#the social commentary in the old series its NOT subtle at all

[monoukotori]

I find it really curious that people think the twilight zone is just "wouldn't it be fucked up" with no message when Rod Serling was *THE* social commentary guy that specifically started writing science fiction because allegories got less censorship for social commentary than realistic stories. He got severe PTSD after fighting in world war two and that's why there is so much death in his stories. He was angry at the pointlessness of war and poured it all in his stories in where he criticized the society of that time, touching topics like war, racism, the red scare etc

Idk I feel like it's a disservice to his work to not to look deeper and try to understand what he was trying to say.

[amywarrel]

Sonny Boy and The Lost Youth - an anime analysis by Amy Warrel

This analysis is enormous. You have been warned.

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The world is confusing. No one knows how to properly navigate it. You’ll get a grasp on it eventually and there might be people to help you out, but one day you might also drift apart. That’s a very sad notion, but it also one that reminds us of one thing: what we lived has value, those memories of old are meaningful and our connections to other people will continue to shape us long after those relations are over. Sonny Boy is not subtle in its commentary about getting lost in the world and society. The characters are all transported to a world in which their school is the whole extent of said world. Everything beyond it is pitch black; you can reach for it, but you don’t know what you’ll be getting yourself into. Inside, teenagers try to make it into a functional society, but are obviously all lacking in resources and life experience to do so. Some people are more talented or stronger than others, and that is enough for social bubbles to emerge. I’m sure most of us can relate to the notion that we are getting left behind, that other people are finding their careers, finding what they are good at, have a decent idea of what their life will be like once they step out of school or even already have a future guaranteed, but we — or I — always feel like the outcast.

As someone who spent their whole teen days knowing the only path I could pursue in life was the path of art — which ultimately led me to turn to literature —, I can highly relate to coming of age stories and the anxiety of stepping into adulthood. I can barely manage adulthood even after having been an adult for supposedly four years and “getting ready” — you eventually learn that school is not as good of a leeway into working life as you were led to expect — for it for many more years, so I can see a lot of myself in these character’s emotions, struggles and decisions.

Nagara is the closest thing to a stand-in for the audience in this show, but has enough of a personality that he does not come out as simply self-insert material. Being an introvert does not mean you don’t have a personality, it just means yours doesn’t come out as much, especially in such a confusing age and place where opening yourself up to others is hard when you don’t know how they will react and harder still when you might not even understand why you feel the way you feel. Nagara’s character is used to talk about others' expectations in a very direct way in a couple of episodes, as well as the importance of social connections, while the “speaking up for yourself'' part is also shared mainly with Mizuho.

I am surprised to see Mizuho not being revealed as a transgender character later in the series, since she is reading Stop!! Hibari-kun! In her first appearance, a 1981 manga about a transgender girl going through school who also turns out to be the daughter of a yakuza, but as it turns out, I simply hadn’t realized that Hisashi Eguchi, the character designer for Sonny Boy, is the author and artist of Hibari-kun. Mizuho is by far the easiest character for me to relate to because of this, because of her relation to cats — I have more than twenty of them, it has gotten out of control, someone please help —, because I would have loved to look similar to her through my teenage days — having come out as a transgender girl myself after over a decade of suffering with gender dysphoria — and because she is just very entertaining to watch on screen. I also love her voice; Yuuki Aoi sounds like she is very close to the microphone when speaking just like how all the other characters are doing, which couples with the anime’s more simplistic art style dedicated to giving each character more distinct facial features instead of just telling everyone apart from their hair color, these being techniques that invite a lot more intimacy from the audience and drags them closer to the characters and, by extension, the themes. Having said that, something about Yuuki Aoi’s voice just entices me. I believe she communicates Mizuho’s melancholic and occasionally smug personality with impressive effectiveness.

Of course, the character’s don’t stand in school for long. The first episode’s arc is a very self-contained one about rules, authority and the dangers of it, in which losing said authority leads a kid to hit another one with a baseball bat in the head. Power is a dangerous thing, it messes with our morals, it makes us scared of risking it and can be used both for good and for evil, even by the same person. Give someone too much power and it’s a matter of time and circumstance until you get yourself a war.

I believe the first episode was presented this way with airing conditions in mind. Sonny Boy overall lands itself incredibly well on the style of episodic storytelling with a narrative and thematic throughline to glue it all together, honestly one of the best I have seen yet in that department. Making a first episode that presents the audience with a simple premise in a restricted environment is a great way to ease the viewer into the story.

That structure gets quickly expanded upon as Nozomi takes a leap of faith towards the unknown world, and all the students now find themselves on a new island and with the information that there are many “This Worlds”. All weird places that no one understands exactly, all connected in some fashion that they are still to uncover, and all of it can be conquered by the kids’ specific powers — talents, as they are thematically shown to be — and give them different rewards that they then have to learn how to use. It is not hard to see what that means: its plot significance is one of adding flavor and mystery to the world to better mark the student’s progress as they peel off the mechanics of these worlds little by little, but its thematic significance is one of putting your talents and skills to use and being rewarded for your work.

However, that is just the first episode and there are eleven more to go. Yes, I’ll be going through this commenting “briefly” about what stood out to me in every episode, which I never do, but this anime is an exception and it deserves it. Full on spoilers from now on, you have been warned.

Each episode deals with a couple of different themes but there are always one or two clearly main ones. The series is more interested in discussing these themes in its surreal world than properly grounding every facet of the worldbuilding, which is totally unnecessary once you are shining so many lights on the relevance of the themes above everything else. Yes, the anime has a lot of small little mechanics the characters need to understand about each world, but these mechanisms are generally intrinsically tied to the theme of each world, so don’t expect the type of worldbuilding we are used to seeing. It is not important that we know everything about the island, how far apart things are and where everything is being built, it is more important that we understand how the characters react to their environment and how they communicate — or attempt to — through said world.

Episode two, for instance, leads to the canonical creation of cryptocurrency by everyone’s dearest Rajdhani, but really the important aspect of it is commenting on how a society gets formed à la Lord of the Flies. There are other elements to this episode, such as Mizuho having to speak for herself as I commented earlier, the fact that value is attached to things by our own decisions and how this value can be altered through the means in which these things are obtained, but episode two is still primarily about introducing Mizuho’s character and her struggles with being a kid who wants to be more than just a kid.

I particularly love the fact that at no point does the plot judge Mizuho for having a crush on her teacher. That sort of stuff happens. She can’t be blamed for developing feelings for a figure she sees as a guiding light in a twisted world. We are very clearly led to understand that she decided to wear a ring not because she was in an actual relationship with him, but because she saw that as a stating of her own maturity. Other characters later bring attention more than once to Mizuho’s emotional dependency, it used to be put at least partially on her teacher, but because of the blackmailing she suffered and the circumstances of being stranded, that then turned exclusively to her cats. And I ask again: can she be blamed for it? No, she can’t, and I appreciate the writing for being self-aware enough to understand that and respect her character instead of turning this into what could have been a generic villainization of teen sexuality. Please note that I am only talking about her emotional dependency and her having a crush on her teacher, I am not saying that actually being involved in a romantical and or sexual relationship with a teacher is ethical, especially considering that Mizuho is sixteen years old.

One of the great things that fantastical elements in a story allows is the literalization of metaphors. Episode three does this by using a rule that makes recluse people totally isolated within a pocket dimension of endless black curtains, all connected to each other through gaps in these curtains, meaning there is a way for them to communicate with each other. In this dimension they are all doing what they want to be doing: one guy is livestreaming Pacman, there is one buff dude that only wants to work out and a girl that is sewing multiple stuffed toys… you get the idea.

Society isolates people and that should be a given in any system created by humans. There is simply too much idiosyncrasies in our relations and personalities and it would be goddam boring if everyone was the same. Of course it can get to a point where it is detrimental to the isolated person, but that begins as a way to cope with our inability to communicate with people we feel we should be able to communicate with — because everyone else does, apparently — and our interests and passions not being well-seen or simply really hard to turn into a living. Who wouldn’t like to live in a world in which subsistence is a given and we can do whatever we want and repeat our hobbies for as long as we can stand them because we enjoy it?

Some aspects of Sonny Boy’s multiple worlds can maybe be related to the concept of a noosphere: a state of evolution defined by our consciousness, mental activities and interactions with other people, it is both above and ahead of the geosphere and the biosphere and envisions a world in which Earth is essentially a super-organism and there is a layer of consciousness and information enveloping it all. I am not claiming to be an expert on the matter and maybe the creators weren’t even trying to pursue this idea in particular — seen in the fact that they like mentioning Robinson Crusoe, so you could expect then to mention the noosphere —, but the many This Worlds in the story are described as playing with consciousness and the mind. Also, in a noosphere humans would be united enough to be able to deal with global problems and Earth can self-regulate itself, which these Worlds do by their own set of rules. I’m sorry if anyone has studied this and if I said something wrong about it.

Going back to episode three, it keeps pulling the thread of commenting about isolation with things such as no one noticing these people’s disappearance except those in direct interaction with then and these people might not even go looking for the missing ones, which is certainly how most people I know describe the feeling of being depressed and the notion that no one understands them. It also has some very direct commentary about our capitalist society through reflecting on the fact that the blue flames of the island take everything away from you that you haven’t paid for and with Mizuho complaining about people wanting to be friends with her power — what she can do —, instead of with herself — who she is. It is not a particularly complex exploration of the individual's relation with capitalism and their worth in it, but at least it is something.

This episode also turns Nagara and Mizuho into a duo, which is something we are going to see a lot more of through the remaining episodes. You get the drill: they fail to communicate, fight, then manage to properly communicate — which goes hand in hand with the episode’s theme of isolation caused by an inability to communicate — and solve the issue together, yadda yadda, we have seen that before. It is executed competently and makes sense within the story, but Sonny Boy is not a non-stop flow of impressive big ideas and unexpected twists and turns leading to their incredible solution, it is that just most of the time.

Episode four then comments more directly about how talent can distance people. That is a recurring theme through the whole show, but in this episode we see a story about an ape who wanted to play baseball, but could not because of the physical liability of only having one arm, but that did not stop him from loving the sport and ending up as an arbiter, however he was seen as the common person, relegated to a background position while other, more talented and successful people shine in the spotlights, leading him to be killed by an enraged crowd for standing up to his sense of justice. Before that all the apes were indistinguishable, having to stand out on the basis of their prowess, while some people are like the blue ape, clearly different and talented enough to steal everyone’s attention and moments to shine, which leads him to forget his origin as the target of prejudice and causing harm to another victim when the goal of being perfect becomes more important than enjoying the moment and the success he already has. Ace then goes on to say that the arbiter’s death was fair because there are common people who drown other’s talents — referring to his talent and Nagara causing him to lose an important game back when they played baseball —, but of course he is totally wrong in this. Loving something and having a competitive mindset about it can blind people sometimes and Ace does not realize this, while Nozomi, being by far the most conscious of her surroundings and constantly having insights about the other kids' psychology everytime the “camera” zooms in on her eyes, is the first one to call attention to the fact that the impressive ape in the whole story is the arbiter, for standing up for himself against everyone knowing that he would be seen as the enemy.

I know most of what I just said is spelled out in the episode, but since I am committed to reviewing the whole show I have to mention these details, because Sonny Boy constantly builds upon the themes of the last episode in the next one instead of just going for unrelated yet interesting themes or repeating the same ones like I feel other shows I don’t resonate with very strongly often do.

Nagara is also shown to not have enough control of his own power to determine where he wants to go. We find out that he can only travel to other This Worlds and not back to their original one. I believe Nagara to be the carrier of this power because he is just enough of a blank-slate to fit virtually anywhere while also not feeling like he belongs in any of them, having no clear goal in life and thus not wanting to go to any place in particular, drifting through whatever comes his way. Sure, he can bring other people with him, but it’s not as if he is going to any one place.

