#apologies if its tonal whiplash though

[silverskye13]

In which there is talk of demons.

Heads up! This chapter contains depictions of self harm. Caution is advised.

[yanagibayashi]

here's the lowdown on how i feel about the twenty-five twenty-one ending: art should have the grace to not be punitive towards its audience for reading the signs set up by the creator and reading them well. the idea that life is sometimes punitive / youth is fleeting / the times force us into change as an abstract concept belies the fact that these punishments, short of natural catastrophe and illness, are usually the result of decisions and systems that are inflicted upon us by each other. forcing an agenda so ripe with moralism about Adulthood and Time and RealismTM onto a story regardless of its organic development beyond your pen is just not good writing.

why do we write stories? is it to reinforce an idea or is it to create a narrative that demonstrates this idea and does it in a coherent fashion? either way, what is the narrative purpose of mimicking a realism which is itself forcibly wrought? you can say that "life doesn't have to make sense", yes, sure, alright, but fiction does!!!! it really does have to!!!

also, on a personal note, i adored every single microsecond of this show up until the middle of episode 15. thereon out it just felt like the most abjectly didactic narrative, where the tonal shifts did not match the character development. all that love, all that communication, all that perseverance, all of hee-do's commitment to her career, all of it just dissipated with a whimper. i don't really even think its necessary for us, as viewers living through the real horror of covid, which cut short so many lives and so many dreams and relationships and friendships and ambitions and desires, to be so patronizingly reminded that life is transient and fickle and fleeting. i wont even apologize for feeling that bitterness as though we were owed a better story. moralistic fiction is like the most patronizing genre ever. it felt like being back in elementary school with an old teacher who used to tell kids not to cry after making them cry because "real life will not pay attention to you crying". buddy you are the real life! constantly, every single day, we have the choice to make a different decision.

literally, i am not even as mad about baekdo not working out as much as i am about the terribly shallow and dismaying arcs we see the friendships in this drama go through. yes, friendships do dissolve irl, but at the very least they could have done a show instead of doing a tell. time jumps are lazy writing! time jumps are just plain lazy writing! show the dissolution of a relationship by setting up the dissolution for the viewer to experience instead of narrativizing it like a whiplash for no sensible reason. show a friendship trailing away instead of telling it like a bad, cynical story at the funeral of a character no one cares about because no one ever saw him exist. show hee-do's interest in fencing waning instead of just a random conversation with her coach in the old school building! literally everyone died at the end of mr. sunshine but the plot made it all make sense because that's how the story was set up. what we get here, instead, is the viewer being flung out of the tone of the drama almost as though in punishment for having the audacity to believe that a healthy, supportive, communicative love would overcome the ordinary barriers of distance and "the times". if this was going to be a drama about how "the times" broke them apart, like, again, how mr. sunshine went, they shouldve set it up from the start instead of the bulk of the present-day scenes resembling a quasi-reply 1997/1994/1988 plot!

that's it. that's all. i am so done with this particular brand of creators who insist upon reinforcing the fact that life will disappoint you in a perfectly good story that seems to be leading up to the idea that sometimes life also won't. buddy, ok, tell a world living through covid times that life will disapppint us, but you don't have to! they don't even have to end up together!!! but just write a story that makes sense!!!!

[hopevalley]

Season 8, Episode 11: Changing Times

Well, as it turns out, my second Covid vaccine kicked me down hard. After sleeping for quite a long time, though, I’m tired of sleeping and ready to try and get this write-up done.

Surprisingly, or...perhaps not so surprisingly, I don’t think I have that much to say about last night’s episode. I think we’re just too close to the finale for me to feel “safe” in guessing/hoping for anything in particular.

Let’s hit up the plot points like before:

The Triangle

Carson & Faith

Rosemary’s Purpose

School District Problems

Jesse’s Disappearance 

The Triangle

I’m probably one of the few people who liked Nathan who felt like the whole beginning scene was super weird and uncomfortable. Homegirl held his hand for one second in the last episode and now she’s going to warm his serge by the fire (while he just stands there awkwardly??? He could have done that himself while she got him some tea or something idk) and then dress him???

I think we’re meant to see that as her going back to...I don’t know...old habits die hard or something? But she was barely married for any time at all and it’s been three years since Jack died. No way would she be so far into those old habits that she’d fall back into them with Nathan lmao.

Like, it’d be a REALLY GOOD PLOT for a character who had been married for years and lost a spouse (cough Abigail cough) but considering the circumstances it felt like a cheesy fanfiction! I wanted to like it, but I just felt weird about it. Tonal whiplash out the wazoo.

Especially when we had to watch Lucas drive by and see Nathan’s horse at Elizabeth’s house. 

Lucas sadly watching Elizabeth talk to Nathan was also awkward, but at least it gave him the courage he needed to break things off with her.

You’d think I’d have a lot to say about the triangle, but I’m saving all of that for some kind of...post-season discussion. Who is she going to pick? Nathan seems like the most logical writing choice, but it could yet be Lucas. I genuinely don’t care who she chooses so long as she picks someone.

--

Carson & Faith

I like to hate on these two a lot, so you might be surprised to know that I’m enjoying their storyline. I’ve criticized this series over and over for never bothering to portray realistic relationships and one thing I can say about Faith and Carson this season is that things actually feel...plausible.

I also appreciate how they try to tie Carson into the town a bit more: he talks to Henry and Minnie and even Lucas trying to figure things out! It makes perfect sense to me; how do you choose between someone you care about/the potential life you could make with them, and a career that you’re really and truly passionate about?

This is the most interesting Carson has been since Season 5.

Anyway, the pudding scene was genuinely funny, and a great way to break up the stress that I’m sure we were all feeling about his impending proposal. Faith’s reaction to thinking he might propose was...pretty telling. I really wish they hadn’t saved so many dangling plotlines to solve in the final episode, though. I was hoping Faith and Carson’s storyline would be fully figured out in the penultimate episode so that we could let him go (or whatever) in the season finale. It just seems to me like it would be a good, smooth ending for them.

Also, for what it’s worth, they tried doing this kind of plot with Frank in Season 5, but it was rushed and pulled out of thin air; he’d never shown an inclination toward pastoring toward dying children in the past and it was clear that they just needed to write him off the show. With Carson, this sort of plotline works VERY well; he was a surgeon, and he was passionate about it, but that passion took a hit when his wife needed surgery and she died on the table under his hands. He’s had some time to move on from that and process his feelings, so it makes sense that he’d find that passion again. I just wanted to point this out because it’s interesting how well it works for Carson and how...well, not-well it worked with Frank. I really felt like with Frank, it was just a storyline that could have been given to anyone with the same success rate, whereas with Carson they took a look at the character and what we already know of him, and built the storyline specifically for him. That’s good writing, babes!

Anyway, Carson trying to propose in the vague hope that Faith will come with him, even knowing she doesn’t want to leave Hope Valley, is pretty manipulative and awful, but it really goes a long way toward making his character feel like an actual person. Like yeah, he does actually want the best of both worlds. Do you blame him?

--

Rosemary’s Purpose

I know a lot of people are really into this storyline but I found it boring. The only good part was when Lee called the other desk in his office “hers.” Everything else just felt like a bit too much to come to the conclusion that she should run a paper. We already had her “advice” column in the paper and it was...amusing while it lasted, but eh. I just don’t see good storylines coming for her from this angle, especially when they went the route of her finding out she wants to start the paper back up to share information with the town. Are we really going to trust Rosemary’s integrity when it comes to writing news stories, especially when MOST of the time the things she’ll be allowed to write about are, you know, who grew the biggest cabbage? It makes me dread the potential for Round Two of Nosy Rosie.

I dunno. I used to really like Rosemary but this season’s been pretty rough on her character. Good for you for wanting to find your passion career, but most of us work so that we can eat, not for a fun way to pass the time and stay busy. :/

--

School District Problems

Mr. Landis is right and Elizabeth is an idiot. Sure the school board is being assholes for no reason (as if they’d care if one blind child was sitting in a classroom in one western town lol), but Elizabeth’s really going to dismiss his concerns about how she can juggle the added work necessary to teach Angela while also keeping up with everyone else?

It sucks that Angela will get left out, but Elizabeth should be working with Mr. Landis to come up with a plan to teach Angela without sacrificing the education of her other students. Better yet, she could rely on her friends for advice. Like Rosemary.

Still no apology there...

Anyway, a projected 100 new kids? That’s outlandish. The only way that will happen is if they open a factory in Hope Valley, and even then it could take years. I MEAN, WHERE IS THE HOUSING GOING TO BE FOR ALL THE ADULTS THAT WOULD GIVE YOU A HUNDRED NEW STUDENTS LOL. I think we have to assume the plotlines are connected.

I also find it hard to believe the board would care about Elizabeth being certified to teach Angela. Where else is she going to get an education? It’s 1918 in the middle of almost nowhere???

This show drives me nuts with its attempt to be a “Frontier Show” while also shying away from the characters actually being stranded/cut off from society at large. You still had unlicensed teachers teaching in western towns in this time period because nobody cared!!!

ANYWAY, if Union City was like 3 miles away I could see them trying to combine schools. But it isn’t. So.

I dunno. I hate this plotline. I feel like they stole it from a better show (Road to Avonlea, where the bigger school was just a few miles away and it made sense to consider combining the schools for a better education system for the students as one-room schoolhouse teaching was proven to be less effective) but didn’t bother to consider any of the logistics of the storyline.

Maybe it’s my passion for education and history that makes me hate it, though. I know too much to find this storyline believable. I should also mention that I haven’t enjoyed Elizabeth’s role as teacher for a very long time. (I think they suck at writing Elizabeth as a teacher.)

I’m just not interested in wherever this is going to go because I can’t imagine it’ll have a lasting impact.

The only good thing I can say about the whole plotline is that I REALLY LIKED HOW BILL CAME OUT OF IT. I think he’s the only person who knows how to speak to Elizabeth. She struggles with blunt honesty at first, but ultimately tends to appreciate it, and that’s pretty much what she always gets with Bill. Also, the scene where he shuts her down didn’t make her look stupid, either (just worried/anxious), so I could appreciate it.

--

Jesse’s Disappearance

I couldn’t care less about this plotline if I tried. Jesse’s gone missing in the mountains before (was it last season? I don’t even remember because I didn’t give a damn about it then either) so this felt like a multi-reused plotline...for the same character, no less.

It’s also poorly implemented. Why doesn’t anyone else care about Jesse? Why is Clara pouring her heart out to Lee while her friends are failing to support her in the slightest? Why should any of us care when we know he’ll be fine?

It just feels so forced for the sake of drama, and it’s made 10x worse because there’s too much else going on at the same time.

Also, how convenient that they have to tell us how hard-working and dedicated Jesse is to his work to force this plot to even make sense... C’mon, he has never been a particularly dedicated to work. They just needed to explain why he would have left the car so that he could be “missing.”

Boring. I also don’t care that much about their “stolen” money.

The only good thing in all of this is seeing how soothing of a voice Lee actually has. 

--

The best parts of the episode:

Henry calling Florence “Flo” GOT ME. It was so surprisingly cute???

