movie is always scratchy and terrible, so it’s awkward (“Pause. No, wait, play...oh no, it’s lagging again. Did it just skip over a scene? Pause.”) They dress up and make popcorn, and a couple of times they even made a blanket fort like back at Greendale.

Troy has been on his trip for longer than any of them had expected, but that’s what happens, right? And that has to be okay. He’ll be back eventually, and Abed is okay with that.

Troy says he’s been making music. It makes sense. He’d always liked writing raps for the two of them.

--

Britta visits often too. Mostly to detail him on the rampant racism and misogyny in the film industry. (“You work with these people? Abed, I can’t believe you. Do you understand the history behind this? These people have been silencing voices for decades. Blackface, yellowface, and don’t even get me started on the women’s roles in a lot of these movies.”

“They’re good movies.”

“Yes, but the impact of them on our society is astronomical!”)

He knows about all of it, anyway—he’s a muslim and half-arab man watching movies made in the twentieth century. It’s difficult not to notice the bigotry. But he knows she means well. And he likes it when she visits.

Abed shows her the neighborhood. It’s small and busy and feels like a movie set, probably because it is the movie set. He’d seen so many stories told in Los Angeles. Being here is amazing. They go to a coffee shop, and she drinks coffee while he eats a cupcake. Then, they go for burgers.

-- New Message To: dharmon@gmail.com Subject: Props

How much would it cost me to get enough paintball guns to stage a school-wide fight if the school had about one thousand people in it? Try and get back soon.

New Message To: dharmon@gmail.com Subject: Re: Props

Disregard the paintball guns. It’s been done too many times.

--

Shirley visits the least, although he knows that she wishes she could come more. (“I’m so sorry,” she says, “I just wish I could take care of all of you, but my babies take up so much of my time.” Then, “did you know that Ben Benjamin took his first steps last week?”

“Yes. You sent me a video, remember?”

“Oh, yes. Wasn’t it nice?”

“Very nice.”)

She bakes for him. She bakes for all of them, actually, since she always makes them send pictures of themselves with the food to the group chat. It’s not like it was. She knows her worth, and she knows that they need her. “I just like to take care of you, is all,” she’d said. They sit at the table and eat. Shirley doesn’t like silence. Which is nice, because it means that she’ll listen to him talk for hours. He can’t always tell if she’s getting bored, but she doesn’t outright stop him, and that’s nice. She thinks everything is nice.

--

New Message To: dharmon@gmail.com Subject: Re: Props

How about a vat of lava?

--

Jeff doesn’t visit the most out of all of them, but he does stay the most in touch. He’s still at Greendale, the only one other than Britta. They’re still trying to keep the school running. Britta started a bartending class, which is ironic because Britta is terrible at bartending. But being incompetent is part of Greendale’s charm, isn’t it?

When Jeff comes to visit, he wants to watch Abed’s documentaries. They’re getting good. Jeff thinks so too, and Jeff would say if he thought they were bad. Abed likes that about Jeff—he says what he thinks. Except for the sarcasm. And the lawyering.

The point is, Jeff rarely lied to them.

He does critique everything except the filmmaking, though. He jokes about Abed’s friends, about his boss, about the logo for the coffee shop at the corner of the street. He gets distracted by every conventionally attractive woman that comes on-screen, too.

“Hey, you’re doing all of this documentary filming, Abed,” he said, during his last visit.

“Yeah?” Abed pressed pause.

“Remember when you would film us? Make all those movies? Like when Pierce tried to fake his goddamn death, and you wouldn’t put down your camera even when we were all having breakdowns? Or when the dean made that commercial, and you wouldn’t put the camera down because of his breakdown?”

“Yeah, I do. Why?”

Jeff paused, and Abed turned a little to stare at him. “I don’t know. It was fun.”

“You’re right.” Abed’s brow creased. “It was fun.”

Jeff didn’t reply, so Abed pressed play again.

--

It takes a lot more planning, but Abed eventually cobbles together some things. A ragged film crew. The equipment he needs. He isn’t sure what he’s going to do with this, once it’s done. Sell it? Keep it on his shelf, along with his other documentaries? Their adventures had always seemed like too much to keep from an audience.

He types out the email a few times, many times, because he’s not sure it’s right, because it’s too long, because it’s too brief, because it’s too cliche, too plot-twist-slash-sequel-slash-unecessary-renewal. In the end, though, he deletes the whole thing and just writes what he wants to say.

--

New Message To: brittaperry@hotmail.com, jwinger@greendale.edu, troyisawesome@gmail.com, shirleybennet@yahoo.com, aedison@gmail.com Subject:

Hi,

I want to make a movie.

A/N:  i binged this show on netflix during quarantine and it absolutely destroyed me. i immediately opened up a document to write a fix it before realising that there wasn't anything to fix, really. i just wasn't used to show creators actually knowing how to write, so props to dan harmon for that, i guess. i have a bunch more fic ideas, so i'll definitely get to work posting them soon!! thank you so much for reading and please leave a comment and/or kudos if you liked it! (all email addresses in this fic are either fake and made up or blatant and obnoxious references to the show! you'll never know)

[abdifarah]

Snake Charmer

I grabbed my sneakers and ball from the backseat of my car. As I stepped onto the basketball court, the palm of a stranger’s hand suddenly hit my chest before my foot crossed the threshold of the out-of-bounds line, as if to protect me from stepping into molten lava. It was in fact hallowed ground he was preparing me to enter. “I don’t want to mess up your day, but Kobe Bryant died.” The words did not register. He must have meant to say Bill Russell or Magic Johnson or some other retired player, up in years or immunocompromised. My heart sank as the words did. Seemingly coordinated with the stranger’s preparatory address, my phone began to shriek. I shared basketball, above most else, with my closest friends, and for those of my friends “not into sports,” they knew I was and that I was probably the one person in their lives that could explain why their instagram and twitter timelines had been commandeered by the news of Bryant’s death. I sat on the court and texted friends I hadn’t spoken with in years. I mentally ran through all of the Lakers fans in my life, like someone tallying loved ones near the epicenter of an earthquake or tsunami. 

The surprises continued. My uncle Kenny called me. Kenny, like most of the men in my life, does not make calls. When I see Kenny during the holidays we do not hug or catch up with small talk. Me and Kenny speak solely in sports. “How are the Cowboys doing?” translates to how are you doing? On this occasion Kenny did not resort to code. “Are you okay?” Kenny asked with a tone of genuine concern in his voice. Strangely, I was not. Stepping out of my body momentarily, I watched myself frantically text friends and scour the internet for updates with large tears welling up in my eyes. Importantly, next to me, five or so other guys on the basketball court were doing the exact same thing. I was dumbfounded, and even a little amused that it was Kobe Bryant, of all people, that elicited this reaction from me. As a basketball fan I loved Kobe Bryant as a player, but I didn’t love him. I loved Kobe the way the world loves the Dalai Lama. Kobe was that inhuman child/god/king we watched grow up, do great exploits, and whose often trite proverbs of ostensible wisdom we warily entertained. His sudden and violent death brought into swift focus that, while famous for almost my entire life, I took Kobe for granted.

Kobe Bryant was the first of us to realize: the camera is always on. In the days and weeks following Kobe’s death I found myself pulling up old games on youtube and having them on in the background while I worked. I was surprised how many of the beats–a certain sequence of plays, a specific call by an announcer–I remembered, like I was watching reruns or listening to a throwback radio station. As much as The Fresh Prince or Martin or Seinfeld, Kobe Bryant was TV. Mostly to my frustration, as someone who ineffectually rooted against the Lakers, Kobe Bryant was always on my screen. Undoubtedly, a cloud hangs over everything related to Bryant now in light of his death, but rewatching games from the 2000 finals, in which Bryant’s Lakers bested the Reggie Miller/Jalen Rose led Pacers, I was reminded of how much uneasiness and sadness I felt for Kobe Bryant watching him even as a teenage admirer. After every exceptional defensive play, flashy pass, or difficult made shot, Bryant made sure the camera saw the fiery glint in his eyes, the licking of his lips, the exaggerated clinching of his jaw. 

