#baby mut is my favourite setting

[bird-inacage]

A Love Sea Gifset | Mut + Big Kid Energy

I really wish they'd given us more of this side to Mut. We know he's insanely mature and responsible for a 20 year old, but he's still a kid. A kid who sadly had to grow up way too fast.

Though Fort is very similar to Mut in terms of temperament, (which no doubt helps when you're playing a character similar to yourself), I do still want to applaud how Fort brings that younger sensibility into his performance, without it ever feeling over-exaggerated or grating. It's wonderfully endearing, just sweet enough but still grounded.

[starlene]

Would you be willing to talk more about Varissuo? I managed to miss it (as always I'm really good at missing musicals in Finland rip) but it looks fascinating. Voi vastata kans suomeks jos helpompi mut ei paineita :D

I was hoping someone would ask! I'm definitely willing to talk about Varissuo, what with it being one of my all-time favourite musicals and all.

Here's a synopsis in English, in case some of my non-Finnish followers are curious, and then some thoughts in Finnish under the cut.

Varissuo is an original Finnish musical with music by Tuomo Prättälä, Jori Sjöroos & Jussi Vahvaselkä, lyrics by Paleface, and book by Satu Rasila. So far, it's only been performed in Turun kaupunginteatteri in 2018–19.

In short, it's a musical about reaching for your dreams + the relationships between parents and children, named after and set in the Varissuo suburb in the city of Turku (a real suburb known for its multicultural population; it's sometimes maligned as a den of crime and unemployment, but a study has also shown that its inhabitants are happier than most other people in Turku).

The musical consists of four parallel storylines:

Nadia is a teenage girl that dreams of moving out of the suburb and becoming a pop star, but she lacks the parental support to achieve her dreams: to say her father Asko is emotionally distant is a severe understatement, and all she knows about her mother is that she died when Nadia was a baby. Frustrated, Nadia starts a relationship with Aku, a young recovering alcoholic who has just hit a major setback in his recovery due to his grandmother's death. When the relationship results in an unplanned pregnancy, Nadia craves the support of her father more than ever – but how will he react?

Reijo is a middle-aged karaoke enthusiast with a violent past who's lost contact with his daughter, Noora. He dreams of fixing things with her but has a hard time gathering enough courage to take the first step. Will Noora agree to talk to him again after all he's done, let alone ever seeing him again?

Ilona is the single mother of 12-year-old Ben. She broke up with Ben's father Mikael a decade ago and he hasn't been a part of his son's life ever since, but when she falls severely ill, she's forced to contact him again. Soon enough, Ilona is hospitalised, and Mikael has to start learning how to be a father for real. Will father and son find something to bond over when Mikael decides to share his passion for street art with Ben? And what about Ilona and Mikael? They had a messy separation way back when, but will Ilona's illness make them see each other in a different light?

Rafa is a boxer in his early 20s whose mother Sarita is ready to do whatever it takes to make him a champion – but secretly, he dreams of giving up his boxing career, graduating high school, and living a boring normal life with a house, a wife and a golden retriever. With the support of a dreamy Tinder match called Johannes, will Sarita finally learn to live her own life instead of micromanaging Rafa's? And is Johannes really as great as he seems like on the first date?

I think on paper, it's always bound to sound more clichéd and less interesting than it actually was – but please trust me, it was brilliant. I saw it four times, it's been over three years now, and I still miss it. By far the best original Finnish musical I've ever seen, and as I mentioned before, one of my top ten musicals in general.

Ja tähän loppuun suomenkielinen jälkikirjoitus: miksi näin loistava musikaali ei sitten menestynyt? Ilona-tietokannan tietojen perusteella esityskauden täyttöprosentti oli 65 %, eli ei mitenkään ihmeellinen. Kumpi on väärässä, minä vai suuri yleisö?

Toki eri genrejä hiphopista iskelmään yhdistävä musikaali oli varmaan osalle konservatiivisimmista vanhan polven katsojista liian kova pala, mutta väitän, että hieman paremmalla markkinoinnilla teatteri olisi voinut paikata eläkeyhdistysten jättämää yleisövajetta ainakin jonkun verran. Jälkiviisastelu on paitsi helppoa myös raivostuttavaa, mutta tässä silti pari ajatusta siitä, mikä olisi voinut mennä paremmin:

Varissuon suurimpia vahvuuksia olivat 1. musiikki, 2. Palefacen lyriikat, 3. hahmot, eikä markkinointi hyödyntänyt näistä mitään.