I love Bill, and he really came out of this episode looking great! Finally, it seems they’re done writing him as a grouchy old man who hates everyone! In this season (and particularly in this episode), he is allowed to be capable, smart, helpful, loyal, and in possession of a great deal of integrity. I couldn’t believe that guy tried to bribe the judge in town right off the bat lmao...but the way Bill handled it felt very in character—very reminiscent of him from S3 or 4. He never shuts things down immediately, preferring instead to get more information to use against his, erm...opponent. Should he need it, of course. I was really happy to see him written well in this episode.

HENRY’S LETTER FROM HIS SON. STARTS OFF WITH “DAD,” AND SAYS PS. I LOVE YOU AT THE BOTTOM. Good for Henry.

Fiona’s backstory! Finally, we get some FIONA LORE. Neat.

PUDDING HANDS CARSON. 

[minijenn]

Hnggggggg i kinda wanna share some spoilery stuff from this Keys chapter I’ve been working on, but.... 

ah what the heck, spoilery angsty shit under the cut, brb gonna finish this scene before going back to the fun Up stuff because sure what the fuck is a tonal whiplash anyway? 

Yet at the same time, Sora couldn’t help but feel the slightest bit guilty over how he’d not only snapped at them, but left them on such a harsh, bitter note. After all, they were a team, resolved to stick and stay together, no matter what obstacles or trials they faced. As much as the Keybearer didn’t like to admit it, he knew he had acted rashly, perhaps even foolishly in walking away from them like that, especially when, with just a little patience and compromise, they easily could have worked out a better solution, just like they always managed to do.

“Ugh, what am I doing…?” he asked himself, letting out an exasperated sigh as he ran a hand through his hair. “I should go back…”

“Should you?”

“Huh?” Sora froze, instantly glancing around for the source of this sudden, unknown voice, only to find not a single soul anywhere nearby. “Who-” The Keybearer flinched again, this time in pain as he felt something suddenly latch around his ankle, lightly digging into his skin. Glancing down, he found that it was a nothing more than a thorny vine, growing out of the surrounding foliage as it now coiled loosely around his leg. Sora thought little of it as he pulled himself out of the vine’s grip with no trouble at all, however, what did concern him was that strange, mysterious voice from before continued speaking, almost as if it came from nowhere and everywhere all at once.

“Why should you go back? Isn’t there something important you need to do?”

The Keybearer’s brow furrowed as he listened, realizing that this voice sounded all-too familiar, though he couldn’t exactly pin down how. Even so, he tentatively decided to answer it, unsure of where this bizarre, rather unsettling conversation may lead. “Y-yeah, but… I should applogize to Donald and Goofy first, they-”

“Why? Its not like you even have anything to apologize for. You did nothing wrong!”

By now, Sora had noticed that the same thorny vine from before had somehow managed to latch onto his leg once again, though this time, he didn’t pull away from it. Instead, he remained still, starting down at it as it began to slowly creep upwards, its thorns bearing ever deeper into his skin to the point they were starting to draw blood. And yet, even still, he still didn’t free himself from its grip, his mind drifting further and further away from what it was doing to him, and more towards something else entirely.

“Your friends, on the other hand, they’re the ones who should appologize. They never listen, they never care, even when you’re right and they’re not.”

“N-no…” Sora tried to reason, not noticing his voice growing softer, weaker as he did. At the same time, the vines seemed to multiply, more and more crawling out of the forest to curl up, not just around his legs anymore, but around his arms as well. And yet, the pain their thorns brought him was only secondary when compared to the newfound pain starting to well up in his heart at the fear that everything he was hearing could very well be true. “That’s not… t-they do listen, it’s just-”

“Its just they don’t trust you. They don’t think you know what’s best. They don’t believe in you. With friends like those, why not just be… alone instead?”

The Keybearer shook his head, his breathing starting to grow tense and shallow as the vines pulled hard against him to the point that they were completely restraining him as they began to converge across his chest, tightening viciously all the while. Essentially poisoning him much like the growing doubts that the voice had already sown within his mind were rapidly starting to do. “N-no…” he tried again, his vision blurring as he struggled against the vines just the slightest bit, only for them to pull him down twice as hard in retaliation for his defiance. “I-”

“What’s the matter? Are you afraid of being alone? Are you scared that all your friends are going to leave you behind? Is the great Hero of the Keyblade really about to let himself succumb to such pathetic fears?”

“No!” Sora shouted, a sudden burst of vicious fury, compelled by the voice, the vines, or something else altogether filling just about every last fiber of his being. The vines pulled him taunt as their tips inched up his neck and towards his face, drawing in dangerously close to his eyes as they flashed a sharp, warning yellow, one that seemed to ignite the entire surrounding forest in its haunting, golden glow.

“Then PROVE it!”

“I-” he struggled to speak, his heart turning almost agonizingly cold as sheer, shadowy darkness crept up his arms far faster than the vines had. Some small, still cognizant part of his mind was fully aware of what was going on, and yet was completely powerless to stop it as the choking vines and their relentless thorns had all but covered him completely. And all too quickly, the anger in his voice turned to anguish in those last few, fleeting seconds before it was gone completely. “I CAN’T!”

The echo of that final cry was all that remained as the Keybearer forcefully transformed, the oppressive darkness blanketing him like a shroud as it twisted and distorted in every way imaginable. And as it did, the vines finally released him, recoiling back into the jungle to leave his heart trapped in a different, much more terrible kind of prison altogether.

“Now… you can…” Maleficent smirked triumphantly as she stepped out of the shadows of the forest she had been watching from. She took immense satisfaction in knowing that both her thorns and the manipulative magic behind them had worked perfectly, for sure enough, as the last of the vines cleared themselves away, she was able to get a better view of the prize both had won her. “Ah, so it is true,” she grinned down at Sora, looking over his now-shadowy, almost animalistic form as he mindlessly glanced about, ready to attack. “Darkness really has taken a steady hold upon your heart… And there I was, thinking that you were of little consequence to my plans. Oh, how very wrong I was…”

[kcwcommentary]

VLD7x09 – “Know Your Enemy”

7x09 – “Know Your Enemy”

I’m just going to get right to it.

The episode starts with a shot of Neptune. With all the not-a-planet planets this show’s animation has produced, it’s really cool to see not just a planet-looking planet, but an actual existing planet. Voltron, with its kind of comically large wings are blasting toward Earth, and Pidge is trying to get in contact with her father. Given that we’ve been shown Keith able to image a Galra ship on the surface of Earth from millions of light-years outside the Milky Way, Voltron could be gathering a lot of information about the current status of Earth with visual scans. None are shown being made. Instead, Hunk wonders if they’re too late.

Sam replies to Pidge and tells them to stop coming to Earth. This is totally contradictory to the previous episodes. I’m actually laughing right now. At the beginning of 7x07 “The Last Stand Part 1,” Voltron received Sam’s recorded message: “To any beings who receive this message, Planet Earth has been overrun by the Galra. Most of the citizens have been captured. Those of us remaining are making our last stand. If you get this message, please get word to Voltron. We need help.” Then at the end of 7x08 “The Last Stand Part 2,” we see how that message was sent, with “micro transmitters, millions of them” and Sam’s message from the beginning of Part 1 is repeated at the end of Part 2. This show is giving me narrative whiplash. This message of request for help from Voltron has been included in the past episodes repeatedly, getting the message transmitted at the end of last episode was a big plot development, and now that the message from Sam asking Voltron to come help has been received by Voltron, he’s now telling Voltron to not come. This is the kind of writing inconsistencies that happen when a writing team is not working well together.

Also, Sam’s big speech at the end of the last episode, part of the message quoted above, and both previous episodes’ titles, were about a “last stand.” Sam’s big speech at the end of last episode was about boosting morale heading into a titular “last stand” battle. But as we see in this episode, Sam and those he gave that speech to have not fought some “last stand” battle. They’ve just been holding on, hoping something will change, hoping maybe Voltron would come. It makes Sam’s episode-ending speech last episode meaningless. That speech is out of place and unresolved. It’s like the writers wanted a big rallying speech scene, but wrote the scene totally separate from any of the plot of these episodes.

Sam now says that Sendak has taken over the planet (aside from it being specifically Sendak, Team Voltron already know that the Galra have “overrun” Earth). Prior to this episode, the Galra on Earth was why Earth needed Voltron, yet now with this episode the Galra being on Earth is why Voltron shouldn’t come to Earth? I’ve only just started this episode, and I already feel exhausted by it. Sam says that Sendak “will threaten the people of Earth in exchange for the Lions.” Did Sam not think of this when he sent his message asking Voltron for help?

Voltron slows down only to nearly run into several Galra ships. Sam commands Curtis to “pick up those Galra ships’ locations.” If the Garrison on Earth doesn’t already know the location of these specific Galra ships, then how can they know they need to scan for them? There’s definitely something missing in the writing. Sam has Curtis do something that causes interference so that the Galra ships where Voltron is cannot get a signal through to the Galra at Earth. Sam reports the successful communication blockage to Voltron, who only then start attacking the sentry-piloted Galra fighters. Why was Voltron waiting to attack? It’s just three small fighters. Voltron has taken out more Galra ships with one attack than this before.

Voltron’s attack is new. Normally, Voltron’s blasters are beam weapons, but now out of nowhere Voltron is using some kind of tumbling clumps of energy. I don’t understand the design decision making for this show that thinks it’s okay to have something like this that’s never been depicted before and here comes out of nowhere. Two of three Galra fighters are destroyed, and Pidge says to not destroy the third because she’s “got an idea.” Pidge has Team Voltron land the Lions on a Saturnian moon. Only then do we find out that one of the Lions caught the third Galra fighter like a dog catching a ball. All of Team Voltron loads up in the fighter, piloted by Keith. There is a weird inclusion of a shot of the mice and Kaltenecker with an Allura voiceover about hoping they’ll be okay left behind on the Lions. Was anyone in the audience watching this show worried about the mice and Kaltenecker not being in the Galra fighter with everyone else? It’s such a weird inclusion.

Team Voltron makes their way to Earth and flies right through a fleet of Galra cruisers, never being hailed by any of the Galra. Even with if the Galra think that this is just a Galra fighter, it’s not flying where it’s supposed to, so why wouldn’t anyone in the Galra fleet contact them to ask them where they’re headed?

Also, I guess the show forgot that the Green Lion can turn invisible. It’s like the show is preacting on situations that haven’t happened yet. The writer knows that the episode is going to move toward a conflict over Sendak wanting the Lions versus threatening Earth to get them. It feels forced that Voltron would leave all of the Lions at Saturn rather than come in with a cloaked Green Lion. The Paladins have successfully infiltrated Galra-controlled locations before using the Green Lion.

This episode so far has not given me any understanding of these characters’ thought process. What are they going to Earth for? What are they going to do there without the Lions? What is their plan? I don’t think they have one, they just want to get to Earth. This is just more of writing characters on this show to not behave realistically.

The Galra fighter is literally descending through Earth’s atmosphere because they’re trying to make it to make it to the surface, Keith even announces that they’re doing so, and then he says, “I’m losing altitude” like it’s a surprise. Yes, one would lose altitude when one enters a planet’s atmosphere with the intention of landing. Keith says, “Brace for impact.” It’s such fake drama. Apparently, they all collectively weighed too much for the fighter to be able to stay in flight, and Keith crashed. Honestly, their collective body weight is not that much. If an elevator can handle their weight, an advanced fighter craft should be able to too. Team Voltron walks up the hill from where they crashed, and in cresting the top of the hill, see the destruction of a city. Hunk recognizes this city, which he says is a half-hour from the Garrison.

