#he’s the only character who Max doesn’t have direct trauma from or who hasn’t been like out to get her

[snailvibes]

Thinking about. Warren’s role in Max’s Nightmare Sequence.

[haloud]

michael guerin loves alex manes

So there’s been a narrative within the fandom ever since the s1 hiatus that Michael hasn’t been shown to love Alex like Alex loves him, that Michael never does anything for Alex, that Michael never makes himself available. I couldn’t disagree more. So here’s a list from season 1.

Michael:

Has a picture of them together and keeps it in a special box along with pictures of his family and has for 10 years

Kisses him at the reunion (after asking if Alex wants him to leave and giving him a chance to say no to the kiss.)

Gives him massive puppy eyes across a crowded bar after Isobel asks him if there’s anyone he would sacrifice everything for, which Alex sees, acknowledges with a lingering glance, then deliberately looks away.

“For me, nothing’s changed” “I never look away, not really”

Kisses him again

Literally everything about their scene in bed in 1x03, from the way he says “you stayed” to the way his mouth opens under Alex’s thumb to the reverent way he touches his leg

Wants his sister to know he and Alex are together but honors Alex’s refusal even though he’s hurt by it

Says he’d hate Max for sending Alex away in a direct comparison to Max’s fury at him and Isobel sending Liz away (aka saying he loves Alex the same way Max loves Liz)

At prom, he breaks up Alex’s fight with Kyle and, eyes only for Alex, tenderly asks if he’s okay

Opens up to Alex about how music makes him feel—the only person Michael ever seems to open up to about this part of himself

Kisses him in the UFO Emporium

“[I’ve never done this] with anyone I’ve liked as much as I like you”

Bodily defends Alex from a hammer-wielding Jesse and ends up permanently (or whatever -_-) injured from it

Tries to approach Alex in the bar in 1x09 after Alex hasn’t spoken to him for almost two months with no explanation. Tries a second time to talk to him/get him to open up until Alex shuts him down.

He says yes when Alex says Michael loved him for a long time

“We just connected like something—” “Cosmic.”

Opens up to Alex about his profoundly abusive childhood. Alex is the first person Michael is shown to trust with this part of himself in present day.

As soon as knowing about aliens doesn’t send Alex running screaming, Michael shows him his lab and everything he’s been working on even though an episode ago he was telling Liz not to touch it with Isobel’s life on the line.

“If anyone’s going to destroy me, it might as well be you.”

“Alex was the first person to make me feel like there was a place for me here.”

Loves Alex so much he leaves the mother he’s been searching for his entire life instead of staying to die beside her because Alex wouldn’t leave him otherwise.

“I love him, I probably always will.” <- the only time either of them has used love in the present tense about the other

So yeah, that’s a substantial but probably not comprehensive list of the ways Michael loves Alex and expresses it. Michael is not always nice; he’s mean when he gets defensive, and he gets defensive a lot. But throughout season 1 he also regularly puts himself out there for Alex while still respecting his space whenever Alex asks for it (which happens at least three times that I can think of—after the reunion, until Alex comes to him at the end of 1x02; after the drive in all the way until 1x09; and after the bar in 1x09 until, again, Alex changes his mind).

I’d also like to address a specific criticism I’ve seen about Michael’s feelings for Alex. No, Michael doesn’t bring up Alex to other people; but Alex specifically says he doesn’t want Isobel to know about them in 1x03 and never expresses a change of heart with regards to that. Michael talking about his relationship with Alex would be against his wishes and, frankly, really out of line and a denial of Alex’s agency. He’s not perfectly gracious about it, but it’s something that hurts him. He wants their relationship to be known, and Alex doesn’t until much, much later. As for Michael not defending Alex verbally…at what point does Alex require that verbal defense? No one ever talks bad about Alex to Michael! The only times Michael is there when Alex is under attack are at prom—and Michael intervenes—and in the shed—and Michael throws himself at Jesse screaming “don’t touch him.” Asking that Michael give the same verbal defense of Alex as Alex does for him is such a false equivalency, because their circumstances aren’t the same. It’s like saying “well if Alex really loved Michael he would tell someone that he’d hate them if they made Michael leave him.”

In season 2, Michael is pushing everyone away. He feels poisoned by hope, and explicitly, Alex represents hope in better things to Michael. Michael absolutely pushes Alex away in season 2. He’s not particularly kind about it. Especially in 2x02. But in 2x01 when he says that he doesn’t think they’re good for each other, he includes his own fault in that--he admits that he thinks he hasn’t been good for Alex either. And furthermore, the thing he says that people hate? “All our years of this, I’ve never said no to you. You come and you go and I go where you put me. This is me saying no.” Is also Michael admitting his own fault. It’s not an entirely accurate statement--we know of one instance and I think we can safely infer others where Michael said no with his actions if not his words--but it is him acknowledging that his own passivity in their relationship was half the problem and him setting a boundary to break that cycle. 

I think most malex fans were dissatisfied in various ways by season 2, and I think that inconsistencies and skewed priorities in the writing damaged the arcs and characterizations of just about every character, michael and alex very much included. But I think it’s disingenuous not to accept that the show wants us to believe, and therefore will proceed with this dynamic at the base, that both michael and alex contributed equally to the ways their relationship fell apart and hurt the other. With both of them having such a long history of trauma, with both of them having so few examples of healthy relationships to draw on in their lives, it’s not surprising things went like they did.

We end the season on can we both stop keeping score. I think fandom should take a hint from that. This list isn’t meant to be Michael’s scorecard, but merely a refutation of the idea that Michael’s love for Alex is an informed attribute. The idea that Michael hasn’t been shown to love Alex so deeply that it’s a part of who he is…that the foundation hasn’t been laid…it isn’t supported by canon. He loves him a lot. He loves him to distraction, to the point of agony, to the point of peace. Even after everything in season 2, he drops everything and makes a bomb that he thinks could wipe out his species to save Alex. Michael Guerin loves Alex Manes.

But that doesn’t mean that you as a fan have to keep shipping them. Even if they’re what got you into the show. Even if you think they’re going to be endgame. Even if you think they’re the only way you’re going to get eyes on your fanwork. If you hate half the ship, I encourage you to find a ship that makes you happier instead of subjecting yourself to a character you can’t stand. Also, if you’re going to write vent fic about how insufferable you find a certain character and how much you want them to Pay for their Crimes, it’s polite to tag it thusly.

[teamhawkeye]

unfiltered and massively spoiler filled thoughts on RE8 below the cut [MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD]:

The Good

The first half of the game

The initial village segment and the castle portion and even “the house in the mist” sections were all pretty taut and well put together. i loved exploring the castle - was more than a little disappointed that you get locked out after Alcina’s boss fight, i didn’t explore it fully D: - and the unexpected terror of Donna’s section really pulled me out of the sense of comfort i had started to fall into, right as i was saying to myself “this hasn’t been scary at all”

The return of some series high notes

Revisiting things in previous Resident Evil games is not always a bad thing. I really enjoyed the return of weapon customization and treasures, those were aspects i enjoyed in RE4 and RE5. The return of the Merchant, in the form of the Duke, was welcome as well. The Duke is a G - he’s a good guy and i respected him most

Graphics, scenery, etc.

It’s a pretty game to look at, there’s no getting around that. I liked the set pieces, especially the Castle portion

Ammo crafting

Now this was something i greatly enjoyed. There are often times you get too much ammo for the gun you use least or you run out of ammo in harder difficulty levels. Being able to collect scrap material and make your own ammo was a very nice addition that i greatly appreciated

The Bad

(some of these are going to be personal opinions about the storytelling and narrative choices, so be prepared for that)

Pacing and direction

RE7 was a return to the series’ “roots”: so back to the footnotes of RE1 and RE2. If that was the case with 7, then RE8 did a speed run of RE3, Code Veronica, RE4, RE5, and RE6 all at once.

I know i said earlier revisiting hallmarks from previous games isn’t a bad thing, and it’s not - but while RE7 did it masterfully with sticking to mainly RE1 and RE2 and pulling in just a few old hallmarks, RE8 went absolutely buck wild in trying to cram in as many past enemy types and encounters as possible. A callback to one standout enemy is one thing, ala the Stalker type that is Mr. X, Nemesis, and Ustanak that Lady Dimitrescu also serves as...but then also the giant water monster from RE4, the Executioner of RE5, the “chainsaw” enemies (here, drills instead) of RE4, RE5, and RE6. hell, even the Lycans after a time started to feel very Las Plagas-esque in their ability to use weapons and track and coordinate. And you can’t tell me you didn’t see very similar designs/similarities between Miranda’s boss battle that you did with Alexia’s in Code Veronica...

The pacing started off solid with the initial few segments, but quickly seemed to lose its footing once it oscillated violently between wildly different styles of play and storytelling and didn’t regain its stride the rest of the game. One moment, it’s classic RE. The next, it’s P.T. + Outlast. The next, back to “a mash up of action and horror, leaning more on action” styles of RE4 + RE5. Then the finale straight up started to feel like an entirely different game before you reached that final boss fight - it felt like i was jerked in one direction one minute, and a completely different one the next

There is a lot of exposition and explaining that doesn’t happen until legit the last 45 or so minutes. Not new for the series to withhold information until the back half of the game, but there was legit almost no build up to the very sudden plot bombs that got dropped successively in the last throes of the story. Previous games rewarded you with fragments at a fairly even pace - i felt like all of RE8′s story gets dropped on you in a single monologue and a handful of notes just before the endgame

I’m not even gonna go that deep into how hard it was to keep up with all the different infection methods the mold managed to have - it was just A Lot and i’ve played a lot of Resident Evil in the past, so i know just how many different ways a single pathogen can have on humans and animals...and it still felt excessive

I honestly felt like the third segment with Moreau wasn’t even necessary. they really played up these “four lords” to not have them do a whole lot of anything. and i know there’s always been mini bosses before you actually reach the final Big Bad, but seriously, Moreau’s segment can be blitzed through in a span of 20 minutes or so first playthrough. the castle segment with Dimitrescu was solid, the house segment with Donna was nightmare fuel, lmfao, but still engaging and challenging. by the time you get to the third and sprint right through, you’re left wondering what the point of it even was. you can tell that was the least cared about narrative arc in the whole story

A giant point of note is that a huge chunk of RE8′s story could have been avoided or altered had Chris just actually fucking spoken to Ethan at the start about what the fuck was going on. And for him not to is completely unlike Chris past RE5 and RE6, that made no narrative sense whatsoever. Just another opportunity to pile on some more trauma and guilt onto Chris’ shoulders by making him “responsible” for Ethan being pushed to far and dying as a result

“Ethan actually ‘died’ when first meeting Jack Baker and was completely taken over by mold, it’s a big secret to everyone but Mia. also, he’s gone too far, there’s no saving him, he had to die”

You’re going to tell me that Ethan still being infected or impacted by the mold from RE7 is some big secret??? did the BSAA not run tests on him and Mia to make sure they were back to normal levels??? how do they not know?!? the government was able to figure out that Sherry’s exposure to the G Virus altered her permanently and study her healing capabilities, how the fuck was that not the same with Ethan???

