#spoilers for these who haven't seen the series on netflix i guess

[wanderinginksplot]

What to watch during the writer's strike:

Don't pay attention to companies who blame writers for delayed movies and television shows! The WGA strike comes from people who are trying to make things better - not only for themselves and other writers, but the films and tv shows we all love.

While we wait for a resolution, I thought I would share some existing television shows that I enjoy. I didn't bother with too much well-known stuff. Instead, I focused on shows I feel many people missed because of the glut of content that all premiered at once over the last few years. (I may make another one of these for movies later on, but this one is about tv.)

[Update: Movie version here]

Feel free to add on! Just try to give a quick, spoiler-free synopsis for the show and the streaming service where it can be found.

List under the cut!

Netflix:

The Good Place (2016-2020) - A 'bad' woman is accidentally sent to heaven. She and her moral philosophy professor of a soulmate try to save her soul by making her a better person. Genre: Comedy with deeper implications and one of the best endings in television history.

Russian Doll (2019-2022) - When Nadia dies at her birthday party, she's more than a little confused to come back. Especially when it keeps happening. Genre: Time loop drama with a wicked sense of humor and a dash of theoretical physics. Potentially not ended?

Narcos (2015-2017) - The fight of the American DEA and the Colombian army against cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar and his reign of terror. Genre: Drama with thrilling elements. Lots of violence, some sex and language. Lots of subtitles. Features Pedro Pascal and Boyd Holbrook, if you need some extra incentive.

Derry Girls (2018-2022) - Five teens grow up in Derry, Ireland in the 1990s, amid the final years of the Troubles, a low-level war that lasted roughly 30 years. Genre: Comedy. Some sexual content, some religious content, less violence than you would expect, and the best nun ever to appear on film.

Arcane (2021-?) - Two sisters are alienated when one accidentally kills their adoptive father. Their different paths threaten the fragile peace of a city already on the breaking point. Genre: Drama with elements of action-adventure. Though it's animated, Arcane's animation is beautifully done with tantalizing steampunk elements that will keep you invested.

Disney+:

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008-2020) - If you haven't seen any of the Star Wars animated series, this is a good place to start. Set in the time gap between Episode II and Episode III, this series helps flesh out Anakin Skywalker and the Jedi. It is also a great introduction to some of the characters and plots of The Mandalorian. (Star Wars: Rebels is another good choice.) Genre: Adventure with some drama. Violence and death are a large part of The Clone Wars, but it's usually appropriate for children. The clone troopers will steal your heart!

Gravity Falls (2012-2016) - Dipper Pines and his sister Mabel are sent to Gravity Falls, Oregon to live with their great-uncle for their summer break. But when Dipper finds a mysterious book in the woods, the pair find that Gravity Falls is far more mysterious than it seems... Genre: Adventure with a lot of comedy. Though it's billed as a children's cartoon, Gravity Falls is an intriguing watch with mystery subplots that will keep anyone guessing. It also features a famously strong and cohesive series ending. I was in my late 20s when I first watched this and I was still invested!

Daredevil (2015-2018) - After being blinded as a young boy, Matthew Murdock trained his other senses to replace the sight that he lost. He uses his skills to protect the helpless in the New York City neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen. Genre: Action and superhero. Features a lot of incredibly choreographed violence. (Jessica Jones is also an excellent show to watch, especially if you think of David Tennant as the consummate 'good guy'. He's got range!)

HBO Max (Just 'Max' now, I guess):

Ghosts (2019-2023) - Petty roommate squabbles don't stop just because you're dead! Alison and her husband Mike inherit a house, then a near-death experience allows Alison to see its ghostly inhabitants. Chaos and humor ensue as the ghosts try to adjust to the house's new owners. Genre: Humor. Ghosts is a British sitcom, but since the writers are comedians (writing and performing in Horrible Histories), the show is done in a style that feels more natural to American viewers. Hint: watch the BBC version, not the American one. They're fairly similar, but definitely not the same!