Joku musikaalin kappaleista olisi ehdottomasti pitänyt julkaista Youtubessa ennen ensi-iltaa. Palefacen nimi olisi pitänyt ottaa julisteissa, nettibannereissa ym. häpeämättömään hyötykäyttöön ja miestä itseään olisi pitänyt tyrkyttää aiheen tiimoilta haastateltavaksi mahdollisimman moneen mediaan (olettaen siis, että hän olisi ollut moiseen yhteistyöhön valmis). Lisäksi julisteisiin/promokuviin, jotka esittivät geneeristä takaapäin kuvattua hahmoa, olisi ehdottomasti pitänyt jo julkistushetkellä saada vähintään pari rooliasuista näyttelijää – tuntematonkin naama myy paremmin kuin tuntematon takaraivo.

Tiedän omasta kokemuksesta, että nämä asiat ovat vaikeita toteuttaa (julkaisukelpoisen demon tekemiseen ei ole budjetissa varattu rahaa, markkinoinnin väellä ei ole aikaa tyrkyttää Palefacea Arto Nybergille kun samaan aikaan pitää markkinoida ohjelmiston kahtatoista muuta teosta, ja julkistushetkellä rooliasutkin ovat vasta luonnoksia pukusuunnittelijan lehtiössä), mutta väitän, että tässä ylimääräinen vaivannäkö olisi kannattanut.

Toinen iso ongelma, johon teatteri ei ikävä kyllä mitenkään olisi voinut vaikuttaa, oli Helsingin Sanomien oikeusmurhaa lähentelevä arvostelu.

Mielestäni on kyllä hyvä kysymys, kuvaako teatteri lähiöelämää valtaosin tukevan keskiluokkaiselle yleisölleen liikaa ongelmien ja tirkistelyn kautta, mutta kriitikko ei päässyt kliseisen lähiökuvauksen aiheuttamasta raivostaan mitenkään yli eikä lainkaan jaksanut pohtia sitä, onko Varissuo onnistunut genrensä edustajana eli musikaalina (eli toisin sanoen aivan tavanomainen suomalainen musikaalikritiikki).

Omasta mielestäni Varissuossa oli loistavasti löydetty jokaiselle hahmolle oma sävelkielensä siten, että kokonaisuus kuulosti silti yhtenäiseltä, ja tarinan kuljettaminen musiikin keinoin oli paremmin hallussa kuin yhdelläkään toisella näkemälläni suomimusikaalilla. Vaikka ymmärrän, mistä kritiikki käsiksen kliseisyydestä kumpuaa, mielestäni kaikki tarinan hahmot olivat kuitenkin kolmiulotteisia ja heidän kohtalonsa aidosti koskettavia. Ja voihan asian nähdä niinkin päin, että on hyvä, että keskiluokkaista teatteriyleisöä yritettiin edes parin tunnin ajaksi saada samaistumaan erilaisesta taustasta tuleviin ihmisiin, vaikka sitten vähän kömpelösti kliseiden kautta – vai pitäisikö lähiön elämästä kertoessa keskittyä vain sen keskiluokkaisiin ja tasaisen onnellisiin asukkaisiin? Siihen, mitä ihmettä kriitikko paahtaa hahmojen samanlaisuudesta, toivottomuudesta ja v-sanan käytöstä, en osaa sanoa oikein mitään, itse koin teoksen niin täydellisen toisin.

Turun Sanomat tykkäsi muistaakseni enemmän (maksumuuri, en voi tarkistaa), mutta jos joku pääkaupunkiseudulta harkitsi teatteriretkeä Turkuun, Hesarin negistely riitti taatusti nitistämään ne suunnitelmat.

Varissuossa on vielä sekin ongelma, että se on päällisin puolin hyvin turkulainen musikaali, mikä varmaan vähentää muualla sijaitsevien teatterien mielenkiintoa tarttua siihen – mutta mielestäni siinä käsitellään niin universaaleja aiheita, että sen voisi pienillä käsikirjoitusmuutoksilla siirtää joko johonkin toiseen oikeaan lähiöön tai täysin kuvitteelliseen tapahtumapaikkaan.

Pähkinänkuoressa: en suoraan sanottuna usko, että Varissuosta saadaan koskaan toista tuotantoa, mutta mielestäni tämä on täysin hyvän musikaalin täydellistä haaskaamista.

Olisivat, penteleet, edes cast recordingin julkaisseet.

[darkestwolfx]

Up from the Depths P.1 - Re-Review #32

Now, just to stick my personal opinion in here... we’re about to get to two of my all time favourite episodes. The amount of references to Jeff, and the purpose for IR - there’s just golden moments everywhere you look. So let’s have a look at some of them.

“What is it, John?”

“You’re gonna’ want to see this.”

“The TV-21! No, it can’t be...”

Well, it is (or we wouldn’t have an episode)!

“Is that what I think it is?”

“It’s the TV-21!”

“Is anyone gonna’ clue me in here?”

“It’s the TV-21!”

“That is not helping!”

Don’t worry, Alan, I’ll try and catch you up. But that just serves as another well-placed reminder of all the things Alan (and Kayo) is too young to remember about IR.

