#good warner hunting

[anti-rop]

absolutely despicable behavior from WB to plunder a fan film from 15 years ago just because their corporate greed led them to want to make their own (likely soulless even with PJ’s involvement) version with the exact same title.

UPDATE: the copyright has been released and the fan film The Hunt for Gollum is back on YouTube and can be watched. Though, it's still really telling of the capitalist corruption of WB and Hollywood that their first move and publicity for this (unnecessary) movie was to directly attack the fans for something produced over a decade ago.

[galactic-glamour-girl-posts]

I'm bored...I'm gonna analyse a GIF.

This year marks Ed, Edd n Eddy's 25th anniversary. I may not talk about it much on this blog, but it's one of my all time favourite cartoons. I'd watch it constantly during my childhood and to this day "Big Picture Show" is my favourite series finale. So, given how much I enjoy the show, I was happy to see more tweets about it than usual on my Twitter (yes I'm still calling it that) timeline because of the anniversary.

The influx of tweets (yes I'm still calling them that) about the show led me to this tweet. There's a very good analysis of the moment here on Tumblr, but here's a screenshot from a reply under the tweet of what the user said.

It made me think of other similar moments of character acting in animation, and of course I started thinking of examples from Animaniacs.

There's many to be found across the original show and the reboot, but one example I really like is this moment here:

For context, all three Warners are making similar jokes about the size of a hunter's feet.

It's not the dialogue I wanna talk about, this moment is brief and ultimately not that important, but I just love how the Warners are animated here. It tells you a lot about them based only on the character acting and body language:

Yakko

Yakko is the first to come onscreen to make a comment, indicating that he's the leader. He calmy walks into frame holding one hand out conversationally, before standing with both arms behind his back. Compared to the other two's stances, this makes him look more reserved and professional. This not only indicates that he's older, but also suggests he's cool-headed and not as reliant on physical action as his sibs, hence why his arms are behind his back; he only really needs his voice. He gives a smug grin, so even without hearing what he's saying you know he's being snarky right now, which contrasts with his body language, showing he's purposefully maintaining a deceptively non-aggressive demeanour and is likely a smart aleck in general.

Wakko

Wakko is the only one who doesn't come in from the side, instead he enters frame from below, indicating that he's the most unconventional of the three. He flails his arms around rather than keeping them in one place like Yakko, which not only suggests that he's more wild and energetic, but (as I said earlier) is more reliant on physical action than Yakko. Wakko does a sort of "don't worry about it" motion with his left arm with a simple smile on his face, a smile that lacks any smugness. This suggests that he's a little friendlier in comparison. He sticks out his tongue like a dog and eventually settles on T-rex arms, indicating that he's more animalistic than his sibs.

Dot

Dot quickly hops into frame from the side, almost like a pounce, with a determined and somewhat aggressive facial expression, showing energy and spunk. She punches the air, which only emphasizes her feistiness. Her movements suggest she's more prone to being outwardly aggressive than her brothers. Her expression softens to more of a cute smile, showing that she's not all aggression and is quite cute and jovial too. She settles with her hands on her hips, a typical pose used to show that a character is sassy and/or confident, hence indicating that Dot is too.

Basically I just think the way animation can be used to establish characters without us having to hear a word out of them is really cool.

[hereissomething]

just found out today that David Warner plays a Peter Vincent-alike in a movie called "My Best Friend is a Vampire" (1987) and now im desperate to watch it. he even has the same wardrobe colors, a peter gun, AND a trunk full of vampire huntin tools🫨

(thank u to @ropermike's amazing whump archives that span decades of cinema and tv series🙏)

[centawen]

Hoo boy there is already Hunt for gollum from 2009...

Warner bros did you take small unofficial lotr film from 2009?

What next warner bros? Maybe a small unofficial lotr film from 2009 Born of hope?

They’re making The Gollum Movie for real Apollo’s dodgeball strikes again 😭

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🌈 Queer Books Coming Out in August 2024 🌈

🌈 Good afternoon, my bookish bats! Here are a FEW of the stunning, diverse queer books you can add to your TBR before the year is over. Happy reading!

[ Text list below ⤵ ]

❓What was the last queer book you read?

[ Release dates may have changed. ]

❤️ Failure to Comply - Sarah Cavar 🧡 I Spit On Your Celluloid - Heidi Honeycutt 💛 You're Embarrassing Yourself - Desiree Akhavan 💚 Death of the Hero - Briona Johnson 💙 Between Dragons and Their Wrath - Devin Madson 💜 The Crimson Crown - Heather Walter ❤️ Sacrificial Animals - Kailee Pedersen 🧡 Oath of Fire - K. Arsenault Rivera 💛 The Palace of Eros - Caro De Robertis 💙 This Ravenous Fate - Hayley Dennings 💜 Mistress of Lies - K.M. Enright 🌈 Wolf Bite - T.J. Nichols

❤️ In the Valley, A Shadow - Samantha Tano 🧡 Follow My Lead - Adrian J. Smith 💛 The Last Woman I Kissed - Venetia Di Pierro 💚 Full Shift - Jennifer Dugan & Kristen Seaton 💙 Hers for the Weekend - Helena Greer 💜 Come Out, Come Out - Natalie C. Parker ❤️ Rules for Ghosting - Shelly Jay Shore 🧡 How to Leave the House - Nathan Newman 💛 Plot Twist - Carmen Sereno 💙 On the Far Side of a Crescendo - Kalyn Hazel 💜 Tiny Oblivions and Mutual Self Destructions - Maxwell I. Gold 🌈 Daylan and the River of Secrets - Edd Tello

❤️ The Italy Letters - Vi Khi Nao 🧡 The Gender Binary Is a Big Lie - Lee Wind 💚 The House Where Death Lives - Alex Brown 💙 Ash's Cabin - Jen Wang 💜 The Avian Hourglass - Lindsey Drager ❤️ The Heart Wants - Krystina Rivers 🧡 A Grand Love - Janna Barkin 💛 You Can't Go Home Again - Jeanette Bears 💜 Libertad - Bessie Flores Zaldivar 🌈 Her Golden Coast - Anat Deracine

❤️ Mighty Millie Novak - Elizabeth Holden 💛 Rise and Divine - Lana Harper 💚 Dying for You - L Flowers 💙 I'll Have What He's Having - Adib Khorram 💜 Changing Her Tune - Amanda Kabak ❤️ Monogamy? In this Economy? - Laura Boyle 🧡 The Rainbow Age of Television - Sayna Maci Warner 💛 Medusa of the Roses - Navid Sinaki 💙 Confounding Oaths - Alexis Hall 💜 Idol Lives - K.T. Salvo 🌈 Brother's Keeper - Quinn Cameron

❤️ Key Lime Sky - Al Hess 🧡 Crushing It - Erin Becker 💛 The Husky and His White Cat Shizun - Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou 💚 Not for the Faint of Heart - Lex Croucher 💙 Tasting Temptation - JJ Arias 💜 Ami - S. Jae-Jones ❤️ You're the Problem, It's You - Emma R. Alban 🧡 Cubs & Campfires - Dylan Drakes 💛 The Dark We Know - Wen-yi Lee 💙 Practical Rules for Cursed Witches - Kayla Cottingham 💜 Riyati Rebirth - Kalani Shimizu 🌈 The Brujos of Borderland High - Gume Laurel III

