#apple's media: tv

[manny-jacinto]

The cast of Severance (Adam Scott, Zach Cherry, Britt Lower) took over a glass-walled replica of the Lumon Industries office at the Grand Central Terminal in New York, USA. For over two hours, they stayed in character as their "innies," working at their desks, doing yoga, and engaging in other office activities, just like on the show

[apple-pecan]

Smiling Friends (Season 2) (2024)

SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON

smiling friends blindsided everyone back in 2020 when it's pilot episode premiered basically unannounced during adult swim's annual april fool's prank. the overwhelming success of this batshit insane cartoon made up of newgrounds animators guaranteed it was greenlit, and season 1 premiered in early 2022, with the entire season airing in one night for some reason. it had a bit of everything: murder mysteries, various little characters, a frog tv star, homicidal fast food mascots, the sinister nihilistic frowning friends, and of course, gilbert gottfried as God. it took a while, what with adult swim's limited budget, but season 2 premiered much the same as it's pilot: completely unannounced on april fool's night. season 2 had some ups and a few downs, but overall i loved it and it made me thirsty for more.

the first episode of this season involved gwimbly, a washed up former video game star who thrived back in the 90's, but has fallen upon hard times now that the game industry favors microtransaction laden live service trash instead of wacky mascot platformers. it totally isnt a metaphor for microsoft and banjo kazooie what are you talking about. this episode was amazing, both because it was really funny with many many good quotes, but also because of it's scathing commentary on the game industry. the way the episode ends, where gwimbly doesn't get a new game but instead settles on being a playable character in the next super smash bros game, probably hit too close to home for banjo fans. great episode, and my favorite of the entire series so far.

episode 2 was, uh, not as good sadly. in this one, the smiling friends are tasked with helping the incumbent but horrendously inept president to win the upcoming election against mr frog (from season 1). the episode has a basic but absolutely horrifying premise: what if chris chan were president? it's a little too successful in that goal; president jimble is repulsive, with a weird preoccupation for eating lamb, with stains all over his mouth and clothes, and even shits himself during a speech. i dont like him!!! that said i do like the scene where he broadcasts himself countrywide to announce that he's giving the populace a billion dollars each, only to take it back mere seconds later once pim states that would crash the economy. riots ensue nationwide. it has it's moments like that, but otherwise this is my least favorite of the season.

thankfully the next episode is better: allan goes on a mundane adventure to get paperclips for mr boss. things get out of hand pretty suddenly. this episode is basically an excuse to flex the animation budget. the action is intense and beautifully animated, and allan finally gets some much needed screen time after being mostly absent from season 1. the ending where mr boss gives allan a reward for his adventure (a miniature statue of mr boss) and then immediately doesnt want it and tries to pawn it off to someone else in FRONT of mr boss is golden too. a great episode; what other cartoon is gonna name drop burnout revenge for the ps2?

the next episode is another halloween episode and i liked it much better than season 1's. mr boss marries a hideous demon girl, who is also the daughter of satan. this isnt good obviously. my favorite scene has to be when pim, charlie and allan are looking up how to vanquish the demon, with a reference to that creepy old youtube video with the singing girl robot. shortly after that, doug walker (the nostalgia critic) cameos as daniel the demon slayer, who slays demons so YOU dont have to. after james rolfe (the angry video game nerd) cameoed in season 1, i always hoped his film equivalent would show up too, despite how much zach hadel and his friends rag on him on oneyplays. sure enough he did and this little addition made my night. the post credits scene is hilarious too. good good stuff.

im not really sure how to feel about episode 5, "brother's egg". pim and charlie are hired to be assistants to a mad scientist by the name of professor daniel psychotic, except the episode has nothing to do with science or experiments and they just have to help daniel's relationship issues with his brother instead. the jared fogle joke was great, if horrifying, and i liked that weird barely animated construction worker goblinesque creature, but it doesn't seem like they could put all they wanted to in the episode, and the plot resolves itself with pim and charlie basically having done nothing. maybe that's the joke, but oh well. i like charlie's rant at the end though, and the post credits scene was also funny in this one. overall, it was okay.