Also, how is it that the mold’s impact on him is so much higher? he was at the Baker estate for like, 2 days max and while, yes, he did sustain some serious damage, he never fell prey to Eveline’s control and showed absolutely no signs of infection outside of being able to heal/use his hand after it was chopped off. and depending on how you played RE7, the only major injury he sustains aside from probable bruising or broken bones is that hand being cut off as mentioned before

You’re also going to tell me of the number of Resident Evil characters who have been infected with viruses and parasites and what have you and have been cured or had the negative effects negated, Ethan was the only one “too far gone” to be saved??? Jill got infected with T Virus, Claire has been infected by two separate viruses, Leon has survived a parasite infection, both Zoe and Mia were exposed to mold for years and seem to be okay...why is it that Ethan was the only one who couldn’t be saved? because he “died”? how in the world did he get infected so fast - he’d been there an hour, max! - that he was able to be revived in the first place and it wasn’t even noticeable that he had changed at all???

“the BSAA can’t be trusted anymore, they’re involved in shady shit, like deploying bioweapons into battle”

we already went through this a bit back in Revelations 1 with the blackmailed director and double agents. but to full on go “well, the entire organization is now dirty” after it was legit founded by Chris, Jill, and Barry to combat bioterrorism really sits wrong with me. all i can think is that they are running out of villains at this point and now are poising the BSAA to be a Big Bad in the future. which, again, doesn’t sit right with me

Retconning

Tying Ozwell E. Spencer back to Miranda wasn’t such a huge dealbreaker for me, but it is a bit obnoxious to now have to go back and amend “he came up with the idea for Umbrella and its pursuits with Marcus and Ashford, its other founding members” to “well, he didn’t actually come up with the idea for Umbrella and its research with Marcus and Ashford, he already had the idea from his time spent with Miranda uwu”

More so, the retconning around Eveline is a bit of a pain in the ass. So she only came about as a result of Miranda crossing paths with the Connections and giving them some of her mold to work with? And Eveline was only a failed experiment to Miranda in her attempt to be able to transfer her daughter’s essence/subconscious/whatever into a living child? And there are pictures of ‘10 year old” Eveline in Miranda’s possession - how come Evie didn’t have any memory of her at all (speaking of Evie, why the fuck did she appear in 8 briefly as a hallucination [?] to explain to Ethan his condition???)

How are you going to try and tell me that some village from prior to the 19th century was using the “Umbrella” symbol and Spencer just snatched it for himself? that was just stupid, honestly - even more stupid how Ethan didn’t recognize the symbol, despite flying off in a Blue UMBRELLA helicopter at the end of RE7

Mocap and cutscenes

Was it just me or did parts of this game look severely unpolished compared to RE7??? some parts looked good - like the Dimitresus all seemed to be rendered very well. It became very noticeable to me in the back half of the game, mainly with Chris and Mia, but a little with Heisenberg too, where their mouths didn’t match up with the dialogue a lot and they looked a lot less put together than previous scenes and characters. Mia in particular, i was struck by how much better her mocap seemed in RE7 compared to RE8. Maybe because there was a bigger ensemble cast in 8 that they spread themselves a little too thin in that regard?

[themikewheelers]

Will and El seriously go through all of season 3 without exchanging a direct word, huh? The Duffer Brother’s are really gonna do that to us huh? Like they freaking adopt her at the end of the season but can’t be bothered to give them one (1) interaction all season? Like not even just Will, the show completely forgot El has significant relationships outside of Mike and Hopper. Like I know a cornerstone in the story this season was that Mike and El spend too much time together but really???

I mean, I disagree that they forgot El has significant relationships outside of Mike and Hopper?? She spent more time with Max this season than Mike and Hop combined?? And obviously it wasnt as spotlighted, but her relationships with Lucas and Dustin definitely had their moments to shine as well. And to be fair, outside of the characters I just listed, El doesn’t rlly have a relationship with anyone else?

Which kinda connects to what i wanna say now, which is that yes Im disappointed we didnt see more of El with Will/the Byers in general, but the more I think about it, I think its a good thing. For El and Will specifically, I think its in character. Bc Will didnt rlly seem to have the greatest feelings about El, and that makes sense! I know everyone kinda wanted them to be bffs from the moment they met, but its realistic it didnt go that way, especially from Will’s perspective. I do think Will is jealous of El (and Max to an extent) and that makes sense. Think about how El even joined the party. Will was in the midst of the most traumatic week of his life, and when he came back of course his friends were super supportive and caring and they were always there for him, but he also knew that while he was gone they made this new friend and they missed her v much. Will feels nothing bad towards El of course over that, and jealousy probably isn’t even the right word, but he feels weird. This girl joined his friend group and he doesn’t even know her but now sees his friends upset that she’s gone. I do think to an extent he felt replaced. The same way El felt replaced by Max when she first came back in s2. The boys never did anything to specifically make Will feel replaced, its just the circumstances of how everything happened that just made things weird for him.

Then flash forward to s3. Things are finally normal. For once, the whole party is together, and Will rlly has his chance to get to know El. But there are other things he’s concerned about. First off, after spending the last year of his life battling constant trauma, he’s finally in a position where he can start to move on, but he feels like in that year so much of his childhood has been taken from him. So he clings to stuff like D&D, which his friends are moving on from, but he still feels like is an important part of his childhood and he wants to hold onto that. Also, his friends have changed so much since before everything happened, and I wont say they’re genuinely more mature than Will, but in a very superficial definition of the word, they are. They’ve got girlfriends. They don’t care about playing games. They dont wanna be kids, they wanna be teenagers. So I do think Will feels threatened by that and he hates feeling like his friends are growing up at a different speed than him, and the girls kinda become a symbol of that for him. He wants to go back to how things were before everything, and that includes not wanting the girls to be a part of the group. He doesn’t rlly understand Mike and Lucas’s relationships, he sees it as just them wanting to “swap spit” with “stupid girls.”

And I don’t think Will holds any bad feelings towards El or Max directly. Especially El, cause I do think he has very positive feelings for her. He knows she’s the girl who saved his life, who helped his friends, who’s genuinely a rlly good person. He knows that, and I think he does rlly like El as a person. He just hasn’t rlly had any interest in forming a relationship of his own with her bc he still feels awkward just having her a part of the group. So now going into s4, we can see that after everything with the Mind Flayer coming back Will acknowledges how silly his feelings before were. He realizes whats important and lets go of his anger towards the other boys for not caring about D&D anymore and all that stuff. And also, obviously now he has a real reason for why he should try to bond with El. Bc she’s not only is she living with him, she’s one of the only people he has left. So I’m looking forward to actually getting to see their relationship grow, and not just suddenly have them be BFFs as soon as El came back in s2. I never rlly thought about Will’s feelings with this stuff before, but the more I do, the more I realize how kinda ridiculous it was to assume he’d just be automatically completely accepting of the girls to the group without feeling any weirdness about it himself

[palegengarsiloved]

Utangatta

"You were the only one who knew all my stories. You are the only one who knew about mom."

I re-engaged with Maniac alone armed with distance. After Russian Doll I finally felt like I had the emotional vocabulary to understand what Maniac was going for. The first time I simply absorbed it, uncritically, amniotic, expecting a fairly mindless psychadelic experience with a big-name cast and a tiny-word script. Jonah Hill and Emma Stone are absolutely outstanding, as is the entire cast, but the direction and writing and set design are unexpectedly exacting and wonderful on a level that are comparable with Mad Men or Lost In Translation. I will discuss some thoughts I had about the characters and themes after my Russian Doll-percolated re-watch. *Spoilers below*

Owen, Jonah Hill's character, is dealing with mental health issues, including fixations and the inability to separate reality and hallucinations, and is completely and utterly alone, sexless, inert -- withdrawn into a shell for fear of interacting with a world he doesn't trust to be fully real, unable to talk to women or peers or family in any authentic way after a series (a whole life, really) of errors and blips. To help this, his dreams in the clinical trial revolve around being in interesting and fulfilling and complicated relationships with women (Olivia, the woman he frightened with his first blip/break, who is a representation by the supercomputer to entice him into playing the little roles and 'solving' (and eventually trapping, after the machine breaks) him, and Annie, Emma Stone's character, who is working through her own grief and loneliness). All his dream roles are reluctant stereotypically-masculine projections that he ultimately rejects in part or whole, revealing to himself that he can move away from the toxic masculinity of his father and brother and be a man in his own way. In his last dream he finally confronts and questions the presuppositions and shoddy mental frameworks he has clung to around Olivia, and realizes that she isn't the wound he thought she was; he was his own wound, his poisonous modes of thinking and his complete lack of self-worth were shells placed around the idea of Olivia to maintain his patterns and routines of justifying that he was unlovable.

Annie is dealing with awful family trauma, stuff that put her dad in a self-sustaining capsule, literally sealed from the outside world. She is dealing with her problems through self-medication, bitter toxicity towards everyone and everything around her including herself, and a defeatist attitude to the wage-slave dystopia she is crushed under day after day in every tiny petty interaction. In contrast, her dreams in the trial have her as strong people with big agency and agendas to match - spies, femme fatales, a drunk con artist elf, basically dangerous women who have been deeply wounded or wronged on some level but who persist nevertheless. Owen reveals to her that other human beings still care and are worth fighting for, that friends can still exist as friends and not pill dispensers or faces to yell into or people who will someday die or go away like everyone she has ever loved has. Annie's confrontation and reconciliation is, like Owen's, just as much about herself as it is about a figure from her past. She initially would rather die than be vulnerable to another person after her past trauma, but she realizes that she has been deliberately nursing this idea of her sister as an controlled effigy to burn over and over rather than risking the sometimes-searing warmth of human contact again. However, her journey is interestingly different from Owen's dream-breakthroughs and real-life avoidance: it isn't the shared dreams that truly bond her to Owen, but the impossible idea that Owen actually might be right with his paranoid fixations. The idea that Owen and her might actually be truly connected in some strange cosmic manner. This belief allows her to be vulnerable again in her near-suicidal hollowness, because it allows her to believe in salvation; that she and her sister and her family might all someday be reunited, sterile and plastic and neatly arranged, like the toy diarama that she so often returns to in dreams. The fact that Owen and Annie's physical and eventually metaphysical escape is ultimately achieved through about four different secret plots all running into each other at the same time does not necessarily disprove her.