❤️ A Bánh Mì for Two - Trinity Nguyen 🧡 Dance of the Starlit Sea - Kiana Krystle 💛 Scattered Snows, to the North - Carl Phillips 💚 Beyond a World Apart - Caitlin Myers 💙 Don't Let It Break Your Heart - Maggie Horne 💜 Nothing Heals Me Like You Do - Harper Bliss ❤️ How It All Ends - Emma Hunsinger 🧡 How Do I Sexy? - Mx. Nillin Lore 💛 The Palace of Eros - Caro De Robertis 💙 Prince of the Palisades - Julian Winters 💜 Better Left Buried - Mary E. Roach 🌈 Back to Back - Jo Fletcher

❤️ DITCHLAPSE / [REALLY AFRAID] - Tommy Wyatt 🧡 The Love Archives: Bonus Scenes & Excerpts for Palestine - Various 💛 Guardian: Zhen Hun - Ying Priest 💚 The Sunforge - Sascha Stronach 💙 Queering Reproductive Justice - Candace Bond-Theriault 💜 Gender Explained - Diane Ehrensaft & Michelle Jurkiewicz ❤️ The Unlikely Pair - Jax Calder 🧡 In Universes - Emet North 💛 We Love the Nightlife - Rachel Koller Croft 💙 Lessons from Cruising - Martin Goodman 💜 Wild Ginger in the Rhubarb - Eule Grey 🌈 Not My Circus - Delicia Niami

❤️ Asunder - Kerstin Hall 🧡 The Phoenix Keeper - S.A. MacLean 💛 Encounters with James Baldwin - Various 💚 Verity's Game - Jennifer Giacalone 💙 Hunt Me! I Crave the Chase - Fae Quin 💜 The Audacity Omnibus - Carmen Loup ❤️ Haunted to Death - Frank Anthony Polito 🧡 Blood Orange - Paige Grunewald 💛 The Bad Things We Did - Chris Archeske 💙 Dark Restraint - Katee Robert 💜 Worth the Wait - Kenna White 🌈 The Maid and the Crocodile - Jordan Ifueko

❤️ Loving Corrections - Adrienne Maree Brown 🧡 The Last Witch in Edinburgh - Marielle Thompson 💛 The Duchess of Kokora - Nikhil Prabala 💚 The Scales of Seduction - Rien Gray 💙 Survival Is a Promise - Alexis Pauline Gumbs 💜 Loka - S.B. Divya ❤️ The Every Body Book of Consent - Rachel E Simon 🧡 Southern Lights - Liz Arncliffe 💛 Then Things Went Dark - Bea Fitzgerald 💙 Death at Morning House - Maureen Johnson 💜 The Last Doorbell - William Parker 🌈 The Pairing - Casey McQuiston

[in-a-continuous-daydream]

Songs that remind me of IWTV and the characters:

You think you’re a good person because you won’t punch me in the stomach

You’re not special you’re evil, you don’t get to tell me to calm down

Time casts its spell on you, but you won’t forget me

I’ll follow you down till the sound of my voice will hunt you

There ain’t nothing we can do to protect you

Have you left a seat for me? Is that such a stretch of the imagination?

Turns out I’m not real, just something you paid for. What was I made for?

I’ve been big and small. And big and small. And big and small again. And still nobody wants me, still nobody wants me.

[kingoftheclaudes]

I can't find a lot of these movies that have my beautiful man in them 😭

Alas, this is the curse when coveting precious material with our dear friend Claude...but! There are some sources that could that can hopefully help you out!

A good chunk of Claude movies are available free-to-watch via YouTube and we'll link a playlist here!

Numerous others are available to stream on Tubi, which is another free service that has a lot of good movies. Here's a list of all the Claude movies currently available to watch!

If you don't have time to watch the movie, why not peruse a pressbook? The Internet Archive has scanned copies of old Warner Bros. pressbooks (booklets featuring interviews and promotional materials) as well as full-length movies. For example, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington can be found right here!

Another website is ok.ru, which we believe has every single Claude Rains movie up to watch for free. This channel has all of them!

Alternatively, you can always check out your local library for DVD copies and some libraries give you free access to online borrowing services such as Hoopla or Libby that may have copies.

Hopefully this helped and good luck and happy hunting! :)

[bryan360]

"🦸‍♀️🦇The Heroes"

🦇🌙Batty Midnight: Watch out, bad guys! I'm changing from the Dark Night since Inktober of 2022 (Link Here) to an amazon warrior who never back down! With my lasso of truth on hand, I'll make sure to be ready when facing off danger and help everyone in need. I'm not coming alone as I'm with these two female super pets that will helping me in battle. Krypto the Superdog and the rest were to busy facing off the big bad somewhere, but nothing we can handle a problem with my pet friends. Sure hope the Justice League will be proud of us when its over. 😊👍

🇵🇷Me: I'm sure they'll do, Batty. BTW, you seen that female cat character included; which was from 2022's DC League of Super-Pets animated movie if you know. I even made my first fanart that time if you haven't check it yet. ➡️(Link Here)

🇵🇷Me: I know already this cat character's minor villainous role from said film as I'd mentioned. This is my "What If" depiction of her; redeemed form instead of being a bad kitten who worked for an evil guinea pig antagonist. Again, didn't watched this animated film or something. Just the concept that it counts when watching some clips on YouTube. At least I'd tried to work it out when doing this Inktober post share today. Just imagine if Whiskers turned good that I can't help myself think about for a bit. 🤔

And some video clips from “DC League of Super-Pets” to see what I mean. ⬇️

Batty Midnight (as Wonder Woman) created by me; BryanVelasquez87 (Bryan360)

PB the Pig and Whiskers the Cat - DC League of Super-Pets (2022); Warner Bros Animation Group, DC Entertainment

Previously: ⬇️

“⬛️⬜️🪦The Grave” - Link Here #1

“🦝🦝The Raccoons” - Link Here #2

“🐿️💕❄️The Climbers” -Link Here #3

“🐱🎸🐶 The Guitarist” - Link Here #4

“🐰👮The Cops” - Link Here #5

“🐶🏴‍☠️👑The Joy” - Link Here #6

“🦔🦊💍The Rings” - Link Here #7

“🦦🐟The Fish” - Link Here #8

“🐱👢🌙 The Cuteness” - Link Here #9

“🎧🦨 The Beats” - Link Here #10

“🔴🐼🐶 The Dogs” - Link Here #11

”🐿️🐰🎸The Band” - Link Here #12

“🦊🔵 The Tallest” - Link Here #13

“🌳😟 The Hunted” - Link Here #14

“🤗❤️ The Hugging” - Link Here #15

“🐭🐩🎞️The Classics” - Link Here #16

“🐷🍫The Chase” - Link Here #17

“🎈🦫The Drifting” - Link Here #18

“🕵️👧🏻The Spies” - Link Here #19

“🐑📖👨‍⚕️The Member” - Link Here #20

“🐰🦄🦁The Painters” - Link Here #21

“🐔🥚🐰The Egg” - Link Here #22

Tagged: @murumokirby360 @shadowredfeline@alexander1301 @sammirthebear2k4

[crossovershipstournament]

ROUND 3: SIDE 1: Max Goof (Disney)/Yakko Warner (Animaniacs) VS Sora (Kingdom Hearts)/Jim Hawkins (Treasure Planet) VS Johnny Bravo (Johnny Bravo)/Samurai Jack (Samurai Jack)

*Mun Note: There are three options because Sora/Jim and Johnny/Jack tied last round, so this round is a three-way matchup. Only the winning ship will advance to the next round.

