#god i also hate the bts drama that was going on while filming this episode

[tuiyla]

this is a random question lol, but what are your thoughts on "Old Dog, New Tricks" and Chris Colfer as a writer (based on it)?

We love random questions around here!

Gonna be honest with you, I haven't seen that episode in full in over two years and it's gonna be another year before I get to it on my rewatch at this rate, so unfortunately I don't think I can go into a ton of detail. As in, a full analysis of Chris as a writer. But dw I won't just leave it at that I do have some thoughts.

I recently heard 5x19 be referred to as a low-rated and badly received episode, which I found curious. I'm not sure by what metric that is but especially by standards of that era of the show I consider it to be quite solid. I don't have strong feelings about the main plots of the nursing home play and the dogs as like, a base concept. Most things depend on execution and it was executed well enough. I wonder what parameters he was given, what could happen what couldn't, but as far as penultimate episodes of seasons go it's pretty much your standard slice of life stakes-wise.

What I can talk about more in-depth and what directly related to Chris as a writer is the character moments he included. At the very least and off the top of my head, there are 3-4 great character moments that tell me Chris paid attention to this cast of characters and took care to keep whatever shred of continuity Glee was still hanging onto at that point. Frankly, Chris seems to have cared more for these characters than the actual writers' room did in these late seasons.

What I'm talking about in particular are these details:

Kurt, obviously. It's understandable that Chris wrote an episode with a major Kurt plot and it was a breath of fresh air to focus on him separate from the main group, even if only for a beat. Two standout moments are a) him standing up to/calling out Rachel, which actually leads somewhere unlike it often does in NYC. See my second bullet point. And b), even more importantly and in a detail that so often lacks from the series, Kurt talking about his mother to Maggie's daughter. Such a small scene in the grand scheme of things but very poignant and the one I remember the most from this episode (sans Santana). That moment really made me go "oh Chris gets Kurt." He cares about this character enough to pay attention to this, imo, crucial detail.

Rachel's is a smaller one but also on two fronts, one on the Kurt of it all and like I said in the way that she actually goes to support him and concedes to be a more supportive friend. This is a lesson Rachel learns a lot but this is among the better executions of it. And the second is her general arc of at least trying to do good things because they're good and not just for optics. Shame this sentiment is limited to this one episode.

Santana! Of course, my beloved. Chris Colfer singlehandedly gave me PR Santana, who I hold onto dearly and fight in the name of, against all the lawyer Santana stuff. It was a great direction for her character to take and I'm grateful Chris gave us this, even if we never hear from PR Santana again. More thoughts on PR Santana here. The Pezberry shenanigans are also great. And we have a detail here, too, with the brilliant Santana line "in high school ... I was voted best shoulder to cry on and most likely to poison someone", which tells me that Chris gets Santana, too. Love that. God the feels I have about that line lol.

I also have to shout out the Sam stuff, maybe not in general because frankly I don't remember but at least one detail. Chris seemed to be the only writer to remember season 2 Sam and the way he was working hard to protect and support his family, and the impact that must have had on him. Later seasons lean into Sam the himbo, but, tbh, not in a way I find particularly charming just because they really emphasize his... carelessness, I guess. His immaturity, that's a better word. So he's not the himbo from season 2 but someone a lot less capable and more of a caricature version than he used to be, and that's not the direction in which it should go. BUT, that said, Chris takes the time to examine this with Sam and takes care to remember how Sam had to grow up too quickly, how he did have to be mature before. I don't think it goes anywhere but that's on Glee much more than it is on one-off episode writer Chris Colfer.

Writing characters well has been my primary focus for as long as I have been looking at media critically and Chris Colfer succeeded on that front for sure. These are the main things I remember from the episode and the main aspects of it that make me look back on Chris' writing fondly.

I've been meaning to check out Chris' books or just anything from him as a writer because I am curious. In interviews, he's always so quick-witted and good with words. The main thing, apart from Old Dogs, that I think about in terms of Chris as a writer is his Variety tribute piece to Naya. It's not only a heartwarming (and -wrenching) piece but damn you can tell the man's a writer. A good one, at that. He just has that instinct, based on this piece. Where the words flow and the arc of what he's saying makes sense on a deeper level. So yeah I'm curious, and maybe I'll rewatch Old Dogs earlier than planned just to view it from that perspective this time around.