I think the idea of a supercomputer-aided clinical trial is an interesting thought experiment excuse for a story, much like Russian Doll, which I also adore, in showing that people who are so unbelievably and totally alone and broken can be fixed by looking to one another, even in the face of overwhelming pain and vulnerability and loss, even in the face of a giant omniscient system that has been broken somewhere along the way into thinking that it must kill those it fixes (read: modern healthcare, consumerism-as-medication, capitalism, patriarchal values, toxic masculinity, etc etc). I think Maniac and Russian Doll are, in their own macabre and somber ways, hopepunk - stories of hope and post-post-apocalypse, a finding of a way, in a world that has already largely ended in a fascist-capitalist techno-dystopian eco-armageddon.

Who hasn't struggled with mental health and a full array of personal demons in response to comprehending this world as it is? But in some ways I believe this shape of a story, of individuals who meet under a totalitarian system and still find each other, over and over again, and fight and ultimately sacrifice for each other and themselves, is a blueprint for how to operate in the 21st century and beyond. I believe it is, like Beauvoir and Satre, or Deleuze and Guattari and Foucault, an impassioned advocacy for recognizing the soul in each other and ourselves - a very specific, individual plea that is of course at the same time universally applicable: it is how you choose to operate in the face of certain defeat, the modes of thought you allow to have power over you, the family and friends you choose to retain in a world that tries to always put you in separate capsule beds.

"For people who are supposed to love unconditionally, families sure have a lot of conditions."

Like Russian Doll, the show confidently reuses lines and material and themes, keeps pushing and probing away at them, reworking and reangling their vectors of attack. I like shows that feel truly thought-out and self-contained, variations on a theme, a text that knowingly references itself: not as irony but as an argument that all things - ourselves, included - are this dense and self-referential and synchronous, that tell us that we unwittingly internalize everything about this obscene world that surrounds us, everything that's ugly and wrong, but also funny and random and utterly mundane. It also works as an analysis of what the show is saying about parents and children: that we are in fact of course remixes and variations of them, but we are also our own people, trying to make sense of the world using all the strange broken tools that they gave us. They, like authority figures and suicidal supercomputers, shovel so much seemingly-innocuous input into us, never guessing that we might refashion their tips as spears.

Early on, Owen dreamt that he had a plan: he was going to run away together with Annie, that they were in a car and driving really fast and escaping some unnamed, totalizing entity. I couldn't help but tear up: I knew, deep down in my bones the weakness and vulnerability as he revealed his plan, the defeated mumble acknowledging that this could never happen, and I knew from Annie's big wet eyes looking on in complete empathy and understanding, that she was also searching, as much as she denied it, for a partner to escape with. This is why the final scene was real, not another dream-within-a-dream. They learned to take control and manifest their desires, and allow themselves to believe that there just might be a plan for the universe, not handed down by God or God-adjacent drugs or supercomputers but one that you could envision and execute yourself, that you can in some way, through existentialism and each other, perhaps find meaning in a desolate world.

"This is it! This is it."

[aion-rsa]

Christmas Movies: A Complete Holiday Streaming Guide

https://ift.tt/3q2Rba0

So, maybe there isn’t enough Christmas and holiday programming on TV for your liking. We get it. You can’t be stuck at the mercy of broadcasters and cable networks all the time, not when there are so many Christmas movies to watch, right?

Read more

TV

Christmas Movies and TV Specials: Full 2020 Schedule

By Den of Geek Staff

Movies

Christmas Movies: A Complete Holiday Streaming Guide

By Alec Bojalad and 1 other

Well, because we’re a little crazy, we’re working on an index of every Christmas movie and other piece of seasonally appropriate holiday-themed film available on various streaming services. Just bookmark this page, scroll on through the alphabetical list, hit the links, and it can be Christmas whenever you need it to be! And if you spot some stuff that we missed, just let us know in the comments and we’ll see about getting it all added for you.

Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)

Hulu

What is it about the holidays that makes it feel like we’re on the verge of the end of the world? Regardless, if you’re going to capture Christmas season ennui in a movie, you might as well go all out. That’s exactly what British holiday film Anna and the Apocalypse aims to do. Anna is a Christmas zombie musical comedy. Because why have one genre when you can have them all?

Read more

TV

The Best Christmas Movies Available on Hulu

By Alec Bojalad

Movies

Run Review: Sarah Paulson Terrifies as Mommie Dearest in Hulu Movie

By Don Kaye

Ella Hunt stars as Anna Shepherd, a secondary school graduate who plans to embark on a grand travel tour before heading to university. Those plans come to a grinding halt, however, when a zombie infection starts to spread throughout her town. Anna gets together with some friends as they try to survive both the holidays and the encroaching zombie apocalypse. 

Black Mirror: White Christmas (2014)

Netflix

Those looking for Christmas cheer won’t find it here. Black Mirror isn’t necessarily known for its happy endings and it’s 2014 Christmas special, “White Christmas” is no different.

Still, there is an audience out there that definitely wants this level of Scroogery. Plus it stars Jon Hamm! “White Christmas” follows three seemingly disparate stories. Jon Hamm is Matt, a mysterious man with a mysterious job who viewers watch in three different environments: once as a gross pick-up artist helper, once as a digital “cookie” salesman, and once as an occupant in a cozy cabin on Christmas Day.

What do all of these have to do with Christmas? Watch and find out. Then weep for the collapse of humanity.

A Charlie Brown Christmas Special (1965)

Apple TV+ – Arriving Dec. 4

“A Charlie Brown Christmas Special” is one of the most enduring holiday classics in the pop culture canon. Originally airing in 1965 on CBS, it was an experiment from The Coca-Cola Company to see if Charles M. Schulz’s beloved Peanuts characters could carry their charm over to a new medium…and boy could they.

The half-hour picks up with Charlie Brown down in the dumps and unable to capture the Christmas spirit. Thankfully, his friends know just what to do. Soon ol’ Chuck is directing the school Christmas play and nabbing a pitiful Christmas tree with Linus. This is “A Charlie Brown Christmas Special’s” first year as primarily a streaming entity, though Apple TV+ is allowing it to air on PBS on Dec. 13.

The Christmas Chronicles (2018)

Netflix

If a Christmas movie is only as good as its Santa (surely someone out there abides by this rule), then Netflix’s The Christmas Chronicles is one heck of a Christmas movie. This family film produced by Chris Columbus features Kurt Russell ascending to his final form as Hot Santa Claus. 

Read more

TV

New on Netflix: November 2020 Releases

By Alec Bojalad

TV

The Best Christmas Movies Available on Netflix

By Alec Bojalad

The plot follows two children who are struggling to believe in the magic of Christmas after the death of their firefighter father. But the spirit of the season seizes them when they encounter the ultimate stand-in father figure: Kurt Russell Santa. The Christmas Chronicles is your classic, by-the-book family holiday yarn with a fun actor at the center and elevated production quality. Its sequel is also available to stream on Netflix. 

Doctor Who Christmas Specials

HBO Max

If the British know one thing, it’s tea. If they know two things, it’s tea and Christmas specials. Many big-time U.K. television shows have their own excellent holiday specials. Decades-old sci-fi institution Doctor Who, however, takes the cake when it comes to Christmas excellence.

HBO Max has 12 seasons worth of Doctor Who Christmas specials dating all the way back to the modern continuation’s first Doctor, Christopher Eccleston. Each episode is an hour-long treat of Doctor Who and Christmas goodies and should the joy of watching them ever peter out, there are plenty of bonus materials to watch as well.

Frozen (2013)

Disney+

Frozen, an animated movie you might have heard of, technically takes place during summer. But it sure doesn’t feel that way after Queen Elsa freezes the fjord and belts songs about the snowmen she and her sister want to build. Indeed, there is hardly a more festive film for the holidays than this celebration of self-love and familial love. Rather than being the story of a princess falling for a prince, Frozen is about the love between two sisters, Elsa (Idina Menzel) and Anna (Kristen Bell), and how that bond can transcend fear, isolation, and lifelong trauma like losing your parents at an early age.

Read more

Movies

Christmas Movies on Disney+ Streaming Guide

By David Crow

Movies

Frozen 2: ‘Show Yourself’ Song Was Almost Cut from Movie

By David Crow

Fairly sophisticated stuff for an animated movie, Frozen became a bona fide classic in large part due to its songbook by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, with “Let It Go” standing out as an anthem for self-empowerment and the realization of identity. And if you overlook the fact you heard that song probably five thousand times, it still has that same resonance, which is why children are drawn to its message, as well as Elsa’ irresistible ice powers brought to dazzling life. When you factor in Anna’s own awkward charm, the power the two radiate together is warming in any season.

Home Alone (1990)

Disney+

Another holiday classic from Fox, Home Alone remains a millennial touchstone for this time of year, and a gift that keeps on giving. Yes, everyone remembers the end where Macaulay Culkin tortures two bumbling goons (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) as if they’re Elmer Fudd, but the movie has a lot more going for it than just slapstick sociopathy. Indeed, when Kevin McCallister isn’t being a sadist, this film has an earnest appeal about celebrating the fantasy of a kid living by himself at home.

When his parents leave Kevin McAllister home alone for Christmas—it was an accident!—he has a luxury house to himself that he lounges about as if it were a giant playground with free ice cream, pizza, and R-rated movie viewing parties. Things go a little pear-shaped though when crooks try to rob the joint, but he handles that in glib fashion, all while sweetly pining for his mother. In fact, as you get older, Catherine O’Hara’s trials and tribulations to get back home to her baby boy in time for Christmas are as amusing as Kevin’s hijinks. (John Candy! Polka music!! Polka Christmas music!?!) But probably the reason this is a real classic has a lot to do with John Williams’ eternally heartwarming score.

Into the Dark: Pooka! (2018)

Hulu

The concept of Hulu horror anthology series Into the Dark is a simple one. Starting in October, every month would see the release of a new horror movie, usually revolving around a theme or holiday within that month. So naturally December 2018’s entry, Pooka!, brings its chills to Christmas. Directed by Nacho Vigalondo from a script by Gerald Olson, Pooka! introduces one of the cutest creepiest critter since Gremlins.

Struggling actor Wilson Clowes (Nyasha Hatendi) takes on a job operating a giant fur suit of a toy company’s upcoming holiday season to, Pookah. Pookah has two modes, naughty or nice. Soon Wilson comes to find that the suit is starting to effect his overall mood and the naughty mode may last outside the confines of the suit.

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

Amazon

Now if you could only watch one Christmas movie every holiday season, it’s gotta be this one, right? It’s a Wonderful Life has been a winter staple ever since…shortly after its 1946 release. The film infamously took a little while for audiences to catch on they they were in the presence of a classic. And now it lives on Amazon for the time being as the go-to spot for holiday cheer.