Propaganda for Max Goof/Yakko Warner:

I just like them. I think its cute. Romeo and juliet vibes because theyre from different studios, Disney vs warner brothers. They're both funny, dorky guys, and they bring out the best in each other. Plus only child vs overworked older child turned parent is a really good dynamic too.

YAX SWEEP

#YAX SWEEEEEEEEP!!!!!!

#yakko x max opened my third eye #this needs to be a thing

Cameo of Max's VA expressing approval of the ship~!

#YAX SWEEP #LETS GOOO

#yax propagandists ASSEMBLE

#yax sweep #they deserve it

Propaganda for Sora/Jim Hawkins:

I just think they're cute and they should put a Treasure Planet world in Kingdom Hearts.

I can't believe I have to choose! Jimmy/Timmy had a nice dynamic in their specials, but I just can't help but vote for Sora/Jim because of what we don't have. I'd love for Sora and Jim to get together, I think they'll have a lot to talk about! #HEY SORA AND JIM ARE IMPORTANT TO ME #VOTE FOR THEM

Propaganda for Johnny Bravo/Samurai Jack:

A man physically out of time and a man mentally out of time. In that little laundromat, these two men exchange a conversation filled with sexual tension. Jack overwhelmed by Johnny’s strength. Johnny overwhelmed by Jack’s sense of calm. Despite all the ways it shouldn’t work, there’s a real affection simmering under that surface. Mutual attraction, that if they acted in it, could transform their lives in such a myriad of ways. With Jack’s endless hunt for Aku and Johnny’s endless hunt for sex, the only barrier between their happiness is their sense of duty holding them back.

#i cant help but smile and giggle a bit at the propaganda for jack and johnny because yeah. yeah exactly this. this is what its all about #I <3 GAY PEOPLE

#alright now seriously PLEASE VOTE FOR JOHNNY BRAVO X SAMURAI JACK!!!!!!!! #WHEN I FOUND OUT ABOUT THAT SHIP MY BRAIN EXPLODED #and then i forgot this ship existed for. 4 years (????) if i didn't find this poll i would never remember it

#remider to support Samuraibravo

Art Credit: Max/Yakko art by @/doodle-poofes Sora/Jim art by @/smovs Johnny/Jack screencaps are from the laundromat short

[crashlapine]

"people just don't seek out music anymore and that's why spotify is such a vital service in helping artists get discovered and paid"

hey. buddy. listen 2 me. my fixation on the band sElf is because twenty seconds of a song of theirs was backing a monster hunter world gameplay clip someome posted to a now-dead twitter account. A hand-curated music playlist for a VRChat world I accidentally typo'd my way into introduced me to Superorganism's "It's All Good" a few years ago. Crumb's two albums Jinx and Ice Melt are among the highest number of full-album playthroughs in my library because i caught a shitty recording of Locket playing in-car over a snippet of someone's dash cam footage audio that was lifted for a youtube clip compilation channel someone else runs. back in 2011 my high school forced my entire grade to watch an anti-bullying PSA that ran on for 40 minutes but the credits had Dabrye's "Making It Pay" playing over it and that set me on the path to exploring all of Ghostly International's available music releases i could get my paws on at the time.

like. i've discovered music in the most obtuse places, often via the most unlicensed conduits those tunes could've possibly accompanied, and i can say with one hundred percent sincerity that the $9 i've spent just once on a digital album or two so i could listen to it again and again has probably put more food on the table of these musicians than spotify's "minimum one thousand streams annually per-song before payouts" discovery playback ever could achieve across a decade for many of these folks. i promise this isn't a brag, I just don't know how else to explain that spotify really isn't the only viable path forward when music permeates every facet of this world and all you have to do is take note when something catches your ear. the only thing truly making it harder to discover new music is licensing restrictions, automated Content-ID matching, and the universal/sony/warner music trio regularly leveraging both of the former to ensure your favorite song has an expiration date by tamping down on all of this, and unless you can hunt down a copy to save locally, a time will come when you'll never be able to hear that favorite song again. this isn't a threat; you and me both are going to outlive this service, as we've outlived many other online-only services before it.

(and i say this with complete sincerity to those not in a financially viable place to buy albums on the reg: just slurp the .wav off youtube homie. compared to spotify, the net gain to the individual artist is exactly the same. who knows, maybe you'll be able to inadvertently pass it along to someone else who's able to go and make that purchase, as others have unknowingly done to me. word of mouth alone is a /very/ powerful discovery tool)

[mydemondetoxmanual]

I know everyone on Reddit pretty much is already aware but haven’t seen it mentioned too much on tumblr but

A bunch of people have been archiving all of roosterteeths videos including all of ah/fh/screw attack etc videos. This also includes any videos posted to the website, anything that was first members only etc.

There is a good possibility all YouTube videos might go private at some point as Warner bros has a history of doing this with channels they’ve shut down (see Machinima) and we lose access to years of history. The website will also be shutdown.

If you’re interested in any of those videos head over to

Archiveofpimps.com

They also have a discord where they’re still actively working to make sure everything is archived properly, hunting down videos, tools on how to archive yourself and if you want to support the archive website.

[mattnben-bennmatt]

Ben Affleck's interview w/ The Hollywood Reporter (10 October 2012)

Confessions of Ben Affleck

Argo's Oscar-baiting director, newly 40, talks about his career turnaround, how anxiety drives him, what Matt Damon's wife might think when he comes over, and what he emailed J. Lo.

By Stephen Galloway

On Aug. 15, Ben Affleck — Oscar-winning wunderkind of Good Will Hunting, other half of “Bennifer,” skyrocketing superstar who soared, sank and sizzled again thanks to his directing endeavors Gone Baby Gone and The Town — turned 40.

He celebrated with a dinner party thrown by his wife, Jennifer Garner, at their Pacific Palisades home, attended by a handful of close friends on the brink of middle age, including Matt Damon, his WME agent Patrick Whitesell and Disney production president Sean Bailey.