Even more so than the NBA’s previous generation of celebrities–Bird, Magic, Jordan–Kobe Bryant seemed to be the first superstar to internalize that basketball was a performance: a movie backed by a John Tesh score, or more specifically, a loosely scripted 24-7 reality show complete with story arcs, heroes, villains, close-ups, and backstabbing confessions. Bryant perpetually signalled: to the camera, to the fans, to his haters, to his teammates, that he possessed the most passion, that he outworked everyone, and that he would stop at nothing to be the best. By all accounts this was all true. But we knew it less because it was true and more because Kobe wanted us to know. Even as a youngster I found his thirst obnoxious. 

Kobe was desperate, but he was also just ahead of the curve. Kobe Bryant proudly admitted to not having a social life, and almost a decade before Russell Westbrook said it, Bryant proclaimed that “Spalding was his only friend;�� a both sad and sobering admission for any would-be competitors tasked with defeating Bryant on the court. Bryant’s performative work, that now permeates and characterizes most of millennial culture, predated social media. The author Touré in his book, I Would Die 4U, contends that despite being a baby boomer, Prince was the quintessential GenX celebrity, whose music perfectly tapped into that younger generation’s disaffected, countercultural ethos. Born in 1978, Bryant technically resides in GenX. The intense outpouring from all corners of the digital world over Bryant’s death stems from the fact that he was truly the first millennial celebrity. 

For Bryant, fame came before success. As the photogenic rookie for the Lakers, Bryant had cameos on sitcoms, graced the cover of every teen magazine, took Brandy to the prom, put out a rap album, and pitched every soda and sneaker Madison Avenue could throw at him. But like an inflated college application, Bryant’s extracurriculars read as contrivances. Bryant was named a starter in the 1998 All-Star game, an honor voted on by the fans, meanwhile he wasn’t even a starter on his own team. To suspicious observers, Bryant was an industry plant; the antidote to the fearful influx of hyper-black, hip hop culture embodied in players like Allen Iverson or Latrell Spreewell; a basketball and marketing robot with a pearly white smile, that spoke multiple languages, and would pick up where Michael Jordan left off; ushering the NBA to unprecedented commercial heights.

Despite his superficial charm, Kobe Bryant’s lack of genuine personality proved off-putting, almost creepy. Although possessing a similarly shimmering smile, everyone knew that the real Michael Jordan chomped on cigars, pounded tequila, gambled through the night, and did not actually hang out with Bugs Bunny while wearing Hanes tighty-whities. We acknowledged humanity, healthiness even, in this contradiction. For Bryant’s generation of sports superstars, the public and private arrived flattened. A sports prodigy, a la Tiger Woods, Bryant’s lone-gun, misanthropic persona emerged as a defense against the alienation he felt from his teammates and colleagues around the league, those that did not share his cloistered upbringing. Bryant’s longtime teammate and consummate foil, Shaquille O’Neal, had the nickname, Superman. Despite his titanic presence and supernatural physical gifts, O’Neal epitomized the terrestrial; always joking, dancing; embedded in pop culture; a true man of the people. The true Kryptonian was always Bryant.

As an ignorant seventeen year-old, my initial reaction in 2004 to the accusations of rape against Bryant was amused shock. “Kobe Bryant has sex?!” In 2004, I, like many, put Kobe on the shelf. Less out of a desire to proactively make any bold gestures on behalf of women, but more out of petty schadenfreude. As stated before, I respected the talent, but I was not really a Kobe fan. I always rooted for the underdog, and Bryant was anything but. To the contrary, everything about Bryant was an assault on the concept of the underdog, the diamond in the rough, the idea that anyone, despite their humble or downright degraded beginnings, could rise to excellence. Bryant was born and bread to be great. Sadly, I took grim pleasure in seeing the NBA’s posterboy–the prototype of black celebrity respectability–revealed as the actual embodiment of the entitled, toxically masculine, and sexually predatory stereotype of the black athlete. 

Bryant lost endorsements. Nike released the Huarache 2K4, an all-time great basketball shoe originally designed to be Bryant’s first signature release with the brand, as simply a stand-alone product. The Lakers shopped Bryant around for possible trades. Like Sampson sheared and stripped of his powers, Bryant’s hairline appeared to recede, he cut off his signature fro, and he began shaving his head closer and closer. Bryant changed his number from 8 to 24 as one now changes their Instagram or Twitter handle to represent a break from the past. Like a biblical character after a traumatic or transformative event, like Abram becoming Abraham, or Saul becoming Paul, Bryant adopted the moniker of the Black Mamba. He resigned to allow the sorting hat to place him in his rightful house of Slytherin, and embraced the duplicitous snake that many already viewed him to be. Somewhat strangely, the Black Mamba was the assassin code name of the main character in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, who in the film is left for dead, and out for revenge. Did Bryant see himself as this woman wronged, or as the titular character, Bill, contently awaiting his deserved day of judgement. Knowing Bryant, he probably saw himself as both.    

In the myth of Hercules (not the Disney version) the famous god-man kills his wife and kids in a fit of hysteria inflicted by a vengeful Hera. If we imagine that the mythical figures of today were really just the celebrities and aristocrats of past millennia who had control over the pen of history and whose carnal tales swelled into sacred gospel; the fits of rage and mania brought on by the devil or hades or a poison arrow, were really the Chappaquiddicks, Vegas hotel rooms, and dog fighting compounds of their time; times when our heroes unequivocally and inexcusably committed evil. If Hercules was in fact a real man of some importance to his time–the son of a dignitary–that unfathomably killed his wife and kids, it follows that instead of being sentenced to death or some other fate reserved for the criminal commoner, that he would be given some lesser sentence and a chance–albeit slim–of redemption. Hercules is banished by the gods to serve an insignificant king and accomplish the arduous good works assigned to him as a means of atonement; the great works–slaying the nine-headed hydra, retrieving cerberus –that ultimately generate his immortal legend.  

Bryant’s post rape case/post Shaquille O’Neal years with the Lakers mirror this herculean restitution. Despite years on center stage, the Lakers, like Bryant, were similarly in their nadir, and would spend the middle of the aughts in basketball purgatory. Bryant was no longer primetime television. What happens to a pop-star when no one is watching? Surprisingly, Kobe Bryant kept performing, and at higher heights. Bryant was doing his best work while no one was watching. I remember walking through the door of my college dorm on a non-descript spring day. My roommate, Bryun, yelled at me with no context, “8 1  P O I N T S !” Kobe Bryant’s 81 point game may lay claim as the first social media sports moment. Less because no other great sports moments had occurred between 2004, when facebook emerged, and his scoring explosion in 2006, but because very few people watched that midseason contest between two mediocre teams live. It arrived to everyone, like myself, after the fact.

During a recent lecture, artist Dave McKenzie, when answering a very banal question during a post lecture q&a, about his long term goals as an artist, answered soberingly, “I’m just trying to get through this life and do the least amount of harm.” While we all hope to navigate this life without hurting others, most, if not all of us, will in some way. While we can and must continue to  interrogate why powerful (or at least useful to the actual powerful) men like Kobe Bryant seemingly evade the full reckoning of their actions, we must acknowledge that Bryant became something of a patron saint to those who for whatever reason found themselves on the wrong side of right. Maybe they were the underprivileged black and brown boys and girls in over-policed neighborhoods of LA where Bryant played for 20 years. Perhaps they were not pure victims but made some questionable choices and found themselves caught in the system. Or maybe it was the newly divorced father attempting to win back the respect of his kids after breaking apart his family due to his own indiscretions. Kobe Bryant in this second half of his career, culminating in back to back championships, provided a picture of how one climbs back from the depths of hell, even if they were the one that put themself there. This explains the irrationality of Kobe fans, who defended him in everything, and straight-faced spoke his name in the same breath as Michael Jordan, despite honestly being in a class below. For them, Kobe was bigger than basketball, and while many fans share a vicarious relationship with their sports heroes or teams, Bryant’s winning was more profoundly linked to his fans’ sense of self-worth.