We end this episode with the introduction of Aki-sensei, someone the kids recognize as being one of their teachers back in the real world. Aki-sensei immediately tells them that the fun and games have ended and that there is no way to go back to their original world. While a lot of what she says is put to the test later on, Aki turns out to be a figure of authority manipulating these kids and creating even more distinction between the groups, managing to bring every single person that would be willing to trust a figure who is supposed to know what she is doing while the other groups are made of the students that want to find that out for themselves. Her primary target for manipulation is Asakaze and everything that was needed for him to trust her was hearing that he was special, that he deserves special attention and that he has a special future. Again, this is dealing with the psychology of people receiving power and status, in this case especially by someone who he sees as having a better grasp on reality and thus making her words all the more meaningful.

As soon as the sides are clearly divided conflicts start emerging faster and it doesn’t take long until we see three separate groups being formed. That is expected to happen whenever there is a society, especially when it starts to grow and people gravitate towards others similar to them and in whom they believe in. Aki-sensei is not right in her manipulations by any stretch, but her presence merely accelerates an ongoing process. The meaning of Aki-sensei in the story changes a bit once when we find out she is actually not Aki-sensei but another student playing as her, changing what was a figure of authority manipulating kids in vulnerable positions to being one of those kids, just as lost or even more lost than the others, pretending to be a figure of authority who understand the world better than they do and presenting it as necessity of maintaining the status quo while framing the other kids as potentially dangerous precisely because they are trying to lay change upon the world. Knowing all of this, it is no surprise what their actions later escalate into.

One of the most interesting ideas the anime introduces is in episode six, where they find a world that is a giant cinema filled to the brim with records from Nagara’s perspective. It fits his character considering Nagara is used to spending his days as simply an observer that takes no action and the way the mechanics are played with are interesting. What if we edit the records? What if we play it backwards? It doesn’t really matter how much this amounts to, the questions are interesting enough by themselves. Not all changes made to the films actually happen, even if Nagara is present, this probably means that not everything done to the films will actually change his perception of reality. If it is something that he can’t imagine happening or doesn’t have enough suspension of disbelief to accept, then it likely doesn’t affect the real world.

Yamabiko is a particularly interesting addition to the cast: a once student turned dog who has lived for five thousand years and finally gives us some answers, claiming that the reason the drifting happens is because their principal is God, explaining that only the school and students can get adrift and that it only happens with people from the same school they went to, no matter the time in which that happened. Though there is not much that can be said about Yamabiko and the themes revolving around his character before the episode dedicated to expanding on his background, he is still a fun and mysterious character that shares good synergy with Mizuho. He does, however, say that the kids from the current drifting still have time to go back. Our experiences through a structure like school and our teenage days shape us and once we step outside of it, we aren’t the same as when we first stepped in. Since the perception of reality is an important concept in this episode, then this means that if we changed, then the world itself changed, because our reality is simply how we see it. Nozomi, for instance, keeps talking about her compass and the light she believes will guide them home, but we don’t have to actually see that light to believe her. Yamabiko on the other hand simply can’t go back, because he has lost too much and been around for too long, to the point where he doesn’t even fit the actual real world he was used to.

My favorite part of episode six is when Nozomi is talking about how she doesn’t want to walk down the safe paths people have told her about just to think “Ah, good going.” That’s not what life is for her. Nozomi is a very brave and insightful person and she wants to do what she wants to do, she is a free spirit that can appreciate the present more than all the other kids. She can get anxious and scared, but that is precisely why she does it. Nozomi wants to feel, wants to live and wants to take risks. Honestly I would like to be a little bit more like her, but I’m simply not brave enough.

Hoshi’s White Knight Syndrome is also brought to the forefront in this episode. He knew the school was going to go adrift and that is why he went to school that day, because he wanted to help these people, but this is not presented as simply altruism. Hoshi had always been drawn as creepy and scheming if not necessarily evil, but as we also find out, this desire of him to help others does not exist because he actually wants to help them, but because he has a god complex and wants to be a savior. Meaning, he’s going about it the wrong way.

Episode seven is my least favorite of the bunch simply because it was the first to come out as too heavy-handed to me. You see, a lot in fiction boils down to promises and payoffs. The ending of episode six and the entirety of episode seven gave me the impression that the series was going into another direction, having the newly discovered plot about castaways that have been adrift for longer wanting to punish Nagara for ruining their lives take a more prominent place in the story. Don’t take me wrong, I’d much rather this current story that the anime has, but it did gave me the feeling that that was the promise being made for the long run, that this was the direction it was taking and by the ending of episode seven I was expecting it to turn into something similar to “us against the government”, so finding out that was not the case was both a relief and a confusing moment. Even after watching the episode again to try and judge it in a different light already knowing how the story ends, my view on this hasn’t changed.

This doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate anything that episode seven does, of course. Sonny Boy frequently calls attention to Nagara’s personality and the need to speak up for himself, but it is never offensive about it. Koumaru reaches the conclusion that Nagara can’t be blamed for drifting them and Yamabiko notes that God gave him that power with the intention of it being used for the drifting, which also means he can’t be blamed for being who he is since that power is so rooted in his personality. He can get more out of life by forming connections with people, but we don’t need to scorn him for that until he learns his lesson.

The world turned upside down is still a neat idea even if I don’t think it is used to as satisfying a conclusion as most of the other episodes do. It explores the idea of a stagnant society that makes its workers believe that they are changing it, no matter whether they believe it or even know what exactly they are supposedly doing, giving them a blind hope to help cope with their trapped situation. Since Sonny Boy constantly pulls threads from previous episodes it is pretty easy to relate this to Nozomi’s phrase of not wanting to walk down the safe path in life.

All it takes for Nagara to flip the world upside down is to take a step away from the safe spot. I get the message, but I feel like it is slightly too simplistic. Sometimes this anime does not deliver in the themes department as well as I would have liked, but thankfully the strength of the main characters is enough for me to see that as just a minor nuisance.

Episode eight, on the other hand, is among the amazing ones and it does a lot more for the characters and tone than any episode honestly even needs to in order to be satisfying. We jump from present to past as Yamabiko tells his sad story. In the present they are traveling along with Nagara, Mizuho and her cats, but the framing always keeps us close to the characters instead of zooming out to show the scenery, which is great to shorten the distance between audience and characters, hyperfocusing this episode in the people we are seeing and leaving the exploration of the world to the side for at least one episode. The muddier color design and music also helps a lot in keeping this episode tone-perfect all the way through.

The reason why I find this episode to be genius is because of how Yamabiko’s story recontextualizes the characters of Nagara and Mizuho. Yamabiko was a shut-in who simply crawled his way through life just like Nagara, but to a much more intense degree that leads him to completely isolate himself, instead of trying but not managing to speak up like how we see Nagara often doing, leading to a point where Yamabiko reacts violently to try and scare people away. He also brings attention to Mizuho’s emotional dependency by increasing that to the point where he turns into a dog to follow the lead of someone he trusts more than even himself, and it is these two things combined that eventually leads to the ruin of the people around him and himself.

Episode eight is primarily about ignoring your problems until it is too late. Yamabiko’s power gives him the ability of manifesting his mental state, this being the reason why he turned into a dog, but also being the reason why the epidemy hits Kodama and her friends. I don’t think it would be right to call these kids the new family Yamabiko has found, because his interactions happen almost exclusively with Kodama, being the pure guiding light — probably even motherly figure, since her power is called “M”, I know that might mean "Manipulate" or something, but we also know that Nagara has an issue with his mother who is herself a shut-in that doesn’t leave the house — so that he needs to go through life without thinking, leaving all his worries and objectives for someone else to decide. Thus, he is walking the “safe path” mentioned before.

The anime is clearly self-conscious about all of this, since not only do the personalities of these three characters relate in such a direct way, but also because we see Nagara saying he relates to it, while Mizuho starts the episode more playful and smuggy like we know her to be, but then gets quieter with every interlude to Yamabiko’s story. I have praised the anime for respecting its characters until now, but it is an even greater thing that it is willing to bring attention to how dangerous their paths can be. I agree with the message of following your own path and being yourself, but I am also not naive enough to pretend that all is well when it isn’t and, even taking in the fact that we all want to live our successful lives doing what we love, the world is not fair or simple enough to simply allow that to happen without any sort of friction. There are aspects of us that have to be fought against just like there are aspects of the world around us that we should fight against.

Since I mentioned music and tone, I want to take a short while to talk about the production of Sonny Boy. The reason why this anime feels like so much of a breath of fresh air is because it is almost 100% pure 2D animation, with as little post-processing and CGI as is possible. I’m not saying there isn’t great animation out there, but it honestly boggles my mind when I see so many people sharing sakuga moments from anime like Fate or Demon Slayer where half the screen is drowning beneath post-processing, artificial light from above to make every frame feel epic and world-defining and tons of CGI even if it is great CGI. I don’t want to sound like an elitist, I can enjoy those things for what they are, I’m not saying that CGI and post-processing have no place in the industry nor am I saying that the shows mentioned here are poorly produced, but every now and then I want to watch something different instead of having the feeling that every anime that ever comes out is trying to do the same thing to various different levels of success. I am eternally grateful to the team behind Sonny Boy for deciding to go with this style of production because it fits the tone of the series so much better then if it was trying to be flashy in its presentation.

Something else that I really like about the production is how the music is kept quiet. There are exceptions — especially in the last few episodes — for example in the more montage-like scenes, but generally the tracks are kept distant, while the character’s voices are kept closer, rarely having distractful lyrics, leaving the presentation and dialogue to pull most of the weight. What this also does is it keeps it from ever getting repetitive. Sometimes anime — especially more action-centered anime — will play the same tracks over and over again to the point where they run the risk of not being iconic and memorable, but also redundant and annoying. I’m not going to pretend I’m an expert in the matter, but Shouji Hata, the sound director for Sonny Boy, worked on a ton of really popular stuff, some that I even distinctly remember liking the soundtrack — such as Vinland Saga and Log Horizon —, so, if I can interpret the production this way, I also believe that a professional who has probably been working in the industry for longer than I have lived can do all of this intentionally.

Now proceeding to episode nine, this is one I’m not so hot on either. The highlights are everything related to the cats, of course. I did not expect them to start turning into actual characters — even if very simple ones — and it adds an extra layer of charm and comedy to their interactions.

I definitely enjoyed it more the second time through, knowing where the series ends and paying more attention to Asakaze’s and Nozomi’s interactions, but the overall plot and complexity of the themes just doesn’t hold up in my mind.

Aki-not-sensei wants the power of the twins, but only one of them. Since they are both the same person, this means that she only needs a part of the person being manipulated, everything else can just be thrown away and does not add up to your value — this is interesting to think about if you remember that Aki keeps pretending like she is saving the world and reducing the values of individuals she doesn’t need and overestimating others to do her deeds.

The twins are fighting over the fact that one of them has a single strand of hair more than the other. Clearly the point of this is that people overestimate the worth of some things only to pretend like they are better than others — and if these are the same people, then it can be seen as him not being able to deal with the fact he is not perfect by externalizing it into an enemy. Their power to reverse everything makes them forget the whole fight and they end up fighting eternally because you can’t simply go back, your experiences change you and nothing is accomplished by trying to go back to square one as if nothing had happened, he has to accept his own flaws and not try to reset everything to zero, but do things differently with the knowledge and experiences he gained on the way. Aki of course gets to him before he can realize any of this and the result is that by killing a part of himself, he kills the whole.

Maybe I would enjoy this episode more if it had been done with a character we already knew. Sonny Boy focuses its characterization in the four main faces of the show while leaving other characters very superficial and using them almost exclusively to explore themes. While I don’t think you can criticize the fact that the secondary characters aren’t that fleshed out since this anime is trying to do twenty times more things than most anime are, I still felt like bringing a wholly new character for this episode ultimately hurt the effectiveness of the message more than it did any other episode.

