#players paramount

[fugitivegamingluvr]

on to the next sandwich !

[scholarhect]

this is really the television show of all time.

[disregardcanon]

okay so @petsohp and i recently watched players (2022) by paramount and by god guys it was GOOD

Paramount’s Players is a complex, Shakespearean tragedy. No, I'm not exaggerating. This mockumentary about esports has some of the tightest, most compelling characterizations that I’ve ever seen. It’s also a great examination on how having motives that LOOK the same, on the outside, can create conflict. 

While there are a lot of characters that have some weight on the narrative, it primarily centers on the relationship between Cream Cheese and Organizm. These are both their league of legends handles and I’ll be using them for this analysis since it’s their primary identifier in the show. 

Cream is one of the founding players of the professional team, Fugitive. He is an “aging” player (late twenties) who’s been in the business for years and plays “support” to different “ADCs”, who are the heavy hitters on a team. His first ADC was someone that he idolized that left them for greener pastures and is not always… kind or respectful of their past relationships. 

Before that ADC left, Cream and Fugitive came close to a decisive victory in the North American Championships, but Cream made a mistake early in his career that cost the team badly and has never quite recovered his pre-mistake sense of ease and ability to be PART of a team rather than the undisputed “leader”. 

Organizm is a seventeen year old who is very talented, driven, and has difficulty seeing past his own goals. He is hired by the team’s owners to become the new ADC and face of Team Fugitive. His arrival is met with a lot of conflict from Cream and the rest of the team because he is untested, has difficulties communicating, and replacing a more seasoned player who is a good friend and team player. 

Org brings his own hangups to the group on TOP of his youth. His family who made fun of him for his interests in the past is now very supportive of the idea because it can bring them money and fame. His older brother, who used to bully him for playing league of legends at all, is now attempting to be his manager. 

Cream initially rejects him outright because of the way that he came to the team, and it takes a long time for the two and the team to build up the trust and synergy that they need to be successful. 

But they do it! Organism learns to communicate better with the team and trust them, Cream learns to trust him, and the team as a whole comes out on top of the North American Championship. 

That’s the big goal that Cream Cheese had, was winning this competition to prove that he could. The rest of the original team is riding the high of achieving this thing that they’ve worked YEARS for… but Organizm is a bullied child prodigy. He’s still chafing at the fact that he isn’t, demonstrably, the greatest League of Legends player on the planet. 

The rest of the team called it a night after they won the North American championship because that was their personal goal. Going to “Worlds” was just icing on the cake. They didn’t super think they’d get there and winning that wasn’t really their goal. They were basking in a victory that they’d spent years trying to achieve, while Cream was saying “yo Org you’re the best you’re the greatest you’re wonderful I’m so glad that we got you the BEST ADC! WOO! My legacy right here!” Which both activates some of his trauma with his brother only deciding that his interests matter since they could get him fame and money and taking credit for it, as well as prickling at him because he knows that isn’t true and if he doesn’t keep fighting and fighting and fighting it never will be. 

Fugitive Gaming achieved their goal that took them years and years of working for. Org didn’t. Winning the US Championships were not He was just like “okay we got that punch on my card and now we need to try our absolute hardest to win Worlds”. Which is a reasonable thing for a professional athlete to want, I think. If your team won like, the United States National Soccer Tournament and THEN went to the World Cup and didn’t take the World Cup seriously because they just won the part that mattered to them. 

But this is the United States Mens’ Soccer team… they were never going to win the World Cup, right? It’s an honor just to be invited. (not for the star rookie who wants to be the best player that ever existed) 

So what I’m saying is that Organizm decided that Fugitive Gaming wasn’t taking competition seriously enough for his liking and he left. I think that it won’t work for him well in the end, but it’s GREAT because it’s perfectly in character, could have been solved with some communication, and creates a great amount of emotional stakes going into a season 2. 

[calllay]

Today's achievement: dragging someone into the miniscule Players fandom via the medium of weird fic

[petsohp]

im so glad the people behind players seem to actually be into gaming

[fayegonnaslay]

A young Eva Gabor in promotional photos for Paramount Pictures, 1941.