If you haven’t watched this movie in a while, it can be surprising just how tenuously tied the whole thing is to Christmas. Though the story of George Bailey begins on Christmas Eve 1945, the movie takes audiences throughout the entirety of his life, Christmas Carol-style. But of course, in the end the angels have gotten their wings and Christmas is in full thrall. Certainly, It’s a Wonderful Life will be all over the traditional TV calendar, but it’s nice to know that it’s on streaming as well for those who just can’t wait.

Klaus (2019)

Netflix

Since the hallowed days of Rankin/Bass stop-motion animated Christmas specials, there hasn’t been much movement or innovation in the realm of animated Christmas movies. Klaus, written and directed by Sergio Pablos, seeks to change all that in Klaus.

This crisply animated feature serves as an alternative history version of the story of Santa Claus. Jesper (Jason Schwartzman) proves himself to be the worst student as a postal academy and is sent to the North Pole where his lack of letter-delivering abilities won’t do anyone any harm. There he discovers Klaus (J.K. Simmons), a mysterious carpenter who lives alone and likes to make handmade toys. Sounds pretty familiar. 

Klaus is both a technical marvel and an effective little Christmas story.

Last Christmas (2019)

HBO Max

Shortly after taking in the cheerful trailer for Emma Thompson and Paul Feig’s 2019 holiday hit Last Christmas, the Internet stood up as one and agreed on an important point: there’s a twist in here, isn’t there? And of course, the Internet was right…as it so often is.

Last Christmas features a very prominent and important twist in its plot that you’ll have to watch the movie (or read Wikipedia) to figure out. But twist or no, this is a perfectly enjoyable entry into the modern Christmas canon. Emilia Clarke takes some time off from torching King’s Landing to star as Kate, an aspiring young singer going through hard times around Christmas. That all changes when she meets the alluring and devastatingly handsome Tom (Henry Golding). What follows is a minor Christmas miracle.

The Santa Clause (1994)

Disney+

Tim Allen really was on top of the world in the 1990s, wasn’t he? The star of ABC’s popular Home Improvement sitcom, and just a year away from becoming a Pixar legend in Toy Story, Allen could get any family entertainment greenlit. Thus enters Disney’s The Santa Clause, a movie that posits “what if Tim Allen became Santa?” That’s pretty much what happens when Allen’s schmo-y Scott Calvin inadvertently is responsible for the death of the previous Santa who slips off his roof.

The consequence of Scott’s mistake is he puts on the red and white outfit to finish Santa’s sleigh ride that night, much to the delight of his son Charlie (Eric Lloyd). Little does he know that by donning the suit, he has entered into a “Santa Clause” which means he becomes the big guy—literally so as he gains 100 pounds of weight and a white beard overnight. It’s still amusing now, but our favorite bit will always be David Krumholtz as the no-nonsense North Pole elf from Brooklyn.

Surviving Christmas (2004)

Amazon

One enduring hallmark of the Christmas movie genre is how bad many of its entries are. Of course, there are some well-executed classics that command one’s attention and respect, but for the most part they all blend together into a pleasant cheerful mush that can be on in the background while one decorates their tree.

Read more

TV

The Best Christmas Movies Available on Amazon Prime

By Alec Bojalad

TV

Amazon Prime Video New Releases: November 2020

By Alec Bojalad

But even by the dismal standards of Christmas movies, 2004’s Surviving Christmas is particularly dismal. This Ben Affleck/James Gandolfini starring vehicle very much earns its 7% Rotten Tomatoes score. In a way, however, that makes it a must-watch holiday classic. Affleck stars as a rich advertising executive looking to reconnect with his past. What better way to do so than to pay the current occupants of his childhood home to spend Christmas with them? Much James Gandolfini grumpiness ensues.

A Very Brady Christmas (1988)

Hulu

A Very Brady Christmas was a 1988 made-for-TV movie that brought together the entire original cast of The Brady Bunch save for Susan Olsen (Cindy Brady). Olsen was on her honeymoon at the time and I cant’ figure out if that’s a great reason or a weird reason to miss a once-in-a-generation TV event.

A Very Brady Christmas centers on a very simple and very relatable concept: getting the whole family back together for Christmas. This is a hard enough logistical challenge for a “normal” family, and a damn near impossible one for a family with six kids. Will the Bradys be able to pull it off? Watch and find out!

Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus (1991)

HBO Max

“Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” is one of the most enduring sentences in Christmas history. It comes from an 1897 newspaper editorial in which The Sun (of New York) editor Francis Pharcellus Church responds affirmatively to young Virginia O’Hanlan’s question about the existence of Santa Claus.

Read more

Movies

Wonder Woman 1984: Does HBO Max Premiere End Theatrical Releases as We Know Them?

By David Crow

TV

HBO Max New Releases: November 2020

By Alec Bojalad

This 1991 TV movie of the same name dramatizes the already-quite dramatic story. Charles Bronson, of all people, stars as Church, who is dealing with the death of his wife and the trauma he endured as a war correspondent during the Civil War. It turns out that one little girls credulous belief in the impossible is all that many adults need to get back into the spirit of the season.

And here’s the complete list, just in case you don’t like our choices!

5 Star Christmas (2018)

Netflix

12 Days of Christmas Eve (2004)

Peacock

12 Dog Days Till Christmas (2014)

Hulu

12 Pups Of Christmas (2019)

Hulu

Alien Xmas (2020)

Netflix

Alone for Christmas (2013)

Peacock

American Rodeo: A Cowboy Christmas (2016)

Amazon

Angela’s Christmas (2017)

Netflix

Angela’s Christmas Wish (2020)

Netflix

Angels in the Snow (2015)

Hulu

Anna and the Apocalypse (2018)

Hulu

Back to Christmas (2004)

Hulu

Barbie: A Christmas Carol (2008)

Hulu

Barbie: A Perfect Christmas (2011)

Hulu, Peacock

Beyond Christmas (1940)

Amazon

Black Christmas (2019)

HBO Max, Peacock

Black Mirror: White Christmas (2014)

Netflix

A Bell for Christmas (2014)

Peacock

Bob’s Broken Sleigh (2015)

Netflix

BoJack Horseman Christmas Special (2014)

Netflix

A Bride for Christmas (2012)

Amazon

Chico Bon Bon and the Very Berry Holiday (2020)

Netflix

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: A Mid-Winter’s Tale (2018)

Netflix

Christmas, Again (2014)

Amazon

Christmas with the Andersons (2016)

Hulu

Christmas Belle (2013)

Hulu

Christmas Break-In (2019)

Netflix

The Christmas Calendar (2017)

Hulu

A Christmas Carol (1938)

HBO Max

A Christmas Carol (2019)

Hulu

The Christmas Chronicles (2018)

Netflix

The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two (2020)

Netflix

Christmas in Compton (2012)

Hulu

Christmas Crush (2019)

Hulu

Christmas Cruise (2017)

Peacock

The Christmas Dragon (2014)

Amazon

Christmas in the Heartland (2013)

Peacock

Christmas on Holly Lane (2019)

Amazon, Hulu

Christmas Inheritance (2017)

Netflix

A Christmas Kiss II (2015)

Hulu

The Christmas Lodge (2014)

Amazon

Christmas Matchmakers (2019)

Peacock

A Christmas Movie Christmas (2019)

Hulu

Christmas Mystery (2014)

Peacock

Christmas Perfection (2018)

Hulu

Christmas with a Prince (2018)

Amazon

A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding (2018)

Netflix

A Christmas Princess (2019)

Peacock

The Christmas Ride (2019)

Amazon

A Christmas in Royal Fashion (2018)

Peacock

A Christmas Solo (2019)

Hulu

A Christmas Snow (2011)

Amazon

A Christmas Tree Miracle (2015)

Amazon

Christmas Twister (2012)

Peacock

Christmas in Vermont (2016)

Hulu

Christmas in Wonderland (2007)

Amazon

A Cinderella Christmas (2016)

Hulu

Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas (2009)

Hulu

Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker (2020)

Netflix

Dash & Lily (2020)

Netflix

Dear Santa (2011)

Amazon

Deck the Halls (2006)

Hulu

Disney Channel’s Epic Holiday (2020)

Disney+ – Arriving Dec. 11

Disney Channel Holiday House Party (2020)

Disney + – Arriving Dec. 18

Disney Holiday Magic Quest (2020)

Disney+ – Arriving Dec. 11

Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square (2020)

Netflix

A Doggone Christmas (2016)

Amazon

A Dogwalker’s Christmas Tale (2015)

Hulu

The Dog Who Saved Christmas (2009)

Hulu

The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation (2010)

Peacock

Dragons: Rescue Riders: Huttsgalor Holiday (2020)

Netflix

Dreamworks Happy Holidays from Madagascar (2005)

Netflix

Dreamworks Holiday Classics (2011)

Netflix

Dreamworks Home For the Holidays (2017)

Netflix

Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas (2014)

HBO Max

Elf-Man (2012)

Amazon

 Elf Pets: Santa’s Reindeer Rescue (2020)

Netflix

Every Other Holiday (2018)

Hulu

Eve’s Christmas (2004)

Hulu

Free Rein: The Twelve Neighs of Christmas (2018)

Netflix

A Flintstone Christmas (1977)

HBO Max

A Flintstone Family Christmas (1993)

HBO Max

Get Santa (2014)

HBO Max

Girlfriends of Christmas Past (2016)

Hulu

A Go! Go! Cory Carson Christmas (2020)

Netflix

The Heart of Christmas (2011)

Hulu

High School Musical: The Musical: The Holiday Special (2020)

Disney + – Arriving Dec. 11

His and Her Christmas (2005)

Hulu

Holidate (2020)

Netflix

The Holiday Calendar (2018)

Netflix

Holiday Home Makeover with Mr. Christmas (2020)

Netflix

The Holiday Movies That Made Us (2020)

Netflix

Holiday Road Trip (2013)

Peacock

Holiday Rush (2019)

Netflix

Holiday in the Wild (2019)

Netflix

Holly’s Holiday (2013)

Hulu

Home Alone: The Holiday Heist (2012)

HBO Max

Home For Christmas (2019)

Netflix

How to Ruin Christmas (2020)

Netflix

Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas (2011)

Hulu

Into the Dark: Pooka! (2018)

Hulu

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (2020)

Netflix

Klaus (2019)

Netflix

The Knight Before Christmas (2019)

Netflix

Last Holiday (2006)

Peacock

Let it Snow (2019)

Netflix

Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)

Hulu

The March Sisters at Christmas (2012)

Hulu

Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special (2020)

Apple TV+ – Arriving Dec. 4

Married by Christmas (2016)

Hulu

Merry Happy Whatever (2019)

Netflix

Miracle on Christmas (2020)

Amazon

Mighty Express: A Mighty Christmas (2020)

Netflix

My Dad is Scrooge (2014)

Hulu

My Little Pony: A Very Minty Christmas (2005)

Hulu

My Santa (2013)

Hulu

Nailed It! Holiday! (2018)