The fact Jeff etched his name onto the ship does not surprise me. It goes towards showing how proud he was of it, and completely fits in with everything we are told about him by Grandma (once again, wonderfully well placed comments).

Now, the TV-21, is given to us as “the first Thunderbird”, the fastest ship (at the moment), and Jeff’s pride and joy. There’s a nice little reference to Jeff’s previous careers as well, with the fact they’ve added the ‘Colonel’. Nice touch.

But of course, of all the places to crash land, it had to be in the Mariana’s Trench. I mean, there is a reason why it’s “the world’s last unmapped ocean”, according to the crew. It’s a pretty dangerous place. If you want to read about it, feel free, National Geographic have some incredibly interesting articles on what they theorise could be down there based on their limited exploration. But what we do know, is that it’s actually a very hostile seascape, and that the marine life which inhabits it seems to have evolved drastically to cope. I think that if we are ever able to understand it, we will know a lot more towards global warming and the mutations of animals. But I hate swimming. Water’s not my area. I prefer to research land mammals and leave my colleagues with the wet-weather adventures.

Anyhow, I think it’s totally awesome that Virgil was playing the piano and that Scott was sat at Jeff’s desk in the opening for this episode too. It’s always nice to see little throwbacks to this very human family.

So let’s discuss the origins of TV-21 for a moment. Before it was a Thunderbird, it was a comic series! And it’s original name was ‘TV Century 21′ which was eventually shortened to TV21. It had various mergers, which featured additions to the name, but TV21 stuck for the majority of issues. It was a weekly comic published by City Magazines, beginning around 1965. It’s content was... drum roll... the sci-fi TV series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s company: Century 21 Productions - thus where the comics name originated from, the TV being added to clarify where the material was coming from and hopefully encourage people to watch and read both in tandem.

The comic often had newspaper front pages, dedicated to the fictional news stories of the multiple Anderson worlds, e.g. Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Stingray.

Some really well known artists of the time worked on the comics, which only serves to increase their value. In our current day, the original ‘TV Century 21′ editions (Issues 1 - 154) are really hard to find, and so they sell/auction for incredibly high prices when one can be found - like much of the Anderson’s work which made it’s way into print. It does also mean that the first half of this great comic series is practically lost to the world.

Which is a big shame, because it was in many of these first issues (with their print time colliding with the original air slot of ‘Thunderbirds’) featured many episode-story related additions. For instance;

The supposed capture of ‘The Hood’ - which might have gone someway to explaining his disappearance during Series 2 of the show.

An addition to the US Army’s story line from ‘Pit of Peril’.

An addition to the events of ‘Sun Probe’, as well as an in-depth story on Thunderbird Three investigating the connection between the sun and natural disasters (better known now as global warming). My dad still has his copy of this edition, and I have no plans on selling it. It’s ironic that it features the only story line relevant to my current career. Hey, maybe there is such a thing as fate over coincidence (as ‘Doctor Who’ does suggest).

A special story for Thunderbirds Two and Four, upon which it is rumoured that the opening rescue of the ‘Thunderbirds’ (2004 film) was based upon. I personally think this was one of the best stories for the pair, and I’m disappointed it never appeared in an episode (as such). There were also rumours that this story was an expansion of the TOS episode ‘Atlantic Inferno’, but those were never confirmed and all suggestions ever made pointed towards it being a completely separate idea. There are interesting similarities in places though, so it’s worth consideration.

An expansion to Thunderbird Two’s ‘disappearance’, after the events of ‘Terror in New York City’, which covered the rumours spiraling during the time Thunderbird Two was out of operation, and some of the missions which were undertaken during said time.

And one of the few Fireflash related stories to feature outside of the TOS TV episodes. It was also one of the comic editions which fans come to know as ‘Thunderbirds meets Doctor Who’. At the time, both shows were scoring some of the highest viewings, and so I suppose these crossover editions only made sense. Many of the early editions featured such crossovers, including 2 other issues which I’ve posted above.

When we actually get to 2065, there’s going to be a bit of confusion over dates - the comics (set still in the futurist time - ever encroaching for us) were released on the corresponding dates, but with the year still set a hundred forward, e.g. 1965 was 2065, but the 13th March was the 13th March.

Right, enough of my geek-worthy knowledge on comics, and back to the episode. I mean, look at Scott’s face. He’s definitely had enough of my comic-based ramblings.

“Begging your forgiveness, Your Mongrel-ship.” 

I think the fact that Parker serves Sherbet tea (with one sugar) it’s just classic.

“I believe ‘wild goose chase’ were the words they used.”

“Well, as it happens, Parker loves a good chase. Parker, bring the car around would you? That’s right Sherbet. ‘On the double’.”

“hOn the double, hit his. Taking horders from ha mut, never though hI’d see the day.”