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here bestie and still riding my high after last night's episode!!! Maybe it's just for an episode but it felt like the show was finally back to where it was supposed to be, and so many things brought joy!! Firefighter Eddie Diaz, Bobby finding out about May and immediately putting Eddie to work with Buck because that's his daughter and he isn't fucking around, Buddie working together seamlessly and all smiles about it, big brother Chim saving his Albert, and the Bobby and May of it all.

Not gonna lie, when Bobby was taking an axe to the wall I started to lose it and then was balling by the time he pulled her under him when the roof collapsed. God and using Carry You, when they dig out Bobby, who let them do that 😭😭😭?? I even enjoyed the L and T scene, not for the content but because in an intense episode about family, redemption, and reconnecting that little middle school drama, "that's my man 😡" scene was so obviously and hilariously out of place. Its like  JCC was happily putting together this incredibly emotional masterpiece and someone came in saying "but you have to put in something to lead up to the BT breakup", so he filmed 3 minutes of L with Buck and then with T, shoved it in awkwardly at the end, and made it a point to center Buddie in the middle with Buck not giving a shit about what's happening 😆😆😆. Clearly he has some opinions on that nonsense. Anywho, I have an idea for a song this week, and it'll be a happy one!!

This weeks episode was SO GOOD!! JCC really understands these characters and he was somehow able to give EVERYONE their time to shine, even in such a packed episode. I do wish we had gotten more scenes at dispatch in 5b to lead up to this big fire there, and Claudette’s death because we haven’t seen her since 5x08 and not having issues with May since 5x05. But JCC (and Vanessa Williams) were able to make us hate her, and be intrigued by her backstory and feel for her panic during the fire, and care about her death all in one episode! We also got Josh and Eddie seeming having made up, but with a sprinkle of Petty Eddie Diaz thrown in which really took the sting out of that fairly OOC Josh moment in 5x11, and we also got Josh finding what looks to be a nice guy (finally)! Terry their IT guy was back and I always enjoy him  when he pops up, and he had some fun banter with Josh before nearly dying and Eddie coming to the rescue. I have to say though, that as much as I have loved the May and Eddie talks (which would have been the perfect time to bring up her issues with Claudette to keep us aware it was still going on, just sayin), I ADORE Eddie and Linda besties so much!! They have such a delightful dynamic and are proof that the show has plenty of unexplored relationships with established characters that can provide some “fresh air”. Again, I wish we had seen more of it, but JCC manages to bring all these relationships, good and bad, into sparkling life in just a few scenes. He truly is a gift. (The only thing I think was really weird was not having anything, even a single throwaway line about Maddie, like “Maddie would kill me if I let anything happen to you on my watch” from Chim or Buck or even Eddie. She trained May, she has good rapport with Linda, she’s besties with Josh, and we know Sue has a big soft spot for her. I did find it odd her name didn’t come up at all 🤷🏻‍♀️)

As for May, whooo boy did Corinne deliver! We got to see more of the May we got during the tsunami, demanding that people fight to live, and while I’m sure she’s going to chose college (freeing up the actress a bit to focus on her own studies) she definitely has her mother’s fire in her, and whatever she does, she will be able to inspire people! I love, love, love her and Bobby’s relationship, and her saying “That’s my dad” 😭😭😭😭 Again, I would have love to see more of her at dispatch in 5b but this was a great sendoff for Corinne, and it was great seeing her carry such a big episode brilliantly.

The Chim/Albert stuff wasn’t a lot of screentime, but again JCC is able to do so much with a short amount of time and I love that we saw Albert having doubts again this week while taking with Chim, and Chim coming to recognize that his initial advice wasn’t helpful and letting Albert know he was loved and supported no matter his choice, which is something their father never gave either of them. And Chim getting a redemption moment for the brother he couldn’t save was so, so good. Kenny is criminally underutilized on this show because he can do it all! I’m so happy to finally have him back where he belongs, and I am STOKED to see him and Hen being investigation besties next week! I just KNOW it’s going to be so good!