Precocity embodied, Bryant arrived in the NBA a generation too soon. As the son of a former player, singularly focused on professionalizing at a young age, even foregoing college at a time when that was still a rarity, Bryant was an alien compared to most players of his generation. The trajectory of players today more resembles Bryant’s. Gone are the days of Dennis Rodman or Scottie Pippen or Steve Nash picking up basketball late, or being undiscovered and surreptitiously landing on a small college team, eventually catching the eye of the larger basketball world. Now, professional basketball starts disturbingly early. Prospects like Zion Williamson have millions of Instagram followers in high school. Second generation pros are commonplace – Steph, Klay, Kyrie, Devin Booker, Andrew Wiggins, Domantas Sabonis, Austin Rivers, Tim Hardaway Jr., Glenn Robinson III, and so on. Bryant was the cautionary tale, a sage mentor, and ultimately an icon to the generation of players succeeding Bryant, who like him, entered the spotlight and scrutiny of an increasingly voracious sports machine as children. Thanks in part to witnessing the triumphs and travails of Bryant, today’s young superstars arrive to the league encoded with the understanding that the fans, the media, the sports industry writ large, wait with baited breath for them to fuck up off the court as much as they do a spectacular play in the game. To these various stakeholders, it’s all good entertainment.

[A bit of a tangent] As the coronavirus began to ravage New Orleans, in particular the homeless and already vulnerable of the city, I had a group of friends, more acquaintances, who took it upon themselves to collect donations, buy groceries, prepare and ultimately hand out meals to the large number of homeless people mostly living under the I-10 overpass downtown. As a naturally cynical person, I immediately questioned the motivations. All of those same homeless people were living under the overpass before coronavirus, where was this energy then? One friend involved with this effort confided that she was incredibly anxiety stricken in all of this, and that this “project” was taking her mind off things. I chafed at the phrasing of feeding the homeless as a “project.” Additionally, daily I would scroll through the Instagram feeds of those helping and see pics of cute hipsters in masks and gloves and in grungy, rugged, but still impossibly chic outfits posing in Power Ranger formations in front of their rusted Ford Ranger filled with grocery bags to distribute. A masterclass in virtue signalling, the narcissism of it all polluted the entire endeavor for me. When I asked a trusted voice why this all rubbed me the wrong way, this person replied curtly, “What does it matter why or how they do it? They’re doing a good thing.” 

Kobe did not simply embrace this role of elder-statesman to the succeeding generation, he courted it, campaigned for this mantle as aggressively as he once sought championships. Lacking confidence in the intellect of the public to make their own conjectures of how Bryant resurrected his career, he rebranded himself a self-improvement life-couch, and proselytized his “Mamba Mentality,” even staging a parody Tony Robbins style conference as a Nike commercial. He collected young promising players to mentor like Leonardo DiCaprio collects young blonde models to date. Gossipy whispers swirled every offseason, “Kobes working with Kawhi.” or “Watch out for Jason Tatum this year; he spent the summer training with Kobe.” All of Kobe’s newfound openhandedness seemed spiked with self-aggrandizement. Opting to be the mentor of the next generation ensured that the success of future stars led back to him, and that he would be relevant and sought after long after his retirement. 

Whatever the subconscious or even conscious motivations behind Bryant’s mentorship, his movie Dear Basketball, or his show Detail–in which he broke down the games of basketball players across levels and leagues, treating women’s college basketball standout Sabrina Ionescu with the same care and reverence as NBA star James Harden–the result was education, service, stewardship, and love for the game of basketball. 

I started writing this soon after Bryant’s death but struggled to synthesize an ultimate point. In the end I am not sure I have one, just that Kobe Bryant, much to my surprise was a figure of enough complexity and enduring relevance to require re-interrogation. In hindsight, I needed to watch The Last Dance; the 10 part Michael Jordan re-coronation. In 2009 newly elected President Barack Obama, after stumbling over the oath of office during the freezing January inauguration, retook the oath the next day in a private ceremony just in case any of his political enemies, or the fomenting alt right with its myriad factions–from the conspiratorial to the downright racist–tried to invalidate his presidency. While trivial in comparison, Jordan, with The Last Dance is attempting desperately to reconfirm that he is the greatest basketball player of all-time, something only a few lunatics question. While the actual game footage is a wonder and leaves no doubt of Jordan’s basketball supremacy, the final tally of this hagiographic enterprise may result in a net loss for Jordan. Jordan, like a 19th century robber baron, seems to genuinely believe that his misanthropy, arrogance, condescension, usury, brutality, workaholism, and myopic focus on basketball, and consummate self-centeredness were all justified, required even, to win. To win what? Championships? With sports leagues and public officials debating when and if sports can and should come back amidst a virus with devastating life or death stakes, sports and success within them feel quite trivial and quaint at the moment. 

Having won at everything in life, sitting in his palatial mansion, sipping impossibly overpriced scotch, Jordan does not seem fulfilled. He is Ebenezer Scrooge. Unfortunately, it is not Christmas, and no ghosts of introspection are visiting Jordan, only a camera crew determined to retell the gospel of Jordan with a few non-canonical details sprinkled in for flavor. I am reminded of a line in Pat Conroy’s My Losing Season, an autobiographical account of his college basketball days at The Citadel. After a storied career, Conroy’s senior season is a disaster (hence the title). In it he says no one ever learned anything by winning. The inference is that, while winning is great, the actual growth occurs before, in the losing. Jordan in The Last Dance is the ghastly personification of “never losing. Like Bane before breaking Batman’s back, “Victory has defeated you.” With an unimpeachable resumé, Jordan was never required to question his actions or behaviors towards his teammates and competitors. Worshiped unwaveringly by all, Jordan never felt the need to give anything back to the game or to the communities that supported him. 

While never verbally conceding, Bryant seemed to embrace being the loser. Bryant realized early, perhaps as early as Colorado, that he was never going to be as beloved as Jordan. He began planning early for a life outside of basketball. He started a production company. He braved eye-rolls for the n-teenth time when he proclaimed that he was going to be a “storyteller.” Beyond a cliché adage, Bryant became a “family man,” and focused on this part of his life with the same ferocity that he once attacked the basket. Despite braving turmoil very publicly as a young couple, the bond between Bryant and his wife Vanesa appeared, at least on the outside, genuine. They welcomed their newest daughter, Capri, just 7 months before his death. While no less ambitious or busy in retirement, the Bryant who once wore his insecurity and desperation on his sweaty armband, strangely appeared content, happy. The guy who once proudly proclaimed “Spalding his only friend” relented to a verdant life with others.

While undoubtedly compounded by the tragic and sudden nature of his death, the truly astounding outpouring for Kobe–murals the world over, calf-length tattoos, millions of twitter handle re-namings–stands as an accomplishment, or better said, an acknowledgement that “better” athletes like Jordan or LeBron or Tiger or Brady will probably never receive. He wasn’t the best of us, and in many ways we loved him even more because of that. Before The Last Dance we got a preview of the more candid Michael Jordan during Kobe Bryant’s memorial, where Michael, who unbeknownst to us all was a confidant of Bryant’s, admitted that Kobe made him want to be a better father, a better person. In the end even the GOAT was a disciple of the Mamba. It’s only right that the first millennial superstar gained the biggest following.  

[shenmeizhuang-blog]

Do you have any cdrama suggestions for a baby beginner? I think Empress of China is the most famous one I’ve heard of but I’m curious about others too!

B-baby beginner? No, my friend, when it comes to cdrama, we simply throw you into the pit…

Just kidding! Although, for a myriad of reasons, being a Chinese drama fan outside of Asia without a hold of the language is admittedly rather difficult (so to the “international” cdrama fandom: you guys rock!). 