Pushing Daisies (2007-2009) - A pie-maker with the ability to bring back the dead helps to solve murders. He's helped by his once-dead childhood sweetheart. Genre: Comedy with some dramatic elements. Some of the CGI-heavy moments haven't aged particularly well, but the show has a unique premise and an incredibly talented cast!

Hulu:

Abbott Elementary (2021-?) - This mockumentary series showcases an inner-city elementary school in Philadelphia. The teachers and administration do their best for the kids, but they're constrained by budgets and the limitations of the educational system itself. Genre: Comedy mockumentary. Though Abbott Elementary is fictional, some of the issues brought up are all too real. This is a funny and incisive look at the American public school system.

Amazon Prime:

Fleabag (2016-2019) - The unnamed protagonist of the show struggles through life on her own with limited support from her alienated family and the memories of her recently deceased best friend. Genre: Comedy with lots of dramatic elements. Lots of sexual content and references, some language, breaking the fourth-wall, and several characters you just long to hit. I watched the second season in a single day, that's how good this was.

Unknown Streaming Service:

Black Sails (2014-2017) - This prequel to Treasure Island features elements from the book, original characters, and real pirates from history in a setting that emphasizes realism. Captain Flint and his crew search for a legendary prize... one that might allow them to claim Nassau for their own. Genre: Action and adventure. Think Game of Thrones, but with pirates. Incredibly well-written and well-acted with gorgeous scenery, LGBTQ representation, and just enough historical accuracy to keep things grounded. Black Sails also boasts one of the best endings ever given for a television show.

Like I said, please feel free to reblog and add your own television show recommendations onto this list! There are plenty of things to watch and plenty of ways to support the WGA strike that don't involve giving in to big studios.

[mellowgoop]

big spoilers for the entire castlevania super show

So I watched 4-6 (season four must be consumed piece by piece I guess) and like 65% of the series resolved so I have a ton of thoughts...

first and foremost, I think Isaac is one the shows absolute biggest accomplishments! I get the sense that either carmilla losing herself or isaac finding himself was something OG fans did not like about the netflix show, but not knowing their characterizations in anything else, I was pretty happy with both.

in season three (pretty much for every moment since dracula spared him) isaac was the most interesting character to me because I just had NO idea what he was working towards, even though he had the power and the will to get it done like, no questions asked. there were numerous, *numerous* points in season three where I was like youre seriously doing all of this to get revenge on *hector???* the poor sopping napkin meow meow chained up in a puppy kennel right now? it seemed like this kind of. pain projection thing blaming him for the fall of draculas army because of their bond? meanwhile isaac versus carmilla was OBVIOUSLY the more interesting revenge story. I didnt really know if the writers acknowledged that or were just hoping we really did buy him wanting revenge on hector specifically that badly, but now thats one thing that Im preeeeeetty sure they had a plan for. compared to lots of other things. ... more on that later

at the personal level, isaac finding his will to live and "become human" again despite all he's been through is one of the best parts of the series to me. but, as you start to expand it outwards, a lot of other things start to feel a little less good. Like, I haven't seen Lenores final scene yet, but I DOUBT anything is going to change about my thoughts on Hector by the end and that definitely soured. maybe intentionally?? for a while, I felt like he was the most relatable character because he seemed to be the only person with a pure heart left in season three carmillas castle, and was doomed for it. but then one day I was like hey... why did hector join *draculas human eradication campaign*??? wh... why did he do that?? and this last scene definitely threw dirt on this even more like. HUH? you made a last ditch deal with st. fucking germaine to revive dracula for.. pennance?? or no, its because you wanted to throw this at isaac who you were deathly afraid of (rightly) in hopes he would spare you. *maybe???* it just seemed so random. and why did you build a portal to carmillas room of all things?? why do all this for a desperate shot at surviving isaac AND turning him against carmilla? like, it almost holds up as a smart persons self-preservation ploy but its too forward-thinking when its based on a coinflip of isaacs mercy. i think a fucking. teleporter out of the castle would have made more sense, if we are to believe he is a. smart and b. self preserving in a disaster? and as much as i can infer hes afraid of all the god tier people out to get him in this scenario... he ends up thinking of a random way to cut the ring off so .... i think he could have just warped out and ditched the ring and helped lenore leave too.