FIREFIGHTER EDDIE DIAZ IS BACK BABY!! I got CHILLS when he said that, and legit cheered! That’s my boy!! As much fun as him and Linda making eyes over their coffee has been, he got his sign on where he is supposed to be. Ryan has carried 5b on his back with his work as Eddie and this episode was no different. We got gossipy coworker Eddie, competent firefighter Eddie, medic Eddie (him rubbing Terry’s chest to wake him up and then picking him up like he weighed NOTHING?! 🥵🥵🥵), fondly exasperated boyfriend Eddie, and my personal favorite, Petty Bench Eddie, making snide comments to L and making faces at her and tay kay existing in his space like they personally offended him by being in the same room with him and Buck. I love him SO MUCH! Also can we talk about how good and healthy he’s looking now days?! We love to see it! Bobby making the call and telling Eddie to suit up was so perfect and he wasn’t taking any chances so he put his dream team back together and they...worked like a dream! Not a hitch in their step, perfectly in sync as always 😭😭😭 They had some cute banter while working on the electrician, and they were perfect battlefield boyfriends! And they were ALL smiles ALL the time! You could just SEE how happy they were to be working together again (Buck and Eddie, but also Oliver and Ryan).

As for our firefam? I could not be happier at seeing them all together again! Bobby saying “Alright 118, let’s get to work” had me in TEARS. That’s my family!! That’s my firefam all back together! 😭😭😭 Also using Carry You was RUDE! 😭😭😭 I’ve definitely got worries about Bobby and what’s coming up for his storyline (hopefully like Lone Star it will be about his addiction without it being about him relapsing, but rather focusing on him being able to trust and lean on his support system he has now), but that is trouble for another day and today I’m taking the win!

As always the L stuff was weird (I cannot get over how she says “cap”. She said it like, 700 times and it was so weird every time! It really took me out of the scene, and out of this good firefam moment with her there. Her line deliver is the woooooorst. When is she leaving?!), and would have packed a better emotional punch if it was Ravi with Bobby and being part of the team rescuing him. Buck barely speaking to Bobby all season and now being upset was another weird choice that JCC along with Oliver was somehow able to mostly pull together (seriously, JCC is magic being able to take all these dropped threads and work around missing moments and still make something so poignant and beautiful that at least mostly hits the emotional beats it should), though again, the emotional beat would have hit better if it was Eddie talking to Buck in that moment, or even Ravi. JCC unfortunately can’t save us from everything and we know why it had to be her, and why that whole thing with tay kay and L had to go down (to lead up to the breakup for the relationship that never should have been and definitely should have ended before now and didn’t need any outside help as there were already 100 reasons for it to end but I digress), but the way he pulled it off was still so great! Because they cut so much L stuff and nearly everything of her and Buck, that scene felt weird but also entirely unimportant because it was about Buck’s feelings about Bobby and her and tay kay in the background were just kind of....there. As for the tay kay/L scene, JCC brought back more of the tay kay we know and hate in her attitude, and I’m hoping that trend will continue for her next few and hopefully brief appearances until she is FINALLY gone forever. The dialogue here for her feels like whiplash because this woman had no idea or care for how the 118 being a mess affected Buck or how to help him through it besides telling him to suck it up because not everything is about him, but again, JCC still has some rules to play by, and her spouting off words to “defend her territory” was a thing that needed to happen I guess. But I love that everyone noticed that not only did her and Buck not actually speak to each other this entire episode (not even a hug or squeeze of the arm to make sure he’s alright (though on that note, someone (Eddie) PLEASE HUG HIM!)), but he barely acknowledged that her and L were speaking to each other (and tay kay didn’t acknowledge him when she stormed off), and went right back to chatting up Eddie! JCC said “you may make me have to do this, but Imma do it in a way where the Buddie is so loud you won’t actually be able to hear them speaking to each other” and we love that for us.

ANYWAY, this episode gave me a lot of feelings, and while they could have utilized their screentime (or casting/storyline choices) better in previous episodes to solve some of the issues with this one, JCC did the absolute most with what he was given and pulled out one hell of an episode that really felt for the most part, like our old 911 show! I can’t wait to see what song you have for us!!

[klarolinedrabbles]

sorry if i'm nosy but i live for drama and the quarantine ain't helping lmao so do you have any more wild anecdotes from the kc/tvd fandom besides the ones you told a while ago?

Oh there’s definitely more.