There are two characters in this show who try to mimic God: Asakaze and Hoshi. In episode 10, we see Asakaze being tricked yet again by Aki, who takes him to see the principal — God — who asks him to kill War, the character we met in Yamabiko’s flashback. Kossetsu — who we find out has the ability to read other people’s thoughts — convinces Nozomi to come along. Kossetsu loves Asakaze, but he loves Nozomi, so she wants Nozomi to help change him to a state where he might end up at her feet. Obviously, only tragedy could come from this.

Asakaze was so obsessed with the concept of a great mission reserved to him that he allowed himself to be manipulated by Aki and ended up losing sight of everything that doesn’t relate to pursuing Nozomi. He confessed to her, but got rejected because she couldn’t respect him. Asakaze then says that he was probably obsessed over her because he felt like he could never be as strong as her. At this point he realizes he should let her go, and, after conquering the world “War”, he actually manages to create death when Nozomi falls off the cliff and into the nothingness at the bottom of war, not managing to save her because as it turns out, his power is spontaneously activated. He did not want Nozomi anymore, therefore he couldn't use his powers on her. Asakaze’s power was born out of his need to keep everything and everyone at his reach. God definitely knew this and tricked him along with Aki.

The War we saw in Yamabiko’s past was still walking around, but the one we meet here is completely empty, falling to the bottom of a deep gorge yet never actually reaching it even though there is one; stagnant. Only Asakaze can bring him to the ground and his reward for that is a weapon.

War is a manifestation, a world himself, and conquering him grants you with the power to kill. There is a chance he was even tricked by God as well, since he was killing people before Asakaze, but God of course never bothered with telling him that death is a phenomenon that can happen there under specific circumstances. Since we find out that the drift was caused by the combination of Nagara, the cats and Mizuho all using their power unwillingly; Nagara creating worlds, the cats copying the kids and Mizuho putting them all in stasis because she doesn’t want to see anyone die, then conquering the world “War” gave them a power that could go against Mizuho’s power.

I like the way the world “War” is presented, as a hard to climb mountainous area that is then abruptly interrupted at the top by “a gorge that goes down forever, but the bottom is crimson.” The fall is the only thing you can expect after warring and whatever lies at the bottom of it is not going to be good. It stretches forever and is a wound delivered in the world itself. It might take time, but it will take its toll.

There might be more to be said about the imagery of War in this episode, but honestly this is all I’ve got.

Episodes eleven and twelve are a two parter to end this amazing ride. As you can expect to happen after Nozomi’s tragic end, the next episode is dedicated to mourning her loss and dealing with themes of grief and death. It is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. I had a slightly hard time breathing through the entire montage opening of Mizuho and Nagara honoring their friend and seeing how far their friendship has come. It hurt seeing both of them cry, it hurt seeing two people seeing their friends crying at their side at different moments of the episode without knowing what to do about it. And, above all, it hurt seeing Mizuho say goodbye to her cats.

Years of trauma and emotional suppression rendered me completely incapable of crying out of emotion, so every story that gets me even close to it surprises me. Last time I “cried” was recently and there was but a single tear, I can’t even remember how many years it was since the last time that I actually cried my heart out, with sobbing and sniffing and stuff. Fiction is what helps me deal with this, and I’m goddamn grateful to Sonny Boy for being on the list of stories that got me close to crying.

As my favorite author — Steven Erikson — once said, “Grief is not something you overcome, but something you get used to carrying the weight of.” I might be paraphrasing that, but you get the idea. We might not see Mizuho and Nagara for long enough after Nozomi’s death to see the full repercussions of this, but we know they are going to carry the weight of everything they lived in these two years adrift for the rest of their lives.

After ten episodes commenting about how things are hard to change, we finally begin seeing some clearer changes in these last few episodes. It began with Nozomi’s death, but we also see how Yamabiko has now completely turned into a dog and doesn’t speak anymore. We see how Rajdhani’s gaze has changed and he reflects on the fact he is growing more apathetic with time. He tells us the story of a man who could not accept reality and would create images of his home and his girlfriend that were not accurate at all, trapping himself in the made-up ideal world of his mind, which relates to the relationship between Asakaze and Nozomi.

Rajdhani also tells us the story of a student obsessed with the idea of creating “death”. Perhaps this can also be interpreted as a character trying to mimic God, since he is trying to create something that was previously impossible . First time through I was sure this was Hoshi, but it is very clearly War, my bad on that. We get the information that he conducted experiments in death and suicide and can assume that he got his badges from that. He created death by rendering his identity completely void, having no desires, no reactions, no emotions and no opinions. He created death by going against everything that defines a person, becoming a mere shape.

As Rajdhani puts it, “Life is an endless exercise in vain effort. But it’s precisely because it’s meaningless that I think the brilliance of this moment in life is so precious. Because that one moment belongs to that person alone.” Ultimately, the message of Sonny Boy is wholly positive. It is realistic enough to recognize the worst parts of life and it does not pretend everything will go right simply because we want it to, but it also finds it important to remind us that, once again, everything we have lived up until that moment is what has shaped us and thus has value. We don’t have to change the world, we just have to find a place to belong in it. Nozomi’s will still lives on, her compass still points to the light, unwavering in its determination, and her mark in the world and in her friends will long outlive herself.

And in episode twelve, we get the confirmation that Nozomi had always been right. The light had been there all along, she was the only one who could see it because she was the only one who's outlook on life matched what the story is trying to convey. It takes an astronomical effort to even get there because that is how much time they lost and enduring how much the world is going to strike you down is no easy thing. They only manage to do so with the combined efforts of Nagara, Mizuho, her cats, Rajdhani and Asakaze — handing them another compass, presumably the original one. But, even after getting to the light, there is this one beautiful scene where they are only able to capture the light by the efforts of Mizuho’s and Nagara’s hands. I always found it interesting that “light” was used for the analogy of the path in life. I mean, try to grasp a light like how Nozomi was doing. She could only reach it, but could never quite hold it, at least not alone. It is light, after all, and it will slip right between your fingers.

The last episode gave me a twist in the stomach when it felt like Nagara and Mizuho weren’t going to talk, but thankfully it was just them having a hard time talking about it. We get to see glimpses of what their life is going to be from now on: Nagara getting a shitty job — yo that’s relatable, kind of —, Mizuho’s grandmother having passed away, Nozomi and Asakaze ending up in a relationship in a world in which they can respect each other. Well, now that I think about it, I don’t think anything that they do in this last episode proves that they are dating, but they are clearly in better terms than their copies that went adrift. If the copies are still adrift and those are the parts of them as people that conflicted with each other, then this original version is the one where things went better for them.

In the past, Nagara ignored the dying bird. Now he cares about the birds that have lost their mother — you could say they are stranded just like the kids were —, but Nozomi had already thought about that and took the only surviving one with her, deciding to taking care of it until it is able to fly by itself, instead of trapping the bird and not allowing it go where it needs to go in life. This interaction shows us that Nozomi is still one step ahead, still striding forward in life and doing what she believes is right. She might not be exactly the same Nozomi we know, but her essence is still the same. Yet again, I wish I could be a little bit more like her.

I am also pleased to see Nagara and Mizuho not turning into a couple. This would have come off as weird and even thematically inconsistent I would say. Since Nagara and Nozomi never ended as a couple, then him ending up with Mizuho would send the message that she was the second option, or maybe that he was looking for the wrong person in Nozomi. The point is, either of these options would have diminished the characters. If they ended up as a couple, then a short arc where they learn to respect each other and brings attention to the morality of Nagara being suddenly romantically attracted to her after finding out Nozomi is with Asakaze would have been completely necessary not to break their dynamic. Either way, I’m much more satisfied with their current friendship than I would have been if any of these characters ended up feeling like a trophy.

I don’t think there’s much more to be said, at least not now. Sonny Boy is about and trying to say a lot of stuff, much more than most anime I watch are, and it accomplishes that in a shorter runtime than most do as well. I barely mind the fact that secondary characters are abandoned or that not every episode is tone-perfect. I didn’t expect it to be and neither does it have to. While I can obviously appreciate several different kinds of stories, my tastes are always changing and I am slowly becoming aware of some elements shared between most if not all of the stories that are connecting with me on a personal level in the past few years. While I would not dare to reduce this anime to a single theme after having said all of this, I just wanted to share one more idea: this story is about the loss of innocence, but it does not end there with a negative outlook on life, it takes the extra step of being about hope for the future and acceptance of our past; acceptance, not surrender.

I’m pretty sure I have told someone that I wish I had watched this anime when I was eighteen or something, thinking that it would have been fundamental in forming my outlook on life — pretty sure it would have lead me to take on the nickname of Sonny Girl as well once I accepted my dysphoria, wait… I actually like how that sounds… — but I take that back. Stupid-ass eighteen years-old me would not have been able to appreciate it the way my current jaded one can. And that is fine, at least that is what Nozomi would try to teach me.

I ended up having a lot more to say than expected while also feeling like there was a lot more to be explored.

Of course, I can't score this anything else besides a 10/10.

Oh, and sorry for the heavy usage of em-dashes — I love these things.

[kimberlychapman]

Image descriptions:

Parody of a cereal box to be Captain Picard's "Oops All Politics" flavour.

A series of screencaps from various Trek shows over the years. Text that says, "Gender, Labour, Racism, Choice, Nationalism, Xenophobia, Star Trek has always been about social justice. How do you miss that?"

Text that says: "Clueless Trekkies: New Star Trek is too woke and PC. Politics don't belong in Star Trek. The entire fandom and franchise:" Followed by a picture of the TOS enterprise with an angry Thomas the Tank Engine face pasted on the deflector dish. Further text, "the enterprise had never heard such bullshit"

Screencap of Tilly and Vance toasting each other with text that says, "Here's to Star Trek pissing off bigots since 1966."

Screencap from TOS of a man in fur worshipping the American flag. Text that says, "I liked Star Trek better when they didn't discuss politics."

Screencap of Kirk and Uhura kissing. Text that says, "I like Star Trek better when they didn't force diversity down our throats."

Screencap of Kirk and Spock in Nazi uniforms. Text that says, "I liked Star Trek better when the message was subtle."

Screencap of the dual black and white aliens from TOS. The first has a speech balloon saying, "Why does Star Trek have to be so woke today?" and the second saying, "The Original Series never presented issues in such black and white terms.

Screencap of confused Stamets from Discovery. Text that says, "(Stares in Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism)"

Screencap of a social media text by philly_dragonfly that shows a shot glass with oil and water not mixing. Text on top says, "Some things just don't mix," and the parts in the glass are labelled "Trump Supporters" and "Star Trek".

Screencap of the classic Picard facepalm with text that says, "When your decades old social commentary is still relevant because nobody fixed anything"

Image descriptions:

Screencap of Picard asking, "What the hell are you doing here" with text that says, "When I meet a hardcore conservative who lives Star Trek, but embraces none of its values," and a further addition of "or person not masking in public".

Four part diagram of the "Densest objects in the universe" illustrating the stretch of a grid with density increasing progressively from The Sun, Galaxy, Black Hole, to "Star Trek 'fans' who think Trek only became progressive in 2017"

Screencap of social media post by wakandaguy68 who says, "Seriously dude? (Yeah, he really said this.)" over a picture of William Shatner complaining, "When did Star Trek get all political?!" and a picture below of a Black man pointing to a chalk board that includes a further picture of Kirk and the black and white aliens, with the man saying, "You were there!"

I never understood what alternate apolitical Star Trek these people have been watching. 