Unfortunately, your answer did not really help me narrow down my answer after all. I believe Moonlight Drawn By Clouds, your recent fave, is very romance-centric, but I feel like everyone tends to vacillate in their mood, preferring super romantic escapism one minute and demanding tight storytelling the next. Anyway, I’ll stop rambling and actually get to the point:

personal recs, in general*

I just couldn’t really “categorize” these?

peace hotel (2018): currently in the midst of watching this still, but I’m really enjoying this! honestly. especially with how the female chars (most of the chars are written.) it’s this mix between super suspenseful espionage and really cathartic humor. the plot twists are also so !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

let’s shake it! (2017): alien crashlands to the tang dynasty! it’s super cute and quirky, but there’s also a strong, coherent plot and some angst in the latter parts. definitely one of my faves of last year, though it’s punny sense of humor doesn’t always get through. it’s also very appreciatively meta ;) the subs apparently aren’t complete, as my friend complained to me, but I personally find the language real simple

medical examiner dr. qin (2016): the interactions between the crime-solving trio are gold. also, like the only modern show here?? (as you can tell, I am really mostly a period show watcher.)

go princess go (2015-16): it’s really low-budget and cracky, but trust me, there’s a reason it went viral. zhang tian ai does feel like the saving grace a lot of the time though, and I didn’t exactly give it a high score, but it just might be your thing. who knows?

nirvana in fire (2015): i don’t think it’s the best c-drama ever, unlike a lot of people on this site, but it’s still a very solid show. I also find it a lot more shoujo than most fans—it’s really not just a revenge-political drama—but when it was emotionally gripping, boy, it was emotionally gripping. 

wuxin: the monster killer (2015): technically only season 1—I have yet to see s2—but weirdly enough, I found the poignant ending especially fitting. just assume from the title? yue qiluo is one of the more interesting villains out there, and gosh I just adore yueya so much

bu bu jing xin (2011): extremely poignant, complex look into polymagy/patriarchy during the qing dynasty from the lens of time-traveller zhang xiao who takes the identity of court lady ruoxi. even if you don’t ship any of the romances, it is so worth it for pretty much everything else. but if you do, obviously also an extremely heart-wrenching watch. a lot of people’s first cdrama. 

schemes of a beauty (2010): lots of spying, secret chambers, poison, women control the men. 

*I would want to recommend The Legend of Zhen Huan and The Glory Of Tang Dynasty, but they’re 76 episodes and 92 episodes long, respectively. Content-wise, it’s also stuff that requires lots of trigger warnings, and overall just not for the “baby beginner”. Battle of Changsha is definitely shorter, and a definite recommendation, but also just not for the “baby beginner.” 

no dubbing 

(Peace Hotel, Battle of Changsha, NiF, Medical Examiner Dr. Qin)

the advisors’ alliance (2017) + growling tiger, roaring dragon (2017-18): a mix of no dubbing and some dubbing. it’s a pretty creative to take the viewpoint of sima yi in this three kingdoms historical piece. I feel that it’s rather accessible to viewers, honestly, and the production values are great on this one. 

nothing gold can stay (2017): only 4 eps in—it’s very solid so far (74 eps though, but I would say quite mainstream and easy to watch)

ten miles of spring wind can’t compare to you (2017): do I really want to rec this though? in the end, I really did wish I had someone to vent about this to and discuss with about, because in a lot of ways this really did give lots of food for thought. let’s just say that our three main chars are deliberately rather fatally flawed…and I still feel rather ambivalent about how to feel about this. (the first 10-15 eps are super cute, meta, adorable but also with great sexual tension and then it sort of goes to melodrama but anyway…) you could at least practice your chinese? it is harder than the average modern cdrama, given how pretentious qiu shui can get

shoujo period romances

We all have a soft spot for these :’)

sound of the desert (2014): just yesterday, there was quite a lot of discourse on this show on my dash, interestingly. female lead xin yue (liu shi shi) is raised by a wolf pack, though she eventually enters the capital city sometime during the han dynasty. she does at first fall for a crippled, broody flute player played by hu ge (imo one of his more lackluster roles) but it’s her chemistry with HAWT general wei wuji (eddie peng

female prime minister/legend of lu zhen (2013): again, freakishly sizzling chemistry. it focuses more on lu zhen rising up the ranks as lower-level female ministers, but mostly still very very romance-centric. (the otp falling-out in the last 10 eps or so was kind of stupid, I will admit, and also 200% all on gao zhan but it had such a strong addictive quality to it.)

gong/jade palace lockheart (2011): I haven’t seen Boys Over Flowers/the Japanese original/any official remakes of whatever that is, but a lot of people have called it Boys Over Flowers + modern girl time travels to the Qing Dynasty + 9-prince succession conflict during Kangxi’s reign. it was rather stupid and petty at times, but it’s more comedic and the romance is super addicting. I don’t care about the half-bald Qing queues at all, and this is actually one of the only roles that I’ve found Feng Shaofeng attractive in. (yes, it is possible to love bbjx and enjoy this)

Oh yeah, and all these end all happily and fairytale-like. None of the above would qualify as my “faves” at all, but all are very accessible to someone unfamiliar with cdrama and love the Romance and the Pretty. 

others (I found rather lackluster or dropped): Perfect Couple, The Eternal Love (very popular among international audiences, but not for me), General and I, Oh My General 

wuxias/xianxias

This is just going to be an embarrassing amount of childhood nostalgia. Like, literally, with the exception of the first one, I watched all of these in elementary school, with varying amounts of rewatching in between. The recent wuxias and xianxias just haven’t been to my liking. (I could get into how NiF takes lots of wuxia elements but I would just confuse you a lot so, strictly on the more fantasy/action side of things here.) I simply haven’t watched Eternal Love/Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms (very, very popular) at all. I’m sorry. 

vigilantes in masks/strange hero yi zhi mei (2011): I believe the international equivalent is “Iljimae”? It’s like Robin Hood, sort of, but mostly Liu Shi Shi’s Yan Sanniang is so amazing here. 

chinese paladin 3 (2009)

return of the condor heroes (2006)

chinese paladin (2005)

lotus lantern (2005)

also 武林外传, which is 80 eps, but kind of more like a wuxia sitcom way back in the day. there’s in-show ppls, tons of modern references, etc. and also like lots of satire/social commentary. I did a rewatch (of brief clips ofc, I don’t have that much time) recently, and realized I missed so much when I watched it with the family back then. (I’m kind of embarrassed about the more lewd references…lol…)

*line break*

Whew! Anyway, the takeaway is, there is a lot of stuff to choose from, and I definitely left out a lot of stuff. There’s also a lot of modern cdramas. This answer might clarify about those shows. 

(that being said, I really personally would not recommend empress of china. I mean, aside from 96 eps, just 2 eps in I could tell it was going to be an unsubstantial mess >_

[jacksonhenry297]

Show To Watch If You Liked Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory is a brilliantly written sitcom TV series. However, in its initial season, the offensive nature, misogyny, and glaring flaws of the show were criticized by people that the writers worked on and got rid of it in the later seasons.

Bill Pardy and Chuck Lorre directed the TV series, and it stars Jim Parsons, Simon Helberg, Kaley Cuoco, Johnny Galecki, Kunal Nayyar, Melissa Rauch, and Mayim Bialik. The show premiered on CBS on 24 September 2007 and concluded on 16 May 2019. The show is centered around five characters living in Pasadena, California. Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter are two physicists who share an apartment, and an aspiring actress and waitress, Penny, who lives across the hall. Sheldon and Leonard have similar geeky friends, astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali and aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz.

The show aired for a pretty long time, and the show has a few interesting characters. If you loved the series, then here is the list of ten best series you might consider in your watchlist.

Young Sheldon

Young Sheldon should be the first entry in the list as the series is the prequel of the show Big Bang Theory. Steven Molaro and Chuck Lorre created the series that centers around young Sheldon at the age of nine, living with his family and trying to adjust with his siblings and co-students. In the previous series, Jim Parsons, who played the character of old Sheldon, provides voiceover in the show.

The show provides the same humor, and the audiences are very familiar with the characters in the show. It is the kind of show that would not typically do well, but thanks to some excellent writing skills and acting from the young actor Ian Armitage in the protagonist’s role, the series received exceptional critical success.

The television series got an approval rating of 76% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 45 reviews with an average rating of 6.61/10. And on Metacritic, the show scored 63 out of 100 based on 25 critics.

The IT Crowd

One of the finest sitcoms in the 2000s was The IT Crowd. The show has the essence of the trio in the Big Bang Theory, Sheldon-Leonard-Penny. The character of Maurice, played by Richard Ayoade, is the Sheldon of the group. He is a strange man who is obsessed with nerd culture.

Graham Linehan created the British sitcom The IT Crowd, starring Richard Ayoade, Matt Berry, Chris O’Dowd, and Katherine Parkinson. The plot of the show revolves around three staff members of the IT department: work-shy Roy Trenneman (played by Chris O’Dowd), computer programmer Maurice Moss (played by Richard Ayoade), and department head Jen Barber (played by Katherine Parkinson).

The show has won the BAFTA, the Rose d’Or television entertainment awards, and the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Two And A Half Men

Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn created the television sitcom Two and a Half Men. The show aired on CBS for twelve seasons from 22 September 2003 and concluded on 19 February 2015. It stars Jon Cryer, Marin Hinkle, Charlie Sheen, Melanie Lynskey, Conchata Ferrell, and Holland Taylor.

