#how many times did russ say 'i love you' to him. i have to rewatch it and count

[lock-my-feelings-in-a-jar]

everybody knows you're not talking down anyone doing covers of russ's songs

WELL sometimes i say something and my mind is only on one part of what i'm saying and then i reread it and i'm like "wait this looks like i'm insulting this other thing now" and then i'm dwelling on trying to explain that's not what i mean and then i just delete it all because i can't think of good words to use.

but thank you, this makes me feel better because in my head i'm like "i can say it because probably nobody will even think that anyway. but. what if they do" and then the anxiety starts

LIKE just about a week or so ago i was listening to russ's version of you can do magic and thinking about the way he sang it live earlier this year, the feeling he put into it, how pretty is sounded, along with his little speech that only adds to that, about "we must be the change we want to see" and all that, it was adorable, and i was just like "wow russ" and i wanted to talk about it and how i feel there's so many songs out there that have so much feeling in them when they're done by whoever wrote them because it's coming directly from something inside of them, but i was like well if i bring up that song specifically, it's gonna look like i'm saying america's version wasn't good or something which is like. no that's not how i feel, but. IT'S EASY TO SAY WORDS, OKAY, BUT sometimes i feel like words don't cover everything in my mind. like i'll say one line of words about something, but there's so much more to it in my head than just that line. i always feel like i have to put ALL OF IT out there at once and when i don't know how to, i'll just not say it at all because there's a slight possibility that it could MAYBE be taken wrong.

and then when somebody else says exactly what i was thinking, like paul shortino did(and it was even about that same song) i'm like YES THANK YOU, that's what i wanted to say!!!!!

[cevans-is-classic]

18+ only please, language, mentions of time in jail, me just wanting to write Russell

Masterlist One and Two

Ethan Hawke

Russell heard you shift, fabric stretching over fabric, the static of new sheets prickling the air. The room is dark, light breaking through in muted rays across the carpet. The bed makes a woosh noise when you settle down in it. 

He waits. 

It’s only been a month — maybe less. He’d thought you would have left by now growing bored with his wandering adventure. 

You were strangers, after all. 

You stayed. 

Asked him if he could ride the next bus with him and kept going after that. He enjoys you being here and loves the company, and the conversations. You knew so many things — wonderful things. You listened when he talked about his father’s stamps and how he’s starting his own collection. 

He knew you knew nothing about stamps — which is okay; he knows that. It leaves room for you to talk — he can go on and on about what his dad taught him. What he learned on his own. Not once did you ever seem uninterested or made him feel uncomfortable with his stories — with who he was.

It makes him want to learn more about you.

He loves hearing what you’re interested in. Russell would sit for hours if it meant you kept talking and talking. You stopped in New Mexico, a small urban town that had a Walmart and Dunkin donuts. He’d never had Dunkin Donuts — you told him he wasn’t missing much. (He thought the coffee was okay, but the donuts weren’t.) 

Instead of hitching a ride to Albuquerque you hung around with him. Walked the town from one end to the other in slow meandering steps. Every moment filled with conversations — music, his favorite, your favorite. He asked about your favorite movie and remembered telling Diane he liked Predator.

Russel doesn’t think it’s Predator anymore. He rewatched it, loving the nostalgic feeling he’d gotten, but wasn’t excited about it. 

He doesn’t think he has a favorite, really. 

You told him about a scary movie that’s based loosely on a true story. Russel asked about the movie which sent you on a tangent about it. You told him every detail from the family moving into a new house — to them performing an exorcism on a demon lady under the kitchen. 

He never learned the name, but he wants to watch it with you.

That day he held your hand. 

You held his hand.

Three days later, he expected you to keep going. The two of you made it to Albuquerque, and you caught up with the people you were chasing after. 

He was ready to take off on his own from there, but you turned to him and asked if he’d like a tour. How could he say no?

You showed him your favorite places to eat, where you graduated, and the house you grew up in. You never brought him inside though, never invited him over to meet your family or along with your friends.

Everything you showed him it felt like he was looking from the outside in.

He figured he embarrassed you. 

He wears his dad’s suits all the time — uncomfortable in anything else he tries on. His facial hair has grown back out, and he knows he needs a haircut. Russell understood if you were. The second day you were there, and he purchased his ticket you surprised him by buying your own.

That you stayed with him. A bigger bag thrown over your shoulder, new clothes, and his hand gripped tight in yours.

You went with him.  

A knock startled him, his eyes jerking towards the hotel door. It wasn’t their room, someone further down the hall, maybe. The person knocked a few more times followed by a muffled thump, then all went quiet. Russell listened to the quiet around him and ignored the hard thud of his heart.

“Hey Russ.” You whispered. 

He turned over, seeing the faintest line of you beneath the blankets. “Yes?” 

“Remember how I told you I had things I needed to figure out?” 

Of course he did. Russell remembered everything you told him. “Yeah.” 

“I figured one of them out.” 

A smile quivered his lips, “That was easy.”

You laughed, soft, breathy, as you shifted until you were facing him. The thin line of light in the room made your face a shadowy mask. Russell swore he could see the crook of your smile even from here. 

“You’re like me.” 

His brow furrowed. “I’m like you?” 

“Yeah.” You moved, slipping through the blankets until your feet hit the floor. Russell had enough time to move over before you were sliding in beside him. You shivered, little small trembles. It made him throw the blanket over you and scoot closer.

Your noses were almost touching before you talked again, “You’re starting new. Having a fresh start and rediscovering yourself, right? Me too. I needed a new life, a new outlook. I’d been stuck between Nevada and New Mexico my whole life. Now I’m everywhere. I’m here! We’re here. This is all new.” 

Your voice rose as you spoke, eyes going wide, your hand moving under your chin. 

Russell gives himself a single moment to think, “I want to kiss you.” Before he does it. 

It cuts you off mid-sentence, his lips pressing to yours, his hand sliding to the small of your back. You felt stiff against him, making his stomach curl in shame. 

Then you moved. 

Surging forward to pull him closer, your hand going to his hair as he presses you against him. 

It’s been so long since he’s held someone, touched someone, had another person’s lips moving against his.

It made him dizzy. 

Russell was never a touchy man to begin with. He kept to himself and when he was with others, he played wallflower.

Prison didn’t change that. 

Which makes this moment feel like an exploration into a part of himself he’d forgotten.

You’re soft, your lips trailing along his cheek, fingers touching his chin, his nose ghosting over his eyelids before carding through his hair. 

His hands brush over your shoulder, down your back and up again. He doesn’t know where he wants to touch, what he wants to feel. Is he allowed to?

What he knows is he wants you to cover him, to crowd him in, push him into the mattress and breathe life back into him. 

“Russell.” You whisper. 

He nods, knocking his nose with yours.

“Mind if I sleep with you tonight?” 

Russell’s brain was filled with static. 

“Sleep with me?” 

You grin against his next kiss. “I’d like to cuddle with you tonight, if that’s okay.”

He feels his cheeks flush. “More than okay.” 

You kiss him again, slower, deeper, drawing him in before releasing him, “We can talk about other kinds of sleeping together later, okay?” 