and thats verrrry granular thinking for character whose motivations werent even clear to me, he definitely went from product of the situation to way too much a product of the situation.

meanwhile. CARMILLA is a fun character jesus christ. In S3, I misunderstood a couple of things and thought I didnt like carmilla and lenore at all. I thought lenore was legitimately so broken she could manipulate someone that deeply on the daily but, thats absolutely not it lol. she was very much earnest and torn up. that concept was significantly more disturbing than the rest of the show to me at first so i was like... swag but what? I didnt like carmilla because I thought we were legitimately meant to emphathize with her or at least get her angle in S3 but... that is very much not the case lol

like isaac, on a character level I really like carmillas downfall because its very clear! yeah no, you lost everything about yourself in the name of revenge and """""ambition,"""" thats clean and it was explained very clearly in her convo with lenore. its a lot like dracula again, and the fracturing of her court seemed like it would be interesting but then that just... didnt really happen? Im not sure why isaacs attack couldnt have waited one more day for these people to squabble? on one hand, I was very afraid for strigana getting bury-your-gays'd and im happy they moved on as a family unit. but like. that DEFINITELY happened too soon, carmilla didnt even know they had their change of heart. and at the least, how did we not get them saving lenore???? i seriously doubt that would change whatever lenore and hectors last scene will be. i buy lenore and strigana moving on from carmilla, thats like their whole point, but i diiiiislike them just assuming lenore is dead. like what?

in the end, it happened a little too quickly and while isaac and carmilla had fitting endings theres a lot of weird in there. It wont keep me from rewatching, but it reminds me of GOT ending things prematurely because uh... life is cruel and things happen. forget about that chara and plot. moving swiftly on!

[magmagpie]

I have a lot of headcanons ;)

Elves have fangs but they make Alfur feel threatening or untrustworthy so he tries his best to hide them. Hilda finds out about them one day when she jump scares him and he screams

Elves have fur

Alfur and Twig are like best friends

Elves are vulnerable af to cold climates

Alfur has a little sister named Dea, who he's really close to and she calls him 'Alfy'

Alfur still feels guilty about what happened to the Bragga family

Alfur hates violence, but if something big is at stake or if someone he deeply cares for gets hurt, he's ready to throw down

He hates being stepped on even though it doesn't effect him, as it was said it was traumatizing to have a giant foot come through your ceiling even if it won't hurt them

Alfur is afraid of riding rabbits

As a child, he was obsessed with woffs, that's why he's so confident about the fact they migrate 'willy nilly'

He loves Disney and still cries about Walt Disney passing away

Unlike his classmates as a kid, his favorite subject was not english, but history

Alfur is a great singer, even better than David, he's just shy and doesn't like singing in front of people

He, just like Hilda, was once greatly intrigued by magic, but lost all drive to continue it when he was almost banished for using it

Alfur likes to make friends with the bugs that Hilda will bring home sometimes from out of David's hair

Alfur and Frida get along fine, but sometimes they get into organization battles and Hilda and Joanna come home to a very nice house and can't find things for a week

Joanna buys tiny food items, like mini loafs of bread and genetically mutated mini cucumbers for Alfur

Alfur was once 'eaten' by a bargus and is still scared by it to this day

Alfur is afraid of big fire and tries to be as subtle as possible when avoiding the fireplace

Alfur's only friend before meeting Hilda was his hat, which is why he's so willing to go against his people's wishes and help her, and why he's so excited to go to trollburg and start a new life there

He loves writing his reports, but gets very stressed about making them perfect so stays up all night analyzing and editing

He's scared of waking up to find he has to go back to his village and say goodbye to his new friends

He isn't actually on the taller side for an elf, he just said that to defend his size. He's actually really short for an elf(did you see how much shorter he was than the Lost Clan elves??)