As Team Voltron makes their way through the destroyed city, they come under attack by floating Galra balls. I guess these are supposed to be updated versions of the pyramid shaped drones the Galra had earlier in the show? Keith tells Lance he’s going to distract the drones so Lance can shoot them. Keith says, “Don’t miss.” I guess this is supposed to be playful banter? Lance takes out the drones, but then the team comes under fire from rifle-wielding sentries. The MFA pilots – because the Garrison apparently has no ground troops and has to use elite fighter pilots instead – drive in and start taking out the sentries. Rizavi and James are obnoxious to the Paladins. Given how this show’s production seemed to switch to liking their new characters more than the show’s main characters, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the MFE pilots would be written to be condescending to the main characters. James says that their weapons “neutralize [drones’] signals. It’s almost as if Team Voltron should have tried to get some information before they came to Earth, that they should have communicated with Sam and formed a plan. It’s in-story unrealistic, but this moment fits the meta-drama of the show’s poorly thought out production.

They ride to the Garrison, still behind its dome forcefield. The Pidge family reunion should feel emotional, but because of how obnoxiously this show has written Pidge, Sam, and Colleen, I really don’t care. Lance sees his family, and they all hug. Hunk watches Lance wistfully and thinks about when he left his family to study at the Garrison, though he looks older in this flashback than he did in the flashback in 7x01 “A Little Adventure.” Iverson says he’s glad to see Shiro again and apologizes for his having restrained him in 1x01 “The New Alliance.” I kind of love that Coran seems defensive of Shiro, saying, “Ah, so you’re the one who strapped Shiro to a table. I heard about that.”

Shiro responds, “You were just following orders, as any good soldier would.” Oh, the unintended irony of Shiro saying this while Sam and Iverson last episode repetitiously engaged in insubordination. Guess that makes Sam and Iverson not good soldiers then.

Shiro introduces Allura, Romelle, and Coran to Iverson. Iverson fakes being obnoxiously angry at Keith, and Keith actually demonstrates a lot of respect and salutes Iverson, only for Iverson to apologize to Keith. This moment is more tonal whiplash. Why did this show think writing fakeout tonality like this was a good thing? Keith apologizes to Iverson. Honestly, this show hasn’t shown anything about Keith back then that I think Keith needs to apologize for really. But whatever. Cosmo likes Iverson.

Keith sees James, James glares at him and walks away.

Then we get the short little few seconds the show has Shiro mourn Adam, seeing his name and picture on the memorial. The show can give the MFE pilots all last names but couldn’t give Adam one. His listing on the memorial only has his last initial, W. That’s really not how war memorials that list the names of the dead do it, they include last names. Was it really so hard for the people making this show to give characters last names?

Shiro says, “Adam, I’m sorry.” 16 seconds. That’s all the time this show gives for Shiro to mourn, for the resolution of Shiro’s and Adam’s relationship.

On to a staff meeting. Veronica reports that the Galra have been able to wipe out the resistance movement, which is interesting that it’s so quickly thrown away with a short line of dialog here since last episode ended with Veronica returning while proclaiming the excellence of the resistance. This is more narrative whiplash.

Hunk wants to know why this Garrison base isn’t bringing in more people to protect. Sam says it’s too risky. Hunk gets upset.

And then the show writes James to return to being an absolute terrible person. He yells at Hunk, “Do Paladins not understand the chain of command?” This is the ass that just last episode told Veronica that he didn’t need a “handler.” I am so sick of this show’s inconsistent writing. James yells, “Your CO said it’s too dangerous!” That CO has proven he doesn’t care about the chain of command since he and Iverson last episode repeatedly violated the chain of command. I really hate James.

Sam calls James down. Sam then says, “Believe me, I understand what you’re going through Hunk. We all have family out there.” Well, aside from Matt elsewhere in the universe, all of Sam’s family is right here safe. His saying this sounds thoroughly condescending. “We can’t lose ten people to save twelve.” Why is Sam now so cautious when he spent the last two episodes clashing with Sanda because she wanted to be cautious and Sam didn’t? More inconsistent writing.

Allura tries to be diplomatic and move the meeting along. Sam takes them to the hangar to show them the four second-generation MFE ships. Sanda just stands silently behind everyone in the elevator. I was thinking maybe Sanda was elsewhere and that’s why she hadn’t yet shown up in this episode. Coran says he might be able to help with the issues the Garrison has had in keeping the fighters powered.

And then we’re shown the Atlas for the first time, and the tone of its reveal is nothing compared to what I would expect given how much the previous two episodes kept setting it up. The reveal just sort of happens. Sam says it can house the Lions and “an entire command unit.” I actually really like the design of the Atlas as a ship (less so as a mecha).

Sanda finally speaks, “It’s built but it can’t fly.” She then says, “Everyone, there’s a subject we can’t avoid any longer. Sendak attacked Earth because he wanted the Lions, and now they’re here. It seems that we need to at least discuss our options.” Why did the episode’s writer think that this transition from here’s-the-Atlas to suddenly we-should-consider-giving-Sendak-the-Lions actually worked? The transition doesn’t work at all. It’s jarring. Why would Sanda pick right now to bring this up? I can kind of understand why Sanda would think giving Sendak what he wants should be considered, but having her be like this just feels forced. The writing just does not feel realistic to have her think that the Galra would just go away if given the Lions.

Sam yells, “The universe needs the Lions.” Except for of course right now since they were left at Saturn and the Paladins don’t have any means to get back to them. Again, what was the plan? Why in the world would the Paladins leave the Lions behind without a means to get back to them? Some miscellaneous guy speaks, agreeing with Sanda.

I do like that Allura speaks up and says, “I’ll settle this right now, we’re not giving up the Lions under any circumstances.” They do kind of belong to her, after all. Sanda yells back, “Maybe you should leave the matters of Earth to the people who live here.” Allura totally could have countered with something like, okay, fine, I won’t use my warships to help you. Shiro tries to explain how they have enough experience fighting the Galra to know that offering Sendak what he demands won’t work. Sanda says, “We barely know what we’re up against. We need intelligence.” So, did the files Sam brought with him not include information about the Galra? The Garrison can pinpoint three fighters millions of miles from Earth to be able to block their communication, but they have no means to gain intelligence of what’s going on on Earth? Instead of having the Paladins come to Earth and leave the Lions behind, they could have had at least the Green Lion use its cloak to scan around Earth and get intelligence. If Voltron could image a Galra ship on Earth from billions of light-years away, then it could totally be used for intelligence gathering. But the show wrote the Paladins to leave the Lions behind and travel to Earth without any plan whatsoever. I don’t know why I keep expecting this show to have characters behave realistically.

Turns out, Sam’s files from the Castle of Lions does have information, the Garrison apparently just hasn’t bothered to go through it. Allura points out that those files would still have Sendak’s memories taken from him way back in 1x11 “Crystal Venom.” (I miss the show being as well written as it was back during “Crystal Venom.”) Pidge agrees with Allura that the memories could “give us some insight into Sendak’s plan.” I mean, those memories wouldn’t contain anything that has happened to Sendak since the first season of the show, but okay, sure.

Miscellaneous Garrison guy takes Allura, Pidge, and Colleen to the room-filled computer network that they’ve had to use to process the Altean data files. Why is Colleen with them? “Sifting through that much information is like trying to find a needle in a haystack,” the guy says. Tangent: I’m not a fan of that idiom – like trying to find a needle in a haystack – because it implies something that is near impossible to do. The thing is, finding a needle in a bunch of hay wouldn’t be all that difficult, just use a good, strong magnet.

Sam shows Shiro and Coran the inside of the Atlas. Coran says that a ship like the Atlas might need “two or three battleship-class Balmeran crystals” to be able to be properly powered. Shiro kind of jokes, “I don’t suppose there are any Balmera nearby.” Coran then laughs rejectingly, “In this young galaxy?” This is more of this show not doing any research. The estimated age of the Milky Way is over 13-billion years old. There was a study released in 2018 of a star in the Milky Way that’s not quite 2000 light-years from Earth; that star is approximate 13.5-billion years old. Even without the increased precision of determining this star’s age, age estimates for some globular clusters in the Milky Way have been dated to over 12-billion years old, and those globular cluster studies were published in like 2003. Current best estimates for the age of the universe is 13.8-billion years old. The Milky Way, despite how Coran was written to act here, is not young.

Allura comes across some prosthetic arms and legs hanging on a wall. The miscellaneous Garrison guy says that they’re designs Sam has made for injured soldiers. “Like everything else, we don’t have an adequate power source to make them viable,” he says. Of course, this is foreshadowing Shiro’s upcoming new arm. I’ll tell you right now, I don’t like his new arm, and I’ll have a lot to say about it soon. Pidge has found Sendak’s memories.

There’s a sudden, jarring transition to a flashback of Hunk working on a car’s motor with his father. And as sudden as we transitioned into the flashback, we transition out of it to Hunk in the Garrison. Keith stops to talk to Hunk, “I’m not really good at talking with people. I don’t expect you to open up to me, but if there’s ever anything on your mind—” I can’t really say that I’ve liked much in this episode, but I really like Keith in this moment. This is the kind of reflection and building of relationships that the show desperately needed more of. Hunk doesn’t wait for Keith to finish before launching into an understandable rant about Earth being occupied by Galra. Hunk says, “I know it’s stupid, but I used to daydream about coming home to a peaceful Earth.” This continues to be a really good character moment, the kind that this series has seemed to have actively avoided having for a long time. Hunk feels bad that he doesn’t know if his family is okay, he feels a bit envious that Pidge and Lance have theirs right now and he doesn’t.

Then Keith says, “Look, Hunk, I never told you this, but of all the Paladins you’re the one I’m most impressed by.” It does feel really weird that Keith says this about Hunk and not about Shiro. But then, I guess if the show has Keith referencing “of all the Paladins” and Keith isn’t thinking of Shiro as a Paladin, then it’s technically not Keith ignoring how important Shiro has been to him in the past, I guess. Keith continues on to support Hunk emotionally, and Hunk then grabs Keith and hugs him. The emotion of the scene is really nice, even if it feels slightly off re: Keith’s relationship with Shiro being ignored. Hunk then says he’s going to get his family and Keith says he’s going with him.

They sneak to get one of the Garrison’s vehicles. Absolutely unrealistically, James and Veronica have been standing in the dark by one of the vehicles, like they were waiting to catch Keith and Hunk. James says, “My problem is that I don’t want to see our only hope for saving Earth get hurt.” The writing then does yet another switch-flip in the tonality of character behavior. Now, suddenly, James is all helpful and says he and Veronica are coming with Hunk and Keith. I am tired of this show’s whiplash. I can tell that the writers throughout this series think these whiplash moments are good writing, but they’re just not.