Netflix

A Nanny for Christmas (2010)

Hulu

Naughty and Nice (2014)

Hulu

A Nasty Piece of Work (2019)

Hulu

Neo Yokio: Pink Christmas (2018)

Netflix

New Year, New You (2019)

Hulu

A New York Christmas Wedding (2020)

Netflix

A Norman Rockwell Christmas Story (1996)

Amazon

Nothing Like the Holidays (2008)

HBO Max

The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)

Disney+ – Arriving Dec. 4

The Oath (2018)

Hulu

Once Upon a Time for Christmas (2017)

Hulu

Once Upon a Sesame Street Christmas (2016)

HBO Max

Operation Christmas Drop (2020)

Netflix

Pee-wee’s Playhouse: Christmas Special (1988)

Netflix

Power Rangers: Megaforce: The Robo Knight Before Christmas (2013)

Netflix

Power Rangers Super Samurai: Stuck on Christmas (2012)

Netflix

Prince of Peoria: A Christmas Moose Miracle (2018)

Netflix

A Prince for Christmas (2015)

Peacock

A Princess for Christmas (2012)

Amazon

The Princess Switch: Switched Again (2020)

Netflix

A Puppy for Christmas (2016)

Hulu, Peacock

Rare Exports (2010)

Amazon, Hulu

A Royal Christmas Ball (2017)

Peacock

Santa Buddies (2009)

HBO Max

Santa Pac’s Merry Berry Day (2016)

Netflix

Santa Girl (2019)

Netflix

Scooby-Doo! Haunted Holidays (2012)

HBO Max

The Search for Santa Paws (2010)

HBO Max

Second Chance Christmas (2017)

Hulu

The Secret of the Nutcracker (2007)

Hulu

The Smurfs Christmas (1982)

HBO Max

So This is Christmas (2012)

Hulu

The Spirit of Christmas (2015)

Hulu

A StoryBots Christmas (2017)

Netflix

Sugar Rush Christmas (2019)

Netflix

Super Monsters: Santa’s Super Monster Helpers (2020)

Netflix

Super Monsters Save Christmas (2019)

Netflix

Super Monsters and the Wish Star (2018)

Netflix

Surviving Family (2014)

Amazon

The Swan Christmas Princess (2012)

Hulu

This Christmas (2007)

Hulu

The Town Santa Forgot (1993)

HBO Max

True: Winter Wishes (2019)

Netflix

The Truth About Christmas (2018)

Hulu

A Very Country Christmas (2020)

Amazon

A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas (2011)

HBO Max

A Very Murray Christmas (2015)

Netflix

A Wedding for Christmas (2017)

Peacock

Wonderoos: Holiday Holiday! (2020)

Netflix

Yogi Bear’s All-Star Comedy Christmas (1982)

HBO Max

Yogi’s First Christmas (1980)

HBO Max

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The post Christmas Movies: A Complete Holiday Streaming Guide appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[colp76-blog]

Hello and welcome back to my Journey into Science-Fiction Part:16. I was thinking of a way to watch science-fiction films that I have never watched before, plus an opportunity to learn more about ones I have already seen. It’s quite a simple idea really, but all I have to do is find a connection with each film in order to continue my journey.

In Part:15 I watched and reviewed Enemy Mine and if you are wondering how it brought to me to today’s film please click on the link below.

Enemy Mine, 1985. My Journey into Science-Fiction Part 15.

  The film I will be looking today at is Dreamscape 1984, directed by Joseph Ruben Gorp 1980 and The Forgotten 2004 amongst other varied films in his filmography. The film was based on the novel The Dream Master 1966 originally called “He who shapes” by Roger Zelazny that won him the Nebula Award in 1966. The film cost $6 million dollars and made just over $12 million at the box office.

When I first looked at the movie poster for Dreamscape and learned what it was about, I couldn’t wait to watch it and surprised I hadn’t heard of it before! Described as a science-fiction adventure horror film, what could go wrong?

The main character Alex Gardener Dennis Quaid is a gifted individual with psychic abilities. As a nineteen-year-old, he explored his gift under supervision until he couldn’t take anymore and disappeared. These days Alex tries to live a carefree life of gambling and women, that’s until an inconvenient meeting with local thugs goes wrong as they want a share of his success at the racecourse. Alex’s day goes from bad to worse as he later finds himself in the back of a car with two men who are from a scientific institution and is kidnapped but surely, he should have seen that coming!

At the institute, Alex meets up with former mentor Dr Paul Novotny Max von Sydow and insults are exchanged and surprisingly resolved as the Doctor decides a quiet drink to tell Alex about his plans might be just what they need. The good old Village Pub, full of life, pretty medieval and available for weddings, bar mitzvahs and secret meetings. The Doctor explains to Alex that he has managed to place another person in someone else’s dream. Someone with strong abilities like Alex could manipulate a patients subconscious and help with whatever trauma they are facing.

A few days later . . . .

The way I normally write about the films I look at has hit a bit of a brick wall with Dreamscape. I will be completely honest; it took me quite a few viewings to get through it the first time and I’m struggling to sit through it again. There are some elements I really like about this film that I will discuss shortly but I just want to speak about the stuff that I don’t. Its a bit of a change in direction but it is what it is.

First of all, the character development in the film really does not work at all. Alex isn’t the only person who is gifted, Tommy Ray Glatman is a psychic with different motives and a murderer. The way David Patrick Kelly plays the part is quite wonderful and slightly psychotic. The problem is that everyone else is just as creepy as him, including a little ginger kid. In the dream reality, I think the snake-man character is a hero and has been sent to destroy the little freckled chap.

Alex has a soft spot for Jane DeVries Kate Capshaw and he enters her dream without her consent and has sex with her! Surely that’s rape? Even worse she kind of brushes it under the rug and actually enjoyed it, surely there are some serious underlying issues going on with these two somewhere. The only character I do like is Charlie Prince George Wendt but only because he was in Cheers.

I love the idea of the President suffering apocalyptic nightmares and worrying about Nuclear War but the Director doesn’t really give it any sense of importance. I’m no filmmaker but why does he have to wake up screaming in the same bed for each scene. He could have been on a plane, at his desk or even funnier, in a meeting. like I said I’m not director but at least I’m coming up with some variety here. I do understand there are budget issues in making a film like this but they could have executed it a little better. I even think a Breaking News clip on the TV could have given it a bit more substance, maybe that was in there but I can’t remember it.

Just for the record, I never want to see that couple with the marriage issues ever again. That whole subplot is the real true nightmare of this film, kill it with fire.

Let’s get back to what I did enjoy about the film and that’s the battle inside the President’s dream at the end. The soundtrack by Maurice Jarre really sets the tone and I’m becoming quite the fan of his work after Enemy Mine. David Patrick Kelly really is a great actor and the line “Alex, have a heart” is something I have heard repeated before. The makeup used on the mutilated passengers on the train is really quite scary for a thirty-five-year-old film and the visuals effects in all the dream sequences are equally impressive. I thought the ending was a little rushed and showed no real struggle at all but when the snake-man turned in to Tommy again I was impressed. Then there is Bob Blair, just a very creepy man, only because he never shows any emotion throughout the film. I have had wallpaper with more character than him, even in death.

So I guess we have to talk about the end as Alex and Jane are setting out to recreate their dream sequence from earlier.  They somehow manage to find the same clothes and realise its the same conductor on the train, so was it all a premonition and not a dream? Whatever it is, it’s still creepy.

I know there are going to be a lot of people who loved this film when it first came out and still think highly of it today and I get that. It’s just that I’m watching it for the first time and it hasn’t aged as well as some of the other films I have looked at. I really do love the idea of the film and I have bought the book it’s based on to see if it can deliver that little bit more for me. I actually think I will review it once I’m done so keep an eye out for that one. I really did get something from this film and it’s the reason I decided to go on this journey, to learn new things and improve my knowledge of science-fiction.

So where can I go to next for Part:17 of My Journey into Science-Fiction? Well, this time my next choice is pretty simple Chuck Russell was the producer on Dreamscape but went on to directing. The Mask, Eraser and The Scorpion King are amongst his work but it’s his 1988 remake of The Blob that I am going with next and I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen that one previously either.

Thank you for reading. Do you agree or disagree with my views on Dreamscape? I would like to hear your thoughts about the film, so please leave me a comment.

Hello and welcome back to my Journey into Science-Fiction Part:16. I was thinking of a way to watch science-fiction films that I have never watched before, plus an opportunity to learn more about ones I have already seen.

[gyrlversion]

Will Byers Doesnt Have To Come Out To Be Stranger Thingss Queer Hero

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Stranger Things Season 3. 

Among all the weird and wonderful things that occurred in Hawkins, Indiana during the third season of Stranger Things, some of the more heartfelt and compelling moments of the show revolved around the characters sharing their innermost thoughts with one another.

When newcomer Robin (Maya Hawke) comes out as gay to Steve (Joe Keery) following the pair’s escapades in a movie theater bathroom, it’s a tender, realistic scene that makes your heart positively swell for lovelorn Steve and his plucky new confidant. After a bout of confusion, he realizes the girl he’s slowly been falling in love with will never reciprocate those feelings. He quickly accepts this, and thus one of Hawkins’ most epic friendships is solidified.

Giphy

It’s the show’s first official introduction of a canonically queer character, which is a victory for diversity and a fantastic step for Stranger Things, a show set in the ’80s. But the season also hinted at another character’s sexual identity journey: Will Byers (Noah Schnapp).

The popular fan theory stems from a moment that you may not even have noticed in the larger scheme of things — a tense, rain-soaked conversation between Will and his best friend Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) in the third episode of Season 3.

As Will grows frustrated with how his friends are concerning themselves more with girls and less with their friendship, he experiences the very same growing pains we’ve all gone through at one point or another. He’s content to stay in the basement with his guy friends and hang out, playing Dungeons and Dragons just like they all used to. But Mike and Lucas are especially gaga for their girlfriends, Eleven and Max.

Giphy

Will doesn’t seem to understand what’s so special about the relationships his friends have formed with the opposite sex, and one day his frustration comes to a head. He makes a hasty exit from Mike’s basement, the Party’s hallowed hangout spot, and walks out into the rain to head home. It’s not like his friends aren’t sympathetic — Mike goes out after him and makes an attempt at calming his friend down. For a moment, it seems like they might reach an understanding, but in the heat of the moment, Mike exclaims, “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls.”

Giphy

Will is immediately taken aback, obviously reeling from the hurtful remark. The hurt expression on his face is impossible to miss. For a moment, he has no idea what to say. He feels trapped — but to what end?

It’s unclear at first blush whether he’s offended at Mike’s insinuation that he just doesn’t like girls “yet” or if he doesn’t like them period, meaning he could be queer — a slip on Mike’s part that he apologizes for in the moment. Fans have interpreted it both ways, and while it could be a simple, innocuous comment, it’s caused quite an uproar in the Stranger Things fan community. Is Will gay? Are we hurtling toward a coming-out story line for him in the near future?

