#i've seen a bit of the tv adaptation from family watching it but apparently that's pretty much completely different

[thornheartfelt]

In an alternate universe I selfship with Dream from The Sand.man because seriously. Cannot overstate how much that comic and his character arc resonates with me on a personal and I love him. I do not think I can properly articulate it right now, just know that I'm feral. 👍

[culttvblog]

The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries: The House on Possessed Hill

I've never read any of the Hardy Boys books. The reason for this is that our headmistress subjected Enid Blyton's books to the same unfounded criticism levelled at the Hardy Boys books in the US: that they weren't proper literature and would stop the kids reading any proper literature. On this basis she banned the books completely from school premises and systematically shamed anyone caught with them. Of course the result was that Famous Five and Secret Seven books were passed around surreptitiously like the contraband they were and nobody at my school read the wildly successful Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew because they weren't banned.

I did, however, manage to watch the TV adaptations later, in my teens. Perhaps I should clarify that this post is about the 1977 to 1979 ABC series starring Parker Stevenson, Shaun Cassidy and Pamela Sue Martin or Janet Louise Johnson. I loved the mysterious theme tune and the plots. It's a show of the genre that I like to think of as aspirational for early teens: the kids are definitely kids but just older enough that they have a freedom the viewers don't have so that it can prompt dreaming, hero worship, or even crushes. This was never the effect of the Famous Five, which was clearly set in a world which didn't exist and where the kids had a freedom that no kids in human history have ever had. In the books Frank and Joe are permanently 16 and 17 respectively, which is probably just the right age to get this effect, They're probably a bit older in this series but still apparently free of the adult responsibilities of earning a living, studying, family, and so on.

The House on Possesed Hill is an absolute superb episode which basically takes the plot of a horror film and twists it slightly to fit in into the mould of the show. Joe and Frank come across Stacey, a young woman who is running away from a baying crowd who are after her. She wants to shelter from them in a mysterious house and she says the townspeople are after her because they think she is a witch: their evidence for this is that she foresaw an accident a friend had.

The show plays her psychic abilities very straight, at no point questioning what she says. In fact it seems uncanny.

Rightly, I think, at the beginning the townspeople just keep their distance from the house and don't give any excuse to Joe for being after her. This is somehow much more scary than the classic horror film tropes where she's either excaped from the local Nursing Home for the Insane Daughters of Gentlefolk (Matron: Jessica Fletcher) or she is the ward in court of the town sheriff who for no apparent reason doesn't want to go back to his house. We hear them talking amongst themselves and they do believe the house is cursed.

In fact the local sheriff doesn't help at all, saying that there's nothing he can do because it's not illegal to want to speak to someone and demanding that a crime be committed or else the Hardy boys had better shut up or leave his town. But then, ACAB.

In fact I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that on first viewing I completely missed that the house Stacey and Joe escape into is of course the house from Psycho. Since realising its identity I have seen that it's been used endlessly in film and TV since obviously a boy's best friend is his mother. I was going to make a quip that the only show it hasn't appeared in is Murder, She Wrote, but of course it's even made an appearance in that. Damnit this show follows the old dark house trope to the extent of having a mysterious hand pull out the telephone wire just as Joe tries to make a call.

The show returns to the world of the classic horror film when Joe and Frank take Stacey home and she's met by the family doctor, who is utterly creepy. Despite Stacey having been seen by specialists in New York who couldn't make head nor tail of her, Dr Creepy then does some kind of regression in the show which mysteriously reveals everything that has happened in her life. Medical ethics, anyone?

If you want a criticism of this episode you might possibly feel that it's got an embarras des richesses in the multiple possible explanations for what's going on in the house leading to a conclusion where it turns out it's several at once. However since the point of this episode is to draw from about every old dark house film ever, that's the point. There's also my enduring query about this show that Parker Stevenson was too old for the role he plays.

This is an excellent episode drawing on the rich horror film tradition.

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[feuervogel]

I posted 1,843 times in 2022

That's 378 more posts than 2021!