Sam joins Pidge, Allura, and Colleen. I still don’t understand what Colleen is doing here. If the show had established her to be skilled with computers or something, I’d get it. If they had her say something about just wanting to be around Pidge, I’d get it. They get the memory files working by creating a system similar to how the Castle worked with Alfor’s memories. Pidge has Sam test it by asking the memories questions, the hologram of Sendak answers. Sam asks the hologram to “explain to me your methods for conquering planets.” The hologram says there are many ways to do it, conquering primitive people is easiest. Allura asks about more advanced civilizations, and the hologram says, “There are always those willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. That’s why it is best to find something they value more than themselves and make that the target.” This is nicely consistent with how Sendak thought back in 1x05 “Return of the Gladiator” when he decided to attack the Paladins through attacking the Arusians. Pidge and Sam ask a few more questions, and then Allura asks, “What if a planet refuses to give up, no matter the cost?” and the hologram answers, “If a planet refuses to give up, then we annihilate it, but only one planet has ever refused: Altea.” Allura cuts the hologram off. She’s clearly emotionally bothered by it.

In some ruined city, Hunk, Keith, James, and Veronica are doing something unexplained in the standard way the writers think having characters do miscellaneous stuff without explanation is interesting. Veronica, apart from the rest of the group, attaches a triangle to a doorway, and James says she’s successfully sent a signal and now they just have to wait. Hunk has another really short flashback of cooking with his mother.

Hunk, Keith, James, and Veronica are waiting in a sewer until some old dude shows up and tells them to come with him. They go to some location where there are a few maps and stuff on tables and walls. He says, “Amazing, the rumors are true! Word of the Paladins’ return has inspired the resistance.” This completely contradicts what Veronica said at the beginning of this episode that the resistance had been wiped out. And since she was the one who contacted this guy in this scene, it would seem she knew the resistance wasn’t wiped out, so why did she earlier say it was?

They look out of a window down to some Galra facility. Veronica says, “Is this where they’ve taken all the prisoners?” Considering the size of the population of Earth, it would be impossible for “all the prisoners” to be in any one location. The resistance guy says that it’s a workcamp Sendak is using to mine for materials he’s using to build something. Veronica says that if the labor-force has been moved inside the Galra camp, then they can’t get to Hunk’s parents. So, is this supposed to be the city near the Garrison base, or is it a different city? Is Hunk originally from super close to this main Garrison base? How else would they assume that Hunk’s parents are here instead of elsewhere? This story does not feel like it has the actual planetary scope that it should have.

Shiro goes to talk to Allura. She says, “Sendak’s memories were hard to hear, but it did remind me of something my father once said. He told me that there were those with the power to destroy and those with the power to create.” She reveals Shiro’s new arm to him. She must be really good at manufacturing to have built this in such little time.

Hunk is looking through some binoculars down at the Galra camp. He sees his parents and vows to get them out.

This episode has a couple of truly nice moments, but a lot of it still bothers me. I don’t like all the tonal whiplash. I don’t like that the Paladins came to Earth with absolutely no plan whatsoever. I don’t like the way this show continues to write Sanda. I hate James. And I hate that the 16 seconds in this episode is all we get of the resolution of Adam for Shiro.

[gronjon44]

Welp... here we go...

If you dont want spoilers then I recommend you skip this entire post because I do not respect this film at all to not talk about the shit that happens in this film.

⚠️AFTER THIS LINE ITS ALL SPOILERS⚠️

This films wants to be an emotional gut punch but it is so... I your face about it. Emotional beats are either predictable or just... they don't hit. And the ultimate sacrifice from Bhgs at the end while sad just doesn't hit anything. And the plot of "Oh the main villain manipulates the kid to go against his dad and the villain ultimately joins the rival team" is really predictable. And I know that in the end this is a film targeted to kids and thats fine. But this film felt like it was trying to be too hip and too aware (the entire joke about LeBron acting hip and the 'don't dab' comment is just not funny)

The jokes

The jokes in this film do not land for me, albeit 2 (the joke about Sylvestar grabbing Michael B Jordan instead of the actual Michael Jordan was ok and the fact Wiley Coyote was in Mad Max was really cool) ; most the jokes either fell flat or completely missed the mark (this film tried to be hip and modern with its humor and honestly it was more cringe than anything else.

Also idk if this was intentional or not, but can we stop making jokes about how companies are stealing our info and spying on us? We get it Zuckerberg is trash Facebook and other big companies are taking our personal info but seriously it does get old. Mitchell's vs the Machines was at least clever because it was about a big tech company abusing it's power. Space Jam: A New Legacy is about an A.I trying to make himself feel better cause he doesn't feel appreciated and is projecting his issues on a kid he cyberstalked for a whopping 3 minutes.

The Plot

The films Plot is predictable, short, and a around not engaging. The idea of bringing another pro basketball player to aid the Tunes in another wild game for their survival isn't the problem, it's the rest of the Plot that's the problem.

The first film had a simple enough Plot that worked really well (The Tunes have to win a basketball game against roided up aliens or they'll become Amusement Park attractions, and they need a bow retired player to hp them win) Its short and sweet and it works.

This film felt the need to overcomicate it by forcing a dramatic subplot into the fold which, can work. You can have a dramatic subplot while still being a Zany and fun film. But SJ:NL can't seem to decide which to focus on; it goes from zany and over the top one moment moment then gives you tonal whiplash when it jumps to the dramatic bits in the plot.

I genuinely think that this film would've benefited from focusing on the zaniness over the drama, since frankly that's always been the focus of the Looney Tunes

Loony Tunes: Back in Action and Space Jam 1 are two tonaly similar films but both have better comedy and each have their respective dramatic beats, though their both saved for the climax of the film.

LT:BIA and SJ1 both have they're own dramatic subplots (M.J makes the deal with Smackhammer to raise the stakes of the game and J.D has to save his father from the Chairman and his plans. The difference here is that these films, while adding a level of drama, don't let the drama overshadow what tnis film is actually about (the Looney Tunes)

SJ:NL let's the drama completely overshadow the actual Tunes and isn't really engaging (to me anyway)

Also I'd like to say that, while giving this film a video game feel was an interesting concept it just reminded me more of Pixels or The Emoni Movie (though this wasn't NEARLY as bad as the Emoji movie I'll say that)

That's something else about this film. It feels like one big advertisement for everything WB owns (much like how Emoji Movie was one big Smartphone ad) and while that isn't inherently a bad thing it can be a hinderence to the film as well (I wanted to watch the films that cameod in this film more than the actual film itself)

The Characters

Look this is the Tom and Jerry film again, we don't go to this film for LeBron and his fictional family (if some people do then that's fine) but most of us go to see the film for the Tunes and the cartoon asthetic, and there's plenty of that here. But I'd like to actually care about the human characters in this film frankly.

Let's just get this out of the way, LeBron is not a great actor. He tries his best yes but he is not a great actor in this film; he reminds me more of Vin Deisel when he acts (he has a voice yes but he doesn't act physically. It's like he's trying to have his voice match the film but his body isn't in tune with it.

Now I don't wanna hate on kid actors, they do what they can and they're kids. But listen this kid was not interesting at all, and id have rathered the film not include him (or very least make him more interesting other than the "Gosh Dad stop pushing your ways and beliefs onto me" archetype.

The Tunes are fine I have no beef with how they treated the Tunes (all for ONE detail)

The way thsi film treats the Tunes in this film bothers me on so many levels. "Send him to the Rejects" "Losers" The fact that they treat the Looney Tunes like they're some forgotten property is really unsettling to me. The Tunes have never been forgotten the notion that they ARE forgotten bothers me so much, regardless if it's a plot point for the film. The Looney Tunes are some of the most recognizable faces in ask of media, and I get this is supposed to be a "New School vs Old School" message like with the Father vs Son but my God I do not like how this protrays the Tunes.

Speaking of the rejects, let's talk about AL G Rythm.

My God this is the most uninteresting villain and his whole plan is so easy to spot from the start of the film. "Oh look at me, I have a bruised ego cause I feel unappreciated in my time and im gonna project my issues on this kid I cyberstalked while praying KING JAMES would bless me with his support." Holy shit my guy you have a bigger ego than Tony Stark and its more bruised than Bruce Wayne's back after Bane was finished. He is one of the most bland villains I've seen in awhile, and the Goon Squad is no better. The Goon Squad is nothing but cool designs and a refderence to more popular Basketball players (and yeah they're supposed to be cronies but at least make them cronies with personality; the Nerdlucks were funny, had personality, and were an integral part of the story (also the fact that they ACTUALLY HAD THE NERDLUCKS CAMEO in in film but they were rooting against the Tunes just... Ehhhhhhhhhh) And the Goon Squad was boring and didn't add anything say for AL G. stealing the kids algorithm to make his own team.

Also sidenote, them constantly calling him "King James" got really annoying really fast. Like we get you gave yourself that nickname, you're the current too NBA player rn and all that but you don't have to keep saying it my God.

Now what did I actually like about this film. Well quite a bit actually.

For starters, the animation was top notch and everything looked great. I thought the 2D models were a little odd at first (too shiny compared to the faded sleek of the original) but they grew on me. All the CGI models of the Tunes looked really great, say for Sam who just looked really weird to me (probably cause he loses his hat by the end and a CGI Yosemeti Sam without a hat just looks strange)

The Tunes also felt exactly how they should in a Space Jam film, Bugs especially. Yes Daffy was his usual comedic self and I like how they had him try and be the manager of the team instead of a player, and every other Tune was just as zany as usual; honestly of all the Tunes I'm genuinely impressed with how they treated Bugs (till the end)

Bugs was the most interesting to see in the film, wherein every character left Tune World except Bugs and he kinda became this Castaway parody (with his own makeshift Porky Pig dummy) and he was just really lonely and stayed true to the Looney Way and he just wants his family back. That entire subplot is the most interesting part of this film hands down; the only thing about Bugs's arc I didn't like was the end which was predictable, but i was still more invested in Bugs's arc than anyone else's.

Also when they showed the Tunes on the other WB worlds in the Warnerverse that's not the name ik but it's basically the Warnerverse the only Movie refferences that i thought were clever were Mad Max, Austin Powers, and Themyscira. And as much as it pains me to admit it the Rick and Morty Gag with Taz was probably the funniest of them, and I don't even like Rick and Morty anymore.

The Matrix was just eh, Yosemite Sam just didn't land, Game of Thrones was just not funny and I won't apologize. As far as the cameos/refferences in the end I'll say it again, I wanted to watch the movies and shows that cameod more than the film itself. I'm not gonna try to list them off but some highlights were seeing Gremlins, the Mask, every Tim Burton Batman villain/Adam West Batman, Thundercats, and Scooby Doo. Aside from that this was all just one big add for Warner Bros.

So I'm gonna try end this on a note that I know alot of people are gonna bring up or use to say shouldn't be brought up: Nostalgia.

Listen. This film has the same issue that alot of modern film reboots tend to have, which is the fact that it has to match the same hype as the film that came before it.

Now I'd like to say that this isn't gonna be a Power Point on reboots, God knows this is long enough as is, but the issue with alot of reboots is that they try to remake something that more often than not did the media justice the first time around. Robocop, Nightmare on Elm Street, Ghostbusters 2016, litterally every Disney L.A Remake. This isn't to say these films can't be good, or even surpass their predecessors. But more often than not they tend to miss the mark either just barely or drastically.