[itsclydebitches]

Do you like modern Star Trek? I'll be honest, I hate it. I know a lot of people do as well. I like cool plot heavy epic science fiction show and films. Stuff like The Expanse. But Star Trek was such a different kind of sci fi from a era of TV long gone. Modern Star Trek should be done in the same vein as old Trek, but with better special effects. It's just bland sci fi now.

I feel very, VERY strongly that Star Trek needs to be episodic with a few season/series arcs to hold it all together (the borg, the changelings, we're trying to get back to the Delta Quadrant, etc.) It's Star Trek's episodic nature that allows for a) lots of different Sci-Fi ideas — look, new planet! New species! New tech! New problem! — b) a lot of different social commentary attached to those ideas, and c) the ability to try some truly insane, balls to the wall, unflinchingly creative ideas because — this is really important — you're only committing to it for 45 minutes. First Officer's brain is stolen? Ship's doctor falls in love with the alien ghost her grandmother was seeing? Helmsman turns into a lizard creature and successfully mates with the Captain? Star Trek has all that and more because no one is keeping that insanity around for more than an episode! (Maybe two if it's a series finale.) Star Trek as a franchise needs the ability to tell 20+ largely self-contained short stories under the assurance that the crew will (mostly) reset at episode's end because it's that freedom that allows it to stretch its creative wings, resulting in both, yes, truly terrible episodes... and truly great ones too. Things like The Trouble With Tribbles, Pale Moonlight, Measure of Man, and City on the Edge of Forever. With only Pale Moonlight as the exception there, the lion's share of great Star Trek episodes rely on the story's ability to reset: quietly sweep the tribbles away before the next episode, take a break from long-running plots to discuss Data's soul, get Kirk and Spock to the past and back with minimal fuss. You can't do that kind of work in long-form storytelling, not without a lot of filler episodes that, crucially, modern TV is moving away from on the whole. It's that format that makes it feel like Star Trek rather than, as you say, another #GenericSciFiShow. There's nothing wrong with Generic Sci-Fi Shows... but they're not Star Trek.

I haven't given Picard a go yet, but Discovery felt like a Generic Sci-Fi Show to me and I ultimately dropped it. Does it try to follow in old Trek's footsteps in regards to diverse casting? Yes. Does it pull from classic Trek plot points like Klingons, the Mirror Universe, and the like? Yes. Does it feel like Trek when 95% of the focus is on Burnham, the war, and the obligatory modern twists the show is setting up? Not at all. I need episodes devoted solely to the other 10+ named crew members and their equally weird lives. I need scathing political commentary boiled down to a not so subtle metaphor that leaves me feeling both gutted and hopeful. I need filler episodes where the crew has stupid shenanigans on the holodeck, or are trapped and spend their time debating the ethics of their situation, or just experience something so downright weird that it makes you go, "YEAH they're exploring SPACE. Anything could be out there!" Modern Star Trek (particularly the movies) are like, "What if we fought a singular Big Bad because they're ~evil~ with lots of explosions and fight scenes like every other blockbuster out there?" and I'm going, "NO Star Trek should have the best special effects currently available AS WELL AS the stupidest fight choreography you've ever seen in your LIFE, bracketed by philosophical discussion. Stop being a coward and actually explore strange new worlds! Emphasis on the 'strange'!"

So no, I don't really like modern Star Trek. I'm planning to give Picard a fair shot though and I have very high hopes for Strange New Worlds. As this post has made abundantly clear, I'm over here pulling a Jerry Maguire with, "You had me at 'episodic'😍"

[aion-rsa]

Streaming on Plex: Best Horror Movies and TV Shows You Can Watch for FREE in October

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This article is sponsored by Plex. You can download the Free Plex App now by clicking here!

When October hits, the folks at Den of Geek almost exclusively consume horror content. Any spooky story that has ghosts, ghouls, goblins, or any chill-inducing monster that doesn’t start with a G is fine with us. Whether it’s a campy B-movie or “prestige horror,” we embrace all horror subgenres and relax with old favorites and new cult classics in the making alike. Now that Spooky Season is in full force, we are grateful that Plex TV is here so we can stream all of the creepy content that our black hearts’ desire for free!

Plex is a globally available one-stop-shop streaming media service offering thousands of free movies and TV shows and hundreds of free-to-stream live TV channels, from the biggest names in entertainment, including Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, Lionsgate, Legendary, AMC, A+E, Crackle, and Reuters. Plex is the only streaming service that lets users manage their personal media alongside a continuously growing library of free third-party entertainment spanning all genres, interests, and mediums including podcasts, music, and more. With a highly customizable interface and smart recommendations based on the media you enjoy, Plex brings its users the best media experience on the planet from any device, anywhere.

Plex releases brand new and beloved titles to its platform monthly and we’ll be here to help you identify the cream of the crop. This month, we’re keeping things strictly scary, but view Plex TV now for the best free entertainment streaming, regardless of genre, and check back each month for Den of Geek Critics’ picks!

DEN OF GEEK CRITICS’ PICKS

The Ninth Gate

Though director Roman Polanski is a horrific figure himself, this 1999 neo-noir horror film, The Ninth Gate is superb. Thirty years after Rosemary’s Baby, Polanski conjured the devil once again and injected it with some of the pulp from his noir classic Chinatown in a movie that finds Johnny Depp as a man in Satanic Detective mode. Depp is a classic book authenticator hired to authenticate De Umbrarum Regis Novum Portis (The Nine Doors To the Kingdom of Shadows), a book believed by cultists capable of raising Satan to Earth. 

The Ninth Gate doesn’t provide cheap thrills; it tightens the suspense like a noose. Polanski subtly creates an uneasy atmosphere using minimal effects. The director knows where evil lives and lets the settings and sound make the invitations with subliminal references to recognizable horror and cinematic danger, using framing and music similarly to Stanley Kubrick. The Ninth Gate packages its scares with classy style that the characters deliver with sexily provocative intelligence. Dean Corso may be Johnny Depp’s greatest spiritual transformation, from odious to ultimate evil and the audience cheers on his descent, happy to ride with him straight to hell.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Perhaps the world’s first horror film and a go-to example of early German Expressionist filmmaking, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari has been unsettling audiences for over a century. 

The film’s main story centers on two young friends, Francis and Alan (Friedrich Feher and Hans Heinrich von Twardowski), who, while jockeying for the affections of Jane (Lil Dagover), visit a local traveling carnival. There they take in the act of the mysterious, top-hatted and wild-haired Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss). As they watch, Caligari awakens his somnambulist subject, Cesare (the great Conrad Veidt), who under hypnosis answers questions from the audience. When Alan jokingly asks when he will die, Cesare responds “Before dawn.” We’ll let you guess the rest.

The film isn’t remembered much for its story, but for its arresting visual style, featuring painted backdrops that make the entire production feel like a fever dream. The painted townscape is filled with curved and pointed buildings teetering at dangerous angles, almost as if they were alive and shrieking. Roads twist and spiral to nowhere. The perspectives are deliberately mismatched and inconsistent, with the props and sets sometimes being too large for the characters, and others too small. The result is a transgressive, deeply influential film that has been unsettling audiences for over 100 years.

The Exorcist III

Based on his 1983 novel Legion, writer-director William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III arrived 17 years after William Friedkin’s The Exorcist. Despite the still-looming pop culture presence of the original, The Exorcist III is sneakily the most interesting film in the series. Less a horror movie than a psychological thriller with supernatural and spiritual overtones, The Exorcist III takes place 17 years after the events of the first film, and with no reference whatsoever made to the events in the second. It finds Lt. Kinderman confronted with the apparent reappearance of two figures from his past who had supposedly died. The first is father Damien Karras (Jason Miller), who had died after bouncing down an endless flight of steps while performing an exorcism in the original movie, and the Gemini Killer, a serial killer loosely based on the Zodiac Killer that had been executed 17 years prior. However, there’s been a new string of murders around town carrying all the hallmarks of the Gemini.

While the studio famously mangled Blatty’s original cut of the film, there’s still a lot to like here, including a terrifying performance from Brad Dourif. Blatty is fantastic at creating dread-inducing atmosphere and has a keen attention to character and detail. It may not be as exciting as the original, but it’s a smart-slow burn film worthy of the Exorcist mantle.

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The Devil’s Rejects

An homage to sleazy ‘70s C-movies, Rob Zombie’s sequel to House of 1,000 Corpses will leave you in the need of a shower, but it’s delightfully demented and the musician turned filmmaker’s finest effort. The shock-fest finds the Firefly clan, Otis (Bill Moseley), Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie) and Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig) – on the run from die-hard determined sheriff Wydell (William Forsythe). What unfolds is a nasty thrill ride full of twists, turns, and more gore than most audiences are comfortable with. How Zombie still manages to make such repulsive content entertaining, how he manages to get you to almost root for the despicable Firefly clan, is inexplicable magic trick, but indebted to Zombie’s use of black humor and deep knowledge of genre conventions that he sometimes subverts, but often gleefully leans into.

Train to Busan

The overused and increasingly predictable zombie genre got a shot in the arm with Train to Busan, a South Korean film from director Yeon Sang-ho about a young father desperately attempting to get his little daughter to her mother via train as a zombie pandemic breaks out all around them. Even if it veered close to outright sentimentality at times, Train to Busan differed from most of the films and TV shows we’ve seen in this genre due to its genuine bond of love between its main characters, and the flickers of empathy and humanity found therein. 

And on a technical level, Yeon crafted his film with a kinetic energy that had been missing from the genre as of late. Train to Busan was not just a monster hit in its native land but amassed an international following as well, along with critical acclaim across the board. It’s easy to see why given the film’s well-drawn characters, subtle social commentary (some on the train feel they are more worthy of survival than others) and frightening action sequences that add up to a thrilling and emotionally powerful ride.

More Horror Films Available to Stream FREE on Plex TV

The Descent  

Train To Busan  

The Ninth Gate  

Rec  

Coherence  

Night Of The Living Dead  

The Host 

Hannibal Rising  

The Devil’s Rejects  

Nosferatu  

Monsters  

I Spit On Your Grave  

Eden Lake  

Wolf Creek  

Day Of The Dead  

The Collector  

The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari  

Red Lights  

The Wailing  

Grave Encounters  

Colonia  

Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse  

Diary Of The Dead  

Black Death  

Alone In The Dark  

The Descent: Part 2  

Maggie  

Teeth  

Ginger Snaps  

After.Life  

John Dies At The End  

Black Christmas  

The Last House On The Left  

Nosferatu the Vampire  

Splinter  

The Void  

Deep Red  

P2  

Phantasm  

The Changeling 

Feast  

Hatchet 

The Prophecy  

Pulse  

Fido  

Open Grave  

Cell  

The Blob  

The Exorcist III  

Vanishing On 7th Street 

House On Haunted Hill  

Penomena  

Eye See You  

Cooties  

The Werewolf 

Pumpkinhead 4: Blood Feud 

Messengers 2: The Scarecrow

Sugar and Fright Collection

Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies 

All Cheerleaders Die  

Another Evil  

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes  

Bad Milo 

Better Watch Out  

Bitter Feast  

Cooties  

Corporate Animals  

Crimewave  

Dead Snot 2: Red vs. Dead  

Deathgasm  

Deep Murder 

Drive Thru 

Excision  

Fear, Inc.  