next episode brings it all back though; pim and charlie meet a UFO spotting crew, complete with some guy named bill, a flat earth believer named fillmore, and finally duncan who does nothing but vomit. unexpectedly (or, expectedly for how crazy this show is), a UFO abducts pim, charlie and bill and they have to find a way to escape and get back to earth. well, pim and charlie do at least; bill fucking dies. the ending to this episode might be the best ending in the series thus far; it's so insane and hilarious i dont even wanna spoil it here. simply put, you have to watch this one.

the second to last episode involves mr boss and pim going to the neighboring country of spamtopia, as allan and charlie watch over mr boss's """18 year old""" son jason. spamtopia is a place of completely unhinged chaos, devoid of any logic, kinda like wackyland from looney tunes or hell even greeny phatom. do people even know what greeny phatom is? whatever. everything involving spamtopia is like a horrific fever dream and i love it, but the B plot involving charlie and allan is a bit half baked. still though, it's an amazing episode and it's one i think i'll return to a lot, much like season 1's "frowning friends".

finally, it's another christmas special, and it's a really good one. it's a send up of frosty the snowman, except instead of a magic hat that brings a snowman to life, it's a radioactive flower. rotten the snowman, played by duino d duck's canonical voice actor dana snyder, is a happy go lucky snowman who just loves being alive. that is of course until pim accidentally teaches rotten about the concept of death, in which case he does nothing but scream. by far my favorite scene is when charlie hires bill nye the science guy to teach rotten that death is just a natural part of existence via a tacky song, only to have his hot air balloon get caught in a power line 10 seconds in and electrocutes him to death, making rotten scream even louder. this feels like a scene i would write. it's funny, but also a bit touching and deep as well, as rotten comes to terms with his own mortality, before being reincarnated as the entire ocean. happy end! until rotten lets his intrusive behaviors win, eats an entire boat and eventually dooms us all. eh, shit happens. this is one of my favorite episodes this season, second only to gwimbly. it was the perfect send off and i wouldnt be surprised if the entire budget went into this one episode. what an awesome season finale.

overall this season was good. i liked it. im tired of writing this now. and you must be tired of reading it. im going to bed now bye.

NOTE: ouuu ouuu ouuuuuuuu!

[wormkidz]

forgive me for the harm i have caused this world

[mr-malumm]

This was for 4th of july hehehehehhee

[lunar-years]

Twitter people are very upset about this. I, however, am chuckling.

[flecker-illustrates]

I rewatched the first season of Severance, I remembered it kept me on the edge of my seat the first time round, but by god did I forget how much that ending slaps, I couldn't breathe the entire episode.

Anyway I really wanted to draw Helly so here she is <3 I tried something new with this portrait, I skipped my usual lineart stage and dove right in with the copic markers over the pencil sketch. And at the end, went over the lines with a red colored pencil from Japan :) I really like the loose vibe it gave her ✨️

[aquarines]

sam reid is absolutely correct in not having any sort of social media account and limiting his internet usage to 1 hour per day, but he also should definitely have a tumblr account

[raviposting]

Watching the s2 credits, I'm so interested in if outie and innie Mark are going to be reintegrated.

The season 1 credits kind of show a timeline of how the season goes - it shows them continuously passing by, but never actually interacting with each other - not, of course, until the very end, and there's a few things to note here:

We start off with Outie Mark's perspective. Innie Mark never interacts directly with outie Mark - they try, but it never quites get there, every time they get close they get separated. When they are directly aware of each other, something happens to pull them apart, for example when innie Mark gets sucked up via syringe to be one of the parts that makes up outie Mark. Innie Mark at the end reaches out - much like with the show in general, and we see that switch between them before it goes back to Outtie Mark.

Now, for season 2:

This time, we start off with Innie Mark in bed, and we see him and Outtie Mark directly interacting. There's this constant theme of his head "swelling up" like a balloon, especially when they interact with each other, as well as Outtie Mark putting up the elevator to get Innie Mark to the outside world, as well as directly pulling the severance chip outside of his head.