“Okay.” 

He falls asleep with your head on his chest.

@ethanhawkelover01

[lonelier-version-of-you]

I stopped watching holby post John Gaskell. Please can you give an overview of all the major storylines henrik had after that. I want to finish holby but only really care about henrik tbh

Sure! Or, well, I can try to. Henrik didn't have a lot of major stories after the Gaskell one anyway, so they should be fairly easy to recap. And I definitely understand what you mean about only caring about him, that was how I felt after like 2020 myself. It didn't feel worthwhile caring about any other character after that. Well, not that caring about Henrik did. But I'm getting off topic now.

I will say: I haven't seen a lot of these stories in a long while or even since they aired. I've rewatched some of the Russ story, but not all, and that's about it. So I may have forgotten or misremembered some things, or not know the exact eps some things happened in (especially for story 2, as Holby felt more like a chore to me than anything at that point and I was basically just sitting there hoping it'd get better - which it did in summer 2020, but then after the second hiatus of the year it went further downhill than it had ever been IMHO). I'll do my best though. I may leave some things out because they're too complicated to get into or weren't particularly major stories, I hope that's not bothersome or anything.

Also, if I sound bitter or grumpy at any point, I promise it's not towards you! It'll all be bitterness/grumpiness at what Holby became in its later years. (Sometimes I wish I had stopped after the Gaskell story myself.) I'm also sorry it took me so many hours to answer this, I had to think of how to explain the stories.

Story One: As of May 2019, Henrik has just been sort of lingering in the background for months, ever since he was basically pressured into being CEO again at the end of 2018. I have no idea why he didn't get a breakdown story after Gaskell when everything seemed so narratively set up for that to happen, but he didn't.

Anyway, in June 2019, Henrik finally gets a story. Sara Johansson - Fredrik's wife, who had left him back in October 2017 - comes to Holby and brings Henrik's grandson Oskar with her. Sara is struggling to cope (I'd go so far as to say she was implicitly suffering from depression or PTSD): she's upset that she didn't realise how evil Fredrik was, and scared that Oskar could grow up to be similar. She and Henrik have several conversations along these lines, and for some reason Henrik's relationship with Gaskell is never acknowledged or properly alluded to in any of this even though there's so much thematic resonance there - Henrik having been, like Sara, in love with a man who did awful things.

Sara ends up running away. This leaves Henrik taking care of Oskar for several months, although Sara does write a letter at one point IIRC. There's some very cute scenes with them - some of which seem to imply that Oskar is autistic like Henrik, or at least that's how they came across to me - and some interesting stuff about Henrik not being sure if he's doing things right because he wasn't there to raise Fredrik. There's also a sweet scene where Henrik goes to Jac to ask what to do, when he unintentionally upsets Oskar by telling him the Tooth Fairy doesn't exist. Henrik also befriends Dom's mum Carole around this time, and they start going to dance classes together. It's all very cute.

In August 2019, Sara returns. She's got a new job (I don't think it's ever said what her job is, so just imagine her doing whatever sort of job you think she'd do, I suppose), and she's coping better and she's ready to go back to Sweden with Oskar. Henrik ended up stepping down from the CEO position again, and went to stay with his family in Sweden for a while. (Guy Henry needed time off to go and do some theatre acting, so that's why this happened.)

Of all the stories Henrik had after Gaskell, I think this is probably the best one. It's not perfect - as I say, the lack of acknowledgement of Gaskell agitated me a lot, and it still glossed over parts of the Hanssen family history. E.g. there's a patient Henrik talks to who's scared of people thinking he's like his dad, and this reads as a parallel to Oskar, but it's not brought up that Henrik of all people also has an established fear of being associated with his dad. But still, at least this story has its strengths, and it doesn't actively insult Henrik's character or insult other characters or extensively retcon his history. That's about the most one could ask for from later Holby.

Story Two: I don't know that I'd say this is a major storyline, but I'll talk about it anyway. I hate this story, but not as much as I hated some others in the last years of the show. That hatred will probably be obvious in how I talk about it.

In February 2020, Henrik returns to Holby after his time offscreen in Sweden. He has some more scenes with Carole, and it's implied that he's fallen in love with her. It's all very sweet. Disappointingly, that story is never continued - there are conversations later about Henrik's feelings for Carole, but the romance never goes anywhere.

The story that happens instead is Henrik, along with Ric and Fletch (especially Fletch, which baffles me because just a couple of years before he was yelling at Henrik for not being a good CEO!), planning to overtake Max McGerry as CEO. Now, Max isn't a perfect CEO or a perfect person, but she's definitely more competent than Henrik. And Henrik doesn't even like being CEO. So this storyline makes no sense. It felt like a leftover recycled Serena storyline (Serena had left by this point) or something - trying to overtake other people as CEO was always more of a Serena thing than a Henrik thing.

Eventually, Max starts lying about what she has planned for the hospital - I think she says she wants to get rid of AAU or something - to see if it gets back to Henrik. Or something like that. This wasn't a story I wanted to remember at the time. Anyway, it does get back to Henrik, and he confronts her. Max tells him she lied, and points out that she was brought in to sort out the mess he had made of the hospital. I cheered at this point, because I love Henrik but in this case he deserved that. Henrik stops trying to be CEO again after that.

Interlude - April 2020 to September 2021: Henrik doesn't get a lot to do for much of this time. He does play side roles in some other characters' stories, and mentors three new doctors at one point. On the occasions he does get any meaningful screentime around this era, most of it is trying to inexplicably retcon his history, contradicting both things that are established as canon - e.g. Sahira Shah is suddenly said to be his childhood friend, when she's at least about a decade younger than him and has only known him since the 1990s according to previous eps, and things that are onscreen canon - e.g. Henrik suddenly starts saying he was involved in raising Fredrik, which can't have happened, because "Hanssen/Hemingway" has a scene of Henrik learning Fredrik's name for the first time in 2013. So if Henrik didn't even know his son's name, how could he have been involved in bringing him up? And, as said above, Henrik had been talking about how he had nothing to do with Fredrik when Fredrik was growing up as recently as 2019!

I just ignore these retcons and try to forget about them, myself, because it's easier than trying to get them to make sense with Henrik's decade worth of established history lol. Not that things didn't get retconned before - e.g. Roxanna being his friend from medschool instead of a colleague he didn't know well - but they usually either got explanations, or it was easy to make up explanations for yourself. That wasn't the case with these.

One interesting thing does happen during this interlude time though: Lucky Simpson, a psychiatric nurse, implies Henrik has CPTSD. I hadn't thought of that before, but I think it makes sense for him as a character.

Another, less interesting thing that you still have to know because it's relevant in Story Three: Henrik becomes CEO again in spring 2021. Max had to leave the job because she said she'd been taking things from the hospital - she hadn't, but her son Louis had, it's a long story - and while she did get to return to Holby, she couldn't be CEO again. I don't remember if any in-universe reason for that was ever given. Fletch was CEO for a while until Henrik agreed to go back to the job. None of it made any sense to me. Holby had long since stopped making any sense to me by this point.