And here's the thing, this argument can also apply to sequel films that are following up an iconic film that for fhe most part is still very prominent in modern media.

Space Jam has, for better or for worse, remained one of the most iconic films every made, if not for its premise alone. And when they announced a sequel it was only inevitable that people compare it to the original because, let's face it, we want the new film to live up to the original.

We want this new shiny film to live up to the film we all knew growing up as kids and adults, seeing the Tunes on a basketball court for the first time back in the 90s. And frankly, this film did not do that for me.

This film, to me, wants to be what Space Jam already is. But it felt the need to try and thats the first step it failed; it wanted to be hip and aware and make loads of refferences to the original

This film has a similar issue to Ghostbusters:Answer the Call I think, where in it wants to stand on its own two feet, but jt cant help but constantly remind us of a much superior film. We know they've done this before you don't have to keep saying it "We need help with a basketball game Lola!" Been there! Done that!" "So you want me to help you win a high stakes basketball game? One that could very well decide both our fates? Hmmmmm where have I seen that before?"

This film is like that one kid in class who already proved he was right, and is still trying to prove he was right.

If you think this film is great and you enjoy it just as much as the original that's perfectly fine, I'm not gonna try to overshadow your opinions, I just want to share mine.

In the end, I'm gonna rate this film a solid 4/10 (and most of that 4 is the comedy and the animation and the Tunes themselves.) Can you watch this just for the Tunes? Absolutely. Can you like this film more than me? Also absolutely. Do I think this film would've been worth it if I'd have seen it in theaters? No not at all I'm glad I waited for HBO Max.

[samanthasroberts]

15 Biggest Pop Culture Disasters of 2017: Kendall Jenner, Megyn Kelly, the Oscars, & More

If there’s any sort of running theme among the year’s biggest pop culture fails, it’s a mind-boggling lack of self-awareness. The biggest entertainment disasters were born out of a clusterfuck of delusion, hubris, apathy, and, in most cases, an almost unforgivable deafness to the conversations defining this moment in our culture.

So while we’ve spent much of this last month cheering the output that challenged, invigorated, and, of course, entertained us this year, let us also grand marshal this parade of shame—in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, there will be lessons learned heading into next year. Here are 15 flops from the past year, be it commercial bombs or tone-deaf cultural grenades, from the worlds of music, TV, movies, and celebrity culture.

Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi commercial

The solution to institutionalized racism, millennial apathy, police brutality, and Trump-era anger? A nice cold Pepsi, and a tangential Kardashian to deliver it. The message of the resistance-themed Pepsi commercial was so laughably obtuse and reductive, and the reaction so brutally eviscerating, that the company immediately removed it from the internet and actually apologized to Jenner for its misguided creative direction. Seriously, though: Think of the sheer number of people who had to OK this ad before it was released. It’s mind-boggling.

Sean Spicer at the Emmys

Notoriously cowering former White House press secretary Sean Spicer finally embraced the spotlight at the 2017 Emmy Awards, making a cameo appearance during host Stephen Colbert’s monologue ruthlessly attacking President Trump. Spicer giggled and soaked up the attention and applause, an ovation for a public figure who lived out his short tenure in relentless disgrace and disgust, cheering him for “gamely” participating in the roasting of his former boss. But for many viewers, the booking of Spicer was a shameless absolution of a man who was toothlessly complicit in spreading lies by the Trump administration to the American people; the worst example of the entertainment industry’s instinct to bend any moral for a cheap laugh.

“As a father of daughters…”

This entire recap of the year’s disasters could be populated with the horrifying misconduct of the litany of Bad Men exposed this year—from Harvey Weinstein to Kevin Spacey and beyond—and the ways in which various institutions mishandled the behavior and fallout. No reactions to these revelations were more infuriating than the famous male figures, ranging from Matt Damon to Ben Affleck to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who clarified that they were horrified because they are fathers who have daughters. It’s a sign of how clueless men are and have been in processing these scandals and the nature of this predatory and misogynistic culture. As Hunter Harris perfectly wrote in Vulture, “Only a sociopath needs a daughter—or a sister, a girlfriend, a wife, or even just a lady standing in front of him at Starbucks—to make him queasy enough at the thought of a sexual predator in his industry to do something about it.”

Mariah Carey at New Year’s Eve

Maybe it was a simple mistake made in a very public forum. Maybe it was an ominous warning of the year that was to come. Nonetheless, Mariah Carey’s interminable avalanche of live disasters during the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve telecast was excruciating to watch. One of the greatest singers of all-time standing on stage pissed off, first saying she couldn’t hear a backing track to sing along to, then not bothering to lip sync the next song before storming off. It was an inauspicious way to start the new year, especially when you consider the optics of it: a woman helpless as the world, albeit in this case just the Times Square stage, burned around her, then vilified for refusing to smile through the carnage. The fallout was hardly handled elegantly with Carey’s team and the production company engaging in a public she-said-they-said over who was to blame.

The launch of Megyn Kelly Today

At Fox News, Megyn Kelly was a marketable if polarizing star presence, known for her prosecutorial manner in lines of tough questioning—always admirable, even if you didn’t necessarily agree with the direction. NBC found it admirable enough to spend $15 million to woo her away from the cable news network, rearranging its entire morning news lineup to launch a full hour of Kelly-led programming. Confusingly, however, it eschewed the attributes that made Kelly so popular at Fox. Instead, a manufactured, awkwardly fitting personality emerged that was crucified by critics at each tonal whiplash segment transition, especially during painful interviews with liberal celebrities who couldn’t bother to hide their disdain for the host.

La La Land Oscars gaffe

The phrase “Oscars mistake” is typically employed to groan about a film voters crown Best Picture that critics or fans don’t necessarily think deserved it, not for a situation in which the literal wrong winner is announced. That a gaffe both so monumental and so careless happened at the 2017 Academy Awards—Warren Beatty was handed the wrong envelope and, confused, announced La La Land as Best Picture instead of Moonlight—is already excruciating and embarrassing. But, again, the optics of it all make everything worse. The La La Land team had to cede the stage after the gaffe was clarified, about as awkward a moment as an award show can produce. But the filmmakers behind Moonlight, a film about the marginalized black and gay experience, were denied the emotion that comes from a watershed cultural moment like winning Best Picture, and the chaos overshadowed the power of the moment, let alone their speeches. While it was deserved to a measure, the amount of attention given to the La La Land team’s graciousness after the mistake only further magnified how problematic the incident was.

Marvel’s Inhumans

It’s bad enough when the phrase “worst thing Marvel has done” is used to describe your new TV show, as it was for ABC’s fall foray into the Marvelverse. But the launch of Inhumans became more dire in light of the investment made in the series and its hubris in assuming audiences would consume it anyway, despite its middling quality, just because it’s Marvel. The big-budget bet included a release in IMAX theaters of its first two episodes ahead of its ABC launch, a theatrical run that garnered a pitiful $2.9 million.

Matt Damon

It’s been quite the year for Matt Damon, who needs to fire any publicist whose advice isn’t simply, “Stop talking.” His response to the Weinstein scandal has been disastrous bordering on offensive, with the actor running out of feet to put in his mouth as he attempted to add nuance to the conversation but instead came off as defending bad men’s behavior. But even if you reluctantly put all that aside, the films he was promoting during those calamitous interviews, Suburbicon and Downsizing, have underperformed at the box office and divided critics. All that on top of the way he kicked the year off: in a riotously silly man-bun white savior-ing Chinese history in the epic box office bomb The Great Wall.

Louis C.K.’s I Love You, Daddy

In September, Louis C.K. premiered I Love You, Daddy at the Toronto Film Festival. It’s a film in which C.K.’s protagonist, Glen, in a very Woody Allen-ish plot, has a 17-year-old daughter who enters a relationship with a 60-something man who is a legendary filmmaker. In one scene, a character played by Charlie Day vigorously mimes masturbation, not bothering to stop when a female producer, used to such things, enters the room. What was purposefully provocative in the film now borders on lunacy after The New York Times confirmed an industry open secret: that Louis C.K. had masturbated in front of upcoming female comedians. Suffice it to say that I Love You, Daddy’s theatrical release was canceled.

Kathy Griffin’s Trump mask fiasco

When Kathy Griffin was made aware of how ghastly and in poor taste the photo of her holding a bloodied, decapitated Trump head was—which happened instantly—she apologized for the offense. But few celebrity controversies have spiraled this out of control this quickly. Griffin was immediately let go from nearly every entertainment job she held, and, in response, she staged a misguided press conference in which she alleged that the Trump family was targeting her. It’s a classic case in disastrous damage control, but it shouldn’t have damned Griffin the way it has. It certainly says a lot about the latent misogyny in the industry that, as recent months have brought to light, famous men are guilty of truly horrific behavior that for so long was excused—yet an atoning Griffin still can’t get representation or a footing back into the industry she made her name in. The one good to come of this: Griffin’s fed up with all of it, too, and she’s naming names.

Fyre Festival

The best thing to happen to Coachella’s reputation is the worst thing to have happened to the hoodwinked revelers who shelled out upwards of $250,000 for a luxurious VIP concert experience on a private island in the Bahamas. Rich kids arrived only for it to instead resemble, as one fooled attendee attested, a refugee camp. The entire thing was organized by rapper Ja Rule and out-of-his-element entrepreneur bro Billy McFarland under false pretenses, with no infrastructure in place to support, house, or feed the thousands of concertgoers who paid premium prices only to be met with an unfinished tent village, packs of feral dogs, mountains of trash, no-show artists, and not enough food to go around. A breaking point for the increased lunacy surrounding the culture of music festivals, or merely a cautionary tale for how not to ruin the next one?

Tulip Fever

Maybe it’s schadenfreude that Harvey Weinstein’s swan song as a Hollywood mogul included this long-gestating, notorious disaster of a period film, riddled with false starts and re-castings and shuffled release dates and, most notably, Harvey Weinstein’s constant tinkering. Perhaps the lowest moment in the botched release of the film, which starred Dane DeHaan and Alicia Vikander and earned a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 9 percent, was when Weinstein himself penned an essay defending it, citing the fact that Vikander’s mother’s friend called her to say she enjoyed the movie as evidence.

Kid Rock’s “Senate run”  

The music industry’s resident American Jackass dialed up his reign of terror this year with the threat of a Senate run, to be launched on his tried-and-true values of cheap beer and racism. In the end, it was nothing more than a barely veiled publicity stunt. Nonetheless, breathless headlines blared the preposterous idea, and, considering the trajectory to public office mapped out by Donald Trump, seriously considered it. Of course, we can hardly fault anyone for, against their better judgement, giving credence to the nonsense that Kid Rock says. We still can’t get over his bigoted use of “gay” as a pejorative—let alone his embrace of the Confederate flag.  

Baywatch vs. Rotten Tomatoes

A bad movie is a bad movie. That’s fine and inevitable, and Baywatch was a bad movie. But shining a spotlight on this turd in particular came reports of industry insiders pissed that critical reviews decimated the movie’s box office haul, as well as that of the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It’s not the fact that these movies were shit you could smell from miles away that made audiences not want to buy tickets. It’s Rotten Tomatoes! If you ever want to know how little Hollywood studios think of you, the audience, just read this quote: “The critic aggregation site increasingly is slowing down the potential business of popcorn movies. Pirates 5 and Baywatch aren’t built for critics but rather general audiences, and once upon a time these types of films—a family adventure and a raunchy R-rated comedy—were critic-proof.”