The series’s plot follows Charlie Harper, a hedonistic jingle writer; his brother, Alan, and Alan’s son, Jake. Since the director of the Big Bang Theory and Two And A Half Men is the one man both the show have few things in common. The humor and style of the show’s production have similarities, even if the overarching setting of the show is different. The success of the show is the fourth-highest revenue-generating program that earned $3.24 million for an episode.

The series received 46 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations and won six technical awards. It has received two GoldenGlobe Award nominations for Charlie Sheen for Best Actor in a Television Series- Musical or Comedy.

How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother is a strange quirk in the world of American sitcoms. Craig Thomas and Carter Bays created the show and were directed by Pamela Fryman.

The show follows Ted Mosby and his friends who live in New York City in Manhattan. Ted recounts his daughter, Penny, and son, Luke, from the events 2005 to 2013, that led Ted to meet their mother.

The series depends on a group dynamic; however, most would agree that the show runs off the limitless petrol of Neil Patrick Harris, played by Barney Stinson. The first few episodes are saved by Harris and the latter few as well.

One could compare the show with Big Bang Theory as what would the latter seasons look like without Sheldon?

How I Met, Your Mother was nominated for 30 Emmy Awards and won ten of them. Actor Alyson Hannigan won the People’s Choice Award for the Favorite TV Comedy Actress.

Friends

Friends are one of the most popular TV shows. Marta Kauffman and David Crane are the creators of the famous sitcom. The series aired on NBC from 22 September 1994 to 6 May 2004. The show starred Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, and Matthew Perry.

The show is also about a group of friends just like Big Bang Theory around their 20s and 30s live in Manhattan, New York City. The show is nominated for 62 Primetime Emmy Awards and won the 2002 Outstanding Comedy Series for the eighth season. Friends ranked 21 on TV Guide’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time and number 7 on the List of 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time on Empire magazine. The comedy series ranked number 24 on the Writers Guild of America’s 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time.

It follows six friends, Monica Geller, Rachel Green, Phoebe Buffay, Joey Tribbiani, Chandler Bing, and Ross Geller. The story depicts the characters’ romantic adventure and career issues, including Joey’s auditioning for the roles and Rachel’s job search in the fashion industry. Relationship tragics like Monica and Richard Burke or Ross and Emily Waltham, and Ross and Rachel’s on and off relationships.

The above are a few sitcoms that you can watch if you liked the TV show Big Bang Theory.

Source-Show To Watch If You Liked Big Bang Theory

[inventedworld]

A REPORT FROM AN ASTEROID, A REPORT FROM THE ROAD

I’ve been chasing an asteroid for the past couple of months. On October 20th, I directed live coverage of NASA’s first attempt to make contact with an asteroid 200 million miles away, capture a sample, and bring it back to Earth. The program utilized nine live cameras, including five in the the Mission Support Area, or “MSA” (essentially the project’s “mission control”), a pile of super-talented guests, an even bigger pile of stunning graphics and animations, and a million edgy government, corporate, and university stakeholders. 

In a word: extraordinary.

Here’s another word: thrilling. 

Of course, this whole endeavor meant that I had to leave the safe confines of my home just outside of Washington DC, a place from which I’ve rarely ventured since the start of the pandemic in March. Once ensconced in the MSA on the outskirts of Denver, I worked shoulder to shoulder with a huge group of superb videographers, TV engineers, animators, producers, on-camera talent, NASA scientists, and anything-but-ordinary spacecraft engineers and flight controllers. Not only were cast and crew obligated to get close to each other and lean in to shared tasks, but as the chief cook and bottle washer, I was also the primary point person for myriad decisions negotiated with government leadership, corporate execs, academic heavyweights, creatives, the technical crew, and….

…that’s all fine by me. That’s what I do. The problem was, in this case, that it all happened during a major pandemic stalking the nation, invisible among us, hiding in the community, waiting for a mistake or a misstep from just a single tired, distracted, or complacent person so that it could latch on, get inside, and burn through the team. A positive test would not only have jeopardized the whole television production (you can check that out here), but it would also have jeopardized the whole mission itself. Imagine the terrible consequences if key players in spacecraft operations and scientific investigations were laid up fighting COVID-19. The obligations of mutual regard were not simply a good idea, or an ethically grounded strategy, or even a moment of obviously appropriate reciprocity. The obligations that everyone took the virus seriously during our long working days as well as the spaces we travelled outside the MSA had massive consequences to a mission that had taken nearly 20 years to reach this moment, shaped dozens of superstar careers, and consumed many million of dollars of investment.

Our behavior surrounding OSIRIS-REx was a microcosm of how the larger society might regard collective behavior for just about every other aspect of American life. Nobody likes the virus, but that doesn’t mean the virus cares what we think. If we can send a probe to collect a sample of the ancient solar system 200 million miles away, we can certainly figure out how to collect samples of saliva or snot here on Earth to determine who’s positive and who isn’t. We can certainly take steps to mitigate the spread of something that simply requires us to care about putting our shared daily lives—and our dreams for all sorts of future endeavors—back together again.

At the end of each long day, I climbed into my rental Chevrolet and sighed relief when I yanked my mask off and took a deep breath.  The short eight mile drive back to my hotel across an arrow straight stretch of golden American West lifted me every day. Sure, fires were burning out of control on the Colorado horizon, with smoke plumes rising elegantly into the sky; from my distant vantage, they pretended to be nothing more than unusually thick, luxurious clouds glinting orange and pink in the setting Colorado sun. The virus lurked, perhaps as close to me as the car one lane over on the highway; it never left my consciousness. There were no evening meals with team members, considering that we all needed to try and keep our distance whenever we could. Away from the MSA there were only sporadic moments of socialization, often outside, relatively brief, limited in proximity.  There was also exhaustion aplenty, with powerfully long days pursued at full speed, intense stretches of homework and show prep waiting for me at the little table in my hotel room, and the promise of much more to come with the sunrise as we got closer to the show. 

And with all this, the virus, the fires, the social distancing, the masks, the precautions, the pressure, the limited sleep, the thousand things to do and the million interpersonal nuances that needed careful care and attention, there’s only one thing to say about the whole adventure: it was glorious to be out in the world again. 

COVID-19 has caused more damage than just its medical ramifications. We are isolated from each other, skittish, agitated, tired…and you know this already. What the implications of all that will be, however, are hard to project. In our isolation, we are out of touch with each other. We are not reading faces and expressions as well—first, because we see fewer people these days, and second, because when we do see others, we’re looking at only their eyes peeking above their masks, and then often from uncomfortable distances.

“Alls well that ends well” is a weak ethical position, employed by half-hour sitcoms designed to exude artificial morality and stability in the world. The fact that everyone seemed to come away from the assignment without infection is hardly proof that everyone did the right thing.  “Alls well that ends well” is no way to mitigate the pandemic. Like a big, complicated, live broadcast, there is no way to succeed except to sweat the details, stay disciplined, roll with surprises, and keep on keepin’ on. 

Come to think of it, that’s the only way to successfully pursue a big interplanetary mission, too. What we do to pursue our boldest exploratory and scientific initiatives can serve as guidance about how to handle all sorts of tough things. 

I’m a media producer. I make things. I’m an artist first and foremost. The fact that I can translate science and engineering stories to mainstream audiences is beside the point: you definitely don’t want me on your flight team sending technical commands to your spacecraft. (“I’m not a flight controller, but I play one on TV.”) With OSIRIS-REx I was on a grand adventure—I enjoyed it immensely, to tell the truth—but I must report that the entire week simultaneously filled me with nagging dread. So many aspects of the careful discipline I had employed in preceding months were forced to yield to imperturbable necessities for producing and directing a complex, live show about an extraordinary scientific expedition. What fills me now, writing these words from my basement while I quarantine from my family, is an awareness that the OSIRIS-REx team demonstrated an equivalent discipline so they could keep their own mission on track despite the pandemic.  It is precisely the same level of discipline that enabled our production team to get its job done producing the story for a worldwide audience. 