“It was not fun for me,” says Affleck of entering his fifth decade. “It’s this moment of bifurcation between youth and middle age. One wants to think of oneself as young. One does not want to think: ‘Wait a minute! How can I be halfway to death?’ ”

Halfway to death, perhaps, but sitting with him one late September morning at Santa Monica’s Hotel Casa del Mar, this actor-turned-director — the Hollywood embodiment of nine lives — seems anything but as he bristles with nervous energy, words spilling out of him about his roller-coaster past and glittering present.

“He’s gone to the top and then to the bottom and now to the top again,” says Damon, his friend since the two met as children. “He’s gotten the full measure of what this life in Hollywood can offer, and now he is comfortable with it.”

Nearly a decade after Affleck had one of the most ignominious falls in Hollywood history — thanks in part to Gigli and dubious PR stunts like kissing Jennifer Lopez‘s derriere in a music video — he has emerged, unexpectedly and almost suddenly, as one of the best directors of his generation. Warner Bros.’ Argo, an Iranian hostage drama that he helmed, is an early leader in the awards race. Set to open Oct. 12, it was called a “tight and tense political thriller” by THR‘s Todd McCarthy and has earned the kind of raves that once would have seemed impossible for the star of Armageddon.

All this is the hard-earned climax to a deeply considered shift Affleck embarked on eight years ago, when he set out his goals and determined never again to do work he was ashamed of. “I made the decision: ‘I’m never, ever, ever going to do anything where I don’t absolutely kill myself to get it right,’ ” he recalls.

Vanished is the man who dwelt on his deep insecurity when he and this reporter last sat down about five years ago. During that conversation, he admitted the Gone Baby Gone shoot had left him physically sick from stress. “I’m very insecure,” he said. “I’m human, just like anybody else.”

Vanished, too, is the tabloid pinata with his colorful love life, personal drama (including a stint in rehab) and career highs and lows. “I tried to ignore it as much as possible,” he says of the fuss. “There was only one way to handle a situation like that: Go straight through it.”

He addresses all this with an openness and even sweetness that would surprise those used to the more coiled figure onscreen. “I was shocked at how warm he is,” says Alan Arkin, who plays a Hollywood producer in Argo. “He’s got a great deal of warmth, and he’s not afraid to show it. He has a wonderfully open, youthful quality that you don’t see a lot in the characters he plays.”

Sitting by a window overlooking the Pacific, in jeans and a blue-checkered shirt, unshaven and sipping from a plastic cup of soda, with flecks of gray in his beard and a gold tooth he’s never bothered to replace, he has embraced the very doubts that once assailed him. “Anxiety is a kind of fuel that activates the fight-or-flight part of the brain in me,” he says. “It makes sure that a velociraptor isn’t around the corner and that you do as much as you possibly can to survive. Because Hollywood has a lot in common with Jurassic Park and its primeval-dinosaur universe.”

Affleck, the one-time party boy, now gets up at 6, goes to bed at 9 and has been married for seven years with three children (Violet, Seraphina and Samuel) under age 7. As he discusses married life, Garner, about to fly to New York, calls on his cell.

“Hey, love, are you on the plane?” he asks gently. “I’m in an interview right now, but I love you very much.” Then he quips that her trip is doubly traumatic for the actress, “First, ’cause she’s away from the kids, second, ’cause I’m in charge.”

She might have reason to worry, given how consumed Affleck is by work. “There are so many decisions to be made, and it’s more than you can get to each day,” he says. “There is this underlying anxiety not just about getting the movie done but getting it done really well. It keeps my head spinning — even when I am giving the kids a bath. I can be giving them a bath or feeding them, and sometimes they say, ‘Dad, pay attention!’ ”

When he’s not with his family, he’s at home working in a “sort of little office hut” or developing material through Pearl Street Productions, the Warners-based company he runs with Damon, who has remained a lodestar throughout the ups and downs and who now lives down the street from him. “We see each other almost too often,” laughs Affleck. “I wonder if his wife is thinking, ‘Is he really going to come over every night?’ “

When he’s on his own, he reads and consumes films avidly. He has just finished Laurence Gonzales‘ nonfiction book Surviving Survival, about how individuals cope with horrific incidents like being attacked by sharks; he also has been reading novelist Gillian Flynn‘s suspense drama Gone Girl and David Mitchell‘s Cloud Atlas.

Rather than watch television, he recently has immersed himself in a trip through some of the greatest films ever made — from the 2011 Mexican movie Miss Bala to director Victor Fleming‘s The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind, which he viewed back-to-back — as if he wants to quench a raging thirst for the knowledge that will allow him to seize the ring within his grasp. He is intrigued to hear about Memo From David O. Selznick, a collection of the Gone With the Wind producer’s notes, and orders it immediately by phone after his interview.

He also spends time at a coastal getaway near Savannah, Ga., and in his New York apartment, where he expects to move with Garner when their kids have grown up. He plays poker on a regular basis with actor Hank Azaria and his Argo producer Grant Heslov. “It’s very, very psychological,” he explains of his attraction to the game. “It’s about weakness and strength and divining whether the other person is strong or weak.”

He goes skeet shooting and admits to owning several guns — which he has embraced since his wife faced a stalker.

“The stalker had been to our house many times and ultimately came to my children’s school and was arrested,” notes Affleck of Steven Burky, who was deemed insane in 2010 then placed in a mental ward and ordered to stay away from the Affleck family for 10 years. “It gave me a stronger sense of feeling protective about my family. There’s a lot of crazy, weird people out there. It’s an ugly world.”

Affleck has given up any notion of reforming it. After once being rumored to want a career in public office, he now says, “I loathe politics.” He supports President Obama but has not actively campaigned — partly because of his workload, partly because of his political disillusionment and partly because he is convinced the president will win the election despite the Oct. 3 debate. “I watched it backstage at Jimmy Kimmel,” he says. “It wasn’t his best performance. But I am still going to vote for him, and I am very, very confident he will win.”

As to his other interests: “Kids eat up that kind of hobby time,” he admits. “I used to ride motorcycles. I used to play basketball. And now basically I’m at home with them, or I work.”

The work itself will have its greatest test with Argo. Affleck was fresh off 2010’s The Town and in talks to helm another movie at Sony when Warners showed him Chris Terrio‘s script about real-life CIA operative Tony Mendez and his little-known plan to free six men and women who had fled the U.S. embassy in Tehran when it was seized in 1979. The escapees took refuge with two Canadian diplomats, and Mendez set about creating a phony Hollywood film, Argo (that title derives from a CIA in-joke — “Ah, go f– yourself” — though it is not presented that way in the movie), as a front to squirrel them out of the country.

The moment he read it, Affleck called Heslov and George Clooney, who had been developing the project through their Smoke House production company, “and I just launched into what my take was and didn’t stop talking for 45 minutes.”

Heslov and Clooney were sold.

“This film tonally is a very tricky piece, and he had very intelligent things to say about that,” recalls Heslov, describing the movie’s tightrope balance of comedy and suspense. “His idea was to push the thriller aspect a little more than we’d originally talked about. And he was right.”