There are a few ways to take this statement. One, Mike could be asserting that Will just hasn’t grown out of the stage where playing with his friends isn’t as important to him anymore. It can take a while for children to fully blossom into teenagers, and with it, find a sense of their sexuality. Will could be what’s colloquially referred to as a “late bloomer,” and could indeed find himself in the middle of a relationship in a later season.

Giphy

After being trapped in the Upside Down and possessed by the Mind Flayer, Will has undergone some of the most traumatic events of the series, and these stressful situations could have affected his emotional growth — making him cling to the people and experiences that bring him comfort.

But it’s possible that this line also foreshadowed Will’s Season 4 journey, as he enters high school away from Hawkins and the comfort of The Party. It’s possible the Duffer Brothers have began building the foundation for a coming-out story line for Will since the beginning. In the creators’ original treatment for the series, they described Will as a “sweet, sensitive kid with sexual identity issues” who “doesn’t fit in with the 1980s definition of ‘normal.'” This initial character description codifies Will’s queerness. Of course, things change from page to screen, and neither the Duffers nor Schnapp have canonically confirmed Will’s sexuality, preferring to leave it up for interpretation.

Speaking to The Wrap, Schnapp explained that he believed the line was meant more along the lines of not being ready to grow up.

“All his friends have girlfriends and they’re out dating, and he just wants to have fun with his friends,” he explained “You see in Episode 3, he just wants to play D&D in the basement, and now all of his friends have girlfriends and they are dating. And it’s kind of, when you hear Mike say that line, it’s really up to the audience to interpret it. I kind of just interpret it like he’s not ready to grow up and he doesn’t really want to move on to dating and relationships yet. He still wants to be a kid and play in the basement like he did in old times.”

Giphy

Meanwhile, according to Finn Wolfhard, the scene wasn’t always meant to play out the way it did. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, he noted there were “a lot of different versions.”

“We tried, ‘It’s not my fault you don’t like girls yet.’ I don’t even know if it had to do with Will’s sexuality; I think Mike was just mad and listing off a genuine fact that he’s not interested,” he explained, though ultimately acknowledged that it was “all up to the Duffers and what they want to do” when it comes to how the story will ultimately end up playing out.

While it would certainly be a transformative part of the series if Will were to come out, how do fans feel about that direction for the boy who vanished to the Upside Down?

Giphy

“I’m happy they introduced Robin as a queer character but seeing Will have his big ‘moment’ is kind of what I’ve been waiting for this whole time,” Stranger Things fan Tony Mattingly told MTV News. “He hasn’t really ever had a big, triumphant win or anything like that, and it’s like, ‘Come on!’ He deserves happiness too, and I think a queer storyline for him makes total sense.”

Others, like Sacqua Campbell, believe Robin’s coming-out moment only previewed what’s to come with Will.

“They decided to test the waters [with Robin,]” she said. “They wanted to see how people would respond to a queer character before committing to making one of the main characters gay, and now they’ve done it, so it’s time to see if the positive reaction gives them the ‘go-ahead,’ of sorts to go in the same direction with Will.”

All of the fan speculation around Will’s sexuality only further heightens the need for more queer characters on our screens. But positioning Will as a character with an impending queer “reveal” would make total sense for Stranger Things, a story about a group of kids coming of age and experiencing uncertain things like first love while saving humanity from certain evil. By the end of the third season, all of the members of The Party have found that special someone — Dustin and Suzy; Lucas and Max; and Mike and Eleven.

But just because Will may not be “interested in girls,” that doesn’t mean he has to be interested in anyone at all. Sexuality is a spectrum, and there’s no one way to be queer — nor is there a set timeline for these kinds of revelations. He’s 13 and about to enter his freshman year of high school. He’s moving at his own pace, and going into Season 4, he has someone new by his side: his surrogate sister of sorts, Eleven. There’s so much to explore with this pairing; after all, they’re the only people who understand each other’s trauma. Not to mention, they’re both outsiders. It’s possible that Eleven will be a significant part of Will’s coming-of-age journey.

Whether that journey brings him to a certain realization, we’ll have to wait and see. But Will Byers doesn’t have to come out to resonate with queer fans who so desperately see themselves in him, a kid who doesn’t quite fit in a heteronormative society. After all, he’s a David Bowie in a room full of Kenny Rogers.

The post Will Byers Doesnt Have To Come Out To Be Stranger Thingss Queer Hero appeared first on Gyrlversion.

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[thesffcorner]

Split

Split is a horror/thriller written and directed by M Night Shyamalan. It takes place in the same universe as Unbreakable, and follows Casey (Anya Taylor Joy), a teenage girl who gets kidnapped along with two other classmates. She wakes up in a room, and soon the girls find out that their captor might be even more dangerous and crazy than he first appeared.

I’m in a precarious position with this film; I hadn’t seen it when it came out, and now, years later, knowing what the main twist is, and having seen the trailer for the sequel Glass, many of the things in this film fell flat for me. Twists and turns that should’ve been shocking left no impact because I already knew exactly what was happening. This isn’t to say that I didn’t like anything about this film, or that my problems with it were only because I knew the premise and outcome, but I would be lying if I didn’t say that it significantly diminished my enjoyment.

So seeing as I’m about to see Glass in a few days, let’s go over some of the things that worked and didn’t about Split; warning, there will be SPOILERS.

Kevin (and the other 23):

The main drive to see this film from the very first trailers and marketing was James McAvoy, who plays Kevin, and 23 other personalities all trapped in his body. Now, what this film does, is it takes the idea of multiple personality disorder, and takes to a whole new level, where not only are all these different personalities completely unrelated to Kevin, but they are entirely different people. When someone ‘takes the light’ (controls Kevin’s body) their appearance doesn’t change, but their physical abilities do; some of them have diabetes, some have OCD, some are female, some are physically very strong, and some have the strength of a child.

This is all explained to us through the character of Dr Fletcher, Kevin’s psychiatrist who specializes in treating patients who have this disorder called DID.

Now, for the film, this is both a virtue, and a flaw. Because this McAvoy was the focus of the marketing, the scene where the girls realize Patricia and Dennis are not two different people, is meant to be terrifying and confusing; it’s shot and presented like a revelation, a shocking twist. But it isn’t; we already know Kevin has multiple personalities because the trailer and the marketing told us so!

Additionally, why does Kevin have 23 personalities? We never see more than 5 max, and even still we only really follow 4: Dennis, Patricia, Hedwig and the Beast. We get a glimpse here and there of  4 other personalities, but that’s about it. The film could have easily been about 5 personalities instead of 23, but I guess 23 sounds more impressive even if we never see the majority of them.

The 4 characters we do see were all interesting and engaging. I give major props to McAvoy; he nails this part. They all have distinct personalities, mannerisms patterns of speech and even move differently based on the character. I was afraid he would overreact a lot of the scenes, but he is surprisingly subdued, and is a major factor into the film’s creepiness and atmosphere.

Dennis is the ring leader and he has OCD, and is a germaphobe. It’s also implied that he may have pedophilic tendencies, though I wasn’t clear on whether those were his or Barry’s or even Kevin’s. He was by far the most proactive of the personalities and the creepiest; I liked that his germophobia and OCD were products of Kevin’s childhood trauma (since his mother used to beat him if he’d make a mess), and I really enjoyed his increasingly unhinged attempts to convince Dr Fletcher that he was Barry.

His interactions with the girls were also creepy, and there was a prevailing sexual threat in all of his scenes with them which was incredibly unsettling.

Patricia was who the film builds as the ringleader of the Horde, while Dennis was the muscle. She reigns Dennis in, and seems to be the one who came up with the story of the Beast. It’s difficult to tell if the Beast’s sick moral code and dogma come from her and Dennis twisting Dr Fletcher’s speeches on DID patients, or if she accepted them from the Beast himself. She too gets a standout scene where she makes sandwiches and it’s pretty effective. 

Hedwig was the character I liked most, and I can’t believe I’m saying that watching James McAvoy pretend he’s a 9 year old with a lisp was the best part of this film. Gain, McAvoy is rather convincing in the part of a 9 year old boy trapped in a grown adult’s body, coloring all the scenes between him and Cassey in a layer of yikes, especially the scene where he asks to kiss her. But he’s also genuinely funny and gets the best dialogue and scenes in the film, and I enjoyed every time he was on screen.

The Beast:

Now, the Beast is somewhat of a twist in the film, in that he’s not one of the 23 personalities, and many of them (including Dr Fletcher) don’t even believe he exists. Turns out he does exist and he was born on the train on which Kevin’s father escaped from Kevin. I found him being an amalgamation of a bunch of the animals from the zoo where Dennis works clever, like his powers being having skin like a rhino’s hide, strength of a lion, and the agility of a monkey. I liked that he goes after the two girls specifically because of an incident that happened to Dennis, where two teenage girls pranked him. I even liked again, how his philosophy about taking over the world and getting it rid of weak people, people who are not ‘broken’ was really a twisted version of Dr Fletcher’s speech about how through trauma DID patients become more than human.

What I didn’t like was, well… look his powers are fucking stupid alright? He eats people. He is a human man who eats raw flesh and hasn’t died yet. Like… maybe I can suspend my disbelief that one of the personalities has diabetes, and maybe even that the Beast can somehow survive getting shot point blank in the chest, but this whole eating people thing was just so dumb! And the whole debate of who is broken and worthy and who is weak and unworthy was also so dumb. He also doesn’t have any character arc or even a conclusion. It’s just the Beast wants to eat people, and in the end he eats people. The end. There is no climax to his story, no revelation or realization, it’s just he can eat more people now. Great.

Useless Characters With 0 Agency:

I will own up to the fact that I’m not a huge fan of kidnapping plots, and 90% of that is because I hate that no matter how many times the person who gets kidnapped tries to escape, they inevitably must fail, so that whoever does the rescuing can save them at the end. I thought this case might be different, since Casey is, at first, presented like a fairly competent character, and I thought, maybe, she could escape. But boy oh boy was Casey a plank of wood.

First, I understand why she would be having trouble at school and connecting to other peers because of he backstory, but why she was so needlessly rude, mean and uncooperative with the other two girls that are captured was beyond me. The girls are perfectly nice and kind to her, they want her to escape with them, and in a way they are right; three of them, vs one of Dennis is still better odds, no matter how ‘strong’ Dennis might be.

Then there is the fact that she does nothing for over 90% of the film. She attempts to escape once, and even then she doesn’t really; she steals Hedwig’s walkie talkie, and I can’t tell if it’s Joy’s acting or Shyamalan's direction, but he reaction at having her last hope of escape snatched away from her was nowhere near appropriate enough. She spends most of the film being extremely subdued and confused, and even in the very last section, where she does actually take the shotgun, nothing she does is even remotely effective against the Beast.