He absolutely adores country music like Carry Underwood and Jonny Cash

He was in guitar classes when he was little and is really good at playing acoustic on his tiny wooden guitar

Elves' hearing is really acute and noises that are too loud(like Hilda shouting about the king's lack of hands) give them headaches

AU where Hilda is Rudolf and Alfur is Hermey. Twig is still Twig. Cornelius is Raven. Mr and Mrs Donner are both Joanna. Clarice is split into Freida and David. The misfit toys are the different creatures Hilda met in the series. The Bumble is a mute, very misunderstood Jorgan, still waiting for his friend, who really did leave(but it wasn't her choice, her family made her). The head elf is the Mayor. Mrs. Claus is the Prime Minister and Santa is the king(but they arent together).

Alfur is always very stressed about what story he would be hearing later when, if, Hilda comes home

He sometimes wonders if some of the elves even know he's gone

Aside from his reports, he also writes letters to his family. Unfortunately, they never write back, as they are still disappointed he sided with the enemy, particularly his father

He loves cats, even when they try to eat him

Whenever he gets writer's block, Hilda takes him to school with her or they go on a walk in the woods

The reason it's such an important tradition of elves to be 'sniffy' about who sees them and who doesn't is because one time an elf(I visualize like Alfur's parents or something) trusted a human authority figure with their presence and it resulted in a full blown rampage on their village. A lot of elves died and a lot of houses were destroyed. Alfur lost his grandparents and older brother in this attack, and almost lost his parents

Alfur tried raising a baby woff when he was in his woff phase when he found it alone and injured. His parents allowed him to keep it until it could fly again. He still misses it sometimes

He's been ambidextrous since he learned how to write

He's deathly allergic to nuts. Peanuts, tree nuts, walnuts, etc.

He's terrified of bees

Spiders give him heart attacks(he's so scared of them, they're so scary up close, and so big!)

He has an eagle friend who he visits every year and they take long flights over different forests and they just have the best time

He loves dragon fruit

And also actual dragons

His sneezes make him sound like he's dying after

Alfur has anxiety for rules, dark places, confined rooms or hallways, perfect paperwork, and overly dangerous situations

He develops momentary claustrophobia if he isn't able to leave a small space easily

He sometimes wishes they were back in the country, just like Hilda. The sights were pretty, especially when you were so small, the world seemed to curl around you at times

Alfur and Hilda are both hardcore obsessed with Pókemon. Hilda's favorite pokemon is deerling, and Alfur can't choose just one, but he likes Pikachu's pointy ears - he thinks they're so cute!

Alfur clicks his pens(somehow without thumbs, idk, don't question it) when he's nervous, stressed, bored, excited, or when he has a severe case of writer's block

Alfur loves watching dramas, specifically romances(they're so full of life!)

Alfur has a secret admiration of horror movies. He can't watch too many at once, but he never passes up the chance to curl up with a tiny pillow and be scared shitless

Inside his satchel, more than just paperwork is held. He also has an old woff plushy he had when he was a kid. He likes to watch his horror movies with it, too

Alfur is 22 years old(just my set age for him)

Alfur genuinely sees Joanna as a mother figure to him, as well as Hilda, with his own practically disowning him

Alfur is a lgbtq+ ally change my mind

Alfur got his name because his parents originally hadn't planned him and were surprised to hear of their upcoming child. They didn't know the gender and hadn't picked anything out so they just called him 'elf' until he was born, then made it more official with the proper Scandinavian translation of 'Alfur'

Elves can be killed by pesticides just like bugs, it basically poisons their tiny lungs

After their fall from the forest giant in that one episode, both Alfur and Twig are low key scared of heights

Alfur knows a lot of pick up lines, he's just too nervous and anxious and self-conscious to use any of them

Alfur sees Hilda Joanna and Twig as part of his family

He always has to remind himself his family hadn't wanted the Braggas to be exiled and it wasn't their fault

Alfur hates getting his picture taken

He's a heckin' great artist. Like, he could make tiny copies of the Mona Lisa if he really wanted

He's memorised the entire periodic table

He's fluent in Scandinavian languages like German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian. Multilingual elf boi

Joanna will sometimes use her free time to make little clothes for Alfur, which never takes her very long