There's also extra details - Cobel overseeing everything, Helly & Ms Casey (or Helena and Gemma, depending on how this season goes) being the two people Mark sees running in the water, and then again with both of them merging down on the testing room floor. I'm sure there's greater significance in the actual plot for them beyond this metaphor (especially as there's a car in the background of screenshot 4 that seems to be sinking, and Mark mentioned Gemma "died" in an accident) but it's also interesting that these are two women important to Mark in his innie and outie life. I really truly wonder if they're going to have Mark kind of merge or get Innie Mark outside more, or if we'll see them have synchronisity in a way that they really didn't get to have back in season 1.

[laz-kay]

Mythic Quest have this inevitable use of backstory that makes us love their characters so deeply because they give us no deep lore about anyone at any given moment except for their specific backstory/trauma based episode.

E.g. We perceived Brad as a cold, manipulative, sociopathic, closed off guy. His abusive brother turns up for 8 hours and he loses his shit so much it was the best acting Danny Pudi’s ever portrayed in his goddamn life.

We see C.W as a drunk, old, infamous writer - well past his sell buy date - until we see him in his youth. The struggles he entailed as an aspiring novelist, the way his mind used to work, the visions he saw that no one else understood.

We see Poppy and Ian as narcissistic, elitist creatives, always at each other’s throats. Then we see them as vulnerable children. Kids who had to work to get to where they are. Fighting so many hardships to find each other and to have a kindred spirit for once in their lives.

We see David as a completely open book. An executive producer who gets walked all over and tries to see the best in everyone. A man who’s so optimistic despite the fact he’s a child of divorce, had a drunk, abusive father, and had a traumatic divorce himself.

We’re so blind-sighted by the fact he’s also a suicidal depressive who drinks a bottle of wine every night to help him get to sleep because everyone else’s trauma is more transparent than his.

Which says a lot - considering we know next to nothing about the actual lives of these characters and what their exterior relationships to the company look like in reality.

It’s a hyperbolic realisation about coworker relationships, which is a stunning way to portray a TV show about the people who produce a fantasy role playing video game.

We don’t see what happens to David after a shitty day at the office. We have no idea where Jo lives. Does she live with her parents, or alone, with a partner? Brad?! That man is so ambiguous he could live in a junkyard for all we knew! Not that he would.

Their lives are kept so under wraps that we can’t perceive them in any other light other than their work personas a lot of the time. Which makes the idea of backstory so much more impactful.

[freddiecorleone]

WE ARE SO BACK

[cartoonverisimilitude]

Being like really into media analysis is a trip because the other day I was explaining the show Severance to someone at a party and they thought it sounded like a great idea - and despite me explaining that the whole premise of the show is how it’s bad, still liked the idea

[icecreampiano]

happy birthday to me, physical media always.

[unripe-lemon]

REBLOG FOR MORE DATA!!!!!! THANKS

[hijabis-in-media]

Hijabis in Animation -

Background Character- The Afterparty

[its-tea-time-darling]

Ten characters of ten fandoms, ten tags.

thanks for the tag ❤️ @swanfloatieknight

teresa agnes - the maze runner

kofun - see (2019)

athelstan - vikings

sansa stark - game of thrones / asoiaf

rumo - rumo und die wunder im dunkeln

kat baker - spinning out

kylo ren - star wars

alex - red white and royal blue

nan - tipping the velvet

katya goncharov - goncharov (1973) (< unreality warning, this is not an actual movie, tumblr made it up)

no pressure tags: @crestfallercanyon @sidekcks @hamartian-cathexis @ulfrsmal @blue-summers @go-catch-a-chickn @thatnerdybookgirliscool @nice-to-meet-ya-shank @ivesterrarium @dumb-bi-thomas

[lunar-years]

Oh wait did I get confused, I read it as confirming Jamie as bi, was it confirming Roy as bi?

it can mean anything your heart desires it to, anon. MY heart desires it to mean #happybivisibilityday to all pictured parties PLUS our favorite guy who hung their posters 🥰 do what brings you joy and #believe