[cubistemoji]

Insane how one of the best fictional series of the last 3 years is a league of legends esports mockumentary by the American Vandal guys now only available as an unlisted playlist on the funny or die YouTube channel

[citizenscreen]

Producer and co-founder of what would become Paramount Pictures, Jesse L. Lasky (September 13, 1880 – January 13, 1958)

[rockshrimp1989]

Looks like Geddy Lee is coming out with a docuseries on Paramount+ which also features Les Claypool...wonder if there's a chance we'll see a Matt cameo in an episode at some point too??👀👀👀

[demifiendrsa]

Mean Girls | Official Trailer (2024 Movie)

Poster

Synopsis

From the comedic mind of Tina Fey comes a new twist on the modern classic, MEAN GIRLS. New student Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is welcomed into the top of the social food chain by the elite group of popular girls called “The Plastics,” ruled by the conniving queen bee Regina George (Reneé Rapp) and her minions Gretchen (Bebe Wood) and Karen (Avantika). However, when Cady makes the major misstep of falling for Regina’s ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), she finds herself prey in Regina’s crosshairs. As Cady sets to take down the group’s apex predator with the help of her outcast friends Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), she must learn how to stay true to herself while navigating the most cutthroat jungle of all: high school.

[gastricotv]

Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too? | Trailer

[fugitivegamingluvr]

wanting

[imkeepinit]

Movie poster by an unknown artist for the 1923 Paramount motion picture Bluebeards 8th Wife. This was Gloria Swanson's 24th film and 16th for Famous Players–Lasky/Paramount. It's considered a lost film.

[fibula-rasa]

Lost, but Not Forgotten: Prodigal Daughters (1923)

Direction: Sam Wood

Scenario: Monte M. Katterjohn

Original Novel: Joseph Hocking

Camera: Alfred Gilks

Studio: Paramount (production) & Famous Players-Lasky (distribution)

Performers: Gloria Swanson, Ralph Graves, Vera Reynolds, Theodore Roberts, Louise Dresser, Charles Clary, Robert Agnew, Maude Wayne, Jiquel Lanoe, George Fawcett, Eric Mayne

Flying Stunts: Leo Nomis

Premiere: 15 April 1923

Status: presumed entirely lost

Length: 6,216 feet, or roughly 70 minutes.*

Synopsis (synthesized from magazine summaries of the plot):

Elinor “Swiftie” Forbes (Gloria Swanson) and her sister Marjory (Vera Reynolds) are committed to living life on the “jazz route” at their comfy estate on Long Island. With their freshly bobbed hair, they attend the links on Sunday instead of church, party all night, smoke cigarettes, and drink. They live by the “Seven Deadly Whims:”

New Lips to Kiss. 

Freedom from Conventions. 

A New World for Women. 

No More Chaperons. 

Life with a Kick in It. 

The Single Moral Standard. 

Our Own Latchkeys.

Their mother (Louise Dresser) also thinks young and doesn’t try to restrict or discipline her daughters. The patriarch of the family is J.D. Forbes (Theodore Roberts), a locomotive magnate who became a millionaire off WWI. J.D. has been away on business in Europe for three years.

Back in New York around the Fourth of July, Stanley Garside (Charles Clary), who runs a gambling den, throws a party for Swiftie, which includes a firework display in her honor. On the radio, the crowd hears a lecture by a Doctor Marco Strong (Eric Mayne) decrying the moral degradation of the younger generation. Swiftie broadcasts her rebuttal from her own device.

Roger Corbin (Ralph Graves), an aviator who also happens to be an engineer at J.D.’s locomotive works, is flying nearby and hears Swiftie’s rebuttal. Corbin decides to make a landing at the party and invites Swiftie for a ride. She accepts, but bad weather forces them to land and they get waylaid overnight at a local inn. Swiftie’s friends pick her up in the morning and Corbin and Swiftie part without Swiftie knowing Corbin’s identity.

Meanwhile, Marjory is being pursued by songwriter Lester Hodges (Robert Agnew).