Alfur can't stay still for very long without having to fidget with something(another time his clicks his pens)

He's pretty good with electronics, which surprised everyone when he volunteered to fix the tv once. He needs bigger people to do most of the work so he doesn't electrocute himself, but he gives the instructions

Never take his hat. It's alive. It has a mouth and little fangs. He'll bite you. He only likes members of the Aldric family, especially Alfur

AU where Alfur is bitten or cursed by something/someone and wakes up the next day as a werewolf elf. But unlike typical werewolves, he remembers everything he does as a tiny wolf and his transformations are really really painful. His werewolf form is just him, but he has brown fur, the little tufts of hair on his head extend to a point and get pretty messy, his ears get a little longer, his teeth are really sharp and he has fangs, he grows a snout and nose like a dog, and he grows, like, little black hands and claws. (I've drawn something for it, but I'm gonna make that it's own post)

Alfur's spirit animal is a bearded dragon

He has a huge collection of ugly Christmas sweaters that his human friends think are really cute

He can knit, just not very well

The elves that saw Jorgan crush Hilda's house still have nightmares about a giant foot smashing their house and have developed a fear of giants. Alfur was one of these elves, and while he has gotten over the fear of giants, he does still have nightmares about a huge giant crushing their home in Trollburg

He also has nightmares about the many times Hilda's foot or Twig phased into his elf house

He has an older brother named Alfred(heheheheh yes I did) who went missing for a long time. He was also the one who gave Alfur the living hat right before he disappeared

Fairies are the only creature that doesn't need to sign any sort of papers to interact with the elves. This scares Alfur to no end, as he once knew a very mean fairy

Alfur was bulled as a kid because he's part of the family that got other elves to be banished and because he was the only elf who's family member was absent(elves don't typically travel very far in their lifetime so it's odd for them to leave or pick up unknown illnesses)

Alfur's brother's friends always treated him like a pest until his brother went missing, then they stepped in kinda as replacement brothers

Elves treat writer's block like a disease in terms of drama. Like, if they get it, they start screaming and crying and anyone who hears about it apologizes like their cat just died or something. Alfur was never one of them, tho

His lucky number is 7

He hates hotdogs, and is simply disgusted by the thought of them(me too tbh)

Alfur is hecking good at poetry and loves reading it in his spare time

His favorite color is red

He loves heat. Like, you could put him in the freaking microwave and you'll find him taking a nap

He simply adores the sky and the stars. He's memorized a ton of constellations and can make out the other planets just by looking. Stargazing is his number 1 hobby

He's been trying to do things for his people to 'make up' for what happened to the Braggas

He's that friend that puts P.P.P.P.S. at the end of letters

LISTEN HERE (metaphorically)

I want all of your Alfur headcanons and AUs.

All that etc.

Pile them on.

I want to hear them.

ALL OF THEM.

EVEN THE “BAD” ONES!

[oceanwaves-mp3]

i could not help myself....

also these clips were taken from various videos from here and youtube since nick and netflix wouldn't let me screen record so i'm sorry </3

ramble undercut!

this is a lot of nonsense so i apologize

i don't have many thoughts but i do know that this is one of the best recent animated series i've seen in such a long time. i'm someone who typically just rewatched the same four series and call it a day, that being code lyoko, digimon, wakfu, and whatever i might end up hyperfixating on suddenly. i don't watch new animated series often unless it's with friends, young justice being the only one i actively watched and enjoyed. i don't think it's the best since rewatching rottmnt but it's definitely really good! i love both series separately and for their own reasons, YJ for the more serious and grim tones and ROTTMNT for literally everything. i'm really glad to be able to even watch this series and that it's on netflix, i had never watched season 2 because i just simply forgot like an idiot and then the movie came out! and so i binge rewatched the series after watching the movie with a friend and the movie was just fantastic! i won't get into any spoilers but genuinely it lived up to the hype and i could only ask for me! i showed a bit of the series through clips, images, and conversation to my sibling and they seemed intrigued by it which may not mean much but we're both adults, me being 18 and them going to be 22 and doesn't usually engage in things i like with interest. being able to find a space to just talk about this series means the world, and expressing things i love is something i find most meaningful. the fandom genuinely feels like such a safe space. minus how i still don't know if using the hearts paired (❤️💙💜🧡) is a shipping thing or just something fans do for support, i've had nothing but positive experiences so far! i haven't had this much fun with a series to this extent in a while and it's genuinely just so nice. my dad was huge into TMNT when it first came out and i've talked to him about the series before, he seemed more confused and entertained by the zaniness of it than wanting to sit down and watch it but hey! it's still meaningful to me! also?? the representation?? CANON autistic donnie and CANON adhd mikey?? in MY tmnt show? hell yeah !!!! it makes me so happy to be able to actually feel security in relating to characters and not feel like it's insulting? this video is best of talking about what i mean so i genuinely do think you should give it a watch or listen!! anyways i guess what i'm saying is i love ROTTMNT and i cannot recommend it enough nor will i shut up about it right now

