#and doesn’t get why calling me an ‘natural actress’ feels invalidating

[euelios]

some people will really come within centimetres of getting it and then not get it

[safetypinsymphony]

“Is it a plot twist, or is it just lying?” and brief thoughts on the SPN road so far

To paraphrase an exchange from Bob's Burgers: Is it a plot twist, or is it just lying?

This seems to be an evolving theme of Supernatural's Season 15. I haven't been keeping up on my reviews here, dern it, but after some mild kerfuffles I've experienced between various fans (including myself), I'm re-inspired. Or perhaps incensed.

“Writers lie.”

When we first learned that God is a right asshole and as such, opened a rift in Hell before checking out to leave our intrepid heroes to deal with the undead invasion spilling forth—and then decided to check back in just to start fucking with the Winchesters again—I wasn't overly bothered, but nor was I particularly thrilled by the implications. I was begrudgingly interested to see what was evolving.

Well.

Kinda like watching a slo-mo train wreck, as it turns out. We're witnessing how this canon ret-conning is already starting to fray. How playing fast and loose with what the show has established as the rules of its universe is creating this “It was all just a dream” Dallas-esque meta embarrassment.

Seasons back, when the show first shattered the Fourth Wall by introducing the SPN books and conventions into its own mythos, that self-awareness was a really risky move. To this day, you either love it or hate it, but it managed to hold together because of the infrequency with which it was explored, and the skills of the writers at the time. (Even then, we got Season Seven, Time for a Wedding, arguably one of the more tasteless episodes of the whole series.)

As Dabb and company are choosing to further explore Chuck-as-God-and-puppetmaster, one of the show's important thematic cornerstones, that of the value of <i>freewill</i>, is taking a big hit. And the show knows it. They've had Dean come right out and air his disgruntlement with it several times already. So we get it, yeah, it's a thing. It's what Dabb is using to propel this last season (along with rampant fanservice and as many returning characters—dead or alive—that he can shoehorn into 43 minutes).

Now, I do loves me some fanservice on occasion, and there are certainly quite a few characters who died in rather inglorious ways and probably deserved better send-offs than they got, but I'm not sure 'hanging a flag on it' does enough to compensate for what this means in regards to the past 14 years of the show. In asserting that all of the past canon has been little more than Chuck's manipulations, it also means that the viewers' investment into the whole of the SPN universe has been hung on a lie within its own framework. “Ret-conning” doesn't even come close to describing this level of narrative dishonesty. (Wow, that sounded dramatic, but it's kind of true, you know?) By undermining the canon of the past 14 years, the current show creators have made Gamble, Carver and yes, even Kripke unwittingly complicit in this snake oil operation.

If SPN were just a movie, two hours designed from the jump to play out this way, I might think it was a little cheesy but oh well. I'm not that invested. (See 'Cabin in the Woods', which was a helluva fun neo-horror romp, in a similar vein.) But this is FOURTEEN YEARS we're talking here. That's a loooong time to be invested in a narrative, just to have the latest showrunner unseat all the canon that came before him. The only thing that matters one iota now? Season 15. It, apparently, is the only “true” canon. The only canon where “Chuck” is revealing his hand and operating with any in-world narrative legitimacy.

Thanks, I hate it.

I'm not going to pretend I like what Dabb is proposing. The segment of fandom hungry to bust Sam and Dean's so-called co-dependency is pretty stoked about it, naturally; they see classic SPN as toxic and unhealthy (and let's be real, in the way of a certain ship).

But here's the thing that gives me The Feels™, and it's not turning the Winchesters (or Cas, for that matter) into domesticated, well-adjusted Hallmark Channel leading men. (That's what, you know, The Hallmark Channel is for.) And it's sure as hell not invalidating the canon of the show I fell in love with.

It's urban legends, black humor, the endless highways and guttering neon. It's two brothers raised on the fringes of society, their unbreakable fidelity, finding comfort wherever they can since tomorrow, they may meet the business end of a rugaru. It's the colorful characters they meet along their travels. It's Led Zeppelin, greasy spoons and ancient tomes. It's faith and heart and sacrifice.