Story Three: Finally, stories for Henrik that aren't just generic "CEO man who talks about his son all the time" things!

In October 2021, a doctor turns up, who turns out to be Henrik's old friend Russell Faber (but he often goes by Russ). Henrik has known Russ for a long time - though exactly how long isn't specified - ever since he once got Russ away from a shark. That seems like a joke, but I'm not making it up, a shark did bring them together. I wonder if John ever knew about that. He must've been so jealous if he did.

Russ and Henrik don't seem to have talked in a while - Russ knows about the Gaskell stuff, but he could have heard that somewhere else, and Henrik doesn't seem to know much about the past few years of Russ's life. Russ had a husband, Ami, who passed away from COVID in 2020. They also have a daughter, Billie - she's 16 at this time, though IIRC she was played by an actress a bit older, as tends to be the way on Holby. Russ, it turns out, has come to Holby to ask Henrik to mentor someone.

The "someone" Russ wants Henrik to mentor is Oliver Valentine. Basically he's been subjected to the "This character is permanently disabled now! Oh wait no we got tired of them being disabled so they're abled again now!" trope. Thank goodness Malick stayed away so it didn't happen to him too. A character can become disabled and still be fulfilled in life, Holby. Ollie not being able to be a doctor anymore wouldn't inherently be a less happy life for him than him being able to go back to it is. Anyway, Oliver has gone back to being a doctor, and Russ thinks Henrik mentoring him would be good for Ollie. Oliver has PTSD that's causing serious problems in his life, which Russ doesn't know the extent of and doesn't tell Henrik about.

After Oliver has a flashback in theatre, Henrik learns that Russ knew of Ollie's PTSD. He's upset that Russ didn't tell him and seems distrustful of Russ, though they make up the next week - which is also the first onscreen useage of Russ's nickname for Henrik: "Henny." It's adorable. Meanwhile, Oliver gets therapy and eventually leaves again to be with Zosia, while Henrik gives Russ a longterm job at Holby.

After a bit of to and fro where Henrik thinks Russ is asking him out and gets disappointed when he realises he's not, the story goes for a different turn. In January, it turns out Billie has a kid on the way... in a few weeks, to be precise! Russ hasn't noticed, for storyline convenience. When Henrik realises, he wants to tell Russ, but Billie wants to tell him herself when she feels ready.

In February, Serena and Bernie - lol, Bernie deserves a separate recap - come back. They're engaged now. Serena realises Russ and Henrik are in love. She has a conversation with Henrik about it where she tells him no one uses labels anymore. I think that's reasonably in character for Serena, but the narrative seems to portray her as Objectively Right, which frustrated me. Using labels and not using labels are both okay, neither one is better than the other, and IMO Henrik would be the sort of person to want to use a label. Other than that, the conversation is quite sweet: Henrik asks her how she knew her decisions were right with Bernie, and she basically says that if Russ makes Henrik happy then being brave enough to get together with him is more than worthwhile.

The next week, Henrik asks Russ out. It's all so cute. Later in February, Billie has a son: Denver. I seem to remember him being mostly or entirely portrayed by a doll, which amused me. I get why Holby do that, but there's still something funny about it when you can tell a character is just holding a doll. Russ learns that Henrik knew about all of this, gets upset that Henrik didn't tell him, and Henruss have their second breakup in four months. They weren't even together for the first one or arguably this one, but they still, somehow, have two breakups. Typical Henrik relationship, I suppose.

In March, Russ learns that Billie wants to move to Leeds - he and Ami both have relatives who live there, and there's an art college Billie wants to go to. Russ is starting to forgive Henrik now, but then they have an argument where Henrik tells Russ their relationship is all "a fantasy". It's Henrik's way of trying to get Russ to go with Billie, but it's still not exactly nice. Oh, Henrik.

In the finale, Henrik goes to Leeds to see Russ. He says he's there for Russ, they smile at each other, and - that's it. Yes, this is Henrik Hanssen's ending. Has he left Holby to get back together with Russ and move in with him? Has he come to reconcile with Russ and they'll return to Holby together? I hope it's the former, but nothing is explained. Almost two years later, we still don't know.

I'm so sorry for how long all of that was. I tried not to make it too long, but it's still so long. I hope it's a good enough overview.

[alcalavicci]

So there’s a really interesting interview with Deborah Pratt here. If you don’t want to pay for it, I’ll paste what I can below, but a few points first. 

Deborah says she doesn’t know where Dean is, and says she misses him. I guess she hasn’t had contact with him since he left for NZ? And with Russ Tamblyn saying Dean’s hanging in there in answer to a recent Twitter question, that brings up more questions about his condition.

Deborah claims she came up with the idea of Quantum Leap, which I’ve never seen come up before. Also Don wanted to send Sam home?? I feel like she’s misremembering a lot of details/making herself seem better than she is.

“Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished… He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own, and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time tht his next leap will be the leap home…”

The premise of Quantum Leap succinctly and empathetically explained by a voice that spoke to viewers week to week, setting the scene at the opening of the episode. It is a voice that left an indelible print on the show, from its inception to its finale. This is the voice of its Head Writer. No, not Donald P. Bellisario, but a woman of color who was leaps ahead of her time – co-executive producer and uncredited co-creator, Deborah M. Pratt.

Deborah wrote or co-wrote 40 episodes of this sci-fi gem and her authorship of the show runs deep through its five seasons. Aside from the opening narration, Deborah is audible as the voice of Admiral Al Calavicci’s pocket computer, Ziggy. She also guest stars in the episode ‘A Portrait for Troian’ (S2, Ep11) as a grieving widow who hears the voice of her husband calling her.

Deeper still, Quantum Leap was a family affair. It was co-created with her husband at the time, Bellisario, and their daughter, also named Troian, appears as a little girl in ‘Another Mother’ (S2, Ep13, who can not only see Al, but also sees Sam as he really is, rather than as her recently divorced mom.

Prior to helming Quantum Leap, Deborah rose through the ranks as an actress, racing the screen in Happy Days, CHiPS, The Dean Martin Show and many more, and was also a writer on shows such as Airwolf and Magnum P.I. She is a five-time Emmy nominee, Golden Globe nominee and winner of countless other awards. She went on to produce CBS comedy cop show, Tequila and Bonetti, and then to co-create and produce the TV series adaptation of Sandra Bullock tech thriller, The Net. But Quantum Leap was Deborah’s brainchild – one which is emblazoned on the hearts of its faithful fans.

Deborah has since moved into directing, including on hit show Grey’s Anatomy (2020), but was generous with her time when spoke in late 2020 to leap back into the past.

It does seem that you were really ahead of your time as a female head writer and a showrunner in the ’90s, especially in science fiction TV. Was it hard for you to progress and to get Quantum Leap made?

“Usually women were relegated to comedy, very rarely was it drama or heavy drama. It’s changed, finally, with people like Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy, Bridgerton, Scandal). But yes, I was a true pioneer, even though I don’t have a ‘created by’ credit, it was a ‘co-created by’ show – with Don. I brought him the original concept, and we were married, and he said ‘Let me just run with this. I can get it made.’ And to his credit, he understands how to tell a story to the audience. He simplified it in a way that you could welcome Quantum Leap into the world. But it was still a tough show to sell.