Feast 

Fido  

Ghost Killers vs. Bloody Mary 

Hansel & Gretel Get Baked  

Hatchet  

Hell Baby 

Hellboy Animated: Blood & Iron 

Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms  

Hobo with a Shotgun  

John Dies at the End 

The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu 

Lesbian Vampire Killers  

The Love Witch  

Night of Something Strange  

Nina Forever  

Office Uprising  

Shrooms  

Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror 

Stan Helsing  

Stitches  

Suburban Gothic  

Survival of the Dead  

Teeth  

Turbo Kid  

WolfCop 

Yoga Hosers 

The post Streaming on Plex: Best Horror Movies and TV Shows You Can Watch for FREE in October appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[why-this-kolaveri-machi]

Hey, i binged the first 14 episodes of Supernatural just last week and enjoyed it so far. But have struggled to hype myself up to finish the series. I found out the last episodes are coming out in October and think it would be cool to catch up by then so i can watch the last ones as soon as they come out. Could you give a (as spoiler free as possible?) list of what about the show make it great to you overall? Things to look forward to, cool plot development, favorite characters, whichever...

hi, anon! 

i don’t know, anon, when i first heard i have these nightmares--and sometimes they come true in early s1 and as long as I’m there nothing bad’s gonna happen to you at the end of 1.14  back in the day, i was pretty hyped af to find out what happened next. but to be fair, 2006 was a different era altogether and some vaguely defined potential Special Ability that doesn’t even work unless Certain People are involved isn’t too exciting when every show these days with two pennies to scrape together for a VFX budget has its characters move things with their mind while shooting blue lightning out their ass.

sorry, i digress. i don’t really know how to sell this unwieldy chimera of a show to you--or if i even should--but let me give it the old college try:

1. for such a long-running show, spn has a tiny list of dramatis personae. on one hand, this means that it can feel intimate and its emotional beats deeply resonant, with long and complicated character arcs and interpersonal dynamics; but on the other hand, if you don’t find them interesting or they’re just, you know, actively annoying, you’re fucked, because there are only ever three or four main characters at any point on the show and two of them never. change. 

1.5. spn has also demonstrated--inadvertently perhaps--that having fewer characters to divide fannish devotion means more stans per character and more friction between these large groups of character stans. somewhere along the way the terms samgirl and deangirl have come to symbolise more than just a mere preference for one character over the other; it’s become a fandom shorthand for personality much in the way of astrological signs or MBTI types: utterly meaningless, but people insist on defining their identity that way anyway. 

(i say this not just as a card-carrying samgirl, but a bitter samgirl).

2. it’s also quite claustrophobic at times. sam and dean are ostensibly driving all around small-town america, but what we usually see is One Possibly Canadian Town indistinguishable from the other. as i mentioned before, the characters are few and spn rarely attempts to relate to current events or make any kind of subtle/meaningful social or political commentary (tho others may disagree with me on this). but this also means that the stories that it deals with have a timeless quality to them: family and trauma and existential angst and the Power of Love and the ways all of them can fuck you up. spn is at its absolute best when it’s dealing with stories on a deeply personal level, sometimes literally burrowing into their characters’ heads and having the entire universe mirror the dynamics of its central relationship. 

2.5. this can be a liiiitle hard to reconcile with how the show keeps raising its stakes with every season, but again, when spn is really on its game, it keeps finding new and creative ways to explore the personal with the universal, and when it’s not, you have supposedly cosmic entities reduced to the most boring metaphor imaginable for modern-day capitalist culture.

3. there’s something that spn does that i love which is turn really absurd premises into a thin veneer over a dark abyss of existential trauma which is something it doesn’t do nearly enough in the latter seasons, which is a great pity.

4. a quick rundown of the seasons:

1 - looks pretty and ends very strongly but also suffers from a case of early 00s uninspired-genre-television-itis

2 - Now This Is Where Things Get Interesting; sets up themes that are explored repeatedly for the next 13 years; please look out for ava wilson, an actual Queen

3 - a reminder that this show has been around long enough to actually have a season that was truncated by the 08 writers’ strike; plus, it contains my favourite episode of the whole show and possibly my favourite episode of television ever

4 - A MAGNIFICENT SEASON that gets better with every rewatch. the closest to flawless this show has ever gotten

5 - contains a number of the show’s best and most iconic episodes, but also sets up a lot of the show’s more... problematic motifs

6 - a HUGELY underrated season depicting some of the most delightfully creative explorations of the aftermath of deep and unusual trauma that i’ve seen, dark and thorny and uncomfortable but so goddamned sharp

7 - kind of gave up on itself halfway through; the last time this show ever took any risks/bold choices with respect to its world-building

8 - you know how these days even the most hotshot, rebellious, high-spirited, come-out-of-nowhere-with-nothing-but-heart-and-ill-advised-amounts-of-courage hero is revealed to have actually descended from some important Hero Bloodline and whoops did you think even fiction was going to indulge in the fantasy that just anybody could change the world? yeah.

9 - should’ve been this show’s turning point, except it turned a whole 360 degrees. still has some really iconic episodes, tho.

10 - eh. skippable after the first few episodes.

11 - the point where i stopped watching regularly. still horrifying but more bleak and despairing than jump-scare-and-gore

12 - this season is a black hole for me. for the life of me i can’t remember what happened in s12 - did it exist? or did spn just skip that number like some hotels skip a floor number entirely? huh.

13 + 14 - Listen It’s A Very Competitive Market And The Only Strong Thing Going For Us Is Our Large And Devoted Fandom So Let’s Obliterate The Fourth Wall Altogether And Go Full Meta, Who Gives A Shit? it’s spn back to being absurd to cover up a pit of howling, abyssal horror, and frankly it’s delightful.

5. the fandom, man. i’ve been spoiled rotten. there is nothing that can’t be found in spn fandom, no matter how brilliant or terrible or eye-searingly horrifying, and this is something i’ve chased in other fandoms with no success. 

In conclusion:  watch it if you like, it can be a cool show. But That’s Just My Opinion, Bro.

[crystaltoa]

The City We Became, by N. K. Jemesin.

A city is threatened by a creeping, insidious thing with too many tentacles. The city’s soul lies beneath it, trapped in an eternal sleep. A group of ordinary people, one from each of the city’s districts, are chosen to fight back against the evil entity that threatens their home. Gradually, they begin to master their mysterious new powers and uncover the truth about their mission. But saving the life of the city may involve a terrible sacrifice…

So, some of those plot elements may sound familiar to Bionicle fans. But instead of Metru Nui, this story takes place in modern day New York. In this world, major cities develop a life of their own and walk around as human avatars. But the newly-formed avatar of New York is in danger, so he chooses five ordinary humans to become living avatars of their respective boroughs, equipped with some very fun, bizarre and somewhat goofy superpowers that represent the traits of each borough.

A majority of the main characters are queer and POC, and their stories deal with issues such as racism, poverty, and trauma in a realistic and nuanced way. The villain is much less subtle, blatantly using the pre-existing prejudices and bigotry of others to manipulate them against the heroes. The creeping eldritch tendrils that mind-control some of New York’s citizens represent the effect of propaganda on an uncritical, prejudiced audience. It explores how a divided and distrustful society has allowed this evil to take root and grow there. The book expresses a great deal of love for the city, while never shying away from its flaws.

There are explicit references to the works of HP Lovecraft, who was of course known for all things tentacly and bigoted, and the reimagining of his eldritch horrors as something that benefits directly from the racism and fear of people like old HP is kind of a fascinating one.

This is actually the book that got me thinking about the Metru Nui arc as a “serious” work of cyberpunk fiction (although this book is technically more urban fantasy), and wondering how much real-world subtext could or should be read into the plot and worldbuilding of that arc (seriously, there’s a lot that could be over-analysed into ‘did they really mean to write THAT?’ territory. Things that may not have been put there intentionally, but are there nonetheless).

Perhaps it’s not really fair to compare the very targeted and intentional social commentary in Jemisin’s novel with some cyberpunk pastiche tropes in a merchandise-driven children’s book series that COULD be read as representing real-world issues if you turn your head sideways and squint. But nevertheless, it got me thinking in a different way about how to interpret stories I already knew and loved. If the subject matter isn’t too heavy for you, I’d highly recommend giving it a read.

Book Recs for Bionicle fans?

Anyone got any good book recommendations that fans of Bionicle, specifically those here on Tumblr, might enjoy?

Include, if you can, a brief summary and maybe some reasons why you think others in the fandom would like it in your reblog. I’m thinking mostly of novels and graphic novels, but if you have a non-fiction book or something else that we’d like, feel free to include it.

[vantablade]

I don’t know who this will be helpful for, but in the interest of amplifying some black voices re: the content I consume, and anybody who might be interested in that sort of thing. Specifically I’m very interested in astrology, spirituality, tarot, as well as commentary, and I did some research into some black commentary YouTube channels if that’s your thing. Also I’m a sucker for Twitter so there’s some of my favourite Twitter personalities to spice up your feed not only with some educational content but also just... good content. 

There’s also a dash of other subjects like writers (three Tumblr writeblrs/writers, a Black-owned publishing house to keep an eye on with some new independent releases, and my current favourite author whose trilogy made me fall in love with fantasy all over again). 

Obviously it is severely reflective of my character that I did have to research certain creators because of my lack of exposure, and that does come from a white perspective in that I’ve never felt the pressure to engage with Black content the way I should haveーbut the only way to move forward from that is to actively seek them out, make adaptions, and introduce new content creators into my life. And hopefully, to my white mutuals (since I’m in no place to preach to anyone else), introduce some stuff to you guys too.

Because Black lives do not only matter when we’re mourning the lives lost, but Black lives matter when they are actively creating content we can support, across all platforms and genres. Whether it’s Black film, Black writing, Black art, Black YouTubers, etceteraー and while we should absolutely introduce more critical reading into our lives in order to develop a much more intelligent, nuanced perspective on the subject of race, we shouldn’t only view Black people as politics suppliers, but people who create content all across the board, especially when we consider that Black culture and Black creators are often the biggest influence on social media and modern culture. This is just a small, very niche list of what I have foundー and I would love recommendations! Your favourite designers, your favourite artists to follow, your favourite gaming channels (especially those who focus on thorough lets plays!), your favourite Black creator in any sort of environment. Under a read more just because this post is already long. 

Black Spiritualists/Astrologers/Tarot Readers who I really love:

Shonnetta’s Divine Tarot ~ A YouTube channel which does really long, in depth tarot readings for the signs and pick a cards if that’s your thing, she’s super bubbly and energetic and has great energy

 Itsbabyj1 ~ She does really fun but also well-researched videos, she’s super playful and knowledgeable about the subject. She has some really fun, laid back videos like how to tell if your crush likes you based on your sign, which if anything is just fun to indulge

Similarly, astrokit does really fun but also educational videos! Some based on crushes, or pet peeves, etc, but likeー she can even help you figure out your own chart bit by bit like her latest video on Moon in the houses. She’s sooo cute and has such an airy energy, I’ve spent many an hour relistening to her crush or pet peeve etc videos in the background because she has a really nice voice

If you want to learn some more advanced techniques, this interview with Darren King is really educational! He hasn’t made a lot of content yet but he’s a great speaker and his vid is so good, and you can even book a reading with him through the website

Sunshine Tarot ~ all of her readings are super accurate imo, she has such a homely vibe, she’s so charismatic that her videos feel like she’s really there with you. 

Gaialect ~ does occasional Tarot readings for the signs, she’s super kind and direct, originally quite a presence on Twitter and I feel like she really has a great camera presence and a good friendliness.

AstroDeeStars ~ again, just super good charisma & really informative videos. Not super active but you can watch her old content and be informed on the subjects!

ijaadee ~ A very advanced yet really personable astrologer who specialises in offering horary charts, and works with really detailed methodsーshe’s really interesting if you’re into that sort of thing!

Jalen Astrology ~ a black, nonbinary (and potentially gay) astrologer whose personality is stunning, and they’ve done some great threads iirc!

RetroJ ~ similar to ijaadee in subject matter and advanced subjects, but he does have some great introductory threads that you can look through. Also does a wide array of consultations if you vibe with that!