Unless Dabb dismantles these things too. At which point, a pox upon him and his house. Writers may lie, but this would be universe assassination.

●●●

Oh! I was going to mention some episodes too, lol. Here are a few quick take-aways, since I've already blabbed on enough.

Episode 3: RIP, Rowena. I looooooved the line, “But I believe in prophecy. I believe in magic.” That was SO her. Of course an ancient witch, the most powerful in the game, would live (and die) on those words. And kudos to the show for remembering it put that Sam gun on the mantel in Season 13, iirc. Pretty sure we'll see Rowena again before the grand finale, though.

Big happy for the suggestion that Sam is a witch-in-the-making. Also glad Cas finally got his brain wrapped around the fact that Dean was pissed at him but he didn't need to take it anymore. Dean has some valid reasons to need space from Cas, and it's a handy way to get Cas off doing his own thing (as Misha is not contracted for every episode).

Berens did a solid job writing this episode, but I'm glad we've wrapped the customary 3-episode season premier. I had high hopes for myriad crusty, decaying dead shambling around a grim world, but instead we got a handful of ghosts, literally running around in broad daylight. The first two episodes were … clumsy.

Episode 4: 'Atomic Monsters', was written by my favorite current SPN writer, Davy Perez, and he did not disappoint! Something about the way he writes dialogue sounds so naturalistic to me, and he manages to tap into authentic feelings in the characters without feeling rushed or contrived. I believe his stories. I never get thrown out of his episodes.

The episode was lovingly directed by Jensen Ackles. The guy flat out knows what to give us. That whole beginning red scene, with Dean and his John Wick bad-assery and then … then we get a Sam who has never eschewed his demon blood addiction. It was chilling and gorgeously actualized and I might have watched that bit more than is healthy.

And we got to revisit Becky Rosen, who is now a fangirl—like many of us—but she's grown up and assimilated fandom enjoyment into her daily life. Perez did a great job in saving Becky, as a character. She isn't the butt of anyone's joke anymore. She isn't a dangerously unbalanced fan. She's just … one of us. Thank you, sir.

Episode 5: Fun stuff in this one! Brotherly banter, Sam and Dean dressed as sort-of Fish and Game employees, a brilliant turn by actress Anna Grace Barlow reprising Lilith (no one saw this coming!), werewolf brothers as yet another example of monsters that aren't as cut-and-dried as hunters might like, and more 'visions' from Sam wherein Sam is Lucifer again, and Dean still has the Mark of Cain. YUM.

But there were also a couple some not-so-fun things. The girls glamping in the beginning was just plain silly, the fight scenes had too many jump cuts (imho), but mostly, why on earth would they leave the God gun in the glove compartment of the Impala?? I noted that back when Dean put it in there, Episode 2 I think it was, but I seriously doubt they wouldn't have locked it up safely after that. Please, foo. Don't make our characters stupid.

By episode's end, Dean is clearly frustrated and demoralized by their predicament. It's clear Sam and Dean will be taking turns buoying each other's flagging spirits this season. As co-dependent as ever. I am here for this.

●●●

This post has gone on long enough, so I think I'll hold Episode 6 ruminations for a separate entry, and maybe dish about where we think the series is heading, for a finale. Anyone reading this probably has a numb butt by now. Anywho, thanks for hanging in with me, gang! Talk at you later...

[pacegerld1989]

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[mattrapuano-blog]

Why I Think “Bear in the Big Blue House” is a Better Kids’ Show than “Sesame Street”.

While I grew up with both shows, some might think I like these shows less as an adult. If these shows had the uncomfortable nature of the Teletubbies or Barney, then that would certainly be the case by a long shot. However, these two shows, Bear in the Big Blue House and Sesame Street, have maturity and respect to the audience to which they deserve to looked back on and remembered for the good they brought to our lives.