J.D. returns from Europe soon after with no one to meet him but his chauffeur. He’s horrified to see how the women in his family are living. They’ve even converted his billiard room into a dance parlor complete with buffet bar! J.D. bans smoking, drinking, parties, and Lester.

Theodore Roberts in Prodigal Daughters from Motion Picture Magazine, August 1923

Swiftie meets Corbin at her father’s house and learns he works for dad. Corbin proposes marriage to her, but she rejects him. The daughters rebel against their newly returned father and decide to make their own way in Greenwich Village. 

Marjory marries Lester and Swiftie gets to earning a living on her own. Garside persues Swiftie and she takes to gambling at his establishment. Marjory finds out that Lester was only interested in her for her dad’s money and they split. Swiftie escorts Marjory back to their parents house, but vows to stick to her new independent lifestyle. 

Unfortunately, Swiftie begins losing heavily at Garside’s. Garside agrees to a wager against Swiftie’s debt so that, if she loses again, he’ll clear her debt, but she has to marry him within 60 days. Swiftie loses.

On Christmas Eve, Swiftie and Garside are partying at a speakeasy when the joint gets raided by prohibition agents. Luckily for Swiftie, Corbin has been out looking for her and he finds her just in time to help her escape.

The climax features an accident with a newly designed locomotive and Swiftie and Garside in his automobile. Garside is killed, but Corbin is able to rescue Swiftie and they escape via airplane.

Swiftie and Corbin get together and she returns to her parent’s home, penitent.

Scenes from Prodigal Daughters from Motion Picture News, 29 December 1923

Additional Info:

There is a sequence in the film that depicts the operation of a high-tech beauty parlor, wherein Louise Dresser’s character gets a face lift. It takes place before her husband returns from abroad, but I’m not certain with any more detail than that where it fits chronologically in the summary above.

There appears to be two sequences or at least two parts to the climatic sequence where Garside dies and Swiftie is rescued by Corbin. I’m not sure based on the summaries available precisely how they fit together, so I just described both instead of hypothesizing with no data.

---

Points of Interest:

This movie was Swanson’s 9th film out of a total of 10 with director Sam Wood. 

The full list goes:

The Great Moment (1921, only a fragment survives at BFI),

Under the Lash (1921, presumed lost),

Don’t Tell Everything (1921, presumed lost),

Her Husband’s Trademark (1922, extant on 16mm at George Eastman House & Gosfilmofond),

Her Gilded Cage (1922, presumed lost), 

Beyond the Rocks (1922, extant at Nederlands Filmmuseum, and available on home video via Milestone Films.), 

The Impossible Mrs. Bellew (1922, presumed lost), 

My American Wife (1922, presumed lost),

Prodigal Daughters (1923, presumed lost),

Bluebeard’s 8th Wife (1923, presumed lost)

That is only a 20 percent survival rate! 

[Survival status checked via LOC’s Silent Feature Film Database, and re-checked at relevant archives when available]

If you happened to read my post profiling Racing Hearts (1923), you may remember that Theodore Roberts also plays a magnate who goes abroad to Europe and has a flapper daughter, with whom he doesn’t see eye to eye. These two films were released only two months apart, so I imagine it was pretty nice for Roberts to be able to take the “two birds, one stone” approach in preparing for his work. What a type to specialize in! 

*The film was edited by censors in various state markets, so the runtime of a print in NY wouldn’t be identical to a print in Kansas.

☕ Buy me a coffee! ☕

Transcribed Sources & Annotation over on the WMM Blog!

[seesboy]

sometime between last night and an hour ago they gutted the comedy central site and removed almost every daily show clip btw. like unless it was one of like 10 interviews or it was in that "jon's best moments" category it's fucking Gone you just get an error page or redirected to paramount+. also the colbert report was completely wiped too. btw.

[winsoongi]

[x]

Please for the love of god watch Players, it’s one of the best shows that came out this year and was given a criminal lack of publicity. It’s by the people that made American Vandal and if you liked that you’ll love this. You don’t have to know anything about esports to enjoy it! It’s free (for now) and only 10 episodes long. Please give it a try you will not regret it