There was the muffin incident. Which, sounds ridiculous, and I assure you it both is and isn’t. But basically, one of my dearest friends in the world, Jenn, @jonsnowbitch, decided one day she was going to conduct an experiment, if you will. And this experiment entailed sitting through an entire episode of TO and in that specific episode, replacing Camille’s presence with an inanimate object, and determine whether or not the story remains the same. Spoiler alert, it does. And the object Jenn chose was a muffin. Which didn’t sit well with some CK stans, who missed the entire point of Jenn’s post, and/or chose to ignore it. You can read it here. It’s the reason we have these amazing gems;

Uhhh there was a point where we had confirmation Carina was just hangin around on the blogs. She’d done an interview where she’d said her two most visited sites were these two blogs who hated TO, me and Hillary were like well that could not more obviously be us. Then like a year or so later, someone had sent me a screenshot of a tweet of hers, because I’m blocked by her on twitter, where she said she was just scrolling on a blog and came across a post that said ‘carina get off my blog’ which was something I’d written like the day before, lmfsksks. 

Uh let’s see, SOME WRITER LEFT TO, idr who exactly it was, Charlie something, I wanna say. He’d officially departed as a TO writer and he’d posted a picture of his goodbye letter on twitter, and he ended it with, ‘and yes, I love Klaroline too’ the kill bill sirens were real. We were like wtfwtfwtf. The fact that he didn’t say that till he was out the door, plus the way it was written. We’d had this theory that there was a Klaroline gag order, and that all but confirmed it for us.

Uh the last week or so of TVD’s series finale filming was pretty wild. 10/10 do NOT recommend, that was horrendous, no one knew wtf was going on. For some god-awful reason, this new girl popped up during S8 of TVD with information. But she had about a 60% success rate, which caused heaps of confusion in my inbox and on twitter. Every damn day was something whacked. She had this unprecedented access to sides, which are usually audition script pages, or misleading one’s. Like she’d posted a script page of I wanna say Matt or Alaric idr in a hospital bed scene, and it wound up being Stefan. It was just chaos. 

The day they leaked the board in the writer’s room during TO S5, spoiling that Hayley died mid-way through the final season. My running gag used to be that there was something in the water over there. The amount of times they themselves spoiled shit. Leah spoiled Camille’s vampire arc by posting a bts where she was very clearly wearing a lapis lazuli ring, some guy in S4 spoiled his character’s death, I mean the list goes on.

Narducci had given some interview once about how ‘tHIS UPCOMING EPISODE HAS THE MOST CHILLING ENDING WE’VE EVER DONE’ and I was like oh well I gotta see this, so I watch the entire episode just for the purpose of whatever this ending was, and it was just Aurora telling Klaus how she’d got the one-up on her brother that day and to come back to bed. I sat there for like five minutes going ‘....what’ because I couldn’t believe that was all it was. They had a notorious habit of overhyping things. Like who’s death was it in S2, I think? I honestly can’t even remember, that’s how whack it was. BUT THEY WAY THEY HYPED IT UP, LMFSKSK. Those weeks leading up to it, they had us convinced it was like Marcel or someone who was kicking the bucket. And then it was...no one. 

Which is why when spoiler anon said ‘in less than half a season they kill x, y, and z’ I didn’t believe them. Lemme think, the invasion of the sterobots. SC was up against CS in the finale of a poll, and there is absolutely zero way that fandom had the numbers to beat CS. Then one of their own went and said ‘we’ve been using bots’ and the rest is history. We were up against DE in a poll on EW. I don’t remember if it was the phone call or the letter though. But point is, they were gaining on us, while also competing in another poll on the same site and someone came to my inbox and snitched. Said she was in a gc and they were discussing how to overtake the poll. We lived some Wild times, ya’ll.

[theticklefox-blog]

Snatch the Series: My Review

Note: this will contain spoilers, so read no further if you haven’t watched the series yet. It will also contain negative opinions on some issues, so if the show was everything you ever wished for... this isn’t for you and I don’t want to upset you. Just enjoy the GIFs (which betray my biases) and skip the rest.