Also who TF decides running into a cage and locking themselves in, with only 2 rounds of a shotgun is A SMART IDEA? ESPECIALLY SOMEONE WHO’S BEEN HUNTING HER WHOLE LIFE?

Her backstory was genuinely upsetting and creepy and I hated all of those scenes, but they were effective and achieved exactly what they needed to to set up her character. What I didn’t like or get, was Cassey’s ending. She never confronts her uncle; we never even see him after the last flashback and I guess maybe you could argue that it’s implied that Cassey would tell the police officer what he’s been doing to her, but that’s such a stretch and unnecessarily vague ending that I don’t know why it was there.

Like Kevin and the Beast, Cassey has no character arc. She wasn’t vain or shallow or ‘had felt no pain’ like the other 2 girls; there was no character flaw she needed to overcome. If anything, her character flaw seemed to be that she was passive, but she doesn’t learn not to be by the end; she is exactly the same at the end as she was at the start, except slightly more traumatized.

The other two girls are non-entities. I don’t understand why the film bothers to introduce them only to have them disappear a third way in, I didn’t like that the film punished their attempts to escape and be proactive for no reason and I didn’t like the message. Neither one of those girls were mean or catty or vain; they were regular teenagers. Claire invites Cassey to the birthday party even though she shows no interest to be there, she tries to get her to join them against Dennis, they are never rude to her? If you wanted the audience to hate them, you need to actually give us reasons to hate them; like this it just seems like the film agrees with the Beast that teenage girls are really horrible, just for existing!

I also really hated the wasted time of showing Marcia trying to open the locker with the hanger. Why linger on that scene for so long if you won’t even show us the outcome? We just see she’s dead in the next scene and that’s it. That part genuinely made me angry, because the film had been so good at representing women up until that point, and it was such a disappointment.

Dr Fletcher was probably the worst part. She spends the movie telling us about Kevin’s condition, and talking to Dennis. She realizes quickly something is wrong, realizes that there is something dangerous about Dennis and the fact that he won’t let her talk to any of the other characters, realizes that the Beast is likewise a dangerous thought and does have the good sense to go to the Zoo and seek Dennis out. BUT she’s also dumb enough not to let anyone know she’s going, she doesn’t immediately call the police after Dennis gives her a speech every serial killer would think is a bit much, and doesn’t take any precautions to make sure she’s not followed when she finds Cassey and STILL TRIES TO REASON WITH DENNIS EVEN AFTER SHE SEES WHAT IS HAPPENING! She was a completely useless character; she’s only there for exposition and that’s entirely it.

Pacing:

The very last thing I want to touch on is the pacing. Shyamalan is known for very slow films; he likes lots of slow tracking shots, he lets the camera linger on scenes that could easily be cut, he likes his long establishing shot, awkward pauses in dialogue, etc. These are all stylistic choices; you can argue about their merit, but at the end of the day, if you’ve seen one of his films and didn’t like how slow it is, you won’t like any of them. My issue is that a lot of this film could have used some editing. I already mentioned how the entire subplot with Marcia and Claire is at once superfluous and doesn’t need to take up that much time considering its conclusion, as well ass Dr Fletcher having a lot of circular dialogue scenes in which she just explains DID over and over again. The pacing was glacial; I genuinely think that some quicker cuts and scenes would have benefited it so much, and maybe another draft of the screenplay, tightening up the story and giving the characters actual arcs and conclusions.

Conclusion:

It’s fine. Honestly, I didn’t care much for it, but it wasn't a bad film. There is a lot good in it, but the some of its parts isn’t stronger than some individual scenes and James McAvoy’s acting. I will still watch Glass and I do think you should check it out if it sounds at all interesting; just don’t expect a masterpiece.

[serenagaywaterford]

#5 - now don’t hold back, how do you really feel about Nick? Haha... yeah, Max so far hasn’t been great, thinking back, there was only the one scene with Eden that was somewhat memorable for me. Nothing else really stood out. There is still time though, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. I don’t dislike him as much as you do, I think he’s served a purpose, provides really the only comfort June has in this world. Don’t think of him as June’s hero, but someone June uses to survive...

People like a ship on a show, I get that. This one is really the only logical one. When you are stuck together in this world, it’s only natural. Even when Luke is still in the picture technically. But I just don’t care... for me a happy ending for June is for her to be reunited with her daughters, and have Moira/Emily in her life (don’t think Janine makes it to Canada). Either Luke/Nick or both in her life is a nice little bonus, but not essential.

--------

LMAO. I keep all my Nick hate repressed in a little hard ball in my tummy (mostly cos I don’t care for fandom drama) but sometimes the wordvomit just spews when I feel safe on my blog haha. Everyone needs their release, right? LOL. I just sort of wish they’d cast a better actor. I probably would still have some of the same issues, but not to such a high level.

I agree. I think we’re talking about the same Nick/Eden scene? (I’m thinking the one at the pool where he’s trying to talk her out of doing the Dumb Teenage Thing she wants to do. (I love Eden sfm, ngl.) Is that the one you’re thinking of too?) I will admit, that is probably only the second time I have ever really enjoyed his acting or a scene with him. It’s the only time I’ve ever enjoyed a scene with him that doesn’t also have Serena in it. Cos, the other one I really liked was when he confronts Serena about June’s mental health. The tension there was so good. Again, he wasn’t on Yvonne’s level but it was a good enough scene writing and directing-wise that Yvonne could carry it easily and Max rose up a little to meet her. Almost. I’m biased, ofc.

Don’t get me wrong, I may be completely bored by the character/actor BUT I do recognise his integral purpose to June’s story, and appreciate that June does need/deserve/want comfort and only he can do that for her. He is (was, arguably, cos I personally think he’s served this purpose and it’s done) totally necessary to her survival, especially from a psychological standpoint. I just resist other people calling him a fucking hero. He’s not. June is. He’s her sidekick. He’s part of what makes her able to overcome certain circumstances, and lbr, without him, she’d probably be dead or in the Colonies cos Fred ain’t ever knocking her up. It’s more fandom’s obsession with treating him like the centre of the THT universe and everything about June revolves around him and it’s just disgusting to me to take a story about women, and especially a particular woman, and center it on a MAN.

((((Cos he’s cute, allegedly.))))

I never had a huge issue with it in the book, cos characters are made to play certain roles in assisting the protagonist. But I honestly have no understanding how anybody could read the book and go, “Hmm, this is good and all, but it’ll be so much more interesting to make it all about the guy, Nick.” 

[Caveat... I am completely aware of how hypocritical I’m being, lol. I read the book and Serena was a somewhat interesting character but nowhere near as fascinating as she is on the show, lmao. At least, imo, she’s a woman, in a story that should be about women.]

Not to mention, Luke exists. And June still deeply loves him. Clearly. As soon as Nick even mentioned him, her mind went to him and Hannah. Whether I think they can work again (I don’t) outside Gilead, meh. Luke exists. Luke wants June back. June probably will attempt to make it work with him again as a family. Nick is not her “soulmate”, imo. I don’t want some epic romance bullshit for this show.

Now, in all fairness, Luke doesn’t exactly get a free pass from me either. I don’t really like the guy. (For different reasons. I think the actor is perfect actually for the role and does it very well.) I just find the character of Luke, sort of like a wet rag. Again, he’s another character that just sort of slides on by, not really caring and not taking the women’s concerns seriously (esp obvs in convos with Moira) and then just sulks a lot. Like, a lot. I get trauma gets handled differently by different people but Luke rubs me the wrong way. Even before Gilead. He seemed to have no issue being “the man of the house” and stepping into that patriarchal role. AGAIN, if we’re coming back to complaints about Serena not having any foresight, here’s another character that didn’t really care what was happening until it affected him personally. Now, that’s not to say criticisms of Serena for those reasons aren’t warranted; they totally are (She is at the far extreme end). But there are a whole host of characters who also gave no real shits about anyone else until they were personally affected by the system (Nick and June also fall on this spectrum, and arguably Nick is way down with Serena in terms of this, whereas Luke and June are not as bad, and June is certainly not as bad as Luke. Where was he at the protests? Hmm?). That’s sort of the whole point of the flashbacks about the rise of Gilead? We all sort of just go along with things, no matter how bad they are for others... until it personally affects us??? And often then, it’s too late to fix it. It’s the insidious rise of fascism in a nutshell.

People like a ship on a show, I get that. This one is really the only logical one. When you are stuck together in this world, it’s only natural.

Exactly! It is completely understandable and natural. And I enjoy seeing June regain parts of herself and find some pleasure and freedom through it. And you would latch onto anybody who can offer that. But Gilead, and especially June’s world, is a very, very small part of things and she has little access to anything else. Of course, a man being kind to her and protective of her and giving her good sex, hope, comfort, respect, affection, love, etc etc. is good. What else does the poor woman have? Fred? Serena? Rita? That’s her entire world. In that house. But what happens when that world expands? 

And I do completely understand shipping them. It does make total sense. And I gotta say, shipping canon pairings is such a relief. (I rarely have that opportunity lmao but when I did, it was so NICE.) 

Honestly, there isn’t much else to choose from in THT. It’s easy enough to keep shipping out of it but fandom is inherently shippy and full of straight fangirls, I think. It’s gonna happen. If AO3 is anything to go by, the majority (by an overwhelming amount) is June/Nick, with June/Serena second*, and June/Luke and June/Fred trailing those two. I get it.

(* I actually think this number would be higher if 2x10 had not happened the way it did. Specifically if it had not been Serena suggesting it (or at least had the lead up been better written). I saw a surge of interest after 2x08 especially but wham! 2x10, and then it’s just like, “HOW??? This is so wrong now, when it was only problematic before, now it’s like woah no way.”)

I agree about the happy ending. It’s June, free, with her daughters. Moira is absolutely essential to be in June’s life. I will not accept it otherwise. They are not allowed to kill Moira. She must be there. If it’s just June, Moira, Hannah, and Nicole, that’ll do.

Emily, eh. For me, I’m not that attached to the character and I want her healing more than anything, wherever that is. There’s another one who I’m not convinced would be able to just slide back into life with Sylvia and Oliver. (She had mentally given up on them way before she even was mutilated. it’s gonna be an incredibly hard road for her.) I want Emily alive and working towards being less traumatized. Minimum. I think she should have died way back, but since they’ve kept her alive this long and via such completely idiotic means, she has to stay alive now.

ITA about Janine, sadly. This may be sacrilege, but I’d rather her make it thru the series alive than Emily? I don’t dislike Emily by any means but I just enjoy Janine more. I find her more interesting. Eek. Is that bad?