“I think we went back three times to pitch it to the network. It was complicated to explain. Brandon Tartikoff [the executive] said ‘It’s a great idea – It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen on TV. Let me think about it.’ Then he asked us to come back, ‘I want you to pitch it to me like I’m six years old, then pitch it to me like I’m 80 years old’ and finally he took it. Then even after the show first aired, they decided to introduce that opening where I tell the story. That was created to explain every week to a new viewer what was going on and it worked really well.”

On rewatch now, the best part of three decades later, the show feels groundbreaking in terms of the subjects you cover. Did you feel like you were pushing the envelope?

“I feel we got to do so much on that show. I remember when I did ‘Black on White on Fire’ [S3, Ep7], the networks in the South in the United States wouldn’t air it because it was a black/white relationship. Even though there is no scene where you see a black person and a white person being intimate.

You saw Sam, who was white, and the girl who was white, but because he was playing someone who was black, it was an issue. They wouldn’t air the show in the South. This was around 1992.

“It was challenging for sure. I think we pushed the limits.

“The beauty of the show too, was that it was about hope, which I see so little of on television today. Everything’s so dark, so mean, so vicious, bloody – how many people can you kill? How mean can you make your lead characters and antiheroes. I think it’s why I didn’t work as much afterwards. A) I was a woman, and B) a black woman. There weren’t any black female executive producers that I knew of in drama. I got to do <em>The Net</em> because it had a female lead, but that was almost ten years after <em>Quantum Leap</em> was created. Any show I brought in that had a black lead was never bought, or a female lead, was never bought. 

“I remember I wrote a big action piece – like an Indiana Jones, but female-driven, feature film – and pitched it and the studio executive said, ‘Yeah, yeah, but when did the guy come and rescue her?’ And I said, ‘She doesn’t – she rescues him.’ The look on his face. I’ll never forget it as long as I live.”

The show darted around TV schedules, but the fans remained with it, and still to this day hold it dear to their hearts. Was that palpable at the time, or has that grown since?

“I think near the end of the first season, Harriet Margulies [Production Assistant on the show] found a chat room after an episode where people from across the country talked about it and it became the ‘watercooler.’ We were the first television show that had a chat room as a watercooler. Before that, it was literally you going into your office and standing around the watercooler and talking about movies or TV shows you were watching. Suddenly, it was online. So we started to go into the chat room and talk to people about what they liked and what they didn’t. Not necessarily telling them who we were, but that fan base is what kept us on the air because the network didn’t know what to do with us. There was no show like it, so they couldn’t like pair us with anybody.

“In the five years we were on, I think they moved the show six times and the fans still found it, they followed it, they watched it. That’s how we knew we had something unique and special. To this day, I’ll go into a meeting with a young executive who’ll go, ‘I have to tell you, I loved Quantum Leap. I used to watch it with my mom and dad’.”

Scott Bakula was such a great hero and heartthrob as Dr. Sam. What was he like to work with?

“He was so approachable, you know, in the sense that he had this great, easy acting style. He took chances and he was likeable – in a way that he could be a man’s man and a woman’s man at the same time. He’s really a brilliant actor. I am saddened by the fact that he has not had the opportunity to do movies in the way that could really have lifted his career. He’s had an incredibly successful television career. He’s a good actor. He’s a kind man. I’ve always admired him and felt like when we were working together, I had a friend that I loved to write for because he was always so giving and willing and wanting to take chances as an actor. So it was fun to go down to the trailer and say, ‘Guess what? You’re going to be pregnant this week’.

He does everything in the show from sing and dance to baseball, football, hopping over car bonnets to fights and martial arts. Did you know he had such a wide skill set from the outset, or did you write the challenges for him to rise to?

“I think we had conversations with him about that. I also knew that he had been on Broadway doing musicals. I knew he could sing and dance. When I wrote ‘Sea Bride’ [S2, Ep20], I wrote a tango number – that was unique for him. When Don knew that he could play the guitar… We asked Scott, ‘What do you want to do?’ And he said he wanted to do a musical and I think that’s how the ‘Catch a Falling Star’ episode [S2, Ep10] came about, which involves a performance of ‘Man of LaMancha’.”

Admiral Al Calavicci – he’s so much more than wisecracking and surface jokes or flirtation. There’s so much depth to his character. Was that fleshed out early on with an end to end journey for him in mind, or did his character evolve through the seasons?

“It was a little bit of both. Dean Stockwell had been on Broadway at five-years-old and had been a major child movie star. I remember when we wrote the show where Sam had the chance to save Al – ‘The Leap B4, Ep1] – he was so good in that. I’ll never forget how beautiful that was. And then in the very, very end, I love the fact that Sam did change history and Al ended up wih his beautiful wife with five kids.

“I remember once asking Dean, ‘Do you want us to write more drama for you? Big dramatic moments?’ And he said, ‘I want you to look at me right now. I want you to tell me what you see.’ And I said, ‘Well, your performance, the pain, fear and loss and all that, because you’re such an incredible actor.’ And he said ‘For me to perform that, I have to be it and live it. So don’t do too many.’ 

“He had that depth of acting talent. He is so good – Dean,  wherever you are, I love you. I miss you.”

The episodes that follow later in the seasons involving celebrities – Sam as Elvis, Dr. Ruth, or Lee Harvey Oswald, was that kind of a direction that you always foresaw? It feels like a sea change as the show progressed.

“The stories were designed, for the most part, to be so, so simple in that they were everyday stories. They weren’t change-the-world stories. I think the biggest one was Lee Harvey Oswald, and maybe the one involving Marilyn Monroe – those were with people that could have had a ripple effect.

“But there were other little kisses with history in the show, but they were very hard to do. They ran into a child version of Donald Trump in a taxi cab, [‘It’s A Wonderful Leap’ – S4, Ep18], then they ran into a little boy who is supposed to be Michael Jackson – Sam teaches him to moonwalk [‘Camikazi Kid’ – S1, Ep8]. The first time I did a kiss with history was ‘Star-Crossed’ [S1, Ep3] – Sam meets up with the woman that left him at the altar and they’re at the Watergate Hotel. That was fun stuff.”

Sam managed to awkwardly kiss lots of ladies in that sense of ‘Oh God, they’re going to kiss me and I’ve got to be this person, what am I supposed to do.’

“We never, ever really discussed what happened to Sam. We didn’t want him to be encumbered by a relationship. But I didn’t get to kiss him. My husband wouldn’t leave the set on the episode I was in!”

Your move into directing – from your TV drama Cora Unashamed back in 2000, to Grey’s Anatomy just last year. Is that something you wanted to do sooner? Were there barriers prohibiting you?

“I was supposed to direct on Quantum Leap four times. Every time it was coming up, something would happen. The only women who directed on the show were two black women – Debi Allen [Fame, Everybody Hate Chris, Jane the Virgin] and the other was a woman named Anita Addison. They each did two shows.