But, I will admit, the more I looked back on Bear and Sesame, the more I became critical between the two. I always like to analyze entertainment and be a critic of their material, and this mindset drew me more to compare and contrast these two kid shows. They both teach life lessons to kids. They both have enduring and emotional characters. Yet, with their similarities, there is one difference between the two shows that I feel honestly makes one superior to the other: the quality of learning.

Obvious from the title, I feel Bear in the Big Blue House is a better kids’ show than Sesame Street is. Looking back on Sesame, it had a formula that consisted of sketches and skits that taught children about the alphabet, numbers(specifically 1-20), and all while mixing in stories and more skits that would be played for either a moral to be presented or to tell comedy. Bear has some differences to this nature as it was more about learning life itself. The show would focus on components and activities in life that we all would do for fun or that we simply have to including going to the bathroom, sharing, the mail, shapes, cleaning, even an episode about learning numbers. Having to choose between a show that focused more on the alphabet and numbers along with skits for laughs and morals or a show that focused each episode on a crucial component in life that children would need to not only become smarter, but a better person in life, I would choose Bear(the second one).

Looking back on the older seasons of Sesame, I always felt that they would make the show an hour long to squeeze in what I feel is filler. While a lot of talented people worked on all of the skits of abcs and 123s, I feel it hammered it in a little too much given its amount of time. The show would sometimes put more focus on stories including Big Bird going to camp or episodes with the whole “Mr. Snuffleupagus is Imaginary” joke that would rarely lead to anything of valuable learning. Even if it did lead to lessons, they always seemed kind of rushed. Even with the episode explaining the death of Mr. Hooper, not only was that because of the show lasting for a long time(so death was obvious to come for somebody), but it was more in that it was what the crew members and other actors wanted: to explain something that cannot be changed. All of these stories and situations in Sesame are done well, but is a 3 or 4 year old really going to follow the concept of death very well? You should never underestimate what a toddler can understand, but someone at that age would not even be very skilled in what you intended to teach them to begin with(abcs and 123s).

Bear did have a death that really damaged the crew, Lynne Thigpen, the voice actress of Luna. You may think that because of this the show would end very abruptly, but the final episode of Bear was recently discovered and it was, in my opinion, one of the most satisfying ways to end a beloved kids show. “This is your Life, Bear” ended with two things that Bear said: “Well, Luna, before you go, would you sing the Goodbye Song with us, one more time?” and “I hope I have been one of the nicest parts of your life.” These few bits make it completely aware that it is the last episode, and that the crew wanted to end it on a great note of bear and his friends going on vacation and for Bear to realize how great of a person he is. This may even show that Bear is more mature of a show than Sesame is as it is much less on trying to get zany laughs and more on having a calm and relaxed nature for the audience to understand the message of an episode better.

The songs in Bear I feel are better than Sesame’s songs. Yes, “C is for Cookie” is a classic and is a catchy one, but all that tells you are two things: cookie starts with c, and Cookie Monster likes cookies. Compare “It’s not Easy, Bein Green”, with Kermit expressing his feelings about being a certain color to a song that Tutter sings called “What Kind of Mouse am I?” A song where Tutter analyzes himself as a person and thinks of all the possibilities that are open to him that can allow him to achieve his goals and feel better about himself. I feel that conveys a bigger message and is a better song than Kermit’s song. The song about Ernie’s Rubber Ducky is catchy and beloved, but what does it even teach you? Most of Bear’s songs are not only catchy, but they convey a moral to it that most kids can understand. Even the most popular one, the Bear Cha Cha Cha, it actually tells kids that it’s healthy to dance and be proud of it.