BlackWomenCry ~ A sex astrologer! They do really fun yet in depth analyses of signs and qualities, especially regarding sex and unpacking trauma. Worth a follow for sure

Misc (ASMR, Book Youtube, Publishing Houses/Writeblrs, Influencers):

LatreceASMR ~ A black woman ASMRtist for if you’re trying to relax, her stuff is super chill & she has a really comforting voice! I really like her earlier low fi stuff

Sung Mook ~ another ASMRtist! I love her character work and her roleplays so much, she has the gentlest voice you will ever here. Big sleepy I really recommend

Mina Reads ~ A booktuber! I’m still getting into the booktube scene so I’d also love recs if you’re into it as well, they’re really funny! (I believe their pronouns might be she/her but I can’t remember completely so I’d rather stay on the safe side). Also, they often review or read books focused on and/or written by Black people, which can be a great introduction to fiction by Black authors!

Yah Yah Scholfield ~ Horror writing, fantastic short stories, also publishing a lesbian horror novel this year 

Sandra T. ~ Yah Yah’s publisher/editor and a writer herself, that’s her main blog but she also posts her work here and she runs her own publishing company which currently has a poetry book, a compilation of short surrealist short stories, and Yah Yah’s novel): Oni House Press

Lydia ~ Another black writer! She posts excerpts of her writing work and I’m a huge fan of her stuff. Her writing is so... emotive, rich and inspiring.

My favourite book trilogy that I reference often is N. K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy which is an incredible fantasy series, and I really recommend it as an introduction to fantasy, right now I’m also starting her other series. TBE is notable not only for its incredible world-building and character work (I cried... several times lol) but also for its subtle, natural integration of LGBT peopleーand I mean LGBT people, not just a token gay character but also trans characters, with even minor reference to nonbinary people. She has some other series that I can’t advocate for yet, because I haven’t read them, but of course when one series is so good, of course I have faith in her other work. 

Warsan Shire’s poetry is also groundbreakingー you’ve probably already seen it everywhere, whether in snippets or in huge excerpts, and she even contributed the poetry to Beyonce’s Lemonade. I read Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth which is a super short but very rich poetry book, which is also a great entry into it. 

Rashida Renee ~ you’ve probably used one of her scans in a moodboard, or seen someone use it. A Black trans woman with a huge knowledge on fashion and fashion culture, and highly influentialー I love having her on the TL. Also was a huge Tumblr presence, I’m not sure if that’s still a thing, but I believe she was scorpioenergies and she was fuckrashida.

Silver Summer ~ also known on Tumblr as trapcard I believe (also used to be blastortoise, a huge “comedy” Tumblr acc), another Black trans woman who is just ... naturally funny, very quick-witted and livens up the TL. Also a fan of KPOP if you’re into that thing.

jaboukie ~ you’ve definitely seen his tweets screenshotted. Funny as hell but not afraid to use his account to amplify things, lost his blue tick (rip) for the cause of mocking fools. 

D4Darious ~ a film YouTuber! but not just film, the act of making film, for any aspiring filmmakers out there.

The commentary channels I found through research but have not fully immersed myself in their content yetー Kat Blaque, For Harriet, Angie Speaks, T1J, D’Angelo Wallace, Joulzey. This is obviously not a comprehensive list whatsoever so I’m always taking more recommendations <3

[biofunmy]

The best TV of the decade? It’s a lot to sort out.

Impossible, really — and, at first pass, my picks for best shows of the 2010s wouldn’t look much different from most other critics’ lists: “Breaking Bad,” “The Americans,” “Game of Thrones,” “Twin Peaks: The Return,” “Veep,” “The Good Wife,” “Transparent,” “Atlanta,” “Fargo,” “The Crown” — that’s 10, right? Hit “send” and let’s get on with life.

But perhaps there’s another way to approach this stretch of much-too-much TV, and instead categorize the shared qualities that separated the decade’s very best shows from the heap of mediocre ones. That way, we can talk about this extraordinary period of scripted dramas and comedies without starting one last argument about where they rank.

I know readers only have time anymore to read lists, but bear with me. Here are the best kinds of shows we watched over the last 10 years. Many of them belong to more than one category — a sign of their greatness.

Anxiety-makers

These would be your nail-biters, seen mainly on prestige cable, often on Sunday nights.

Why we gorge on these cliffhanging, often upsetting dramas on the night we most need to rest up for the week ahead, I’ll never know, but we went to bed desperate over characters and story lines we couldn’t control: In AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” probably the decade’s finest work of story engineering and execution (and yes, I’m aware it premiered in 2008), when will Hank Schrader (or Skyler White) finally catch on that Walter White is the meth kingpin of New Mexico? Some of those close calls (the train episode!) and slow-building conflicts were almost too hard to take.

The decade’s other great adrenaline-producer, FX’s “The Americans,” aired on Wednesday nights, where the panic attacks seemed more manageable. How long would it take FBI agent Stan Beeman to figure out that his friendly neighbors, Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, were deeply embedded KGB spies? How much does Paige know? Will they outlast the Cold War? Showtime’s “Homeland,” meanwhile, neatly bundled our post-9/11 anxieties with the mental problems of a CIA agent who thought she could save the world.

These are but three shows that gave America’s TV addicts a strong case of the jitters. Others tried and sometimes came close. I started out the decade worrying way too much about Rick and the other doomed survivors of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” (until I gave up on them entirely a few years ago), but the show’s success is notable for its stress-inducement, which was so strong that the network started an aftershow, “Talking Dead,” to help audiences cope with the latest gory developments.

Immersive portraits

These were some of my favorite shows, broadly defined by the word “dramedy” (because they were sometimes intensely funny), but better described as character studies, portraiture — of characters I’ll never forget: Amy Jellicoe in HBO’s “Enlightened,” followed by Hannah Horvath in “Girls.”

Many shows in this category can in some ways be regarded as selfies. Louis C.K., who quickly became persona-non-grata, nevertheless triumphed with “Louie,” which made it possible for similar shows to act as a mirror that not only reveals a personal nature, but a universal quality that potentially can be shared by the audience. I’m thinking here of Donald Glover’s “Atlanta” (FX), Aziz Ansari’s “Master of None” (Netflix), Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s “Fleabag” (along with “Catastrophe”) and Pamela Adlon’s “Better Things” (FX).

This genre also, at long last, helped television achieve the diversity it had for too long failed to produce. Issa Rae’s “Insecure” (HBO) is a triumph in the way it both inhabits its creator’s viewpoint as millennial black woman, yet welcomes viewers of any sort.

To that list add Hulu’s “Ramy” and “Pen15,” HBO’s “Looking” and Comedy Central’s “Broad City” — any show where a viewer potentially discovers someone unlike themselves: different age, different background, different race. Or, more importantly, a viewer at long last sees themselves in the main character.

Washington certainly saw its uglier self in Armando Iannucci’s gloriously foul-mouthed “Veep” (HBO), the true definition of comic relief and on-point satire at a time when politics grew unfathomably absurd.

Metaphorical profundity

The best dramas in the 2010s reflected a larger message about the society that watched them — sometimes obliquely, sometimes bluntly. Despite its notably weakened final season, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” has proper claim, I think, to be deemed the show of the decade, but not just because it grew so popular. It’s because how much of it seemed to eerily echo our surroundings: Climate change (and denial of it); shocking acts of violence; widespread social collapse; galling politics; extreme disparities in class and wealth; weapons of mass destruction . . . I could go on.

Timing is everything. Hulu took a 1985 dystopian novel — Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” — revved it up and released it just as the Trump administration began detaining, locking up and banning immigrants, appointed conservative judges and looked the other way at nationalist fervor. The metaphor there was almost too applicable; fortunately, the show was strong enough to withstand the hype.

Viewers learned how to find meaning in just about any show — the betters ones made it more compelling: AMC’s “Mad Men” was a beguiling search for the soul of the 20th century; CBS’s “The Good Wife” was a wicked running commentary on politics, technology and modern relationships; NBC’s “This Is Us” was (and still is) a fascinating rumination on the essence of what makes a family. (Note to all you Ancestry genealogy nuts: It’s not just DNA.)

Happy-snarky-sweet

Certain comedies just make us feel better (and also sharper, wittier — empowered, even) no matter how many times we re-watch old episodes. It’s in the camaraderie aspect, the life lessons, the archetypal arrangements, the snarkiness glossed over by group cohesion. It’s a continuation of what began in the best multicamera, studio-audience, ersatz-family sitcoms (“Cheers,” “Seinfeld”), rejiggered for a wired generation. Most of them aired on NBC: “Parks and Recreation,” “30 Rock,” “Community,” “The Office,” “The Good Place,” “Superstore” — now joined by “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” A few others aired on other networks, giving viewers a similar satisfaction: “The Big Bang Theory” on CBS; “Modern Family,”“Happy Endings,” “Cougar Town” and “Black-ish” on ABC.

Transformative tellings

In addition to finding new narrative styles and (quite belatedly) focusing on overlooked demographics, TV turned out to be an excellent venue for recasting an old story from a fresh perspective or enlightened distance.

I’m thinking here of FX’s “American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson,” a compelling departure from the way we popularly regarded that murder trial. It inspired others to dramatize previous events with a corrective, even courageous new viewpoint — such as Netflix’s “When They See Us,” about the unjustly imprisoned teens who were wrongly coerced into confessing to a 1989 Central Park attack on a female jogger.

Crime wasn’t the only subject in need of a remix. Both “Downton Abbey” (PBS) and “The Crown” (Netflix) succeeded because of the way they re-examine extreme privilege, without preventing us from enjoying the luxurious roll in it.

Some shows were revelatory in more subtle ways: Jill Soloway’s “Transparent” (Amazon Prime) masterfully wove a woman’s journey with the entirety of modern American Judaism, enlightening its audience to more than just the trans experience. And Showtime’s “The Affair” played with the very nature of truth, telling the story of marital infidelity from competing — and crucially different — perspectives.

Impossible puzzles and true art

If the decade in TV will be remembered for anything, it will likely be the complexity of some shows. The weirdness. The unexpected swerves. It turned its viewers into perpetual puzzle-solvers and conspiracy theorists. After beginning the decade with an unsatisfying wrap-up of ABC’s “Lost,” co-creator Damon Lindelof returned on HBO with a confounding take on “The Leftovers,” finally mastering the balance between befuddlement and momentum with “Watchmen.”

There are, finally, two standouts — and they challenged my ceaseless harangue about reboots. One was Noah Hawley’s expanded and wholly reimagined take for FX on “Fargo,” a Midwestern crime saga first seen in Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1996 film classic.

The other was David Lynch’s long-delayed but staggeringly beautiful sequel to his 1990 TV sensation “Twin Peaks.” Critics argued, somewhat pointlessly, whether “Twin Peaks: The Return” (Showtime) was a very long film or a strangely protracted TV series.

I can settle that: It was nothing short of pure art — unexpected, absolutely original and layered with deep, trippy meaning. Of all the TV I slogged through in the 2010s, it’s the show I most look forward to someday watching again.

Sahred From Source link Entertainment

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[sferailyardartsdistrict]

Blue Rain Gallery

ERIN CURRIER: From Manet to Mexico: Mas Las Meninas

September 13 – 25, 2019

Artist Reception: Friday, September 13th from 5 - 7pm

Erin Currier: Conveyor of Truth and Modern Masterpieces

In a world full of discord, the artist’s role as a conveyor of truth becomes ever more essential. With divisions among us growing and hate speech, propaganda, and lies proliferating, the power of the spoken word, along with our ability to communicate verbally, seem diminished. Images thus take on an increased importance, and we turn to visual artists to make sense of our world through works that transcend our many differences of language, culture, and politics.