Initially, Affleck had envisioned reworking the script himself, but the draft was so impressive and his relationship with Terrio so good that he allowed Terrio to make the changes. Together, they added a new opening that succinctly explains the Iranian revolution and how it led to the capture of more than 50 Americans, who would remain captive for 444 days within the embassy.

They also worked on redefining Affleck’s character, based on Mendez. “He was a little bit more broken in the draft that we got,” notes Affleck. “He was older, an alcoholic. And I changed that and made his personal stuff revolve more around his family and losing his marriage.” Ultimately, he says, that was “the wrong choice because I ended up cutting most of it out. I cut out six or seven minutes from the final film, which is a lot.”

Other characters were merged, and some situations simplified, which later would lead to complaints from former Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor that his country hadn’t been given its due. Affleck addressed those concerns with a card at the end of the film that explains how the CIA plot complemented Canadian efforts, which he expands on in a long interview planned for the DVD.

In preparation for the movie, he flew to Maryland and met with Mendez, who took him to a bar that turned out to be a CIA hangout — the very hangout where agent-turned-spy Aldrich Ames had met some of his Soviet contacts. He was surprised how taciturn Mendez was. “He was extremely withdrawn and very unassuming,” says Affleck, adding that he only came to understand this when he saw the 2001 Errol Morris documentary about the operative, The Little Gray Man, showing how blandness was crucial to his work, allowing him to blend into alien environments.

With Mendez on board (joined by John Goodman as real-life Hollywood makeup man John Chambers, Bryan Cranston as a CIA staffer and Arkin as a fictionalized producer), the CIA opened its doors beyond anything Affleck had experienced when he’d worked with the agency on 2002’s Tom Clancy thriller The Sum of All Fears.

Invited to visit, he was astonished that “every hallway had a pretty elaborate lock on it, and every door had a lock, and there were no windows to see in any of the rooms, so everything was secure. Some of the offices had two computers at every desk, one with huge stickers that said: ‘This is connected to the Internet. No classified information.’ I wanted to use that, except there were no computers in 1979.”

He also was surprised how low-key the place seemed, even when he stepped into its holy of holies, the futuristic Operations Center, where supersecret material and personnel were whisked away before he arrived. His impression of inactivity changed two weeks later, “when they killed Osama bin Laden.”

Thanks to the CIA’s reverence for Mendez, Affleck received permission to shoot several sequences at the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Va. — though “that meant having the trucks show up at 2 in the morning, so they could all be searched down to the screw. I’ve shot in a prison, and the search they put you through was nothing like this.”

Most of the film, remarkably, was filmed in and around Los Angeles, with a Hancock Park mansion standing in for the Canadian ambassador’s residence, where the escapees hid out. (In reality, they were kept in two separate places in Tehran.) Zsa Zsa Gabor‘s home was used for the Hollywood producer’s (she was upstairs during shooting, but too sick to come down), and the Ontario International Airport, 35 miles east of L.A., substituted for Tehran’s.

A 65-day shoot began in California then relocated to Istanbul, Turkey, for a month. Affleck had hoped to use real-life Iranian immigrants in Turkey for all the crowd sequences but well into filming found that “we couldn’t get one person of Iranian descent who speaks Farsi to be in the movie because they’re all so terrified of what that would mean for their family back home. We were completely f–ed.”

(Some of those scenes later were re-staged in Los Angeles, where there are about a half-million Farsi speakers, says Affleck. They and the CGI shots that transformed signs in English gave the film a rare authenticity and allowed it to be made for a modest $44.5 million.)

Shooting in Istanbul had its challenges, especially when Affleck came down with the flu while still acting and directing. “He was really, really sick, with a fever, the whole thing, and he didn’t take a day off,” says Heslov. “At the worst point, he left a bit early, and he had to be feeling really terrible to do that.”

His enthusiasm was matched by the extras, who often numbered around 2,500 and occasionally got out of hand, especially once when Affleck was in his car. “People were yelling and chanting and throwing stuff and having fun — and it all sort of bled over,” he explains. “I was a little scared, although I tried to summon up that director’s arrogance. All the great directors, I think, are arrogant; so I thought, ‘This is the time when I get out the bullhorn and say, ‘Back off!’ ”

He didn’t, alas. “I must not be doing something right,” he jokes.

Contrary to his image as a working-class “Southie” in Good Will Hunting, and later in The Town, Affleck, the elder of two sons (his brother Casey also is an actor), grew up in relative comfort in Cambridge, Mass. His mother, Chris, had been one of the original freedom riders who went into the Deep South during the 1960s to fight for civil rights. Both she and his father, Tim, were intellectuals who gave their son the middle name Geza after a Holocaust survivor they admired. (Affleck comes from Protestant stock but is agnostic.)

Damon — who was 10 when he met his 8-year-old near-neighbor Ben — remembers the cut-and-thrust of discussions in the Affleck home. “That dinner table was one of the funnest places to be growing up because of all the debates that went on — on any subject. You had to craft an argument and a good one to survive. Ben really honed his debating skills there. He’s not a guy you want to get in a debate with.”

Adds Affleck: “My mother taught public school, went to Harvard and then got her master’s there and taught fifth and sixth grade in a public school. My dad had a more working-class lifestyle. He didn’t go to college. He was an auto mechanic and a bartender and a janitor at Harvard.”

He also was an alcoholic, a predisposition Affleck inherited. “His life sort of hit the skids when I was in my teens,” he says. “It was difficult. When one’s parent is an alcoholic, it’s hard. It was a little scary and trying, but then he got sober when I was twentysomething, and he’s been sober ever since.”

The two maintain a cordial relationship, though they don’t see each other much, says Affleck. “My father has positional vertigo, and if he flies he gets really dizzy, so he has to drive out to California, which he does a couple times a year. We talk, but we e-mail mostly.”

The problems at home peaked when Affleck’s parents split before his teens and filtered into his life at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, where he sought refuge in plays, appearing as Damon’s son in Friedrich Durrenmatt‘s The Visit before both started auditioning for professional roles.

“I was a bit of a f–up,” he says. “I got really good grades until the last two years, and then I didn’t. I was having issues around my dad and my mom, and things just weren’t that stable — though that puts the responsibility on them, when really I just lost focus and stopped caring.”

While Damon went to Harvard, Affleck attended the University of Vermont, where he majored in Middle Eastern Affairs before switching to Los Angeles’ Occidental College, embarking on an acting career while he and Damon were roommates in Eagle Rock, an East Los Angeles neighborhood.

He found minor success with such films as 1992’s School Ties and 1993’s Dazed and Confused. But it was Good Will Hunting — the script Affleck and Damon sold to Castle Rock Entertainment for $600,000, which went to Miramax in turnaround — that made them stars. At the Oscars, they brought their moms and soon were double-dating with Gwyneth Paltrow (Affleck) and Winona Ryder (Damon). America was enchanted. With an Academy Award for best original screenplay, Affleck was a mere 25 years old and as hot as they get.

Then something went wrong. Instead of following Hunting with equally impressive material, Affleck chose roles in such action pictures as 1998’s Armageddon and 2001’s Pearl Harbor, while Damon starred in Saving Private Ryan. Partly, says Damon, this was because these were big breaks for a relative newcomer and partly because Affleck thought he could fix scripts that didn’t work — only to discover the director is the fixer.