My journey back to DC started with a crowded airport in Denver and continued with a packed airplane for more than three hours. I wasn’t happy. Now home, I’ll confess that prior to taking the gig in the first place, the pandemic made me woefully reluctant to say “yes”. That’s not natural for me; my instinct is to look at a mountain peak and imagine myself climbing up. To feel whole I don’t simply enjoy opportunities to mix with the world;  I require them. I need to see, to share, to experience things that influence me and that I can similarly influence. I need to taste and touch and hear and smell and even just consider new ideas as much as I need to sleep and eat and breathe. I need to make stuff. As a result, I’ll confess that this whole mission filled me like the waters of life. But even with the fading glow of extraordinary success, I cannot claim with certainty that it was a good choice. “Alls well that ends well” does not confer a badge of responsible decision-making. Life is complicated. 

Now…matters are worse. Infections rates are climbing like a rocket. The nation teeters on the brink of self-induced immolation, and I’m terribly blue about what portends for the future. But I’m also extremely lucky. I’m thankful. I realize the asymmetry of my life measured against the pain of so many others. OSIRIS-REx is a shining light in the darkness, a story of how dedicated teams can figure out ways to pull together and do extraordinary things despite obstacles. As I consider the coming winter season, a time I’ve often spent thinking about new productions, new projects, new strategies, I cannot help but keep in mind that the solar system continues to revolve around its golden star. Dreams about what’s possible and what we desire are the reasons we all get up to face each day. Actions are what we do to make those dreams come to life. 

@michaelstarobin

facebook.com/1auglobalmedia

AFTERWORD:

1) For more info about the OSIRIS-REx mission, including status updates about the spacecraft’s planned journey back to Earth, visit the project’s main site.

2) In 2007 I made a short film for NASA about the OSIRIS mission when it was in its early planning stages. (It didn’t have the “REx” component in its name at that time). It runs about seven minutes, and you can check it out here. The credits listed on the web page are somewhat incomplete. The credits in the film…are accurate. 😏

[techcrunchappcom]

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/a-sweep-for-schitts-creek-succession-tops-emmy-awards-national-news/

A sweep for ‘Schitt’s Creek,’ ‘Succession’ tops Emmy Awards | National News

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Schitt’s Creek,” the little Canadian show about a fish-out-of-water family, made history at Sunday’s Emmy Awards with a comedy awards sweep, something even TV greats including “Frasier” and “Modern Family” failed to achieve.

Zendaya, 24, became the youngest lead drama actress winner for her role as a troubled teenager in “Euphoria.” She’s only the second Black actress to win the award, following Viola Davis’ groundbreaking 2015 win for “How to Get Away With Murder.”

“I know this seems like a really weird time to be celebrating,” Zendaya said. “But I just want to say there is hope in the young people out there. I know our TV show doesn’t always feel like a great example of that,” but young people are out there “doing the work.”

“Succession,” a family power struggle over a media empire, was honored as best drama series, and creator Jesse Armstrong used the opportunity to offer “un-thank-yous,” including to President Donald Trump for what Armstrong called his “crummy and uncoordinated” response to the pandemic.

“Succession” star Jeremy Strong won the drama actor trophy for his role as a potential heir to the throne.

The virtual ceremony, with a hard-working Jimmy Kimmel as host, went smoothly despite producers’ concerns that the plan to link 100-plus nominees remotely could result in glitches.

Although the rise of streaming services including Disney+ and Apple TV+ dominates the TV landscape, it was Emmy stalwart HBO that stole the show, with winners including “Succession” and “Watchmen” making up for its now-departed awards giant “Game of Thrones.” ViacomCBS-owned Pop TV and its quirky comedy also proved unbeatable.

The awards for Pop TV’s “Schitt’s Creek” included best comedy series and trophies for its stars, including Catherine O’Hara and father-son Eugene and Daniel Levy.

“It is absolutely incredible. I think my dad said it best earlier this evening: it’s a dream you don’t want to wake up from, to be honest. What an absolutely unbelievable way to end our series,” Daniel Levy said backstage.

His character’s comfortable pansexuality led to story lines that Levy called personally “cathartic.”

In his acceptance speech, he said the sitcom was about “the transformational effects of love and acceptance, and this is something we need more now than ever before,” encouraging people to register and vote to achieve that goal.

Other winners, including “Watchmen” star Regina King, made a point that the Nov. 3 general election was near.

All the winners accepted their awards virtually in the pandemic-safe ceremony, including O’Hara, but she wasn’t alone.

“Though these are the strangest of days, may you have as much joy being holed up in a room or two with your family as I had with my dear Roses,” O’Hara said from Canada, surrounded in a decorated room by mask-wearing co-stars who play the Rose family members.

Levy called it “ironical that the straightest role I ever played lands me an Emmy for a comedy performance. I have to seriously question what I’ve been doing” for the past 50 years.

Moments later, his son won the award for comedy writing for “Schitt’s Creek” episode, then shared a directing award and captured the supporting actor comedy trophy. The supporting actress trophy went to his co-star Annie Murphy.

Daniel Levy thanked his father and O’Hara for an extended “master class” in comedy. The show’s sweep came for its much-acclaimed final season.

References to coronavirus were an ongoing part of the ceremony, with essential workers — including a teacher and a UPS deliveryman — presenting awards and Jason Sudeikis ostensibly getting a COVID-19 test onstage.

In a year with a record number of Black nominees, 35, there was a notable lack of diversity in the show’s early going. With “Schitt’s Creek” gobbling up comedy awards, that left acclaimed “Insecure” and its creator Issa Rae empty-handed.

That was also true of Ramy Youssef, creator-star of the semi-autobiographical comedy “Ramy,” about a young Muslim American’s love and religious life. Youssef tweeted a video of a haz-mat suit-wearing person clutching an Emmy and waving goodbye after Youssef lost the lost the comedy actor category.

There were signs of change with the drama awards, which came in the latter part of the ceremony, and Black actors ultimately won a record nine trophies. But there was a familiar pattern, with actors of color doing exceptional work in limited series but not finding as much opportunity in ongoing shows, with Zendaya this year’s exception.

“Watchmen” is a case in point. The graphic novel-adaptation, steeped in racial pain, was voted best limited series and King won lead actress for her work. She was showered by confetti as she accepted in an armchair, wearing a T-shirt that honored police shooting victim Breonna Taylor.

“This is so freaking weird,” said King, who regained her composure and called on viewers to vote and, backstage, explained why she wore the message shirt.

“The cops still haven’t been held accountable,” she said. “She represents just decades, hundreds of years of violence against Black bodies. Wearing Breonna’s likeness and representing her and her family and the stories that we were exploring, presenting and holding a mirror up to on ‘Watchmen,’ it felt appropriate to represent with Breonna Taylor.”

Her co-star, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, won the Emmy for best supporting actor in a limited series. Uzo Aduba won the counterpart actress award for her portrayal of Shirley Chisholm in “Mrs. America.”

Anthony Anderson, a nominee for “black-ish,” came on stage to make his disappointment vigorously known, saying the awards should have been “Howard University homecoming Black.”

“This isn’t what it should have been. … But Black stories, Black performances and Black Lives Matter,” he said, urging Kimmel to shout with him.

Tyler Perry, the actor turned media mogul and influential booster of African American talent, accepted the Governors Award.

Supporting drama awards went to Billy Crudup for “The Morning Show” and repeat winner Julia Garner for “Ozark.”

“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” was again honored as best variety-talk series, with David Letterman announcing the award after being abandoned roadside by an annoyed ride-share driver.

Oliver joined the ranks of winners calling for Americans to vote, as did Mark Ruffalo, who won the limited series acting trophy for “I Know This Much is True.”

Kimmel opened the show with a monologue that appeared to be defiantly delivered in front of a packed, cheering theater — until it was revealed clips were played from past Emmy shows.

“Of course I’m here all alone. Of course, we don’t have an audience,” he said. “This isn’t a MAGA rally. It’s the Emmys.”

A minor gaffe marred Saturday’s virtual creative arts Emmys for technical and other honors, when Jason Bateman’s name was announced for a guest acting award that belonged to Ron Cephas Jones of “This Is Us.”

In the cumulative awards handed out Sunday and at the creative arts events, HBO was the leader with 30 trophies, followed by Netflix with 21, Pop TV with 10 and Disney+ and NBC with eight each.

———

AP Writer Beth Harris contributed to this report.