Erin Currier is one of those artists whose trenchant visual commentary breaks through our preconceived ideas and leads us to a new awareness. She has spent decades traveling the world and in the course of her journeys has cemented her belief that there is more that unites us than divides us when it comes to human values, individual strength, and especially beauty. Humans are hardwired to perceive and appreciate beauty, and Currier uses that perception as a means of confronting oppression, injustice, and intolerance. Her mixed-media paintings are brought to life through her collaging of post-consumer waste—discarded product wrappings, containers, and other colorful refuse—which add color and texture to her work and provide subtle commentary on our disposable civilization, where materials are tossed away and entire groups of people marginalized and devalued.

Currier’s work over the years has exalted the humble, ordinary people whose unsung heroics and steadfast pursuit of survival enhance our world. Her latest endeavor, From Manet to Mexico, Más Las Meninas, is the newest in her continuing series in which she takes Classical and Modernist masterpieces and reimagines them in a contemporary context. For example, American Women (Dismantling the Border) V (after Tiepolo)is part of an ongoing theme in her work that depicts indigenous American women from both sides of the border as they dismantle the border wall. “Most borders defining nation states are false constructs, hastily drawn lines carving up lands inhabited for millennia by indigenous peoples,” Currier points out. She portrays Tiepolo’s mythological deities and queens as indigenous women who are at what she calls the “vanguard of feminine solidarity and dignity in action.”

Another painting inspired by the same painter, Shipibo Madonna Immaculada (after Tiepolo), portrays a Shipibo woman from the upper Amazonian jungle as the Madonna to celebrate her unapologetic femininity and strength. The Christian symbol of the snake with an apple in its mouth, representing sin, is replaced by an anaconda, which symbolizes knowledge. The rose is represented by the sacred caapi flower, while the Madonna’s traditional robe and gown are suggested by her flowing hair. The colorful jungle birds replace the cupids, angels, and doves of Tiepolo’s painting.  

In a similar vein, Magnolia Maymuru as a Not So Repentant Magdalena (after Titian) replaces Mary Magdalene of Titian’s much-discussed Penitent Magdalene with a young Australian Aboriginal model, Magnolia Mymuru, who became the first indigenous woman to represent the Northern Territory in the Miss World Australia competition. Why “not so repentant?” Currier notes, “I feel that women should not have to repent for their passion, their sexuality, for defending their fellows and fighting for what they believe in. In this portrait Magdalena has shifted her radiant face to gaze proudly yet kindly, and unapologetically, into the eyes of the viewer.”

Currier’s eloquent celebration of womanhood, women of color, and the working class not only provides us with a contemporary interpretation of old masterpieces but also highlights the resilience, power, and beauty of these women in a modern-day context of pressing social and political issues. “The spiritual and political are inseparable,” Currier observes. “It all boils down to human dignity and respect for all living creatures.”

Blue Rain Gallery

544 South Guadalupe Street Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 (505) 954-9902

https://blueraingallery.com

[simin-ma-blog]

THE WIZARD OF OZ, 2018

Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company 

The Wizard of Oz (2018) produced by the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company and directed by Liam Steel is the latest rendition of the classic tale in the “Merry Old Land of Oz”.   After going on the Rep backstage tour and seeing some of the behind-the-scenes working progress of the production (props in making, costumes sketches and parts of the set model box), I’ve decided to go and see this production on the 7th of December 2018.

The 1939 film under the same title was my first introduction to musical theatre and films, and ever since then, it holds a special place in my heart. Going in to see this production, I was very curious about what direction it will take and whether it will stay true to the source material without imitating the film. And after seeing the production, I’m glad to say that it has all the elements that fans would recognise but with some slight changes that give it its own identity.

Tinman and the Apple Trees 

As a design student, I can’t help but examine the sets and costumes design whenever I go to see a production, and in this case, I was especially impressed by the art direction the production took.  The set designed by Angela Davies and the costumes & puppets designed by Samuel Wyer throws a modern twist to the world of Oz with the fun aura of the 1940s-60s. Dorothy no longer wears a dainty blue dress with pigtails but a rugged denim overall and hair tied back instead, and her Ruby Slipper is now Ruby Boots. The “king of the forest” is now a lioness and the Great Wizard is in fact, Ms. Oz. Glinda the Good Witch now dressed in a glamorous robe with a retro microphone on her hand replacing a wand. And the Wicked Witch of the West is played by a man who wore black patent high heel boots and drags makeup. Furthermore, paired with a cast of lively ensembles that played as a caricature of celebrities’ stereotype in the mid-20th century (the bad boy “Elvis” Crows and the glamorous “Divas” Apple Trees), it is hard not to be delighted and smiling throughout the show.

 Costume design for Dorothy

Josh Vantyler starring as Wicked Witch of the West

Rainbow, which is an important motif in the film and novel, is the main inspiration for the design. Neon light frames were used to form a modern rainbow and the yellow brick road is now made up of a series of glowing yellow staircase. And as each scene and location changes, a different colour from the rainbow occupied the stage, for example, blue predominated the Munchkin land scene, yellow in Scarecrow, purple in Tinman, orange in Lion, and of course Green in the Emerald City so on and so forth. The same principle applies to characters too as a strike of red will interrupts the stage whenever the Wicked Witch appears. This clever use of colours effortlessly communicated different locations, characters, and atmospheres through simple visuals that even young children, who are the main targeted audience, can understand. Additionally, it also serves as a great narrative device and gives a visually satisfying aesthetic. I was inspired by this concept and was extremely impressed by its multiple functions in a live performance.

 Puppets Munchkins and Glinda

A social commentary?

The new changes blew a breath of fresh air into the production but most importantly, it also a subtle social commentary on contemporary society. Although the show did not focus on the gender switch of Lion and OZ, and they’ve only played the reversed expectation of Oz as a light humorous moment, this decision is not just for a punchline of a joke.  The same goes for the casting choices and costumes designs for Dorothy and the Wicked Witch as well- they are not just mere gimmick or aesthetic choices.

Chisara Agor as Dorthy

In fact, the changes are a sophisticated call to raise the awareness of the issues of race, sexuality and gender roles by indirectly comparing itself (now day) with the 1939 film (the past) by showing the audience what has changed.  By doing this, it reflects the increasing acceptance of race and LGBTQ community in contemporary society, and it shows how the gender roles assigned by society could be wrong and inappropriate. Who said the kind-hearted girl have to wear a dress and heels and why must the powerful and respected Oz be a man? What’s wrong with seeing Dorothy played by an actress of colour and why can’t a man in drag act as the Wicked Witch onstage? I’ve asked myself these question after the shows and I cannot come up with an answer. This is because there is nothing wrong with them and the only reason that these thoughts even came up is because of the assigned roles and social norms that society has inflicted on us.

“Theatre is a mirror of society”, and it is very true in this case. I really appreciate how the directors and designers introduced these social issues to the audience in a non-aggressive manner while staying true and respectful to the original source materials.  It gave me a very enjoyable night as well as meaningful afterthoughts that question myself as a member of the society and as a designer.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

The First Purge review

The Purge is such a fascinating series to me in that it goes through the reverse of what you might expect a series to go through. The first film had an interesting concept - a night of legalized crime in which society indulges in its most base desires and goes about murdering - but instead of exploring or even SHOWING us this, instead we get a s0-so home invasion film where a rich white couple fights off masked intruders. Yawn.

But then came the sequels, and with them the director seemed to realize all of the social and political commentary that could be mined from such a subject as the Purge, and by god did they run with it. This is a series that ascended in quality, with the sequels just getting better and better, and while you can debate which film is the best in the series, no one will ever say it’s the first one.

Because of all this, I think I can safely say at this point I love The Purge series. Its lack of subtlety in its social commentary and political criticisms combined with its over-the-top violence and sinister government conspiracies makes me incredibly endeared to it; I think we all too often forget subtlety is not always the best, and in the current political climate I think The Purge series is kinda the hot cup of tea we need to be served. And out of all the movies in the series, The First Purge may be the hottest cup of tea of all.

So you know that criticism the films get, where “Oh, everyone goes out to kill? That’s so unrealistic, people would probably just vandalize or do drugs or whatever, why is it murder?” Well, this movie, in showing the test run for what became the Purge, shows us… exactly that. Despite the government offering money to poor, disenfranchised, and struggling people on Staten Island, the testing grounds for this new system… they record one murder done by a man named Skeletor, who was an insane, frothing-at-the-mouth violent lunatic before any of this. Everyone else? They’re having block parties, fucking in public, or just messing with people. The worst crimes in the early hours are the murders Skeletor commits and some robberies committed by people who were already drug-dealing gangsters. There’s also a creepy guy wearing a crying baby doll on his face who set up a trap so he can grab women and drag them into the sewer so he can grab their pussies, but that’s neither here nor there; the point is, the Purge isn’t doing what the evil political party the New Founding Fathers want. So what do they do? They decide to fudge the results of this test by flying in mercenaries, Klansmen, just real fucking evil and violent people, to massacre the poor so that they can get the numbers up. This isn’t really a spoiler - this is all stuff proudly displayed in the sequels - but seeing how even early on the government twisted a social experiment so they could sell legalized murder of the poor to the public is truly disturbing.

Our heroes are gangster Dmitri, his ex girlfriend and anti-Purge protestor Nya, and her little brother Isaiah who has decided to go out so he can kill Skeletor. Can they survive this night? I mean, we know the Purge is gonna be going on for another couple of decades at least, but will these guys be ok?

So the film is about as subtle as a brick to the face, as I’m sure you can tell from what I described, but I think that’s what makes me say this is the smartest film in the series. Our country NEEDS a lack of subtlety right now. And I think we forget that sometimes a lack of subtlety helps make a compelling narrative; look at American History X, for example. That movie is entirely unsubtle, but it is effective and well done. Now, I’m not saying this film is as good as American History X, but I do think this movie’s lack of subtlety helps it along. Every major character in the film is a minority of some kind - our main characters are all black, and we see Asians, Latinos, even an older gay couple. Pretty much everyone in this film is struggling or poverty-stricken. And the villains? An evil group of sadistic government assholes who think slaughtering the poor is the best way to help the public, and when people don’t wanna buy into it, they create a false flag operation to sell the idea of legalized killing. There’s really no good white people in this movie, save for, interestingly enough, the woman who came up with the idea of the Purge in the first place. While at first she seems as evil and politically motivated as any other person working for the NFFA, as soon as she notices things getting ultra violent she becomes suspicious and finds out her test’s data is being fudged by mercs being flown in to kill the poor. She gets shipped off to Staten Island and killed for her trouble. Like I said, UNSUBTLE. But it is pretty effective.

The most fascinating character in this film is probably Skeletor, an absolutely insane black man who signed up for this night so he could get paid for indiscriminately killing people. He’s the kind of utterly fanatical murderer you’d expect from this series, and his actor Rotimi Paul steals every single scene he’s in. It makes it all the more of a letdown when he doesn’t get the honor of a final fight with the protagonists, despite being set up as a major villain, but even his anti-climactic ending is pretty cool as he manages to sneak up on and kill armed soldiers while being nearly naked.

And of course it wouldn’t be a Purge film without a bunch of creeps in masks. We have the baby-doll pussy grabber, we have a creepy rag face guy who just walks down a hallway creepily, we have this insane butcher guy in what looks like a welding mask, and best of all, in the final battle, we have what I can only describe as… a Gimp Nazi. For some more general mooks we also have truckloads of Klansmen as well as some masked cops who beat down a black man in… well do I REALLY need to explain what they’re going for there? Unsubtle, remember. Of course, with all these nasty folk out and about, it becomes extremely cathartic to watch them get stabbed, neck snapped, and gunned down by our heroes. Let me tell you, seeing Klansmen murdered is always a good time.

Honestly, this movie is an excellent example of a modern Blaxploitation film; it has pretty much all the trappings of the genre, as it’s set in a poor neighborhood, has a majority black cast, features the protagonists fighting against The Man and the oppression of evil white folk… all that’s missing is some kung-fu and some more funk in the soundtrack. And that just makes me love the film all the more, because boy do I love me some blaxploitation.