13 posts created (1%)

1,830 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@sophiamcdougall

@edgeofpanic

@ironedorchid

@dirtyzucchini

@bossymarmalade

I tagged 1,824 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#cats - 98 posts

#lol - 72 posts

#art by op - 65 posts

#tumblr - 54 posts

#tik toks - 53 posts

#art - 52 posts

#memes - 46 posts

#humor - 33 posts

#uk politics - 28 posts

#hellsite (affectionate) - 28 posts

Longest Tag: 127 characters

#especially since my sister had a completely different relationship with her and wouldn't understand if i talked to her about it

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Recent media viewing

I decided to open up Netflix the other day and watch the Sandman adaptation. It's as good as everyone has been saying it is! And episode 5 has some gross bits that you'll see coming if you're paying attention (also, the nice black lady and her dog don't die, if you're worried about that). The Corinthian is EVEN CREEPIER in live action.

I spent a lot of time thinking "God, that actor looks and sounds familiar" whenever the Corinthian was on screen, but I looked him up and he wasn't in anything else I've seen, so I guess he's just got That Kind Of Face (or at least lower half of it, since he's got dark glasses on 95% of the time.)

While I was on Netflix, they showed me recommendations, as algorithms do, and I browsed the anime selection to see if there was anything to add to my (extremely long) watchlist.

I decided to watch Tekken: Bloodline, because deep in my heart of hearts, I love 2D fighting games. Not at all because I've been a JinHwo shipper since the early 2000s, nope. Anyway, it's a Netflix original, originally voiced in English. The voice acting ranges from fine (Jin, Hwoarang, Nina, Paul) to cringe (Jun, Xiaoyu) to comical (Heihachi), and for some completely unknown reason, Heihachi's assistant uses weeb-Japanese and says "hai" when she could say "yes, sir." (Like, this is the ONLY Japanese in the show. I'm not counting uses of sensei, because that's been borrowed into English as a martial arts term, or the time Paul says "Mishima Zaibatsu," because that's been in the US versions of the game since forever.)

Is it any good? It's not bad... It's basically the plot of Tekken 3, with references to 1&2, with Jin finding out about his family and Heihachi being a total asshole (I mean, duh). The character designs are weird, like their faces are too small for their necks and chins are too pointy, and somehow Jin looks like Heero Yuy in profile. I laughed a couple times (Paul (or maybe Nina): You two are friends? Jin & Hwoarang (unison): NO!) and may be on the way to shipping Jin/Hwo/Xiaoyu because they're ADORABLE.

When I got my new computer for Xmas, it came with a free 3-month trial of Apple TV. I didn't do anything about it until they sent me an email that it would go away if I didn't use it, then I signed up. There's actually a good bit of good stuff on there, so I'm keeping it for 4.99 a month.

Severance: suuuuper creepy SF mystery/thriller? where people can sign up to get implants that sever their work lives from their home lives so they can work on something so secret, even their work-selves don't know what it is. Season 1 ends with a massive cliffhanger that was extremely brave, because S2 hadn't been confirmed yet. (It is now.) It stars the guy from Parks & Rec and guest stars Christopher Walken.

The Essex Serpent: based on a book, apparently. Tom Hiddleston plays a vicar who lives out in the wilds in the 1880s or so; Claire Danes is a recently widowed paleontologist. Hiddles is utterly charming, as always; Danes is a bit flat, as always (I've always liked her, but she has about 2 expressions: confused and sad). There's a doctor who wants to date her, and her BFF/maid ALSO wants to date her, but she's only got eyes for the vicar (who's married, of course). Anyway, she hears rumors of a sea monster in the river and goes to investigate it, which is where she meets the vicar and so on. You can tell it's going to be a romance, but that part is somehow not compelling.

For All Mankind: space race AU where the Soviet Union gets to the moon first and NASA has to catch up. A lot of the real-world timeline is changed in ways that are good (space shuttles! moon base!) and bad (USSR doesn't collapse). In season 3, there is an extremely honest depiction of Gay Life in the 90s and of the within-group politics of assimilation or not. I lived through it (before I knew I was queer, or admitted it anyway), and it still punched me in the gut. We've made so much progress in the last 30 years that it's easy to forget just how terrible it was back then and that Don't Ask Don't Tell was the progressive compromise. It made me think about all the puriteens here on tunglr dot com and the stupid discourse about ~flawed media~ and ~problematique~ stuff. They should watch it and maybe fucking learn some history.

The end of season 3 is dfjhadkjghk;djkhgojwhjdfxhvjh basically and season 4 can't come soon enough.

5 notes - Posted August 20, 2022

#4

G witch ep 6

That was extremely fucked up.

They're speed-running all the super fucked-up bits from UC and 00. Good job.

9 notes - Posted November 6, 2022

#3

I have a very specific request, and I'm sure someone here can point me in the direction of acquiring this. (These, I guess; there are two specific fannish things I've wanted for a while.)