I’d rather not have Nick around, simply cos it’s too much potential for stupid TV love triangle drama, and you know the showrunners won’t be able to resist playing on that. OR, going down the “June is pining for the love she left behind and that’s why it doesn’t work with Luke” route (BARF!). OR, alternately, presenting it as some super-cool post-monogamy hippie commune thing where people can just get on and there's no such thing as jealousy. Either way, I don’t want it. So I’d rather just knock out Nick in a blaze of glory, doing something incredibly brave and selfless for the CAUSE. Not just for June. I’m sick of his whole “for June only” shtick. Other women exist. Other women need your help too. I personally think it would perfect for him to die helping other women who specifically are not June nor connected to her. It would show some growth. If he dies for June specifically, I don’t think that shows any growth whatsoever. I’d argue that him dying For June just proves he’s not learnt anything, because it’s still just about what he wants and how things affect him.

But hey, I don’t think they will kill off Nick at all. He’s too much of a fan fav. I would like them too, but I don’t get what I want on TV. And probably only 7 people would watch the show I’d write, lol.

[theincorrigiblemagpie]

Prithvi Vallabh (Episode 4) - The Thirstiest Binch in Malwa

January 28, 2018

Today’s history lesson is that Holi started out as a puranik tradition of worshipping Kamdeva and Prithvi Vallabh’s established ‘rangotsav’ was one of the most spectacular festivals of the period. I mean...sure, Sony. Whatever. We’ll pretend like there aren’t hundreds of different origin points for the modern festival of Holi depending on which region/community/sect one is looking at. Sure.

Returning to the actual story, Prithvi is making googly eyes at the angry looking stranger arriving in a boat while Rasnidhi is all “wyd rajkumar, get a grip on your boner, we in public, we gotta greet random Arab storytellers.”

The ever-annoying Parimal has also arrived with Mrinal and her soldiers and are walking up the pier when someone bumps into one of the Mongol arsonists and draws the attention of some security nearby. Malwa is xenophobic AF because they immediately start running after Mrinal’s group who are forced to blow their cover and run away, leaving Parimal behind. They run through the outskirts until finally confronted by the 3 men who were after them. These random soldiers are no match for Mrinal and her soldiers and they easily overpower and kill them.

Prithvi, in the meantime, has made it down to the pier but misses the escaping group by seconds and is fruitlessly looking for the hot woman he saw from far away. He finally gives the game away to Rasnidhi who is more excited than Prithvi is about Prithvi possibly getting laid. He basically says “why tf did you not tell me your weird public boner was over a woman that you finally deign attractive enough to sleep with and not your own imagination?’”and sends Prithvi off to look for Mystery Woman.

The Mystery Woman in question is convening over a map of the capital and planning to set off the bombs in key spots to scare people and cause max confusion and minimum death. I assume so, at least, because the instruction is to blow up the least crowded spots, not most. Mrinal plans to use that distraction to sneak into the palace and kill Sinhadant. I have no input on this except this rather anachronistic shot of them poring over the map is cool.

Back in Manyakhet, a drunk Jakkala (Tailap’s wife) confronts Tailap who has lied to her about going to inspect the barracks. He is actually going on a hunt with Kosha who is tired of never going on a date outside. Jakkala knows the truth and asks him and he doesn’t deny it. Fuck, I actually feel bad for Jakkala here. Yeah, I’m not onboard with her casteist slutshaming of Kosha but her anger and resentment itself is legitimate.

I was reading someone’s dismissal of Jakkala’s pain on IF with a “don’t thrust modern morality upon a different era-- it was the done thing for kings to take mistresses and even have multiple wives at that time.” Sure, but the main problem is this isn’t a historical documentary. Clearly, within the world-building of this show, Tailap taking up with Kosha is not okay. Otherwise he wouldn’t be so secretive about it. He knows Mrinal would not approve and he knows he’s being unfair to Jakkala. Heck, the very existence of the kotha is a bit of a question mark in Manyakhet. Basically, the woman playing Jakkala is a pretty solid actor in this cast of more flimsy than not actors, and Tailap doesn’t endear himself to me AT ALL.

Jakkala drunkenly begs him to not leave her but ofc he does.

See, she’s good.

Kosha is also waiting for Tailap, fussing over some jewelry and red clothes. The madam tells her to get a grip and not build her whole life around Tailap since that relationship has no future, and to encourage some of her other admirers as well. Kosha is all, “sorry, too late, in love, going to pretend to be a bride even if I can’t get married to the king.”

I have figured out my problem with Kosha. It’s the Mastani Problem. Named after the Sanjay Leela Bhansali directed Bajirao Mastani (2015). Kosha, like Mastani, is an exceptionally badly written character with no existence outside her obsessive love for a forbidden (politically powerful) man. And while I stan Deepika Padukone and tolerated Mastani, Deepika even redeeming her to some extent in my opinion; Kosha is not played by anyone I have an existing affection for. She’s not bad tbh. Just that she’s stuck with a frustrating character.

On a side note, I wonder when red became synonymous with bridal for the first time in any part of the subcontinent. Not that they’re even pretending historical accuracy with the clothes but given Manyakhet is So Very South Indian that Tailap calls Mrinal ‘akka’ you’d think they’d have considered that bridal colours are not commonly red and gold in much of south India.

Unfortunately for Mrinal, Kallari has discovered the bodies of the 3 guards and is on their tail. From copious amounts of jewelry that Mrinal’s soldiers have left behind at the scene of the crime, he’s figured out that several intruders pretending to be tribal women have entered Malwa. Honestly, so much jewelry toh it takes a special talent to “drop.” He beefs up security everywhere and puts his soldiers on alert for suspicious looking foreigners. At an international cultural festival. This is going to go so well.

Mrinal herself is at the marketplace, watching out for Prithvi whom she plans to use to get into the palace. The faithful Sulochana informs her that Prithvi is a bit of a flirt and single at that. LOL I don’t even know how that last bit is relevant but Mrinal goes with it. She starts following Prithvi and then pretends to be lost when he looks back and sees her.

Here is Mrinal, totally not looking at Prithvi.

I am not going to judge much because this is exactly what I would do to get the attention of a cute guy (albeit, not to assassinate his father).

Prithvi notices her and gets off his horse to talk to her. And then brings his flirting A Game. He calls her “princess” saying that according to the scriptures any woman with an upright posture, a decisive pace and the turbulence of the seas in her eyes (???) is a princess. That’s...flattering. Not to be outdone, Mrinal responds saying that she IS a princess....of the kingdom of her mind and her family. Well played! For someone who hasn’t been to a coed high school while in her hormonal teens, her banter is pretty solid, if a little angry.

She tells him her name is Rukma and that she is looking for Parimal the poet whom she came to Malwa with, and that she’d heard great things about Prithvi Vallabh the legendary warrior, but here she finds him wandering the marketplace like some aashiq. Prithvi, practiced flirt, immediately smirks back with a “yeh aashiqui sabko naseeb nahi hoti, rajkumari.” FUUUUU this is the shit I came for.

He offers to take her to the kala bhavan where all the poets are and fully cops a feel lifting her up on to his horse. They walk through Bollywood streets of flowing fabric being dyed and reach the kala bhavan where Rasnidhi decides to haze her. He says the rule is that anyone visiting the kala bhavan must provide proof of their own art. Prithvi, the 5th grade negger, agrees and asks her to perform. She silently picks the veena and very reluctantly approaches it. Mrinal hasn’t played since that fateful night of her parents’ murder because it is too traumatic. So, when she starts, her fingers are rusty and she can’t tune the instrument. Ofc, Prithvi offers to tune it for her and shows off a little himself, the prat.

Mrinal begins playing the same tune she had been playing the night of her family’s murder and gets so caught up in it that she breaks a string and runs off in tears. Prithvi follows with a 10th c hanky and cheesy poetry to comfort her.

“Gira de tere paas jitne ashk hai, ghatayein;  yeh pyaas kissi ke milne se bujhegi, tere barasne se nahi”

Uffff I live for this flirty cheese.

Prithvi is all “Looks like this is some major childhood trauma; I know we met today but do you want to tell me about it?”

So, Mrinal is like “LOL whut, you have problems, my dude. I was only crying my eyes out because I embarrassed myself in front of a bhari mehfil by breaking a string on the veena.”

Mrinal is so not Online. I recommend a twitter account to deal with childhood trauma, like the rest of us noobs. Since she can’t get therapy.

Prithvi ofc can’t let it go. He’s all “are you sure it was just the string cos it sounded awfully like your heart broke too.”

PRITHVI. You are SO gauche.

He continues to push her about why she’s here in Malwa cos apparently the rangotsav cannot be reason enough. Are you admitting that your own festival is too lame for a hot woman to want to visit on its own merit?

Mrinal now says she actually wants to meet Sinhadant whose nobility is spoken of even in the far reaches of the country. Prithvi ke man mein laddoo phoot rahein hain because she wants to meet his father. He is extremely smiley and insistent on introducing them and personally escorts her to the Miss Malwa Rangotsav 950 CE competition that Sinhadant will be at (not even joking, there is a kala vadhhu contest where a woman is selected based on her looks, artistic talent and charisma, to do PR for the festival). Mrinal even raises a feminist concern about this and Prithvi is all “I assure you it is very respectable.” I AM SCREAMING. Idk why they bothered making a period drama when this plot and dialogue was basically written for a contemporary romantic drama.

Predictably, Parimal is captured as a “shady looking foreigner” and Kallari somehow magically figures out that he came from Manyakhet with some women and Mongol men in disguise. Parimal admits to it and promises to recognize them in a crowd.

Mrinal is baffled by how jobless the people in Malwa seem to be and says as much to Prithvi who lightly shades her about not keeping up with veena practice. My god, get a room.  Then some random woman puts a floral garland around Mrinal’s neck. Prithvi explains that the rangotsav is also a hooking-up festival where the belief is you can find your soulmate here. And if she does find anyone she considers to be her own, to claim possession by putting the garland around his neck. AND THEN HE INCLINES HIS HEAD SLIGHTLY IMPLYING SHE OUGHT TO GARLAND HIM.

Prithvi’s thirst is unparalleled. His father and friends are right to feel concerned about him not marrying if he talks like this all the time.

He finally goes off to set the Miss Malwa contest in motion and Mrinal tears off the garland, regrouping with Sulochana who has been shadowing her all along. (Did Sulochana witness all of Prithvi’s not-so-subtle flirting? You bet she did.) They figure out Mrinal’s exit plan and almost immediately Sinhandant appears in public for the festival.

Parimal, meanwhile, has picked out one of Mrinal’s soldiers in the crowd and alerted the Malwa soldiers.

Even as that soldier and the Mongol accomplices are caught by Kallari, they commit suicide, and the bombs go off all over, causing chaos. And from the smoke, Mrinal emerges to capture Sinhadant and drag him to a more convenient kill-spot.

Mrinal- 1 Prithvi- 0