I said, ‘If I’m not doing this, I want black women.’ There were no other black women. And it was a fight. I tried to get black women directors on the show, but I could never get them past.

Then when I went to do The Net, the studio blocked it. I give huge amounts of credit for executive producing to Shonda Rhimes and what she has been able to do. She did what I thought I was going to be able to do. She’s so talented and I’m such a fan of her and her shows. I’m looking forward to what she’s going to do on Netflix. And it was an honour to do Grey’s Anatomy because I’m a fan of the show and I’m really grateful to have that opportunity.”

Has there been progress in terms of female directors and filmmakers being given opportunities?

“It’s very hard for women because there aren’t a lot of women executives at the studios. There are more now. And so there is an evolution that’s happening, but it still feels slow. There were shows run by people I gave opportunities to back in the day, but when I said, “hey, I want to direct on your show,” the response was, “oh, there’s too much machismo. There’s too many male hormones around here. They’ll eat you alive.” And I went, “no, they won’t, you’ll protect me. How about if I do my job?” And that was only last year. But there are more opportunities. There are more women making decisions, but we have to do more because women’s stories and women’s voices are more than half the population – we need to hear those stories. The historic ones as well as the contemporary ones.”

Is there a leap that was your favourite overall? That you feel made you made your mark with?

“’The Color of Truth’ [S1, Ep7] touched so many people and it opened a dialogue. I remember we got a letter from a teacher who said she brought the VHS in and she played it to her class, up until Jesse [Sam as an ageing black chauffeur in ’50s Deep South] goes and sits down at the counter in the restaurant. Then she stopped it and asked the students what they thought happened next. They thought that he just ordered lunch. And then she played the rest and that hostility and the animosity he endures and the fact that he had to get up and leave really incensed these children. They had never heard of or experienced racism. They didn’t want to believe that it really happened. This is how history gets buried and why television is so powerful and important. It opened a conversation that she could not have necessarily had in her classroom, according to her, had she not brought that show in to share with her students.

“We had another letter that was very moving, and I want to say it might’ve been ‘The Leap Home’ [S2, Ep1-2]. There was a couple who wrote and said they had a child that was on a cancer ward and every Thursday the whole ward would watch Quantum Leap. Their child was dying and they had kind of given up and it was just time to help that child transition out of this world. They watched the show and she said, ‘We realized we gave up hope. When we watched the show, we realized we didn’t have to give up hope and we wanted to write to you. It’s now six months later and the crisis has passed. The cancer is in remission. Our child is up and going back to school. And we just want to thank you for reminding us that hope has its own power’.”

Its power and poignancy has never diminished. Though the final episode, ‘Mirror Image’ (S5, Ep22), with the caption saying Sam doesn’t get to go home, does leave a sucker punch.

“That was our last fight. Don was going to send him home. And I said, ‘You can’t, you can’t send him home. If you ever, ever, which we’ve not ever been able to get Universal to let us do it, want to do a movie�� If you want to keep the story going, you have to leave Sam out there in the hearts of people, leaving people thinking he could leap into their lives’. And at first Don said, ‘No, no, we need to bring him home’. And I said, ‘Do not bring him home. Or you will end the show. If you leave the hope out there, that Sam is out there and he could leap into your life and make a difference’. You keep the show alive in the hearts and the minds of the fans. And I think I was right.”

The ending was poetic for me as a viewer, but your point about Sam still being out there – Is there a leap back to the future for Quantum Leap?

“I started writing a project called <em>Time Child</em> about Sammy Jo Fuller. I actually wrote a trilogy in Season 5 where Sam leapt back three times into the same family and the second time he leapt he ended up in bed with this character and conceived a child. Then the third time he leapt in, he met her at 10 years old – a girl named Sammy Jo Fuller. So in my vision, Sammy Jo Fuller grows up. I actually have Al say, ‘Sammy is in the future with me. We’re trying to bring you home.’ That was my set-up way back in 1993, in Season 5, to say someday, Sammy Jo being his daughter might take over…. 

“This was the ’90s. Women heroes didn’t exist really – other than comic books – Wonder Woman was there, Super Girl was there. But I set it up in the show that Sammy Jo was going to bring him home. Sadly, I have not been able to get Don and the studio to give me the green light for Time Child. It might happen someday.”

Right now, it feels like we need more shows that offer hope. Is there a place for a reboot on streaming platforms?

“Universal keep saying they want to bring it back. They’re not going to give it up to Netflix because they have [US streaming service] Peacock now and still have NBC. I personally think it should be on a full blown network. The hard part would be that it would have to be recast if there was a female version using my character Sammy Jo Fuller. Or if they just redid the show, it would be interesting in the sense that there was such an innocence about the show. I still believe that there is an audience out there that wants it, that longs for looking at the past through the eyes of somebody in the present. But who would that person be if you did the show now, what are those eyes like? 

“We’re living in the time of COVID and suddenly you go back in time. How do you warn people that this is going to happen? How do you warn people about 9/11? How do you warn people about things in the future?

“I mean, one of the beauties of that innocence too, and I thought that was a great gift from Don to the concept, was that Sam’s memory as Swiss cheese – he didn’t remember things and that made it a lot easier, and Al was not allowed to tell him what was happening in the present. There’s a lot of detail woven into the mythology that allowed it to be innocent and in the moment of time travel. You didn’t have to drag the future back with you.”

Do you have an actress in mind to play Sammy Jo in a reboot?

“Oh my gosh, Jennifer Garner. I always felt she would be a great female Sam. She’s an ‘every woman.’ She’s funny. She does great drama. When I think of a female Sam or even Sammy Jo, I think Jennifer – in a heartbeat. She’s so great in Alias. That show just never stopped. You couldn’t take a breath. If I had to go younger, somebody that would have that kind of believable humour that you think could actually rescue you – maybe Jennifer Lawrence. She’s pretty formidable in that sense.”

“To bring Quantum Leap back. If they’re thinking about it, now’s the time to happen. Tell people to write to Universal! Write for the attention of Pearlena Igbokwe – if anyone can bring it back, she can do it. Write! Write to Pearlena – she’s the one that’ll make it happen. That’s how we stayed on the air for five and a half years. Fans unite and write!”

[smallcomebacknowyhear]

unforgivable SV sins

(not an exhaustive list) (includes s6 spoilers)

-I feel like im not equipped to list every sin the writers committed against jared but there are Many (and please feel free to reblog with examples if you are so inclined)

-the STARK difference between Dinesh and gilfoyle’s friendship at the end of s4 (they were really vibing!! Gilfoyle was actually being hospitable towards Dinesh!! they were getting celebratory churros together and abandoning richard together!!!!) and the beginning of s5. I think the writers decided their best frenemies dynamic had run out of material which is ofc bullshit because it has infinite potential

-Gilfoyle’s degradation of personality/lack of development- they made him too untouchable to be relatable and too mean to be sympathetic. Plus the only real thing we know about him is that hes a satanist and its just kinda lazy that they tell us at every opportunity that he is one (goat plush AND baphomet plush on his desk, inverted cross tattoo AND baphomet tattoo!! give him another trait or interest besides being racist please!!!)