He does it anyway though - dedication right there,

Well now, time to visit the ocean. Did anyone else think the Deep Ocean Surveyor looked a bit... wrong? I had bad feelings about that thing from the start.

“This ship sure is a weird looking thing.”

Yeah, thanks for the back up there Gordon. Should have kept a closer eye on that one, although I do completely understand why they got so distracted and don’t blame them for it.

I love how Scott - Mr in command and always right - turns straight towards the TV-21 as soon as he knows they’re no injuries to worry about and that the DOS is all okay. Wasn’t he the one saying there was a rescue to prioritise only minutes ago?

“Gordon, what about the TV-21? Have they found part of the wreck?”

“Stand by, Scott, I’ll take a closer look. Just gotta’ clear some debris. It’s not just part of the wreck, it’s the whole thing!”

That is actually quite surprising! You know, something surviving like that. Good craftsmanship is all I can say.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvltZMDOK5g

I can’t describe this scene any better than the scene itself, so I’m just gonna’ leave it there for you to re-watch at your own leisure. The faces are pictures!

“Why’s everyone making such a big deal about a wrecked plane? I don’t even remember it!”

“The TV-21 was Dad’s baby. The first ever super Mach-20 ship. It was the prototype to Thunderbird One. Dad invested everything into, but The Hood sabotaged it in flight. Dad had to abandon the plane somewhere over the Maraina Trench rather than let The Hood get his hands on it. I remember it broke Dad’s heart. I always thought it was smashed and lost in the deep.”

And there we have a link to that Hood-Jeff backstory (which the writer’s then conveniently shoved into a like ten-fifteen second explanation of ‘I am a bad guy because’, but hey, we’re not quite there yet!) that kinda gets forgotten.

“Cor!”

“I believe the word you’re looking for is Bingo. Well done Bertie.”

“Very smart of you to track that signal John.”

“We got lucky.”

You don’t have to be so modest you know John.

“It seems The Hood may be up to his old tricks.”

“I’ve seen engineering like this before. It’s the work of The Mechanic.”

“Oh no! That’s The Mechanic’s ship! Thunderbird Four, get out of there!”

“Too late.”

Yeah... it might have been good to notice that a little bit sooner.

Now, someone has some serious anger issues! I mean, I now he wants them out of the way (and later on that’s he’s being controlled), but that was seriously uncalled for!

“You better come up with something fast. Thunderbird Four’s hull integrity is failing. You’re getting crushed!”

Thanks Virgil, we can see that, unfortunately. This is another of those moments where - even though I know how it ends - I have a little panic.

“Hull integrity at 28%. Gordon what are you doing?”

“The airlock’s jammed. I can’t get the door open.”

“Then make a new door! But do it fast, you don’t have long. Hull at 7%. Gordon, get out now! Thunderbird Four is offline.”

“What happened?”

“Thunderbird Four's been rendered in operative.”

“Gordon!”

“I’m here. I’m okay. But Thunderbird Four’s a little... ur... beat up.”

This is a little like that moment in ‘EOS’, where I think our collective hearts stopped.

I know Gordon left the sub to try and free it, but it was actually a good thing that he did, else he probably would have been crushed, which wouldn't have been good. He was caught a little in the blast anyway, so I’m surprised he was a well-able to continue as he was.

But back to those serious anger issues - The Mechanic, you need to learn that once you have damaged someone’s ship past the piloting level, you don’t need to then snap it in two - that is just downright mean, not to mention unnecessary!

Poor Thunderbird Four. I seriously thought at the time that it wasn’t going to be recoverable. Look at Gordon’s poor little face.

The determination to get the TV-21 back as well was just wonderful.

“Not possible, only Thunderbird Four can survive the pressure. We need to come up with something extraordinary and fast.”

“We can use the TV-21!”

“It’s been sitting on the bottom of the ocean for years. Do you think it will still work?”

“Absolutely. I build things to last.”

“Gordon, we need you to get on board the TV-21.”

“I always wanted to fly Dad’s plane.”

Of course he did.

Now this was a sight to behold. Look at him!

“I can’t believe we used to wear these things.”

This was such a lovely little throw back moment.

“You could try the Jeff Tracy fix. After all, it is Dad’s plane.”

“FAB. This is TV-21. We have lift off.”

And hell did that work!

Rescue count: 35

I mean, let’s just momentarily forget that this part ends with The Mechanic making a grand come back and stealing it.

“To The Mechanic, let me tell you who you’re dealing with. We’re International Rescue; you can’t push us around, you cant tell us what to do, and you absolutely, positively can’t take our stuff!”

“No, let me tell you who you’re dealing with. I’m The Mechanic. I take what I want, from who I want, whenever I want it.”

Yeah... shivers.

Let’s just remember Gordon’s great moment getting to pilot it.

“So tell me, what is it like flying Dad’s plane?”

“It was awesome.”

See, that’s a nicer ending.