His movie choices solidified a lightweight image that, combined with romantic escapades, made him perfect fodder for an exploding celebrity press. When he went from dating Paltrow to media-magnet Lopez (buying her a multicarat pink diamond ring, to boot), he no longer was just an actor — he was part of a phenomenon known as Bennifer (version one). Their Bentley rides, engagements, breakups-and-makeups were chronicled almost in real time. Affleck, who had risen to earn a reported $10 million to $15 million per picture, now was more infamous than famous.

“To watch the entire world have the totally wrong idea about somebody you care about and admire was painful, just as his friend,” says Damon. “I can’t imagine what it felt like to him. I remember Ben calling and saying: ‘I can sell magazines and not movies. I’m in the worst possible place I can be.’ “

Over the next few years, everything he had built came crashing down. He already had gone into rehab for unspecified causes in 2001; then came the disappointment of his superhero-in-tights spectacle Daredevil and the disaster of Gigli, the 2003 picture in which he starred with Lopez before their relationship collapsed.

“I went to rehab for being 29 and partying too much and not having a lot of boundaries and to clear my head and try to get some idea of who I wanted to be,” explains Affleck, declining to go into further detail. “It was more a ‘let me get myself straight,’ before it became a rite of passage.”

He stays in touch with Lopez, just as he does Paltrow and his high school girlfriend, Cheyenne Rothman. “We don’t have the kind of relationship where she relies on me for advice,” he says of J.Lo, “but we do have the kind of relationship where there’ll be an e-mail saying, ‘Oh, your movie looks great.’ I remember when she got American Idol. I said: ‘This was really smart. Good luck.’ I touch base. I respect her. I like her. She’s put up with some stuff that was unfair in her life, and I’m really pleased to see her successful.”

Despite the media onslaught, Affleck’s closest friends remained convinced his talent was supreme.

“What always struck me was how smart he is,” says his longtime agent Whitesell. “He had the biggest disconnect of anybody between the way the world saw him and the way he really is. We talked to each other and said, ‘It’s going to be a long road back, but we will get there.’ “

When Affleck took the risk of going behind the cameras with Gone — a mystery about two investigators tracking a missing 4-year-old girl, released by Miramax in the post-Harvey Weinstein era — Hollywood insiders were stunned that this apparent featherweight had such depth. But the movie still was perceived either as a fluke or too dark to make Affleck a candidate for bigger films. Only Warners executive Jeff Robinov pursued him with absolute conviction.

“Gone Baby Gone was not at all financially successful,” notes Affleck. “But Robinov brought me into his office and said: ‘I think you’re a hell of a filmmaker, actor. What do you want to do? Tell us, and we’ll do it.’ And I wasn’t having those meetings with every studio.”

Affleck opted for The Town, a $37 million drama that earned $92 million domestically. Its success shocked even cynics. The flameout, who had become a byword for has-been, was now one of Hollywood’s most promising directors.

Getting there was a direct result of the decision Affleck made around 2004.

“I was frustrated with the movies that I had done,” he explains. “I knew that I had something to offer. I said: ‘Here are the things I’d like to do: I want to direct movies, and I want to be in a movie that I’m enormously proud of. I want to have kids.’ I set out goals. It was a bold thing because when one is accustomed to falling short, as I had been, one becomes fearful of making predictions. But I did.”

Garner, whom he met on Daredevil, contributed to this thinking. “Jennifer played such a profound role in making me a better person,” says Affleck. “We don’t have a perfect marriage, but she inspired me; and finding myself in that marriage and having a child dovetailed with getting to be a little more mature.”

Asked what drew him to his wife, he considers. “She truly is kind,” he says. “She means no one any harm. She doesn’t have ill will for any person. She’s not competitive with other people. She’s not spiteful.” He laughs. “It’s one of those things where it becomes almost aggravating at times. Every time I go, ‘F– him!’ I see in her face that she just thinks that’s petty and small.”

Now Affleck is concentrating on the meaningful and large. He is developing a movie adaptation of Stephen King‘s The Stand and plans to reteam with Damon on Whitey, the story of James Joseph “Whitey” Bulger Jr., a Boston crime figure who went on the run for 16 years before being captured outside his Santa Monica apartment in 2011. Affleck will direct, and Damon will star.

But other matters are beginning to weigh on him just as much as film. “One gets older,” he reflects, “and the things that you didn’t realize were absences in your life now feel like real vacancies.”

In November, he will make his seventh visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where bloody civil war has lasted 14 years (despite peace accords signed in 2003) and cost 5.4 million lives. It has become his abiding concern ever since “I came across this passage about how 10 times as many people have died in Congo in the wars since 1997 [as in Darfur] and was stunned that I didn’t know.”

The filmmaker first went there in 2007. “I saw terrible things,” he says. “You know: the amount of sexual-based violence against women; people suffering from preventable disease; child soldiers who needed to be integrated into society; children without schooling at all. So we started to get involved in those areas.”

Two years ago, he helped form the Eastern Congo Initiative, which provides developmental aid for local communities, working with farmers who grow cacao, among other activities.

Affleck’s commitment to Congo has not been risk-free. On one occasion, he was in a single-engine plane caught in a hailstorm, with a pilot who didn’t know his way. “We were flying through Sudan, and the hail was really banging up the plane. The pilot was saying he didn’t have enough fuel to fly back to Juba. I was terrified. It was the only time in my life where I really thought, deep in my heart, I might die.”

It’s a flash of the old insecurity that still remains, buried deep inside. He’s older, wiser, glowing in the gleam of his new film, but the fears and anxieties still have to be held at bay. Even in his work.

“Sometimes I get insecure about being a real director because I look at the great directors, and they have such command,” he says. “But maybe that keeps me critical of myself. Maybe it keeps me moving forward.”

[em-harlsnow]

Fictional World Tag Game <3

thanks for the tags @jademickian @sgtmickeyslaughter @iandarling

favourite fictional character from a movie? my favourite movie is good will hunting so I would probably say skylar

favorite fictional character from tv? well obvs it's mickey but I would also go for Eleanor from the good place

favorite fictional character of all time? MICKEY

if you could be irl friends with any three fictional characters, who? honestly it would probably be book characters like Kenji from Shatter Me and Celaena Sardothien from Throne of Glass. I also would probably choose Nick Miller from New Girl.

favorite fictional couple: ian and mickey easily

okay, you can only choose one fictional character to get stranded on and island with: Aaron Warner from shatter me because he cld probably swim us to shore

one fictional world you would hate to be a part of: the handmaid's tale

one fictional world you would love to be a part of: ive not watched all of it but probably Star Wars because I love space

your “HEAR ME OUT” fictional couple: I lowkey love mandy and Karen if lip just fucked off

and finally, something you’re looking forward to this week? I'm going into town with my best mate and we're going to pandoraaa so probably that

tagging @zapazai @transsexual-dandelions @depressedstressedlemonzest @tv-obssessions @atthedugouts @bawlbrayker @spookygingerr @mickeym4ndy @ianandmickeygallavich1

[libertyreads]

September 2024 TBR--

I am DETERMINED to make September a good month. Just a good month in my life (I need it). And that's starting with the books. I'm having to roll over my reread of Catching Fire from last month due to life but I'm also so excited for all of the romance reads coming to me soon. (Also, a non-hockey sports romance? Let's all take a moment to reign in our surprise.)