[acostarsandwritings]

I'm sorry but that's what you took from this story? More so, you do realize you're watching a Netflix crossover, not even just an adaption?

Sit with me here because this take is bullshit and I'm gonna explain to you why. (warning for potential spoilers).

The darkling is not some sort of martyr. He is LITERALLY the person who created the fold*, against the advice and wishes of his own peers. This is not some (half) organized BLM protest (I assume your own analogy was meant to be thinly veiled as well), this is one (1) dude thinking he has the right to change the world. The books deliver this a tad differently, but you're talking about the series so I'll indulge you - the darkling did NOT do this with respect to his peers. He did it with a desire for power and revenge. Specifically, he did this with the intent to wipe out the Ravkans. Does that rhetoric sound familiar to you? Because I certainly think I recognize that in "the recent events" you mention. The time line in which this story takes place doesn't even have an oppressive government anymore - grisha are revered and, dare I say, spoiled - personal preferences aside, I'd definitely pick their treatment over the one the 'normal' Ravkans get. The entire take that the Darkling is somehow fighting against injustice is literally, canonically, outdated by hundreds, if not thousands of years. In this story, the Darkling IS the injustice. The only systemic 'racism' in this story is the Fjerdan-Grisha dynamic and the fact that Ravka is at war with, well.. Basically all of their neighbors except Kerch.

SECOND. Are you just.. Willingly stepping over our main protagonist? Either in the books or the series, Alina experiences a shitton of prejudice or even outright racism (the half Shu thing in the series wasn't.. Tastefully done, but it does succeed in its message. Even a savior will be vilified if their skin color is 'wrong'). It's not like Alina went "welp, guess I just kill everyone". She doesn't turn against the Darkling because of personal preferences, she turns against him because he lied about who he was AND because he is the literal reason the divide exists in the first place. The Darkling is the one wanting to keep - nay, expand! - the fold. He isn't some poor chap who got his feelings hurt, he is a villain. A literal one. This is no "a bit close to the edge ay", this is "dude fucking calm down you don't need to end the world". There's a difference, you know. Technically mass murder might solve our problems, but I doubt it's a good or even viable solution in the long run. Though, who am I to judge 🤷‍♀️

Third, you have seen one (1) season. One. You apparently haven't read the books, which is fine - I don't think they should be held next to each other like that - but that means you're jumping to conclusions, forming an opinion on a story that is very clearly not done yet. The entire point of the book IS a change, but you don't know that yet because you haven't seen/read the rest of it. This is some Fox News level jumping to conclusions here. Adding to that, Shadow and Bone/Six of Crows is not and was never intended to be a dystopian novel. It is a fantasy book. It's YA, it has dystopian elements, but it is not a dystopia. It's "just" a world like any other.

Also, are you seriously comparing revolutionary movements (and yes, I count blm in that too) with a literal mass murderer?? Someone who altered his country for the objectively worse?

Tldr - you're misunderstanding the story.

*the creation of the Fold was a side effect, I know this - however, using forbidden magic that Will Probably Kill You and disrupts the space around you for the sole purpose of creating an army that can't be beaten does sound very genocide-y, no?