-setups with no payoffs: they introduce Jeff as a mole, then show that the guys know there is a mole but they dont know who it is, setting up a plotline that could have lasted the entire rest of the season, but instead the next episode they explain how jared and gilf found the mole offscreen in the most boring way possible (Jeff is STALLION coder. how could he be dumb enough to use his PP email to talk to Gavin? Jeff use ANY OTHER ACCOUNT its not hard.... also encrypting all your emails takes more effort than just using a different account to send normal emails)

(-plus the entire “jeff has to spend time with Dinesh as punishment” thing- not only is Dinesh someone jeff should enjoy spending time with bc jeff is at least the same level of dork as Dinesh, but dinesh’s personality seriously deteriorated in season 5 from someone who was a little awkward but would still be nice to hang out with, to a guy who tries way too hard to be cool and has absolutely no self awareness. Plus the jokes surrounding this whole arc just seemed “big bang theory” level lazy to me- Dinesh wants to go to battlebots with jeff and thats the entire joke, etc)

-and ofc the setup with no payoff that was “gwart dumped jared, how will jared get back in with PP?? - oh we’re not going to show or tell you he’s just back in the next ep like he was never gone”

-I dont think any human being would act the way Dinesh does in the episode where Danny tells him his code had less errors than gilfoyle’s. And honestly when you rewatch season one it’s like Dinesh is a completely different guy, they completely flanderized him but its not really flanderization because they kinda added in the characteristic “unjustly inflated ego” in like season 4?? 

-they took the concept of an engineer who builds a robot and falls in love with her and just.... didnt do anything to make it interesting or different from the current well of narratives surrounding that topic. Honestly making one change to the episode would vastly improve it- if they’d cast someone who looked more like the Blood Boy to play the engineer, and given him a charming and charismatic personality, it would have been way more interesting. First of all you would have never seen it coming, whereas I saw the reveal coming a mile away because it was so obvious, but it would also actually say something about a guy who has absolutely no problem forming bonds with human beings who CHOOSES to interact on an intimate level with a robot instead of putting that energy into relationships with other humans.

-I’m willing to suspend disbelief wrt plotholes when the episode was actually funny or had some overarching theme that was satisfying, etc. But Russfest had two plotholes (how exactly did entering Yaonet through the backdoor result in kicking laurie’s devices off Pied Piper networks? if this made sense they did not explain it well enough - and the whole thing with the lights turning off suddenly but then magically turning back on when Russ “voice command”ed them to) and its the friggin penultimate episode, it’s supposed to make sense and be funny and be narratively satisfying and although it did have some good moments (gwart betraying laurie and richard stomping on his laptop) those plotholes are just not excusable 

-this is more the HBO marketing teams fault but I’m really mad that they put Dinesh saying “you turned down a billion dollars” in the promo material. not only did it completely ruin the suspense of whether richard was going to agree to maximo’s offer, but it also ruined the reveal that he wasn’t offering a few million but a billion dollars. maybe its just my fault for watching promos?

-speaking of maximo the fact that he was a big focus of the beginning of the season and then he just kinda dropped off the face of the earth. I’m sorry but when season 2 sets up the standard that “plotlines that get introduced in the first episode of the series will remain intact and be resolved in a climactic manner in the final ep of the season” I’m disappointed when plotlines just kinda fizzle out after two episodes. especially in a SEVEN EPISODE SEASON

-just generally not enough boyfamily bonding/interpersonal bonding in general. Its very unrealistic that they never so much as MENTIONED any of the guys birthdays or the bashes jared would obviously throw for them. its also very unrealistic that........ Dinesh and jared werent friends and its absolutely a sin that Dinesh picked on jared so much :c

[deputy-hawk]

i’m rewatching the return from the start, so here are some kind of nonsensical notes that nobody asked for on parts 1+2:

the rancho rosa logo for this ep is a kind of sepia? it took me way too long to notice it was changing from episode to episode, so i’m gonna keep an eye on it

the upholstery on coop’s chair in the black lodge is similar to the white lodge/1930s room furniture, unlike every other chair there

laura’s portrait fades away to the sound of running water, replaced by shots of the river leading over the waterfall as if hovering above it. the waterfall morphs into fanning red curtains. wasn’t there something in tshotp about the significance of the waterfall? 

cooper doesn’t have his fbi badge in the scene with the giant, but he is himself? where exactly does this scene fit in??

“two birds with one stone.” wasn’t there also something in tshotp about a top secret government force who all had bird codenames? hmmm???

has anyone else ever seen that clip of a young russ tamblyn (aka dr jacoby) dancing with shovels? bc it’s pretty amazing

HERE COMES THAT BIG OL’ BOX

if you’re not watching this show with headphones/a decent sound system then you’re definitely missing out bc half the joy of this season has been in the sound design. SO GOOD.

“ooh. now i’m so curious you’re driving me crazy.”

was the strange repetition of the insurance man’s “i’d like to see sheriff truman” our first indication this season of time acting skewy?

the music for doppelcoop’s introduction makes me actually jump out of my skin every time

“weeell, lookee here” is a very underrated line imo

pretty sure i can hear chickens in the background of this scene??

“it’s a world of truck drivers” feels very very different now that i have a) read laura’s diary and b) seen part 14.

am i the only one who just assumed ray and darya were lodge spirits at first? no human being looks like that?

“mr. c, mr. c…” otis, you were a man of few words but i appreciated each and every one of them.

it’s subtle, but the music cue after tracey’s “he’s not here. no one is here.” is chilling and perfect. presumably coincides with coop appearing in the box.

seriously, holy shit, the sound design for this scene is so good. every line of dialogue has its own accompanying unsettling metallic whoosh. i am living.

other people have definitely pointed this out, but ruth davenport’s neighbour has a small mexican chihuahua

the two exasperated policemen trying to find a key for ruth’s apartment, with the names barney, chip, hank and harvey dropped all over the place despite having absolutely no bearing on anything because marjorie had it all along? feels meta.

ruth davenport’s decapitated head is played by mary stofle, who i assume is a relative of emily stofle aka david lynch’s wife

listen, i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again but i would live and die for constance talbot. i am in Love.

lucy, quietly: “okay, deputy chief hawk.” hawk: *tiny little fond nod* me: *sobbing alone in my bedroom*

i have never in my life seen anyone do this with their face before and i’m not sure if i ever want to again:

and i would really like matthew lillard to win some awards please

does anyone else refer to the diner guy from mulholland drive exclusively as “the diner guy from mulholland drive” or is that just me

proper old peaksy music vibes come back for the first time (aside from the opening credits) with hawk walking through the forest at night. fitting.