———

Online: https://www.emmys.com/

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[greatvanheflinkennethtobeypie]

Hi @latimes @latimesmobile-blog,

Listen To The Breaking News and Top Stories!!

This is The Whole Untold Story Of The Great Actor Kenneth Tobey:

Early years

Kenneth Jesse Tobey was born in 1917 in Oakland, California. According to the United States Census of 1930 for Oakland,13-year-old "Kenneth J." was the eldest of three sons of Jesse V. Tobey and his wife Frances H. Tobey. That census also documents that Tobey's father was an automobile-tire salesman and that young Kenneth was of Irish and Russian ancestry. His paternal grandmother's parents were both natives of the "Ireland Free State", and his mother's parents were born in Russia, although they apparently had immigrated to South America, where Frances Tobey had been born and where in her youth the preferred language spoken in her family's household—again documented in the census—was Spanish. Following his graduation from high school in 1935, Kenneth was headed for a career in law when he first dabbled in acting at the University of California Little Theater. That stage experience led to a drama scholarship, a year-and-a-half of study at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse, where his classmates included fellow University of California at Berkeley alumni Gregory Peck, Eli Wallach, and Tony Randall.

During World War II, Tobey joined the United States Army Air Forces, serving in the Pacific as a rear gunner aboard a B-25 bomber. Throughout the 1940s, with the exception of his time in military service, Tobey acted on Broadway and in summer stock. After appearing in a 1943 film short, The Man of the Ferry, he made his Hollywood film debut in the 1947 Hopalong Cassidy western Dangerous Venture. He then went on to appear in scores of features and on numerous television series. In the 1949 film Twelve O' Clock High, he is the negligent airbase sentry who is dressed down by General Frank Savage (played by Gregory Peck). That same year Tobey performed in a brief comedy bit in another film, I Was a Male War Bride. His performance in that minor part caught the attention of director Howard Hawks, who promised to use the thirty-two-year-old actor in something more substantial.

The Thing from Another World



In 1951, Tobey was cast in Howard Hawks' production The Thing from Another World. In this classic sci-fi film he portrays Captain Patrick Hendry, a United States Air Force pilot, who at the North Pole leads a scientific outpost's dogged defense against an alien portrayed by James Arness, later the star of the television series Gunsmoke. Tobey's performance in Hawks' film garnered the actor other parts in science fiction movies in the 1950s, usually reprising his role as a military officer, such as in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) and It Came from Beneath the Sea (1956).

Television



Tobey appeared in the 1952 episode "Counterfeit Plates" on the CBS series Biff Baker, U.S.A., an espionage drama starring Alan Hale, Jr. He was cast too in the 1954-1955 CBS legal drama The Public Defender, starring Reed Hadley. He guest-starred in three episodes of NBC's western anthology series Frontier. His Frontier roles were as Wade Trippe in "In Nebraska" (1955) and then as Gabe Sharp in "Out from Texas" and "The Hostage" (1956). In 1955, he also portrayed legendary frontiersman Jim Bowie on ABC's Davy Crockett, a Walt Disney production, with Fess Parker in the title role. After Bowie's death in the series at the Battle of the Alamo, Tobey played a second character, Jocko, in the two final episodes of Davy Crockett.

Tobey then, in 1957, appeared in the syndicated religion anthology series Crossroads in the role of Mr. Alston in the episode "Call for Help" and as Jim Callahan in "Bandit Chief" in the syndicated western series The Sheriff of Cochise. Later that same year, Tobey starred in the television series The Whirlybirds, a successful CBS and then-syndicated adventure produced by Desilu Studios. In it he played the co-owner of a helicopter charter service, along with fellow actor Craig Hill. The Whirlybirds was a major hit in the United States and abroad, with 111 episodes filmed through 1960. It remained in syndication worldwide for many years.

In 1958, Tobey also appeared as John Wallach in the episode "$50 for a Dead Man" in Jeff Richards's NBC western series Jefferson Drum. In 1960, he guest-starred in the episode "West of Boston" of another NBC western series, Overland Trail, starring William Bendix and Doug McClure. He performed as well in the ABC western series The Rebel, starring Nick Adams. Tobey made three guest appearances on Perry Mason, twice in 1960 and once in 1962 as Jack Alvin, a deputy district attorney. On the long-running western series Gunsmoke, he portrayed a cruel, knife-wielding buffalo hunter, Ben Spadden, in the 1960 episode titled "The Worm". Tobey in 1962 also guest-starred on another western series, Lawman, playing the character Duncan Clooney, an engineer who seeks to move a shipment of nitroglycerin through Laramie, Wyoming. When the town is evacuated to allow passage of the explosives, two of Clooney's employees decide they will take advantage of the situation to rob the bank.

Tobey guest-starred as well in Jack Lord's 1962-1963 ABC adventure series about a rodeo circuit rider, Stoney Burke. In 1967 he performed on the series Lassie, in the episode "Lure of the Wild", playing a retired forest ranger who tames a local coyote. He also appeared as a slave owner named Taggart in "The Wolf Man", a 1967 episode of Daniel Boone, starring Fess Parker. A few of the many other series in which Tobey later performed include Adam-12 (1969), Gibbsville (1976), MV Klickitat (1978), Emergency! (1975), and Night Court (1985).

He became a semi-regular on the NBC series I Spy as the field boss of agents Robinson and Scott. Christian Nyby, director of The Thing From Another World, often directed those episodes. Tobey also portrayed a ship's captain on the Rockford Files, in an episode titled "There's One in Every Port".

Other films

In 1957, Tobey portrayed a sheriff in The Vampire (a film that some sources today often confuse with the 1935 production Mark of the Vampire). That year he also appeared in a more prestigious film, serving as a featured supporting character with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, the co-stars of John Ford's The Wings of Eagles. In that film, Tobey—with his naturally red hair on display in vibrant Metrocolor—portrays a highly competitive United States Army Air Service officer. In one memorable scene he has the distinction of shoving a piece of gooey cake into the face of John Wayne, whose character is a rival United States Navy aviation officer. Not surprisingly, a room-wrecking brawl ensues.

Tobey's work over the next several decades was increasingly involved in television productions. He did, though, continue to perform in a range of feature films, such as Stark Fear, Marlowe, Billy Jack, Walking Tall, The Howling, the war movie MacArthur (in which he portrays Admiral "Bull" Halsey), Airplane!, Gremlins, Big Top Pee-wee, and Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

Broadway

Although Tobey had a busy acting career in films and on television, he also periodically returned to the stage. In 1964 he began a long run on Broadway opposite Sammy Davis, Jr., in the musical version of Clifford Odets' play Golden Boy. Some of his other Broadway credits are As You Like It, Sunny River, Janie, Sons and Soldiers, A New Life, Suds in Your Eye, The Cherry Orchard, and Truckline Cafe.

Later years

As his long career drew to a close, Tobey still received acting jobs from people who had grown up watching his performances in sci-fi films of the 1950s, particularly Joe Dante, who included the veteran actor in his stock company of reliable players. Two appearances on the sitcom Night Court came the same way, through fans of his work. Along with other character actors who had been in 1950s sci-fi and horror films (John Agar, Robert O. Cornthwaite, Gloria Talbott, etc.), Tobey starred in a spoof originally titled Attack Of The B Movie Monster. In 2005, Anthem Pictures released the completed feature version of this spoof on DVD under the new title The Naked Monster. Tobey's scenes in that release were actually shot in 1985, so The Naked Monster is technically his final film credit, being released three years after his death. He had, however, continued to act throughout most of the 1990s. One of those notable roles is his performance in the 1994 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Shadowplay" as Rurigan, an alien who recreates his dead friends as holograms. Among other examples of Tobey's final decade of work are his two appearances as Judge Kent Watson on the series L.A. Law.

In 2002, Tobey died of natural causes at age 85 in Rancho Mirage, California.

[mishathevideoboy]

Final Portfolio

Collective project notes

Final Project

Lighting Project

Storyboard for the final project

Final Project script

Misha: The pictures of them where all over the walls. Quite a lot of different women, all of them different colors and sizes. But not weight, it doesn’t speak on him necessarily but it's just what society likes.

Arella: I can see why you love the female body.

Misha: I adore it! I love women. Not in the perverted sense, ok maybe a little but also in a respectful sense. They’re sweet, their eyes are warm their hearts are big… mostly.

Arella: Is that all they are to you?