The Hunting Moon by Susan Dennard (Reread)--I'm prepping for the final book in the trilogy to come out this Fall. The general synopsis for the series is this: Hemlock Falls has a forest that fills with monsters every night when the sun sets and the mists rise. Which is why the town is full of hunters. But Winnie and her family are outsiders due to her father being outed as a witch and a traitor ten years ago. Until she creates a plan to be welcomed back with open arms.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (Reread)--This is my other reread for the month. I’m planning on reading all of the books in the series this year. We follow Katniss and Peeta as they complete the district tour following their win of the games. But then they’re forced to go back into the arena when the Quarter Quell is announced.

First Down by Grace Reilly--A sports romance that isn't hockey? Who is she? In honor of football starting up, I'm reading this football romance I found in the Chicago airport a few months back. This follows Bex as she struggles to make her ex realize she doesn't want to get back together and James as he struggles with a writing class he needs to graduate. They decide to trade: tutoring for fake dates. But what happens when the dates don't feel so fake after all?

Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland--The king of Yusan must die and the five most dangerous liars in the land have been mysteriously summoned to work together in order to kill him. Each of the five blades will come for him. They can agree on murder. They can agree on treachery. But for these five killers it's not enough to forge an alliance. To survive, they must find a way to trust each other, but only one can take the crown.

Happy Place by Emily Henry--This is my first attempt at Emily Henry and I'm not sure how I want this to go. This one has fake dating so I'm excited to give it a shot. A couple broke up 6 months ago but never told their friends and now they're all going on vacation together. And this will be their final year to vacation at this cottage so they think it'll be easier to pretend they're still together. That will be easier, won't it?

Blindsided by Victoria Denault (Kindle)--This is an enemies to lovers hockey romance. I'm keeping my streak of reading one hockey romance a month going with this one. I read book one in this series a while back and decided to pick up the next one. It seems like this series is written by a bunch of different authors so I'm not sure how this will stack up with the first but I'm ready to give it a shot. (Pun intended.)

The Bitter End by Alexa Donne(NetGalley)--A winter storm traps eight students of LA's elite Warner Prep in a remote ski cabin. They're stranded with a killer--who may just be one of their own. I've never read from Alexa Donne before, but I've heard of them so I'm excited to try out one of their books. I'm always down for a locked room mystery. One that deals with snooty rich kids? Let's go.

Christmas Sweater Weather by Jaqueline Snowe(NetGalley)--While at a snowy ski resort for her brother's festive bachelor party, Charlotte is thrown together with her bother's best friend Hayden--the same best friend who rejected her long ago. She can tell herself to get over Hayden, but holiday cheer is turning to holiday lust every time they're within ten feet of each other.

I'm hoping the romance helps lift my spirts this month. I'm also really hoping to enjoy the fantasy and mystery novels that are coming to my eyeballs soon.

[leupagus]

Ted Lasso 3.08: Live Gus Reacts (except she went to bed and THEN wrote this)

So first off — as predicted, the storyline of Sam being the victim of a traumatic hate crime was strictly a one-and-done afterschool special. I am zero percent surprised but goddamn is that disappointing. Especially because this episode not only does it AGAIN with Keeley's trauma, but it also clearly shows that the writers can choose not to do it, with how they're treating Colin's storyline as an important topic that is spread out over at least four episodes. These storylines could have been given space, too, but Sudeikis has clearly chosen some characters over others, and I just... really disagree with those choices.

The episode itself!

Hey Jude, What Is This Shit

I have absolutely zero idea where the whole Henry-Ted-Michelle-Jake mess is going, but it was nice to see a glimpse into how Henry actually feels about his dad essentially abandoning him for two and a half years. (Which in the context of the show, I get — but damn it does not work like that in real life.) The comment about how Henry has the most air miles of any kid in his school indicates that he actually flies over to England pretty regularly, which is interesting; I'm guesstimating Henry's age at about 11, which is technically old enough to fly on your own but I cannot imagine how lonely that trip is.

I loved the Beard-Henry connection, though — Beard obviously does this regularly when Henry comes to visit, to the extent that he has his own apron at Ted's house, and although I don't ship Beard/Ted I definitely Get It. The Hey Jude conversation was lovely, and both Hunt and Gus Turner did a great job with that. Also Henry's growing obsession with soccer (he called it football! This is not a kid who's ever playing Pop Warner again, sorry Ted) is great for me personally and the theory that Henry will get recruited by a football academy. Maybe they'll give him drum lessons too.

As for Ted's behavior — I was actually with him about the likelihood of Jake proposing to Michelle, to the point where I didn't get how the rest of the Diamond Dogs (YES I DID FLIP MY LID AT TRENT GETTING INDUCTED, DON'T WORRY, woof indeed) were telling him he was jumping to conclusions. On the other hand, the private detective thing was... what? Like aside from being straight-up unforgivable if Michelle ever found out about it, what exactly would a PI do in this situation? How is a PI supposed to find out if Jake is gonna propose??? Just incredibly weird.

On the other other hand, it allowed Rebecca to do something she's really good at: offering advice, based on having previously done it the wrong way. The (multiple! Tedbecca nation rejoice!) conversations between her and Ted were just lovely (although I did love her "aaaaren't you supposed to be like, doing your job?" moment when he came into her office) and the point about how Ted needs to buy a fucking ladder and GET OVER IT wrt Michelle was one Ted desperately needed to hear, even though he clearly didn't actually listen, given the way he behaved with Michelle in that last scene. And that last scene — I dunno man. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In short: I like Michelle a lot, but frankly she deserves better than the guy Ted's turning into, and if the show actually puts them back together then what the fuck was this show even about.

Nate and the Rhinestone Dogs

So on the one hand, the correlation between Nate having a successful relationship and Nate coming back somewhat (and somewhat erratically, hmm) from his prime dickish behavior isn't a great look — this show really leans on the "all a man needs is the Love Of A Good Woman" and it's gross. On the other hand, I don't think that Jade is a cause of this so much as a witness to it; the moment where she notices his smile when he's looking at that picture of Ted and Henry and Beard, for example.