“is. it… FUUUUTURE… or is. it. past?”

al strobel <3

i’ve never really talked about him here because no one ever really posts content for him, but al strobel as the one-armed man is far and away my favourite performance from the the original series

i feel like the curtains being sheer enough to see through compared to the heavy, velvety, theatrical style curtains of the old series probably says a lot about the current state of the divide between the lodge and “reality”

when laura takes her face off the line is smooth cut – when sarah does so in part 14 it’s torn and jagged.

it makes me so emotional to hear coop use his regular voice in these scenes, it’s ridiculous how much i’ve missed him

sometimes it amazes me how gay i am for sheryl lee

there have been so many mysteries piled on top of mysteries this season that i had 100% forgotten that laura whispers something seemingly distressing in coop’s ear in this episode and that we still don’t know what she said. does coop need to remember it to wake up?

speaking of mysteries, WHY DID LAURA GET DRAGGED FROM THE LODGE SCREAMING IS SHE OKAY AND WHEN WILL WE SEE HER AGAIN I NEED TO KNOW

i’m afraid i’m v much in the camp of “the evolution of the arm looks and sounds genuinely awful”, but i can appreciate the massive Fuck You to michael j. anderson

“the evoLOOOUUUution, of the AAAhhhhhrrm” ily al strobel

it just reminds me of a piece of sentient chewing gum on a twig. i’m aware they didn’t have unlimited funds, but the effects are just… Not Great.

that face squishing thing doppelcoop does to jack is exactly how i show my friends and family affection and i’m not sure what this says about me

if the evolution of the arm looks kinda bad, its doppelganger is on a whooole other level and tbh, that is not going to age well at all.

“yeah, it’s the dog’s bollocks in ‘ere” – literally no one speaks like that, david. nobody.

this roadhouse scene sets up the freddie and james, becky and steven, AND shelly and red plots all in the space of about sixty seconds

james marshall has (bless him) blossomed into a very subtle and effective actor over the years, and i’ve genuinely enjoyed his performance this season

[clayray3290]

Clayray Closeout 2016

Oops, I was too busy celebrating New Year to post about these. I’ve tracked my music tastes using Last.fm for ages and had posted about my top tracks each year for the past 5 years, so here we go again. But first!

Music - Artists

Glass Animals

Beyoncé // Britney Spears

Secret

Civil Twilight

Jeon Hyosung

Tegan and Sara

Heather Maloney

Jesse & Joy

Sonamoo

I got really into Glass Animals this year. I had first heard them back in 2013, but their most recent album How To Be a Human Being (which you will soon see is very high on my albums list this year) really snagged my interest. I saw them live in September and was in the Top 1% of listeners on Spotify this year, so yeah, I was in deep. Not only do they make fantastic music, they are adorable British boys and I also just love how the album was such a fully engrossing creative project for them with other offshoots in different media.

I also saw Civil Twilight and Heather Maloney live, which is why they’re so high on the list. I almost went to see Jesse & Joy this year, but didn’t end up getting to go, but their album from late 2015 was great. In addition, I saw Aaron Tveit in concert, but considering that a lot of his music is ensemble work from musicals, they don’t scrobble as him individually, so he’s not on this list. There was a lot of Aaron Tveit this year, lol. I went to New York a bunch this year with my new roommate, and so after seeing him in concert, we went to NYC for a gala thing that he was also at. And I spoke to him!

Secret hit their 7th anniversary and then Sunhwa left the group, so there has been a lot of reminiscing about the last seven years and also, in a way, mourning the loss of the OT4. As Admin of Secret4Times, obviously this hit me pretty hard. But, looking forward to what’s next in store for Secret, and also for solo efforts. Hyosung’s solo album this year was excellent, landing her at #5 on this list. I actually am usually slightly biased towards Jieun, but her solo album came out later this year and actually I found it weaker than her previous albums (though I love I Wanna Fall In Love) so you don’t see her here.

Other music trends with me that aren’t necessarily reflected here: Went to the World Figure Skating Championships this past year and was there for the ShibSibs’ heartachingly beautiful Fix You in person and words can’t even express how much the emotion of it just filled me up. Also, what with Sing Street (which will you see on the Albums list below) and Stranger Things, there was a lot of 80′s in my life. I also went to the opera twice this year, The Merry Widow and Carmen, so I have felt quite cultured.

Music - Albums

Beyoncé - Lemonade

Glass Animals - How To Be a Human Being

Jeon Hyosung - Colored

Sonamoo - I Like U Too Much

Tegan and Sara - Love You To Death // Sing Street - Sing Street (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Royal Pirates - 3.3

Yuna - Chapters

Rooney - Washed Away

Glen Hansard - Music from the Motion Picture Once

Look, of course Lemonade is #1. Obviously. What more is there to say.

Most of these albums are recent releases by artists that I have been a fan of for a while. I have generally liked Tegan and Sara, but this album is just chock full of great, incredibly catchy songs. Many of the other tracks on that album almost made my top tracks list. On kinda the other end of the spectrum, I really enjoyed Yuna’s and Rooney’s albums, but it is more of a general wash of appreciation, rather than certain standout tracks.

I’d been a fan of Royal Pirates since their rock covers of Super Junior days, but to be honest, many of their actual releases up until this hadn’t quite made it into my heart. This album, though, finally crossed over that threshold for me.

This year I watched a lot of movie musicals. I’m generally a fan of musicals and a fan of movies, so there ya go. You can see the Glen Hansard ones - Sing Street and Once - both made this list because they had the advantage of being viewed earlier in the year. But I also watched Grease Live (TV not film in a way but whatevs), The Song (LOL does this count? This Christian kinda-musical drama was a fun watch with Sarah), 2gether (Also not exactly counting, but I’m being broad in my categorizing here), The Music Man (a rewatch obviously), Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical, The Last Five Years, La La Land,��Sweeney Todd, and my Christmas rewatch of In the Good Old Summertime. I did listen to more 2gether and if La La Land had been out earlier, I would definitely have more listens to that soundtrack. Speaking of movies...

Movies

Now I don’t watch movies multiple times like I listen to music over and over again, so this is a subjective ranking and not numbers-based. I’m also only going to do Top 5 because I watch far fewer current movies as they are released than listen to music and also because I am tired lol.

La La Land I saw La La Land in a free preview and it is so so delightful. Another one of those movies that I came out of thinking, this is the culmination of everything that Clara loves. Except if I think about it more in-depth and critically, I get mad about the problematic mansplaining, white-splaining Ryan Gosling character (Shouldn’t have read that article), but as an experience, it just inspired wide-eyed splendor. Damien Chazelle went to Harvard, y’know, and I didn’t know this until recently, but he was in Chester French, and I’m friends with D.A. Wallach from Chester French on Facebook so I’m basically like two degrees away. Also I know someone from college who was like the assistant to one of the producers of this! So a lot of Harvard-ness around this, I guess.

Ghostbusters I didn’t see Ghostbusters in theatres, which I regret, but I saw it on a plane recently and it was so so great. Badass ladies were great, the humor was great, the theme song is forever great.

Zootopia I care a lot about children’s media and Zootopia deftly demonstrates how children’s media is so significant and meaningful for everyone. I thought it was going to be a cute animated movie and it was, but it delivered nuance and message in that cute animated package.

Train to Busan I watched Train to Busan only like a week ago with my family over the holidays. It’s an excellent zombie movie with some emotional heft to it, thanks to the always great Gong Yoo, and also I just marveled at the visual effects of the zombies just piling on top of each other.

