#and his wife is s3 grace incarnate

[threwtheminthecut]

michael is a tommy copycat drama queen and i'm here for it

[caladblog]

*drags hands down face* ughhhhhh

so.

this whole time i been writing bits & pieces of my SCATHINGLY NITPICKY review of The Black Tapes, really digging the fuck into it, and then i just HAD to go and listen to the season two finale and it just HAAAD to be FUCKING AMAZING, DIDN’T IT. i am so offended. i am so offended!! when the fuck does season three start!!!

continue reading for my full review of The Black Tapes with only minor spoilers, but let me warn you that there is some unfair criticism here. well. i think the criticism itself is fair, but i feel like i make it a bit too harsh, perhaps? at the end of the day i’ve subscribed to the podcast and i count myself a fan, so, think of that what you will.

anyway here goes. it’s long as hell.

i was correct in the prediction that my first stumbling block would go away with time, as the podcast found its feet. if you can’t be assed to click that link, the thing i disliked the most at the beginning of the show was that the episodes were a little disjointed and didn’t end in any kind of satisfying way. it definitely got better on that front throughout season one, and season two was WAY better, with everything starting to weave together.

storywise, i’m definitely intrigued. i think i’ve mentioned before that one of my major #aesthetics is Christianity Sandbox--Good Omens, Something More Than Night, the first five seasons of Supernatural, Lucifox, and to a lesser extent Sleepy Hollow, We Know the Devil, Evil You Know, one of the strips from Subnormality i’m always passing around--i like stuff that gets all up in the bible and starts rearranging the furniture. blame my catholic-agnostic upbringing in the deep south. this shit’s in my bones and it just... resonates.

despite the hardcore christian plotlines, The Black Tapes doesn’t really pull at this thread for me, very much? i think because it’s played straight--god is good, the devil & his minions are the incarnations of pure evil. i vastly prefer when that’s subverted, like in Good Omens & We Know the Devil & Evil You Know where the demons are slightly good or at least chaotic neutral, like in Good Omens & Something More Than Night & Supernatural where the angels are kind of dicks or at least just as manipulative and flawed as anyone else. there are actually several moments in the series where the hardcore christian themes actively rub me the wrong way, mostly whenever christians are positioned as Those Stupid Backwards Superstitious Children while atheists are The Only Ones With The Power Of Reason(TM) but i could write a fucking dissertation on how much this kind of attitude pisses me off, so i’ll leave it there. there were far fewer of those moments in season two and overall strand was slightly less insufferable.

on the subject of dr. strand’s insufferableness, i will state up front that his voice is fucking hot as fuck. it’s a pity about the actual content of his speech. i have had it Up To Here with dudes who are perpetually convinced that they are right about every goddamn thing and therefore they don’t have to observe any basic social graces, and narratives that reward those dudes by making them face ZERO consequences for bad behavior. there was a fucking line in s2 that had alex saying something like ‘dr. strand may seem smug and arrogant, but from a different angle it’s a kind of courage’ and i’m just like no. it’s straight-up fucking arrogance. nothing courageous about it. just the smug douchebaggery of every iteration of That Guy who Knows He Is Right, and You Are Wrong, and the fact that you’re getting emotional is further proof of his Rightness because he is the only one with Cold Logic And Facts on his side.

fuck that guy.

i mean if alex were a nonfictional woman there is NO way she’d be seeking out strand’s opinion on anything, ever, after like the first or second episode. honestly if alex were a nonfictional woman there is no way she wouldn’t have decked him on at least two separate occasions. maybe three.

let’s keep this angry militant feminist train chugging along by pointing out that there isn’t a single recurring female character who doesn’t revolve around a man. alex is supposedly the main character, but when she’s not basking in strand’s insufferableness she’s off being insufferable with nic, whose whole demeanor just kind of vaguely pisses me off. coralee is Strand’s Wife. charlie is Strand’s Daughter. cheryl is Strand’s Sister. amalia, who’s supposed to be alex’s best friend or whatever, spends all her time fucking around with nic. i guess the sleep doctor sort of counts technically, but i can’t imagine her being important to the plot. i seriously only think that one episode out of twenty-four and some supplementals has passed the bechdel test. that’s not the end-all be-all but that is significant in a show with a female main character.

okay i think i’ve exhausted this topic for now. no promises tho

actually one of my major complaints about the show is the way they handle their ads. i am NEVER gonna begrudge a free, independent thing their ads or sponsorships or whatever--bitches gotta eat--but you can put ads on a thing in a competent fucking way, that’s all i ask. right now they’re just. in the random middle of the episode, with no audio cues or anything, read by the same lady who voices the main character, and EVERY SINGLE TIME it breaks my immersion in THE MOST FRUSTRATING WAY. like when you’re watching tv and you come up on a commercial break, there’s usually a frame or two of nothing, and then it switches to something that is totally different in tone & aesthetic to the rest of the show in order to signal This Here Is The Price Of Entertainment, which, y’know, i am willing to pay. if you don’t pay for something in money you pay for it in time and attention. that makes sense. but the way The Black Tapes does it is like, what if joan watson just suddenly turned to the camera and started unironically shilling Office Depot or whatever for five solid minutes, then dropped back into character like nothing happened. that’s obnoxious! ads in general are obnoxious but there are ways to make them less obnoxious and this is the opposite of those ways. jesus. it’s particularly obnoxious because the show is explicitly supposed to be taking place in The Real World(TM) and in The Real World(TM) people don’t usually go off with a repetitive script about stamps dot fucking com in the middle of vital conversations. augh.

back around to positivity. to be completely honest with you, right up until episode 11 of season two i was fully planning to finish up the show, cross it off the list, and let it drop off my radar. that’s how hard the season finale hit it out of the park. i fucking love that kind of twist and i cannot wait to see where they go with it from here. i hope they get their ad situation sorted out a little better in s3, i hope they expand their female characters, i hope they continue softening their Mocking All Believers stance. s2 began in mid-january sooo fingers crossed for some more content soon?