The Mummy and the Dark Universe

Tom Cruise’s The Mummy wasn’t just supposed to be a franchise reboot cash-grab using a familiar property and a big Hollywood star. It was supposed to launch an entire shared cinematic universe, dubbed the “Dark Universe,” for Universal, filled with monsters including Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll, Javier Bardem as Frankenstein, and Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man, as well as Sofia Boutella’s Ahmanet from The Mummy. It was a whole big plan. They all posed for a photo together and everything! But following disastrous box office returns for The Mummy, not to mention abysmal reviews, plans for the interconnected Dark Universe, at least as far as they were in motion, were scrapped and its architects, producer-writers Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan, jumped ship for other projects.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/15-biggest-pop-culture-disasters-of-2017-kendall-jenner-megyn-kelly-the-oscars-more/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2018/12/27/15-biggest-pop-culture-disasters-of-2017-kendall-jenner-megyn-kelly-the-oscars-more/

[adambstingus]

15 Biggest Pop Culture Disasters of 2017: Kendall Jenner, Megyn Kelly, the Oscars, & More

If there’s any sort of running theme among the year’s biggest pop culture fails, it’s a mind-boggling lack of self-awareness. The biggest entertainment disasters were born out of a clusterfuck of delusion, hubris, apathy, and, in most cases, an almost unforgivable deafness to the conversations defining this moment in our culture.

So while we’ve spent much of this last month cheering the output that challenged, invigorated, and, of course, entertained us this year, let us also grand marshal this parade of shame—in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, there will be lessons learned heading into next year. Here are 15 flops from the past year, be it commercial bombs or tone-deaf cultural grenades, from the worlds of music, TV, movies, and celebrity culture.

Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi commercial

The solution to institutionalized racism, millennial apathy, police brutality, and Trump-era anger? A nice cold Pepsi, and a tangential Kardashian to deliver it. The message of the resistance-themed Pepsi commercial was so laughably obtuse and reductive, and the reaction so brutally eviscerating, that the company immediately removed it from the internet and actually apologized to Jenner for its misguided creative direction. Seriously, though: Think of the sheer number of people who had to OK this ad before it was released. It’s mind-boggling.

Sean Spicer at the Emmys

Notoriously cowering former White House press secretary Sean Spicer finally embraced the spotlight at the 2017 Emmy Awards, making a cameo appearance during host Stephen Colbert’s monologue ruthlessly attacking President Trump. Spicer giggled and soaked up the attention and applause, an ovation for a public figure who lived out his short tenure in relentless disgrace and disgust, cheering him for “gamely” participating in the roasting of his former boss. But for many viewers, the booking of Spicer was a shameless absolution of a man who was toothlessly complicit in spreading lies by the Trump administration to the American people; the worst example of the entertainment industry’s instinct to bend any moral for a cheap laugh.

“As a father of daughters…”

This entire recap of the year’s disasters could be populated with the horrifying misconduct of the litany of Bad Men exposed this year—from Harvey Weinstein to Kevin Spacey and beyond—and the ways in which various institutions mishandled the behavior and fallout. No reactions to these revelations were more infuriating than the famous male figures, ranging from Matt Damon to Ben Affleck to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who clarified that they were horrified because they are fathers who have daughters. It’s a sign of how clueless men are and have been in processing these scandals and the nature of this predatory and misogynistic culture. As Hunter Harris perfectly wrote in Vulture, “Only a sociopath needs a daughter—or a sister, a girlfriend, a wife, or even just a lady standing in front of him at Starbucks—to make him queasy enough at the thought of a sexual predator in his industry to do something about it.”

Mariah Carey at New Year’s Eve

Maybe it was a simple mistake made in a very public forum. Maybe it was an ominous warning of the year that was to come. Nonetheless, Mariah Carey’s interminable avalanche of live disasters during the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve telecast was excruciating to watch. One of the greatest singers of all-time standing on stage pissed off, first saying she couldn’t hear a backing track to sing along to, then not bothering to lip sync the next song before storming off. It was an inauspicious way to start the new year, especially when you consider the optics of it: a woman helpless as the world, albeit in this case just the Times Square stage, burned around her, then vilified for refusing to smile through the carnage. The fallout was hardly handled elegantly with Carey’s team and the production company engaging in a public she-said-they-said over who was to blame.

The launch of Megyn Kelly Today

At Fox News, Megyn Kelly was a marketable if polarizing star presence, known for her prosecutorial manner in lines of tough questioning—always admirable, even if you didn’t necessarily agree with the direction. NBC found it admirable enough to spend $15 million to woo her away from the cable news network, rearranging its entire morning news lineup to launch a full hour of Kelly-led programming. Confusingly, however, it eschewed the attributes that made Kelly so popular at Fox. Instead, a manufactured, awkwardly fitting personality emerged that was crucified by critics at each tonal whiplash segment transition, especially during painful interviews with liberal celebrities who couldn’t bother to hide their disdain for the host.

La La Land Oscars gaffe

The phrase “Oscars mistake” is typically employed to groan about a film voters crown Best Picture that critics or fans don’t necessarily think deserved it, not for a situation in which the literal wrong winner is announced. That a gaffe both so monumental and so careless happened at the 2017 Academy Awards—Warren Beatty was handed the wrong envelope and, confused, announced La La Land as Best Picture instead of Moonlight—is already excruciating and embarrassing. But, again, the optics of it all make everything worse. The La La Land team had to cede the stage after the gaffe was clarified, about as awkward a moment as an award show can produce. But the filmmakers behind Moonlight, a film about the marginalized black and gay experience, were denied the emotion that comes from a watershed cultural moment like winning Best Picture, and the chaos overshadowed the power of the moment, let alone their speeches. While it was deserved to a measure, the amount of attention given to the La La Land team’s graciousness after the mistake only further magnified how problematic the incident was.

Marvel’s Inhumans

It’s bad enough when the phrase “worst thing Marvel has done” is used to describe your new TV show, as it was for ABC’s fall foray into the Marvelverse. But the launch of Inhumans became more dire in light of the investment made in the series and its hubris in assuming audiences would consume it anyway, despite its middling quality, just because it’s Marvel. The big-budget bet included a release in IMAX theaters of its first two episodes ahead of its ABC launch, a theatrical run that garnered a pitiful $2.9 million.

Matt Damon

It’s been quite the year for Matt Damon, who needs to fire any publicist whose advice isn’t simply, “Stop talking.” His response to the Weinstein scandal has been disastrous bordering on offensive, with the actor running out of feet to put in his mouth as he attempted to add nuance to the conversation but instead came off as defending bad men’s behavior. But even if you reluctantly put all that aside, the films he was promoting during those calamitous interviews, Suburbicon and Downsizing, have underperformed at the box office and divided critics. All that on top of the way he kicked the year off: in a riotously silly man-bun white savior-ing Chinese history in the epic box office bomb The Great Wall.

Louis C.K.’s I Love You, Daddy

In September, Louis C.K. premiered I Love You, Daddy at the Toronto Film Festival. It’s a film in which C.K.’s protagonist, Glen, in a very Woody Allen-ish plot, has a 17-year-old daughter who enters a relationship with a 60-something man who is a legendary filmmaker. In one scene, a character played by Charlie Day vigorously mimes masturbation, not bothering to stop when a female producer, used to such things, enters the room. What was purposefully provocative in the film now borders on lunacy after The New York Times confirmed an industry open secret: that Louis C.K. had masturbated in front of upcoming female comedians. Suffice it to say that I Love You, Daddy’s theatrical release was canceled.

Kathy Griffin’s Trump mask fiasco

When Kathy Griffin was made aware of how ghastly and in poor taste the photo of her holding a bloodied, decapitated Trump head was—which happened instantly—she apologized for the offense. But few celebrity controversies have spiraled this out of control this quickly. Griffin was immediately let go from nearly every entertainment job she held, and, in response, she staged a misguided press conference in which she alleged that the Trump family was targeting her. It’s a classic case in disastrous damage control, but it shouldn’t have damned Griffin the way it has. It certainly says a lot about the latent misogyny in the industry that, as recent months have brought to light, famous men are guilty of truly horrific behavior that for so long was excused—yet an atoning Griffin still can’t get representation or a footing back into the industry she made her name in. The one good to come of this: Griffin’s fed up with all of it, too, and she’s naming names.

Fyre Festival

The best thing to happen to Coachella’s reputation is the worst thing to have happened to the hoodwinked revelers who shelled out upwards of $250,000 for a luxurious VIP concert experience on a private island in the Bahamas. Rich kids arrived only for it to instead resemble, as one fooled attendee attested, a refugee camp. The entire thing was organized by rapper Ja Rule and out-of-his-element entrepreneur bro Billy McFarland under false pretenses, with no infrastructure in place to support, house, or feed the thousands of concertgoers who paid premium prices only to be met with an unfinished tent village, packs of feral dogs, mountains of trash, no-show artists, and not enough food to go around. A breaking point for the increased lunacy surrounding the culture of music festivals, or merely a cautionary tale for how not to ruin the next one?

Tulip Fever

Maybe it’s schadenfreude that Harvey Weinstein’s swan song as a Hollywood mogul included this long-gestating, notorious disaster of a period film, riddled with false starts and re-castings and shuffled release dates and, most notably, Harvey Weinstein’s constant tinkering. Perhaps the lowest moment in the botched release of the film, which starred Dane DeHaan and Alicia Vikander and earned a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 9 percent, was when Weinstein himself penned an essay defending it, citing the fact that Vikander’s mother’s friend called her to say she enjoyed the movie as evidence.

Kid Rock’s “Senate run”  

The music industry’s resident American Jackass dialed up his reign of terror this year with the threat of a Senate run, to be launched on his tried-and-true values of cheap beer and racism. In the end, it was nothing more than a barely veiled publicity stunt. Nonetheless, breathless headlines blared the preposterous idea, and, considering the trajectory to public office mapped out by Donald Trump, seriously considered it. Of course, we can hardly fault anyone for, against their better judgement, giving credence to the nonsense that Kid Rock says. We still can’t get over his bigoted use of “gay” as a pejorative—let alone his embrace of the Confederate flag.  

Baywatch vs. Rotten Tomatoes

A bad movie is a bad movie. That’s fine and inevitable, and Baywatch was a bad movie. But shining a spotlight on this turd in particular came reports of industry insiders pissed that critical reviews decimated the movie’s box office haul, as well as that of the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It’s not the fact that these movies were shit you could smell from miles away that made audiences not want to buy tickets. It’s Rotten Tomatoes! If you ever want to know how little Hollywood studios think of you, the audience, just read this quote: “The critic aggregation site increasingly is slowing down the potential business of popcorn movies. Pirates 5 and Baywatch aren’t built for critics but rather general audiences, and once upon a time these types of films—a family adventure and a raunchy R-rated comedy—were critic-proof.”