The Handmaiden For some reason, I had gone into The Handmaiden thinking it was a Victorian lesbian vampire thriller. There are no vampires involved, and I honestly waited the entire time for them and was baffled. I went by myself to a screening at the Brattle and it was one of those things where I was like, is it weirder if I go by myself or is it weirder to ask someone to go with me? But anyway, it’s a lushly beautiful movie and I’m glad I got to see it.

Television

Signal This was actually really really tough between the top three shows. Signal won out in the end because of its tight plotting and emotional impact. It is def not a happy show, by any means, (really. NOT a happy show) but it is certainly engrossing and amazingly well-crafted.

Speechless The power of this show, on the other hand, is how light and happy it is. Micah Fowler is so sassy and the show overall is supremely funny.

Insecure As I said, it was really really tough to decide about placement for these top three shows. I had watched a little bit of Awkward Black Girl so I knew that Issa Rae was great, but this show is even greater than expected. The stories are so real and the performances are excellent.

The Good Place I don’t know how this happened but I guess I’m more into comedy now? I’m usually more of a drama kind of gal, bonus points if there is death involved. I guess this show does involve death, though, and it also has Kristen Bell so that works out? This show indulges in a little more silliness, which I appreciate.

The Wine Show Not a scripted show, but this show earns this place because it is just a ridiculous thing that it exists. Literally it’s just about Matthew Goode and Matthew Rhys sitting around and talking about wine. Well, they go on like missions or whatever, but that’s basically it. I found out about this earlier in the year, I think, I remember talking about it at the airport on our way to some tour stop, and then after Harvard-Yale, started watching it a bit with Raafi and Zuzanna. I’m all about educational television made entertainment, so this is great.

The above list is of new shows that premiered in 2016, but there were also some other fantastic shows that I watched in 2016.

I got really really into the Norwegian show Skam over the holidays. I had been meaning to watch it for a while, because it is a teen drama! Exactly the kind of show I like! I marathoned it all during the break. The second season is the weakest (I have my qualms about the trite plot devices and it made me like Noora less than I did, which made me very sad), but the first and third seasons are excellent. The protagonist of the first season, Eva, developed so real-ly and it was this development that gave what the best teen dramas offer. I love the Russ Group Girl Squad, and so in a way was a bit sad that S3 didn’t focus on them quite as much, but Isak’s story was done so so well.

Also in 2016, I started watching Alias, Fresh Meat, Superstore, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend... And I watched the French show Les Revenants which is SO SO GOOD. Another big TV thing for me this year was The Bachelor franchise. I had somehow gone 26 years without ever watching anything in the franchise, despite my unabashed enjoyment of dating shows, and I got sucked in this year. Like really sucked in.

I also finished my Veronica Mars rewatch as my gym TV show and for a hot second tried to watch The Wire as my next gym TV show. That was a bad idea. I have since switched over to Gilmore Girls. I haven’t finished that rewatch yet, so obviously hadn’t finished before watching the revival series.

Alrighty, I have now egotistically reflected on my tastes of the year. Onto the next!

[lonelier-version-of-you]

Watching ‘Hanssen Is As Hanssen Does’ now, hell yeah. First time I’ve seen the whole thing in a while - obviously I’ve rewatched the Henrik scenes but I think it’s been a few years since I last saw the full episode.

Edit: FUCK I’D FORGOT THERE WAS A MAJA MENTION. “How was she?” “She needed you to be there.” :((

Also, it really frustrates me how they used the Fredrik/Sara relationship and the John/Henrik one as parallels but didn’t actually address the similarities when they brought Sara back in 2019.

Edit 2: Interesting scene with Jac and John, where Jac talks about the pain she’s been experiencing and John asks her why she took the stairs that day then. Jac avoids giving him a direct answer, then eventually says something about needing to “test” herself.

Edit 3: GUY HENRY WAS SO FUCKING GOOD IN THIS EPISODE.

Also I really adore the ‘Henrik visiting Ric’ scene.

Edit 4: Lmao at Meena saying “I just take it one day at a time” and then the episode after this is called ‘One Day At A Time’.

Edit 5: Awww @ Henrik wanting to defend Ric even though it could ruin his reputation.

Edit 6: Interesting directing choice when Henrik’s visit to Ric ends - the guard closing the door is shown from the inside, making it look almost like Henrik’s the one locked in a prison cell.

Edit 7: Roxanna and Henrik really had ZERO chemistry. I hate that they had to shove the “they were in love all along” retcon in there because it makes it hard to appreciate their scenes as friends.

Edit 8: Ollie only recognising Henrik’s photograph AAAAAAAH.

Edit 9: JOHNRIK INTERACTIONS FUCK YEAH

Also, another future episode title reference - “We need to find a way to bring [Ollie] back into the light.”

Edit 10: Also, I love the suit jacket Henrik is wearing here.

Edit 11: Absolute dick move from Roxanna pushing Henrik to talk to Ollie and then just walking away, leaving them alone, despite knowing Henrik is upset.

Roxanna straight up admitting she doesn’t understand Henrik too. John asks how she thinks Henrik’s coping, she says “With Henrik, it’s impossible to tell”. God. She clearly did care about him as a friend but she did NOT get him well enough to have any kind of functional romantic relationship with him. But people gloss over that because she’s a woman and therefore she’s allowed to make as many mistakes when interacting with Henrik as she wants. While of course Russ gets raked over the coals for a few mild mistakes. Sigh.

Edit 12: This is a James Anderson appreciation account.

Edit 13: MORE JOHNRIK FORESHADOWING THROUGH FREDRIK/SARA.

Sara: “I wish I’d had the chance to stop him... all he ever said he wanted to do was heal people. ...Do you think he meant it? [Henrik: I prefer to believe that was the case.] Now this is his only legacy.”

Edit 14: Henrik being suicidal after Fredrik is not news, I think we’ve all assumed he was, but I’d forgotten just how strongly they implied it. Sara asks him how he’ll survive this - he says nothing.

Edit 15: The scene between Essie and Sara feels so raw and realistic. Kaye Wragg and Dana Smit were incredible. And the writing was so good.

Edit 16: Guy Henry’s acting in that little scene in Henrik’s office when he’s trying to write a speech. Gaaaah.

Edit 17: Awww, this Jac and Sacha scene :’))

Also, weird how they set up the whole thing of Henrik avoiding Jac because of everything and then never really went anywhere with it. Actually, when was the first time they shared a scene post-Fredrik? (I guess I’ll find out when while doing this rewatch.)

Edit 18: JOHNRIK

Edit 19: I only watched this scene where Henrik’s trying to give the speech and then runs off a few days ago, but it still absolutely wrecks me.

Edit 20: So weird seeing John like... actually being relatively (very relatively) stable and being friendly with people.

Edit 21: The scene with Henrik and Sara in Henrik’s office, Henrik actually crying... OW. :(

Edit 22: Not the fucking ACDC metaphor scene. The lengths these writers went to to avoid the word “bisexual” was truly insane.

Edit 23: Henrik in the last scene always breaks my heart. :(