The litany against fear, in its entirety, in calligraphy or similar. Not twee. (I'm not actually into Dune, but having basically cognitive behavioral therapy on my wall might help me with my stupid anxiety.)

The Discworld DEATH bit "to be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape", with or without the rest of the speech. (It's a long speech and would make the piece too busy.) Not twee. Potentially illustrated with silhouettes in the background behind the text.

I have no artistic ability nor any skill at graphic design, and I lack the patience for calligraphy. Thinking about embroidery or cross-stitch makes my fingers hurt. (My mom was an avid cross-stitcher and taught me when I was a kid. I could never hold the needle properly.)

Type of item: poster up to A2 size

Price: up to around 20 € each

13 notes - Posted September 5, 2022

#2

I can't be the only person who wants directors or whoever makes these decisions let Oscar Isaac have his gorgeous salt and pepper hair. A grown-ass man, silver at the temples, charming smile. Please?

Also I saw a comment about Dune that said they "aged him up" to play Duke Leto, and it took everything I had in me not to comment "oh, you mean they didn't make him dye his hair?"

32 notes - Posted January 23, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Been playing Disco Elysium and I tried on some new pants.

[ID: screenshot from the video game Disco Elysium

YOU - I like regular, normal things.

VOLITION - Mhm, I know you do. These interisolary pants are like wearing a perfect *compromise* in your nether regions. No one will call the Moralintern on you like this, that's for sure.

You're a little more moralist now, buddy. A little more *normal*. Even if you didn't want to be.

COMPOSURE [Medium: Success] - Makes sense. This is what wearing boring office trousers does to you.

end ID]

39 notes - Posted November 25, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[janeaustentextposts]

I've actually just seen Gosford Park recently and I really enjoyed it! Do you have any similar period/murder-mystery film or series recommendations? Other than Agatha Christie's Poirot, which I ADORE

Weeeell I mean Gosford Park is a very specifically good murder-mystery film which one doesn’t often see the equal to, unfortunately; but it was like a perfect storm of great casting and also I cannot understate the importance of letting Robert Altman do his thing and allowing those characters to really come alive and also keeping the focus largely on the servants’ perspectives while everyone upstairs remains assholes or enigmas, because quite frankly we can see the pendulum swing the other way when Fellowes is let off the leash and the focus turns back to principally or solely the rich upstairs folks. Apparently he did better with Belgravia but equally I’ve heard it was shit and didn’t feel like spending my money on it, so I feel like maybe Julian is only as competent as his director/producer/editor, and when forced to work to other purposes apart from #richpeopleproblems he can do tight and well-crafted writing, but at this point he’s lost my trust so I’ll just enjoy Gosford Park and leave him to do whatever the hell he wants.I love Agatha Christie and am all over the TV adaptations for Miss Marple and Poirot; especially David Suchet’s Poirot, which I feel is definitive. That being said I’ll probably go to see the new Orient Express film because apart from Ken Branagh and his moustache being a goddamn nightmare and Johnny Depp being there at all, the rest of it looks hugely intriguing. And whatever I think of Ken as a blowhard up-his-own-ass person, his directing projects are generally films I enjoy.But I will say, if you like period dramas and you like murder mysteries--check out the Spanish series Gran Hotel, which spans 3 seasons, though the third season has a tonne more episodes than the first two, it’s weirdly broken up. And I won’t lie and say it’s perfect, there’s things about it that drive me nuts. The third season feels like significant plot-changes were made after the actor of one character passed away in the break between seasons 2 and 3, so another character was given some of their responsibilities, but that muddies the waters of what that character was originally meant to do (I AM TRYING NOT TO SPOIL THINGS BUT I HAVE A POINT I SWEAR) so things get a bit confusing and murky but at the same time the stakes just get higher and higher and this show is beautifully NOT AFRAID TO GO BATSHIT. You want a murder mystery? You got it. Family secrets? Plenty of those. Multiple shipping opportunities? Go nuts. (Because the main love story gets pretty old pretty fast IMO and the heroine can do better ‘cause the hero needs to grow the fuck up honestly and you can pry my conviction that her peppy bisexual best friend is deeply in love with her from my cold, dead, queer hands.) ALSO if you love Agatha Christie you are IN FOR A TREAT because it’s clear the writers love her, too, and there are shout-outs to Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot all over the place with two characters in particular that are loving homages to these two. And I will not spoil A Thing That Happens but when you see it, you’ll know what I was referring to. I screamed with delight. Like, God bless this messy, loving romp of a show.And my personal blog is full of spoilers in the Gran Hotel tag but it’s just amazing madness, honestly, and now I feel like I’m due for a re-watch. I bought Spanish DVDs and went through with the captions on and Google Translate and my distant memories of high school Spanish class to aid me in figuring out what the heck was going on and I love it all deeply.