The Mummy and the Dark Universe

Tom Cruise’s The Mummy wasn’t just supposed to be a franchise reboot cash-grab using a familiar property and a big Hollywood star. It was supposed to launch an entire shared cinematic universe, dubbed the “Dark Universe,” for Universal, filled with monsters including Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll, Javier Bardem as Frankenstein, and Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man, as well as Sofia Boutella’s Ahmanet from The Mummy. It was a whole big plan. They all posed for a photo together and everything! But following disastrous box office returns for The Mummy, not to mention abysmal reviews, plans for the interconnected Dark Universe, at least as far as they were in motion, were scrapped and its architects, producer-writers Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan, jumped ship for other projects.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/15-biggest-pop-culture-disasters-of-2017-kendall-jenner-megyn-kelly-the-oscars-more/ from All of Beer https://allofbeercom.tumblr.com/post/181456618922

[allofbeercom]

15 Biggest Pop Culture Disasters of 2017: Kendall Jenner, Megyn Kelly, the Oscars, & More

If there’s any sort of running theme among the year’s biggest pop culture fails, it’s a mind-boggling lack of self-awareness. The biggest entertainment disasters were born out of a clusterfuck of delusion, hubris, apathy, and, in most cases, an almost unforgivable deafness to the conversations defining this moment in our culture.

So while we’ve spent much of this last month cheering the output that challenged, invigorated, and, of course, entertained us this year, let us also grand marshal this parade of shame—in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, there will be lessons learned heading into next year. Here are 15 flops from the past year, be it commercial bombs or tone-deaf cultural grenades, from the worlds of music, TV, movies, and celebrity culture.

Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi commercial

The solution to institutionalized racism, millennial apathy, police brutality, and Trump-era anger? A nice cold Pepsi, and a tangential Kardashian to deliver it. The message of the resistance-themed Pepsi commercial was so laughably obtuse and reductive, and the reaction so brutally eviscerating, that the company immediately removed it from the internet and actually apologized to Jenner for its misguided creative direction. Seriously, though: Think of the sheer number of people who had to OK this ad before it was released. It’s mind-boggling.

Sean Spicer at the Emmys

Notoriously cowering former White House press secretary Sean Spicer finally embraced the spotlight at the 2017 Emmy Awards, making a cameo appearance during host Stephen Colbert’s monologue ruthlessly attacking President Trump. Spicer giggled and soaked up the attention and applause, an ovation for a public figure who lived out his short tenure in relentless disgrace and disgust, cheering him for “gamely” participating in the roasting of his former boss. But for many viewers, the booking of Spicer was a shameless absolution of a man who was toothlessly complicit in spreading lies by the Trump administration to the American people; the worst example of the entertainment industry’s instinct to bend any moral for a cheap laugh.

“As a father of daughters…”

This entire recap of the year’s disasters could be populated with the horrifying misconduct of the litany of Bad Men exposed this year—from Harvey Weinstein to Kevin Spacey and beyond—and the ways in which various institutions mishandled the behavior and fallout. No reactions to these revelations were more infuriating than the famous male figures, ranging from Matt Damon to Ben Affleck to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who clarified that they were horrified because they are fathers who have daughters. It’s a sign of how clueless men are and have been in processing these scandals and the nature of this predatory and misogynistic culture. As Hunter Harris perfectly wrote in Vulture, “Only a sociopath needs a daughter—or a sister, a girlfriend, a wife, or even just a lady standing in front of him at Starbucks—to make him queasy enough at the thought of a sexual predator in his industry to do something about it.”

Mariah Carey at New Year’s Eve

Maybe it was a simple mistake made in a very public forum. Maybe it was an ominous warning of the year that was to come. Nonetheless, Mariah Carey’s interminable avalanche of live disasters during the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve telecast was excruciating to watch. One of the greatest singers of all-time standing on stage pissed off, first saying she couldn’t hear a backing track to sing along to, then not bothering to lip sync the next song before storming off. It was an inauspicious way to start the new year, especially when you consider the optics of it: a woman helpless as the world, albeit in this case just the Times Square stage, burned around her, then vilified for refusing to smile through the carnage. The fallout was hardly handled elegantly with Carey’s team and the production company engaging in a public she-said-they-said over who was to blame.

The launch of Megyn Kelly Today

At Fox News, Megyn Kelly was a marketable if polarizing star presence, known for her prosecutorial manner in lines of tough questioning—always admirable, even if you didn’t necessarily agree with the direction. NBC found it admirable enough to spend $15 million to woo her away from the cable news network, rearranging its entire morning news lineup to launch a full hour of Kelly-led programming. Confusingly, however, it eschewed the attributes that made Kelly so popular at Fox. Instead, a manufactured, awkwardly fitting personality emerged that was crucified by critics at each tonal whiplash segment transition, especially during painful interviews with liberal celebrities who couldn’t bother to hide their disdain for the host.

La La Land Oscars gaffe

The phrase “Oscars mistake” is typically employed to groan about a film voters crown Best Picture that critics or fans don’t necessarily think deserved it, not for a situation in which the literal wrong winner is announced. That a gaffe both so monumental and so careless happened at the 2017 Academy Awards—Warren Beatty was handed the wrong envelope and, confused, announced La La Land as Best Picture instead of Moonlight—is already excruciating and embarrassing. But, again, the optics of it all make everything worse. The La La Land team had to cede the stage after the gaffe was clarified, about as awkward a moment as an award show can produce. But the filmmakers behind Moonlight, a film about the marginalized black and gay experience, were denied the emotion that comes from a watershed cultural moment like winning Best Picture, and the chaos overshadowed the power of the moment, let alone their speeches. While it was deserved to a measure, the amount of attention given to the La La Land team’s graciousness after the mistake only further magnified how problematic the incident was.

Marvel’s Inhumans

It’s bad enough when the phrase “worst thing Marvel has done” is used to describe your new TV show, as it was for ABC’s fall foray into the Marvelverse. But the launch of Inhumans became more dire in light of the investment made in the series and its hubris in assuming audiences would consume it anyway, despite its middling quality, just because it’s Marvel. The big-budget bet included a release in IMAX theaters of its first two episodes ahead of its ABC launch, a theatrical run that garnered a pitiful $2.9 million.

Matt Damon

It’s been quite the year for Matt Damon, who needs to fire any publicist whose advice isn’t simply, “Stop talking.” His response to the Weinstein scandal has been disastrous bordering on offensive, with the actor running out of feet to put in his mouth as he attempted to add nuance to the conversation but instead came off as defending bad men’s behavior. But even if you reluctantly put all that aside, the films he was promoting during those calamitous interviews, Suburbicon and Downsizing, have underperformed at the box office and divided critics. All that on top of the way he kicked the year off: in a riotously silly man-bun white savior-ing Chinese history in the epic box office bomb The Great Wall.

Louis C.K.’s I Love You, Daddy

In September, Louis C.K. premiered I Love You, Daddy at the Toronto Film Festival. It’s a film in which C.K.’s protagonist, Glen, in a very Woody Allen-ish plot, has a 17-year-old daughter who enters a relationship with a 60-something man who is a legendary filmmaker. In one scene, a character played by Charlie Day vigorously mimes masturbation, not bothering to stop when a female producer, used to such things, enters the room. What was purposefully provocative in the film now borders on lunacy after The New York Times confirmed an industry open secret: that Louis C.K. had masturbated in front of upcoming female comedians. Suffice it to say that I Love You, Daddy’s theatrical release was canceled.

Kathy Griffin’s Trump mask fiasco

When Kathy Griffin was made aware of how ghastly and in poor taste the photo of her holding a bloodied, decapitated Trump head was—which happened instantly—she apologized for the offense. But few celebrity controversies have spiraled this out of control this quickly. Griffin was immediately let go from nearly every entertainment job she held, and, in response, she staged a misguided press conference in which she alleged that the Trump family was targeting her. It’s a classic case in disastrous damage control, but it shouldn’t have damned Griffin the way it has. It certainly says a lot about the latent misogyny in the industry that, as recent months have brought to light, famous men are guilty of truly horrific behavior that for so long was excused—yet an atoning Griffin still can’t get representation or a footing back into the industry she made her name in. The one good to come of this: Griffin’s fed up with all of it, too, and she’s naming names.

Fyre Festival

The best thing to happen to Coachella’s reputation is the worst thing to have happened to the hoodwinked revelers who shelled out upwards of $250,000 for a luxurious VIP concert experience on a private island in the Bahamas. Rich kids arrived only for it to instead resemble, as one fooled attendee attested, a refugee camp. The entire thing was organized by rapper Ja Rule and out-of-his-element entrepreneur bro Billy McFarland under false pretenses, with no infrastructure in place to support, house, or feed the thousands of concertgoers who paid premium prices only to be met with an unfinished tent village, packs of feral dogs, mountains of trash, no-show artists, and not enough food to go around. A breaking point for the increased lunacy surrounding the culture of music festivals, or merely a cautionary tale for how not to ruin the next one?

Tulip Fever

Maybe it’s schadenfreude that Harvey Weinstein’s swan song as a Hollywood mogul included this long-gestating, notorious disaster of a period film, riddled with false starts and re-castings and shuffled release dates and, most notably, Harvey Weinstein’s constant tinkering. Perhaps the lowest moment in the botched release of the film, which starred Dane DeHaan and Alicia Vikander and earned a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 9 percent, was when Weinstein himself penned an essay defending it, citing the fact that Vikander’s mother’s friend called her to say she enjoyed the movie as evidence.

Kid Rock’s “Senate run”  

The music industry’s resident American Jackass dialed up his reign of terror this year with the threat of a Senate run, to be launched on his tried-and-true values of cheap beer and racism. In the end, it was nothing more than a barely veiled publicity stunt. Nonetheless, breathless headlines blared the preposterous idea, and, considering the trajectory to public office mapped out by Donald Trump, seriously considered it. Of course, we can hardly fault anyone for, against their better judgement, giving credence to the nonsense that Kid Rock says. We still can’t get over his bigoted use of “gay” as a pejorative—let alone his embrace of the Confederate flag.  

Baywatch vs. Rotten Tomatoes

A bad movie is a bad movie. That’s fine and inevitable, and Baywatch was a bad movie. But shining a spotlight on this turd in particular came reports of industry insiders pissed that critical reviews decimated the movie’s box office haul, as well as that of the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It’s not the fact that these movies were shit you could smell from miles away that made audiences not want to buy tickets. It’s Rotten Tomatoes! If you ever want to know how little Hollywood studios think of you, the audience, just read this quote: “The critic aggregation site increasingly is slowing down the potential business of popcorn movies. Pirates 5 and Baywatch aren’t built for critics but rather general audiences, and once upon a time these types of films—a family adventure and a raunchy R-rated comedy—were critic-proof.”