I really, really wanted to like Snatch.   Honest I did. I keenly anticipated it from the moment it was announced, despite my not being a huge fan of Guy Richie or the film version. The previews made the show look energetic and fun and most of the actors are consistently good, and playing types of characters they’re not necessarily known for, which I always appreciate.  Also, fans of the other actors, Luke Pasqualino and Rupert Grint in particular, were very kind and helpful in providing news, BTS video and rare photos as the series filmed, and were-- mostly-- good about not posting spoilers without a warning.

So it saddens me to report  I found the show more annoying than involving. A large part of that is due to the slipshod writing, underwritten characterization and reliance on jarring edits and often “WTF?!” character motivations and action that made it difficult for me to care about the protagonists (or even perceive them as protagonists, really... let’s say The Young Pretty People The Writers Clearly Wanted Us To Like.) 

Mostly I’m upset Marc Warren’s considerable talents were wasted on such a grand scale. So much could have been made of Bob Fink in the hands of a more creative writing staff... every week on Fargo and Better Call Saul, to name just two current examples, corrupt cops and wannabe gangsters (who are often the same characters) have rich, unpredictable storylines which give talented actors a broad canvas on which to showcase their talents and play off one another. But the Fink charter is merely insulted by everyone in his orbit from the beginning (which, frankly, just made me sympathize with him), marginalized in most of the plot and never given enough to do. 

I suspect Ed Westwick fans are also somewhat frustrated that Westwick, who was front and center in most of the promotion,  was too easily dispensed with in episode four, and that most of his colorful momements were actually given away the commercials. 

I'm still baffled by Marc’s treatment in that promotion. His name was literally never mentioned once by other actors or by the show’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds, though he’s the closest thing to a main antagonist the show has. (Photos of his character appeared, but Marc was never named.)  Did Marc want to avoid being part of the publicity? Was it some sort of misguided decision by the marketing staff because Marc is relatively unknown here, or even because a handful of people keep whining about how much they disliked his character on The Good Wife? I just don’t get it. I’d like some answers about this.

But the promotional absurdities wouldn’t  matter if Marc had been given a decent role to play, and he was shorted in that department too... Fink could have been a great villain or a great tragic character, but, despite some great acting moments from Marc, he wasn’t allowed to be either. The character is bullied, deceived and marginalized by both his gangster friends and corrupt police associates, yet  the writing kept implying he deserved this without ever providing proof. 

Then there was the Vic Hill character, who the writers clearly intended to be charming, but I saw only a thuggish man-child who continuously jeopardizes his family and bullies his perceived underlings. I hated him from the beginning and he only got worse. Dougray Scott’s hammily overdone performance didn’t help matters. I was on Bob’s side pretty much from the start... if only the writers had a clue about nuance and a willingness to challenge their audience or divide it, but... no. There was no character depth to speak of anywhere.

As for the young leads... the old kiddie ganster musical Bugsy Malone kept popping into my head. i couldn’t take them seriously as adults despite the fact these actors are in their late 20s-early 30s and more than capable of playing bona fide adults if they’d been given a decent script. Instead they were given hoary paint-by-numbers plot cliches cribbed from every gangster movie since the 1920s, padded out by clumsily-executed heist sequences and flashbacks that played like music videos.  

In some ways it seemed like the series had two or three episodes worth of material, and the rest was filler, leading to a number of pointless tangents and inexplicable actions. The backstory about the gold was goofy at best, and nice coincidence about it resurfacing exactly when and where Albert, Charlie et al were planning to hijack Sonny’s cash (in an identical truck, no less). The show is full of such cartoonish improbabilities, though none delivered with the verve of an actual cartoon.  

There are repetitive flashback’s of Vic’s original heist (yeah, let’s show Bob getting heaped with more abuse... ), loony side-stories filling in for character development (ie Billy’s whole backstory... what a wasted opportunity that was. Though Lucien Laviscount did a great job with the few subtle dialogue moments he got between having to beat people up and listen to crazy yarns about his parents), repetitive scenes of Charlie getting impaired in various ways, an out-of-nowhere love triangle that seems to be there just to divide the main group, female characters who have too little to do in general except be feisty and supportive (or, in the case of Dwyer, feisty and cuntish)... I get the sense the scripts were all written in the weekend before filming began, and that no one really scrutinized them closely. 