[feuervogel]

Recent media viewing

I decided to open up Netflix the other day and watch the Sandman adaptation. It's as good as everyone has been saying it is! And episode 5 has some gross bits that you'll see coming if you're paying attention (also, the nice black lady and her dog don't die, if you're worried about that). The Corinthian is EVEN CREEPIER in live action.

I spent a lot of time thinking "God, that actor looks and sounds familiar" whenever the Corinthian was on screen, but I looked him up and he wasn't in anything else I've seen, so I guess he's just got That Kind Of Face (or at least lower half of it, since he's got dark glasses on 95% of the time.)

While I was on Netflix, they showed me recommendations, as algorithms do, and I browsed the anime selection to see if there was anything to add to my (extremely long) watchlist.

I decided to watch Tekken: Bloodline, because deep in my heart of hearts, I love 2D fighting games. Not at all because I've been a JinHwo shipper since the early 2000s, nope. Anyway, it's a Netflix original, originally voiced in English. The voice acting ranges from fine (Jin, Hwoarang, Nina, Paul) to cringe (Jun, Xiaoyu) to comical (Heihachi), and for some completely unknown reason, Heihachi's assistant uses weeb-Japanese and says "hai" when she could say "yes, sir." (Like, this is the ONLY Japanese in the show. I'm not counting uses of sensei, because that's been borrowed into English as a martial arts term, or the time Paul says "Mishima Zaibatsu," because that's been in the US versions of the game since forever.)

Is it any good? It's not bad... It's basically the plot of Tekken 3, with references to 1&2, with Jin finding out about his family and Heihachi being a total asshole (I mean, duh). The character designs are weird, like their faces are too small for their necks and chins are too pointy, and somehow Jin looks like Heero Yuy in profile. I laughed a couple times (Paul (or maybe Nina): You two are friends? Jin & Hwoarang (unison): NO!) and may be on the way to shipping Jin/Hwo/Xiaoyu because they're ADORABLE.

When I got my new computer for Xmas, it came with a free 3-month trial of Apple TV. I didn't do anything about it until they sent me an email that it would go away if I didn't use it, then I signed up. There's actually a good bit of good stuff on there, so I'm keeping it for 4.99 a month.

Severance: suuuuper creepy SF mystery/thriller? where people can sign up to get implants that sever their work lives from their home lives so they can work on something so secret, even their work-selves don't know what it is. Season 1 ends with a massive cliffhanger that was extremely brave, because S2 hadn't been confirmed yet. (It is now.) It stars the guy from Parks & Rec and guest stars Christopher Walken.

The Essex Serpent: based on a book, apparently. Tom Hiddleston plays a vicar who lives out in the wilds in the 1880s or so; Claire Danes is a recently widowed paleontologist. Hiddles is utterly charming, as always; Danes is a bit flat, as always (I've always liked her, but she has about 2 expressions: confused and sad). There's a doctor who wants to date her, and her BFF/maid ALSO wants to date her, but she's only got eyes for the vicar (who's married, of course). Anyway, she hears rumors of a sea monster in the river and goes to investigate it, which is where she meets the vicar and so on. You can tell it's going to be a romance, but that part is somehow not compelling.

For All Mankind: space race AU where the Soviet Union gets to the moon first and NASA has to catch up. A lot of the real-world timeline is changed in ways that are good (space shuttles! moon base!) and bad (USSR doesn't collapse). In season 3, there is an extremely honest depiction of Gay Life in the 90s and of the within-group politics of assimilation or not. I lived through it (before I knew I was queer, or admitted it anyway), and it still punched me in the gut. We've made so much progress in the last 30 years that it's easy to forget just how terrible it was back then and that Don't Ask Don't Tell was the progressive compromise. It made me think about all the puriteens here on tunglr dot com and the stupid discourse about ~flawed media~ and ~problematique~ stuff. They should watch it and maybe fucking learn some history.

The end of season 3 is dfjhadkjghk;djkhgojwhjdfxhvjh basically and season 4 can't come soon enough.