The Mummy and the Dark Universe

Tom Cruise’s The Mummy wasn’t just supposed to be a franchise reboot cash-grab using a familiar property and a big Hollywood star. It was supposed to launch an entire shared cinematic universe, dubbed the “Dark Universe,” for Universal, filled with monsters including Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll, Javier Bardem as Frankenstein, and Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man, as well as Sofia Boutella’s Ahmanet from The Mummy. It was a whole big plan. They all posed for a photo together and everything! But following disastrous box office returns for The Mummy, not to mention abysmal reviews, plans for the interconnected Dark Universe, at least as far as they were in motion, were scrapped and its architects, producer-writers Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan, jumped ship for other projects.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/15-biggest-pop-culture-disasters-of-2017-kendall-jenner-megyn-kelly-the-oscars-more/

[bestmovies0]

15 Biggest Pop Culture Disasters of 2017: Kendall Jenner, Megyn Kelly, the Oscars, & More

If there’s any sort of running theme among the year’s biggest pop culture fails, it’s a mind-boggling deficiency of self-awareness. The biggest recreation calamities were born out of a clusterfuck of hallucination, hubris, apathy, and, in most cases, an almost unforgivable deafness to the conversations defining this moment in our culture.

So while we’ve invested much of this last month cheering the outputthat challenged, invigorated, and, of course, entertained us this year, let us also grand marshal this parade of shame–in the hopes that maybe, simply perhaps, there will be lessons learned heading into next year. Here are 15 duds from the past time, be it commercial bomb or tone-deaf culture grenades, from the worlds of music, TV, movies, and celebrity culture.

Kendall Jenner’s Pepsi commercial

The solution to institutionalized racism, millennial apathy, police brutality, and Trump-era anger? A nice cold Pepsi, and a tangential Kardashian to deliver it. The message of the resistance-themed Pepsi commercial was so laughably obtuse and reductive, and the reaction so brutally eviscerating, that the company immediately removed it from the internet and actually apologized to Jenner for its misguided creative direction. Severely, though: Think of the sheer number of people who had to OK this ad before it was released. It’s mind-boggling.

Sean Spicer at the Emmys

Notoriously crouching former White House press secretary Sean Spicer ultimately espoused the spotlight at the 2017 Emmy Awards, making a cameo appearing during host Stephen Colbert’s monologue ruthlessly attacking President Trump. Spicer giggled and soaked up the attention and applause, an ovation for a public figure who lived out his short tenure in relentless disgrace and abhorrence, applauding him for “gamely” participating in the roasting of his former boss. But for many spectators, the booking of Spicer was a shameless absolution of a humankind who was toothlessly complicit in spreading lies by the Trump administration to the American people; the worst example of the entertainment industry’s instinct to bend any moral for a cheap laugh.

” As a parent of daughters …” strong>

This entire summary of the year’s disasters could be inhabited with the frightening misconduct of the litany of Bad Men exposed this year–from Harvey Weinstein to Kevin Spacey and beyond–and the ways in which various institutions mishandled the behaviour and fallout. No reactions to these revelations were more infuriating than the famous male figures, ranging from Matt Damon to Ben Affleck to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who clarified that they were horrified why i am father-gods who have daughters. It’s a sign of how clueless men are and have been in processing these scandals and the specific characteristics of this predatory and misogynistic culture. As Hunter Harris perfectly wrote in Vulture,” Merely a sociopath needs a daughter–or a sister, a girlfriend, a spouse, or even just a lady standing in front of him at Starbucks–to attain him queasy enough at the believed to be a sexual predator in his industry to do anything about it .”

Mariah Carey at New Year’s Eve

Maybe it was a simple mistake attained in a very public meeting. Perhaps it was an ominous warned against the year that was to come. Nonetheless, Mariah Carey’s interminable avalanche of live catastrophes during the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve telecast was excruciating to watch. One of the greatest singers of all-time standing on stage pissed off, first saying she couldn’t hear a patronage track to sing along to, then not bothering to lip sync the next carol before storming off. It was an inauspicious lane to begin the new time, specially when you consider the optics of it: a woman helpless as “the worlds”, albeit in this case only the Times Square stage, burned around her, then vilified for refusing to smile through the carnage. The fallout was scarcely managed elegantly with Carey’s team and the production corporation engaging in a public she-said-they-said over who was to blame.

The launch of Megyn Kelly Today

At Fox News, Megyn Kelly was a marketable if polarizing star presence, known for her prosecutorial behaviour in lines of tough questioning–always admirable, even if you didn’t necessarily agree with the direction. NBC received it admirable enough to expend $15 million to wooed her away from the cable news network, rearranging its entire morning news lineup to launching a full hour of Kelly-led programming. Confusingly, however, it shunned the attributes that attained Kelly so popular at Fox. Instead, a manufactured, awkwardly fitting personality emerged that was crucified by critics at each tonal whiplash segment transition, especially during painful interviews with liberal celebrities who couldn’t bother to conceal their dislike for the host.

La La Land em> Oscars gaffe

The phrase” Oscars mistake” is typically employed to groan about a movie voters crown Best Picture that critics or fans don’t necessarily reckon “ve earned it” , not for a situation in which the literal incorrect win is announced. That a gaffe both so monumental and so careless happened at the 2017 Academy Awards–Warren Beatty was handed the wrong envelope and, confused, announced La La Land em> as Best Picture instead of Moonlight — is already excruciating and embarrassing. But, again, the optics of everything there is construct everything worse. The La La Land squad had to concede the stage after the gaffe was clarified, about as awkward a moment as an award demonstrate can produce. But the filmmakers behind Moonlight , a film about the marginalized black and gay experience, were denied the emotion that comes from a watershed cultural instant like winning Best Picture, and the chaos overshadowed the power of the moment, let alone their speeches. While it was deserves to additional measures, the amount of attention given to the La La Land em> team’s graciousness after the mistake only further magnified how problematic the accident was.

Marvel’s Inhumans

It’s bad enough when the phrase” worst thing Marvel has done” is used to describe your new Tv present, as it was for ABC’s fall foray into the Marvelverse. But the launch of Inhumans became more dire in light of the investment attained in the series and its hubris in presuming audiences would consume it anyway, despite its middling quality, just because it’s Marvel. The big-budget gamble included a liberate in IMAX theaters of its first two episodes ahead of its ABC launch, a theatrical operate that garnered a pitiful $2.9 million.

Matt Damon

It’s been quite the year for Matt Damon, who needs to fire any publicist whose advice isn’t simply,” Stop talking .” His response to the Weinstein scandal has been disastrous bordering on offensive, with the actor running out of feet to put in his mouth as he attempted to add subtlety to the conversation but instead came off as defending bad men’s behavior. But even if you reluctantly set all that aside, the films he was promoting during those calamitous interviews , Suburbicon and Downsizing , have underperformed at the box office and subdivided critics. All that on top of the route he kicked the year off: in a riotously silly man-bun white savior-ing Chinese history in the epic box office bomb The Great Wall . em>

Louis C.K.’s I Love You, Daddy

In September, Louis C.K. premiered I Adoration You, Daddy at the Toronto Film Festival. It’s a film in which C.K.’s protagonist, Glen, in a very Woody Allen-ish plot, has a 17 -year-old daughter who enters a relationship with a 60 -something man who is a legendary filmmaker. In one scene, a character played by Charlie Day vigorously mimes masturbation , not bothering to stop when a female producer, are applied to such things, enters the chamber. What was purposefully provoking in the movie now borders on lunacy after The New York Times supported an industry open secret: that Louis C.K. had masturbated in front of upcoming female comedians. Suffice it to say that I Love You, Daddy ‘ s theatrical freeing was canceled.

Kathy Griffin’s Trump mask fiasco

When Kathy Griffin was made aware of how ghastly and in poor taste the photo of her holding a bloodied, beheaded Trump head was–which happened instantly–she apologized for the offense. But few celebrity contentions have spiraled this out of control this quickly. Griffin was immediately let go from nearly every amusement undertaking she comprised, and, in response, she staged a misguided press conference in which she alleged that the Trump family was targeting her. It’s a classic occurrence in disastrous injury control, but it shouldn’t have damned Griffin the way it has. It certainly says a lot about the latent misogyny in the industry that, as recent months have brought to sun, famous humankinds are guilty of truly horrific behaviour that for so long was excused–yet an atoning Griffin still can’t get representation or a footing back into the industry she made her name in. The one good to come of this: Griffin’s fed up with all of it, too, and she’s naming names.

Fyre Festival

The best thing to happen to Coachella’s reputation is the worst thing to have happened to the hoodwinked revelers who shelled out upwards of $250,000 for a luxurious VIP concert experience on a private island in the Bahamas. Rich kids arrived only for it to instead resemble, as one fooled attendee testified, a refugee camp. The entire thing was organized by rapper Ja Rule and out-of-his-element entrepreneur bro Billy McFarland under false pretense, with no infrastructure in place to assistance, house, or feed the thousands of concertgoers who paid premium prices only to be met with an unfinished tent village, packs of feral bird-dogs, mountains of litter , no-show artists, and not enough food to go around. A breaking point for the rise in lunacy surrounding the culture of music festivals, or simply a cautionary tale for how not to ruin the next one?

Tulip Fever

Maybe it’s schadenfreude that Harvey Weinstein’s swan song as a Hollywood mogul included this long-gestating , notorious tragedy of a interval movie, riddled with false starts and re-castings and shuffled liberate dates and, most notably, Harvey Weinstein’s constant tinkering. Perhaps the lowest moment in the botched freeing of the cinema, which starred Dane DeHaan and Alicia Vikander and earned a Rotten Tomatoes score of merely 9 percentage, was when Weinstein himself penned an essay defending it, quoting the fact that Vikander’s mother’s friend called her to say she enjoyed the movie as evidence.

Kid Rock’s” Senate operate”

The music industry’s resident American Jackass dialed up his reign of terror this year with the threat of a Senate run, to be launched on his tried-and-true values of cheap brew and racism. In the end, it was nothing more than a scarcely veiled advertising stunt. Nonetheless, breathless headlines blared the ludicrous mind, and, considering the trajectory to public agency mapped out by Donald Trump, seriously considered it. Of course, we can hardly fault anyone for, against their better judgement, giving credence to the nonsense that Kid Rock says. We still can’t get over his bigoted apply of “gay” as a pejorative–let alone his espouse of the Confederate flag.

Baywatch vs. Rotten Tomatoes

A bad movie is a bad movie. That’s fine and inevitable, and Baywatch was a bad movie. But glistening a spotlight on this turd including with regard to came reports of industry insiders pissed that critical reviews decimated the movie’s box office carry, as well as that of the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It’s not the fact that these movies were shit you are able fragrance from miles back that made audiences not want to buy tickets. It’s Rotten Tomatoes! If “youve been” want to know how little Hollywood studios think of you, the audience, simply read this quote:” The critic aggregation site increasingly is slowing down the potential business of popcorn movies. Pirates 5 and Baywatch aren’t to construct critics but instead general audiences, and once upon a time these types of films–a family escapade and a raunchy R-rated comedy–were critic-proof .”

The Mummy and the Dark Universe

Tom Cruise’s The Mummy wasn’t just supposed to be a dealership reboot cash-grab use a familiar property and a big Hollywood star. It was supposed to launch an entire shared cinematic cosmo, dubbed the “Dark Universe,” for Universal, fitted with monsters including Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll, Javier Bardem as Frankenstein, and Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man, as well as Sofia Boutella’s Ahmanet from The Mummy . It was a whole big plan. They all posed for a photo together and everything! But following disastrous box office returns for The Mummy , not to mention abysmal evaluations, plans for the interconnected Dark Universe, at the least as far as they were in motion, were scrapped and its designers, producer-writers Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan, jump-start ship for other projects.

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