Misha: No they are more, you’re more too. My mother embodied self sacrifice she had casual partners when I was young but I never saw them, I never knew they existed until I grew up.

Arella: Your father abided by that?

Misha: No, he likes women as much as me, maybe in different ways too. I was born in the 90’s duh. And it was strange hearing about what my Dad says my mother and his relationship was. Why would you have partners like such in the 90’s?

Arella: Seems bizarre, what’d she say?

Misha: She was in love from what it seems. My mother was a romantic but she wasn’t really in long term relationships except for one guy long before I was born. She was “stoic” whether that was good or not, who knows.

Arella: My mother had partners, but I never got to see her. Busy etc. You know the story.

Misha: Yeah that’s even worse, at least my parents where here for me.

Arella: Do you ever want them to sit down and create a truth?

Misha: Like a lie?

Arella: No, more like a cohesive narrative.

Misha: That’d be unimportant. I think part of the story is that they’re own stories are so tied to their side and their belief. They both think they’re right and that's all that matters to them. Pass the flour?

Arella: Here, I don’t know maybe that's wrong.

Storyboard for 12-year-old message project

Idle No More project notes

Posts

1.

This idea brought up " In Defense of the Poor" of an imperfect media seeking to transcend platform, medium and societal standings often reminds me of the trend that was once Vine. These series of images found in Vine are using mimesis and relatability as a means of spreading and reaching more and more audiences. The structure of the videos themselves follows this visually short lifespan followed by a long subconscious time of retention so that you may recommend this low quality super compressed media thus proliferating it further. 

2.

Educational:

The educational video serves in enlightening the audience or teaching them of something previously unknown or unheard of. Look to most documentaries for this style of video.

Entertainment:

Entertainment video, this kind of video can be seen with irreverent youtube comedy videos like memes or comedic videos with no sort of external critique. Another form of entertainment video is Hollywood movies such as the superhero craze happening right now.

Artistic:

Artistic videos can be seen as film and cinema that pushes artistic boundaries in composure and storytelling, this can also be seen in short videos we watched for the class that take an unusual approach to storytelling

Commercial:

Commercial videos can be seen in things like advertisements and videos that try to push upon or sell you a product.

Not all of the aforementioned sections are mutually exclusive and many of them can be used to describe one video.

An external category of video that doesn't fit into TeeVee, Film, or Art is personal video storytelling. This kind of video can be found on Snapchat and Instagram, these types of videos do not fit into any of the other categories due to their temporal existence and pointlessness to anything greater in the world.

3.

Almost immediately the Violent footage of the Civil Rights movement drew me in. Not many documentaries truly confront the violence and horrendousness of it. This collection also had brilliant dialogue pacing and great sound design to accompany the images and interviews to almost make it feel as though you were occupying the space. The components used where archival footage, news footage, interviews etc. But the practice of juxtaposing the interviewers frame with the scenes or horrible violence made it more powerful as if the history of this trauma was pushing these people forward to discuss these times and what it meant for America and Black Americans, as well as what it could mean for them now and in the future.

Not many questions persist but it did ignite my desire to see more civil rights documentaries recently. However looking back I can see the strategies used in this series have influenced a lot of documentary making today. The somewhat lively and in your face method serves to attract a lot of attention of viewers especially one as myself who is now bombarded with so many different screens trying for my attention.

4.

1. The sitcom parody was by far my favorite, I didn't take much away from all of them but this one spoke to me because I grew up in an Afro Carribean household and my mother would make these jokes about my first girlfriend because she was white. It was more just nostalgia to these conversations and less the commentary.

2. Coco Fusco took this interesting surreal approach to social issues and racism, whereas Eyes On the Prize (EOtP) really approached these subjects with sincerity and judgment. Although the message from EOtP was conveyed through strange means and strange editing it wasn't as "odd" as Coco's

3. No questions beyond wanting to see if the artists made any interviews on the subject matter they commented on.

5.

I feel like life is centered around being something else instead of being happy or centered around this tail chase of work and leisure only to continue the pursuit in vain. When I think about myself and my narrative I like to highlight the enjoyment of my life with friends and my personal successes with art that are recognized by others. I feel the key to happiness in my life is to not chase pleasure through the masochism of doing work for pay but rather find happiness through working on what I love. 

6.

Reflecting on this previous project is difficult. The reason its so hard falls onto one aspect. That aspect being that I did as much as I wanted to do to help but to a certain point I also didn’t do more. A project relies on two people functioning to their best ability, and that was true for this project but only at times.This project was not being cared for properly and attended to properly. My partner and I had collected the best footage we could find and worked to the best of our ability in creating a joint format that would answer our questions. What went wrong came down to disagreements about execution. My partner insisted on using their dorm room computer which was not appropriate due to incessant technical difficulties with said computer. My partner also had a lack of focus when it came to putting pen to paper so to speak, and although I spent most time editing I found my patience with them worn thin and the lack of progress being made on the project incredibly frustrating. Over the course of 4 editing sessions I started to slowly decrease my effort in the hope that my partner would pick up the slack of the project. The issue is that he did not pick up slack nor do any work they promised to do. This forced me last minute to dump all my effort into the project. Ultimately I should’ve never decreased my effort and I shouldn’t have been so subtle in my approach of telling my partner to pick it up. Editing is incredibly easy for me and so is filming, so the fact of this project being so subpar falls on me having not put 100% effort in and just completing the whole thing myself.

7.

1. The collective video had not inspired me at this point but I spent a lot of time refining and reflecting on what others were saying to help me create a narrative. I started thinking the video would function better as a shorter piece without dialogue and more focus on imagery and words and less on actual voices. I felt this would give it an aspect of timelessness.

2. My Tumblr posts on final project

post 1

post 2

post 3

8.

Persona Reflection

Saviour by George Ezra reflection

I had worked with Berit and her group on her lighting sketch after being under the impression that my own personal project would not be accepted. Due to this, I joined the project late and I couldn't contribute to the field of ideas. I instead offered my lighting skills and I also made it a point to get gear for the group as well schedule and find a location for my group to shoot. I took a very "employee" and not a creative approach to this project.

9.

Persona Reflection

Saviour by George Ezra reflection

I had worked with Berit and her group on her lighting sketch after being under the impression that my own personal project would not be accepted. Due to this, I joined the project late and I couldn't contribute to the field of ideas. I instead offered my lighting skills and I also made it a point to get gear for the group as well schedule and find a location for my group to shoot. I took a very "employee" and not a creative approach to this project.

10.

1. I took on the role of working on the introduction piece of the Smile project. The way we found our positions was left mostly up to the class but when we found our smaller groups people started to take smaller leadership positions within said groups. The position I feel I took was leading the people working on the beginning section of the project.

2. Our responsibility was to create an opening that set the stage for the rest of the video without distracting from the subject matter or being to forward with subject matter that no one else would want to see the video. I feel I fulfilled my responsibilities quite well leading the group and in keeping our group focused and clear,  I also made sure to keep open lines of communication within each subgroup so that we had consistency between all our messages and segments.

3. Our group decisions relied on a vote so that we could all have a say and unanimously agree on the objectives we wanted to pursue. The decisions I participated in where the discussion of Font choices and text choices. I did not participate in the decisions of the main theme of the video and its content, I felt I would do a better job focusing the beginning of the video around a theme instead of injecting themes and ideas into an already crowded process.

4. I don't see my voice and vision existing in this project. I am not bothered by this but taking a colder more calculated approach to creating this project, in this instance, made sense.

5. I was completely seen and heard when we split into smaller groups and I started working on the beginning section of the Smile project. I wasn't seen or heard in many other sections aside from when the project started rolling into its editing phase, I wasn't bothered by this because I feel I couldn't have contributed more.

6. I didn't learn any new skills in this project, I did, however, share my skills in communicating and working collaboratively on creative projects.

7. I do not feel this collaboration was equal among us all, quite a few of us put in more work than others and this dissuaded me from putting even more effort in, that way others could pick up that slack and be forced to create parts of the project as well. My part in this was strong but it diminished upon seeing many peoples laziness and lack of care in making said project happen. I think we need a more looming aspect of attention from the professor so that the lazier students can be forced to contribute and participate instead of sitting and eating or playing on their phones for most of the class.

8. Nothing I'd really like to share but I do think the concept of the project was interesting.