On top of that, I always felt that, even for the 70s, the running time of Sesame Street for kids was a little too long being nearly an hour. I feel it is a little too much screen time for kids, whereas Bear is only around 20-25 minutes. Sesame even ran twice a day, was that really needed? You could argue that Bear may have been run with multiple episodes at a time like a marathon almost and my argument here might be invalid because of that, but that’s more of a problem for the parents with not limiting their children’s screen time. Plus, remember what I said about Sesame’s filler? If Sesame Street took out the parts that focused too much on the alphabet and numbers, limited that, took out stories that were not needed to teach or even help kids and set it to a shorter main story that conveys a strong moral? It would only be around half an hour, which is the one thing I like about how Sesame Street is nowadays.

What I don’t like about it though comes to another one of my points: the time each character has on the show. Elmo has WAY too much screen time on Sesame Street, and Abby Cadabby is catching up to him. Bear’s show was aware that Bear himself knew he was the main character, but there would never be too much screen time on him as the show had a strong formula to it. Sesame Street doesn’t exactly have a main character, they are all supposed to be balanced; however, they’re not nowadays, and I think that really damages the show itself when all I would see running on HBO are 80% of the time about stories with Elmo and Abby as opposed to Big Bird, Snuffy, Telly etc.

Speaking of the characters, while Big Bird is my favorite Sesame Street character, I don’t think he compares to how great of a character Bear is. Even the other characters are so likeable and connect with you(or, at least me) more than the Sesame Street characters(with the exception of Big Bird). And, in my opinion, Bear is the greatest muppet of all time. Known as the anti-Barney(perfect description), he acts like a loving parent, and because of that, the other characters that Bear interacts with have the appropriate amount of screen time as it’s almost like they’re all his children(even if they all don’t live there except Bear and Tutter) to see if they’re ok or simply what they’re up to for the day. So, judging from that, Bear sounds like a more organized show than Sesame does. I do believe Sesame Street has gone in production for WAY too long. Why didn’t anyone just think to show reruns of the material from the 70s, 80s, and 90s? Did they think they would become dated? Did people fear they would lose their jobs? Why not just make a new show about something completely different and original? I wonder if that’s how Bear started, and it came out to be fantastic material.

You might think that Bear may not have much comedy or a sense of humor to work with compared to Sesame Street. That’s actually not the case. There’s an episode where Bear gets a clock the shape of a bear(so he thinks), but it turns out to be a skunk instead. The delivery and timing came out to be hilarious. There’s a bit where Bear acknowledges the night by saying “The crickets, the wind...” then Ojo comes to say hi and Bear says “Ojo.” as if she was a part of the night’s beauty. This does remind me of something else that too reminds me of Ed, Edd n Eddy: an original soundtrack and score.

Similar to the Eds, Bear has an original soundtrack, instrumental score, and style of music so distinctive and so engaging that I’ve never heard it anywhere else. That doesn’t mean the songs all sound the same, the crew was clever to actually have a variety of music styles Bear could use for his song to explain a part of life or a moral. The Sesame Street theme sounds great, but the scenes are often quiet most of the time, which is not a bad thing(in fact, you could argue it’s more mature that way), but it makes me wonder if children are going to be as engaged with quiet scenes. And to Bear’s credit, if it sounds great and is not distracting to where you can’t hear what the characters say, there’s no problem.

I would certainly love to visit Sesame Street, but if I had to chose where I would prefer to go and visit for a day, I would honestly prefer the Big Blue House. The reason being that I can compare Sesame Street to an actual street in New York, where would I stay? Certainly friendly people around, but I don’t feel welcomed enough. In the Big Blue House, it would make me feel like I’m at home for a day, where the people I come to see care about me and love to teach and help me with life.

I feel this show doesn’t get enough credit and, in terms of today, is very underrated. I think Sesame Street has a bigger and better reputation than Bear in the Big Blue house simply because it’s an older show and because of the time it was released, it captivated the public at the time so much that it would evolve and keep growing with it. Though, I do feel Sesame Street has lost the charm it once had, whereas Bear knew when to begin and when to end. Both of these shows are an absolute treasure, but Bear has always been one of the nicest parts of my life, as we have always been one of the nicest parts of his. Simply for being there as children and engaging in the show, it really does pain me to know the show is not on television anymore.