Yes, I’m a Marc Warren fan and am biased. And I knew going in that he was probably playing an antagonist and that he’d get iced in the final episode... I’m used to all of that. Pretty much every actor I’ve ever admired from Lon Chaney Sr onward got typecast as villains or outsiders and got killed onscreen more times than Steve Buscemi does throughout the Coen Brothers’ oeuvre. I don’t have a problem with that. Conventional heroes and the squarejaws who play them bore me. I love complicated characters and character actors who seek out such roles.   

But I don't appreciate youth-obsessed deck-stacking, treating bullies as heroes, and writing which both wants our protagonists to be “bad-ass” or at least risk-taking, yet continuously lets them off the hook, either through miraculous escapes or through having the older characters or one-note side characters take bullets for them or do the dirty work. Full disclosure: I haven’t bothered with the last two episodes because I was so disgusted with what went down in episode 8. I’m pretty sure the Young Pretty People prevailed and that Albert redeemed the sins of his father and finally said something nice to Charlie according to schedule. I can’t say I really care. 

As in The Musketeers, Marc played a bullied, mistreated character who I couldn’t help but care about, both because Marc is such an exquisite actor even in marginal roles, and because I tend to side with complicated or oppressed characters, not with self-described “heroes”.  In both shows, despite being the nominal villain, his character was shunted to the sidelines for too much of the duration, then suddenly given a lot of screentime just before being ganged up on and killed off.  So yeah, the worst kind of deja vu... in The Musketeers at least Rochefort had some fun or powerful moments, and I understood that the show’s episodic structure hindered a more nuanced character through-line. 

But Snatch has no such excuses. Also: couldn’t Bob and Charlie have had a sustained sequence or conversation without annoying cutaways to more trivial matters, like Vic torturing Charlie’s butler (which was played for laughs! God how I hated Vic...)? And why did Bob keep leaving the apartment? Apart from more plot-padding I mean? Why didn’t Bob shoot Vic when he had the chance? Because he really should have. Why was the whole tiresome side trip to America necessary, given how easily Billy got the diamonds back? Much of the plot strains on like that, making no sense. 

The Snatch showrunners keep comparing their efforts to Fargo, Noah Hawley’s brilliant offshoot of the Coens’ film (of all their films, really)... they need to stop doing this. It does them no favors and it makes me pine for Marc to get cast on Hawley’s show (or anything by Vince Gilligan) instead. Yes, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, because the writers on those shows know something about ambiguity, character development, unpredictable plotting, creative musical cues, and, most essentially, how to hire great character actors and write roles worthy of them, then give them room to breathe onscreen.   Hawley or Gilligan would’ve known what to do with Bob Fink. They could’ve done for Marc what they’ve done for Giancarlo Esposito, Bryan Cranston, Jonathan Banks, Bokeem Woodbine, Alison Tolman... even established stars like Ewen McGregor  and Billy Bob Thornton have shown new capabilities on Fargo. I would donate my left kidney to see Marc on one of those shows, whereas if the Snatch crew had created Breaking Bad... I'm sure Walter White would’ve been killed off in season one while the balance of the show went on to document the hijinks of Badger and Skinny Pete.   

I know I’ve gone on long enough, but I'm still bitter. ;) Marc Warren has really scaled back his acting commitments in recent years. I have no idea why, whether his priorities now lie elsewhere (and it’s none of my business to guess where), or whether he’s just not getting the calibre of role he’d like... if Snatch and Audible “Audio dramas” are the best he’s being offered, it must be very frustrating, but I don't want to judge his choices when I have no idea why they were made. Marc rarely gives interviews these days.  He has said in the past that Mad Dogs arose from the poor quality of roles offered him at that time. If he and his actor friends wanted to crowdfund something along those lines I would do everything in my power to promote that or help. If Marc simply wants to focus his attentions elsewhere and not act so often, that’s perfectly within his rights as well. Of course he owes me nothing. I hope that when he appears at Birmingham’s Collectormania fancon to do signings next month (June 3) he’ll give us a hint of some kind. (Don’t worry, Marc, I won’t be there... I only do the fangirl thing from a distance.) 

Anyhow... with Marc doing so few projects lately, it’s incredibly frustrating to wait months for something like Snatch, that so consistently fails to deliver. Marc does the best he can and has some great moments in spite of the limits he’s working under. As I’ve said, there was the potential for a great, messy, complicated character there. He deserved so much better.