Also yes, I have turned around 180 on Jade — the first two episodes she was in, her character was written HORRIBLY, and everyone (including me!) who read her character as racist was absolutely right to do so. However, the show itself clearly didn't intend that, so I'm going to roll with it and focus on how she acts with Nate now — and guys, it's pretty fucking cute. I think my favorite thing about her is that she's still very much the same: she thinks he's weird! She notices details about him and has a very flat reaction! But she likes who he is, likes being around him; I love the detail that she said yes to every (hesitant, worried, still-unsure) suggestion Nate made for further hangouts. Staying over? Yes. Going out for breakfast? Sure. Another breakfast date? 👍 (Sidenote: as a fellow white lady who uses the yellow skintone, I was hilarified that Jade is also a white lady who uses the yellow skin tone.) She comes over to his house and brings him wine; she wants to celebrate with him, even though she clearly gives zero shits about football. And the moment where she agrees to the boyfriend/girlfriend monikers was adorable. I confess, they got me.

The not-quite-diamond-dogs scene was straight out of something Mohammed would write for Intelligence (his other show — btw, Mohammed is the writer and star of a whole other TV show about an American in Britain) and I watched the whole exchange with Rupert's assistant cringing with embarrassment, but the fact that Nate is trying to forge the family-style camaraderie he had in Richmond is simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking. I think the thing Nate is missing is that the Diamond Dogs are built out of mutual trust and respect; but he neither trusts nor respects any of his chosen pack at West Ham (I don't think he respects Rupert, really — fears him sure, but respect? no). Which is just as well, because these guys are useless.

The whole bit with Ted, Henry and Beard (in full Richmond regalia — I love you Beard) attending the game was honestly lovely; Henry clearly adores Nate (I want all the fics about Henry and Nate doing the same game Henry and Will did, and Henry being the one to teach it to Will). The choice Ted and Michelle have made not to tell Henry about Nate's role in Ted's public humiliation is a good one, from a parental POV, but also an interesting one from a drama POV; Ted doesn't want Henry to hate Nate, which he absolutely would if he knew. And those decisions parents make for their kids — are they the right ones? I don't know! But parenting is complicated. ANYWAY, Nate's reaction both in that moment — just incredible acting from Mohammed btw, he's so GOOD — and afterward, when he's trying desperately to put the wall up of cruel indifference after Henry's smashed it down, the whole thing just ruined me. I muttered "oh, Nate" like five times during this episode.

Keeley should have Jack, Roy and Jamie be her pallbearers when she dies, so they can let her down ONE MORE TIME

I hated everything about Keeley's storyline, because again it was traumatizing a character for the purpose of showing how other people react to her trauma — Jamie, Roy, Jack — rather than letting her be the focus. I've seen others note how passive she is in this episode, and while I think it was more holding her own ground rather than being frozen in fear, the line was a little too blurry for my taste.

I did love her retail therapy (and yes the hat/dress/polo combo was absolutely a nod to Pretty Woman, which... equating Keeley to a prostitute in the context of this storyline ain't great, but the dress was adorable) and her staunch refusal to feel shame or regret for making a sex vid for Jamie back when they were together. Because she's right — there's absolutely nothing that she did wrong, and Jack's insistence that she be embarrassed over it was the death knell for their relationship.

Re Jack: I thought it was a good character choice for her to be angry at Keeley, because as the mini-golf scene illustrates, Jack doesn't really want to admit that Keeley is her girlfriend right now. The reason is, I think, open to interpretation, but my read on it wasn't that Jack is closeted — it's that she is incredibly sensitive to her own social status, which was already imperiled by dating a former "Page 3 girl" and is now at even more risk if people know about Keeley's video. (I know Keeley Hazell was the co-writer for this episode, and I can only imagine her experience with people who have considered her hot enough to fuck but not good enough to date.) So the only way for Jack to save face is to force her girlfriend into a Repentant Sinner box, someone who had done terrible (read: sexual) things but is really truly sorry and will never do such nasty things again. Which isn't who Keeley is! She likes sex and she likes being sexy; and like she said, there's a world of difference between putting your own image out there deliberately and having private things stolen from you.

The scene between Keeley and Roy was awful, and I hated him for asking her such a shitty, invasive question — even with his visible regret and self-loathing immediately after, that is one of those things you don't come back from without a LOT of work. And no, I don't think it makes it "better" that he clearly suspected the video had been for Jamie back when they were dating — if anything, it makes it worse, since a) if he really needed the information, he could've asked Jamie and b) WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR DEAL, DUDE. This season has shown Roy to be much crueler than previously, and I don't like the notion that just as Keeley made him "better," her absence has made him "worse." As I said, this show is bad about making women responsible for the shortcomings of the men in their lives and I'm sick of it. If they do decide to go for a throuple, I hope Keeley makes Roy sweat.

The scene between Keeley and Jamie was much better, although unlike Keeley I do think Jamie should've thought to delete the emails. But she's right in that it wasn't his fault; his guilt is appropriate but not borne out of any actual malicious wrongdoing, which matters! And I found Jamie's thought process around him and Keeley and Roy to be FASCINATING; it makes sense, really, that he thought maybe he had a chance with Keeley post breakup (lol honey no), though I don't think it was their hookup in episode 1.08 that made him think that. Rather, he knows Keeley's a forgiving and openhearted person, and that she "saw the best version of himself" when no one else did, so he hoped that he could one day get that back. The moment in episode 1.10 when Roy opens Keeley's door does hit a little harder now though, since that must've been when Jamie a) realized they were together and b) first thought they were just doing it to get back at him. I don't feel sorry for Jamie, but I do feel for him.

However, the best scene was between Keeley and Rebecca, the only person who really deserves her (KeeleyBecca nation rejoice!) because she actually offered comfort and advice and support, rather than apologies or demands or jealousy. I thought their whole conversation was great, and perfectly fit both their characters — including the brief, horrifying comment about Keeley's predator teacher, because yes that's awful, but Keeley isn't the sort of person who traumadumps for sympathy. So Rebecca's somewhat blithe response rang very true to me as like, an actual conversation I'd have with my friends, vs the Ideal Modeling Behavior a lot of fandom expects characters to parrot. (This gets into a whole essay I want to write about the difference between things characters say 'in public' vs 'in private' and how a lot of times we as an audience don't think there should be any difference, even though in the real world of course you recognize that there's a difference.) Anyway, they should get married.

Oh my god this post is already longer than all the dicks Colin had to delete off his phone

The himbo conversation was absolutely amazing, including the intro where Jamie is their Lynx/Axe dealer. Love that beautiful dumdum. I don't think it's in any way realistic that a bunch of footballers would delete the pics of all the people they've slept with, but this is LassoLand where Santa is real and I was incredibly charmed by it. And I think it lead pretty naturally to the moment with Isaac and Colin — even up to Isaac grabbing Colin's phone, because again, the way you behave in public is different than the way you behave with friends (although you look me in the eye and tell me Isaac McAdoo wouldn't grab your phone if he thought you were being an asshole). Bokinni and Harris sold the shit out of that scene, but this is now the second time Colin's sexuality has been used as a cliffhanger of "will someone else hurt this marginalized person?? STAY TUNED!!!" and frankly I expected way better from Dylan Marron, the other co-writer of this episode.

I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting — I've only watched the episode once — but I'm gonna post this now before it gets any more embarrassingly long. What a weird episode. It felt like those candyfloss grapes: I'm not sure if I like them, but I did eat the whole bag.