I highly recommend this movie. It’s really great; unsubtle, yes, definitely, but great. Sadly, I think this movie is not going to do quite as well as I think it deserves to. The way our society is right now, people get really hostile at any sort of indictment of modern politics; any criticism of our dumbass president is met with angry people getting offended that someone dares to criticize a soulless politician (a redundant phrase, I know). We just live in a time and place where people are just really hostile towards any sort of social or political commentary, and I sadly think this movie will be a victim of it due to its indictment of conservative ideology, racism, and Trump-era politics. It’s not a shock to me that most of the reviews of this on IMDB are all colored with some sort of anger that this film has the AUDACITY to try and be intelligent, with a good chunk of reviews calling it “biased” and “political propaganda”… oh well. I pray this movie finds its audience, either now or in the future. Because boy oh boy do I believe it deserves it.

Long live The Purge.

BUT WAIT! Just to prove my point… take a look at some of these excerpts from a few absolutely ridiculous IMDB user reviews! We’ve got it all here folks!

Accusations of being written by children combined with whining about how this film is made to “Divide” while also throwing in potshots at Star Wars and Get Out? CHECK!

Accusations of race baiting? CHECK!

Complaining about criticisms of Trump? CHECK! As an added bonus, this guy cancelled his ticket - hey buddy, how’d you review this film opening day if you didn’t go?

Crying about how the film is propaganda? Cheeeeeeeeeeeck!

Whining about BLM? Oh boy do we got a big old check!

And hey let’s just have one more whiny little bitch before we go:

[quarantineroulette]

Seditions of You: An Interview with Filmmaker Joe Wakeman

Joe Wakeman’s second feature, The Shoplifters (not to be confused with the Palme d’Or-winning film of the same title, but hopefully SEOs are none the wiser) is “a series of tableaux depicting the follies of a group of naïve Marxist would-be radicals” striving to be revolutionaries, only to discover that “what they really want is to be seen wearing berets.” 

Although he began work on it a decade ago, The Shoplifters carries some very timely themes about online activism, consumerism, and the shallowness of modern culture as a whole. With fairly little effort, its thought-provoking vignettes resist passive cultural consumption and its stylistic fluidity keeps it visually stimulating as well. Its 70 minutes also offer a lot of seamless humor, from a slightly slapstick dressing room shoplift to a smart, satirical "revolutionary bake sale” in Washington Square Park.

Ahead of The Shoplifters’ appearance at the NewFilmmakers New York Film Festival on February 6, I spoke with Joe via email about collaborations, Maoist propaganda and Communism as fashion statement, among other fun topics. 

1) What ignited your interest in Marxism & Maoism? 

I've been interested in Marxism since I was a teenager, probably about when I was 13 and first encountered the politically inclined punk of The Sex Pistols and The Clash, and Dead Kennedys -- I think it's somewhat common for young suburbans to go through a "Communist" phase. What I didn't realize at the time was that my interest in Marxism was really less about politics, which admittedly I knew precious little about (though I do lean rather strongly to the left) and more about the iconography of Communism: I would go around with sickle and hammer belt buckles and spell "Revolution" with a backwards “R.” That sort of corny thing.

 Later on, when I was 18 or so, I saw Jean Luc Godard's La Chinoise and his Groupe Dziga Vertov films with Jean-Pierre Gorin, all beautifully boring films depicting sexy French Maoists who do very little real revolutionary activity, despite their ability to quote at length from Marxist texts. These films made it apparent to me that what we think of in the US as "Marxist," where Communism has never been a reality, is as much a set of fashion and cultural signifiers as is the uniform of a typical "Goth" or "Emo Kid" -- berets, fists in the air, shabby clothes, shiny boots and cigarettes. 

2) I believe you've mentioned that you started working on -- or had least conceived of -- The Shoplifters about 10 years ago? In what ways has it changed in that time? 

Yes, at that time my friend Taylor Bruck (who plays Che Smith in the film) and I were also sometimes engaged in the "cool crime of shoplifting." There was a certain politically oriented moral code about it, where it was okay to shoplift from big corporations like Barnes & Noble but not right to steal from local businesses. But after seeing the Godard films we talked about how goofy it would be to take those politics further and call ourselves "revolutionaries,” which became the kernel of the absurd story for The Shoplifters that we wrote together.

The original script had a lot more characters and more action, arsons and assassinations and a lengthy courtroom finale at the end, where the Shoplifters are put on trial for sedition and theft. All that sounds exciting, but keep in mind, this was the script of a teenager. It's really rather cringe-worthy to read today. I threw the whole thing out when I reworked the film, though a couple scenes survive: the opening speech and the fitting-room sequence, where we pile on layers of stolen clothes, are both from the original version of the movie. We tried to shoot scenes from that script at that time, when I was 18 years old, with some borrowed equipment from the TV studio I was working for at the time, but we shot on damaged tapes and botched the sound recording. The material was practically unusable so, dejected, I hung up The Shoplifters for awhile and dedicated myself to working on other things and developing more before taking another crack at it. 

3) Do you see The Shoplifters as sharing any similarities with your first feature, They Read By Night? Although stylistically different, they both seem to lovingly mock certain countercultures. I also like that they both have "nested" films within films (the short in They Read by Night and the music video and "Post-Capitalist Potential for Mass Education in the Internet Age" sequence in The Shoplifters).

Definitely. Actually They Read By Night was an attempt, after the first failure of The Shoplifters, to write a similar film on a smaller scale. I swapped out the berets for leather jackets and the characters became greaser-rock ‘n’ roller juvenile delinquents instead of revolutionaries, but the point is essentially the same -- that their so-called rebellion is still a symptom of capitalism, buying into another kind of "outsider" fashion. 

As for the films-within-the-film element, I've always been attached to the idea that a movie does not have to tell one story, or focus on the story, or even just be one type of film. This is the other big element learned from the likes of Godard and other counterculture filmmakers, Dusan Makavejev, Warhol et al. -- that the "plot" of a film is not so important as the ideas which animate it, and to express those ideas more in the form of a lively discussion that, in a movie, can be shown with images rather than just spoken with words. Let's make our characters watch a film together and see how they react, or in The Shoplifters they educate themselves about Mao Zedong by reading about the Cultural Revolution on Wikipedia and from there its a free-flowing association of images culminating in some psuedo-Greek philosophy. It's the kind of methodology that people experimented with in the ‘60s and you see less often today, though occasionally you do see it, in Sion Sono's excellent recent Antiporno. Or, actually, the web-browser screen cap stuff in The Shoplifters is inspired by the 2014 teen horror film Unfriended. It's kind of a limitation of the cinema's potential when a movie just tells you a story one way, unless the story is really good, like Titanic or something. 

  4) Both films also have musical sequences (the fight scene in They Read By Night and "Style Revolutionaries" in The Shoplifters). Given your involvement in the music scene here in Brooklyn (Joe is in the band Toyzanne, who you should definitely check out, and directs music videos as well), would you ever consider doing a musical?

I love musicals! They're a popular illustration of that same idea -- the story stops, and somebody sings a song that comments on it, or sometimes the song continues the story, or presents a separate situation which is analogous to the story. I was raised on musicals and I think they can still be cutting-edge as a genre, even though many might regard them as old-fashioned. I composed a lot of the music for The Shoplifters, together with DP Torey Cates and help from musician friends from the Brooklyn scene: Brendan Winick (also in Toyzanne), Frank Rathbone and Jenna Nelson (of Sic Tic), Kate Mohanty. Holly Overton and Sannety (who also stars in the film) contributed their unique stylings for different sections of the film as well. When I showed my friend John Sansone an early cut of the film, he remarked that he didn't realize that it was a "musical" which surprised me because there's no singing, (except for the Smiths cover and "Style Revolutionary"). But when I considered the role music plays in the film, it's really not too different from a musical in structure and tone, which was something that made me feel very happy about it. I'd like to eventually do a proper musical with lots of songs that plays with the genre in a more direct way, but I also don't think I'm mature enough yet as a filmmaker to attempt that.

5) How did the various collaborations in the film (the score, and the sequences from Oliver David and Preston Spurlock) come about? 

Oliver David had made two music videos, one for my old band Bodega Bay and one for ONWE that had this style of a slow-motion fashion advertisement for the bands. I really enjoyed these videos and wanted Oliver to do something of a "remake" of the same style, this time advertising the revolutionary cadre in the film instead of a rock ‘n’ roll band, making the not-so-subtle commentary even less so. Likewise, when I was preparing to make the film I became close friends with Preston Spurlock, who makes these mind-blowing video collages of old commercials and such that are like wading through cultural toxic waste dumps to tap into some unconscious reflections that can't be put into words. I connected these in my head to stuff like Godard's Histoire(s) du cinema or the work of Adam Curtis (HyperNormalisation, The Century of the Self) and thought they would add a lot to the dialogue of images I was trying to present in the film.

 I think that it's unimportant for an artist to be the "sole author" of a film. It is more interesting when I think, “Oh, Sannety can do things with electronic music that I don't even understand,” or “Oliver and Preston work in video in a completely different style from me which can form a relationship with my style, so why not ask them to contribute and make it a real dialogue rather than a constructed one.” I think collaboration is key in filmmaking -- it keeps the spirit of montage living through and through the work, which if you consider Eisenstein and Vertov, is really "Revolutionary" filmmaking. 6) I liked the criticisms of Internet activism the film presented. In the ego-driven realm of social media, do you feel there is any way for a pure act of protest or activism to thrive or even exist? 

Yes I do think real activism can exist and can even be given a lot of strength through the Internet and social media -- those things have leveled the playing field and given voice to marginalized communities who hadn’t had that kind of visibility before the advent of these networks. Community organizer Candice Fortin, introduced to me through Gwynn Galitzer and Suffragette City Magazine, is another voice present in the movie, in keeping with the collaborations that exist throughout the film. She explains activism in the modern era and what people can do to start enacting change very eloquently midway through the movie, and i don't think I can say it better than the way she did in the film. She is constantly posting about progressive candidates, organizations and other concerns through social media to bring about political change on a grassroots scale. You can follow her @candicefortin for a start, but mainly pay attention! These opportunities to help are all around. 7) Do you have a favorite piece of Maoist propaganda?

Yes! This Maoist ballet from the cultural revolution, encouraging women to form feminist revolutionary cadres: The Red Detachment of Women. You can watch it on Youtube. Footage from it appears in Preston Spurlock's section of the film, I think it's beautiful and absurd, but I think weirdly Old Hollywood despite its anti-Western screed, like An American in Paris or something but cheaper looking. I really get a kick out of it. Perhaps when this one-day musical comes to fruition I’ll dole out some political ballet as a quiet (or more likely, loud) nod.

The Shoplifters is screening as a part of the NewFilmmakers New York Film Festival at Anthology Film Archives on Feb. 6, 2019. RSVP here. 

[3nlight3n3d-b0y]

Learning: Ella Enchanted

Introduction:

I’d like to introduce all of you to a new project of mine.

Come to think of it the concept around my blog is based on absorbing feminine content and not producing it, so I thought some more about it and came up with the idea of reviewing a book with a strong female protagonist. I didn’t really know where to start for my first book of this type considering I’m more used to reading Lovecraft and Adam Smith rather than any books with a feminist spirit. Luckily since I’ve been on Tumblr I made friends with @yourgfdpunk who is really into exactly that type of stuff and who helped me out a lot with this, so go send her some love as well!

After a short talk with her she suggested Ella Enchanted as a good book. It’s meant for kids which I wasn’t used to; even as a kid I didn’t read kids’ books. However I thought it would make a good starting book for this project since it’s pretty wholesome and was probably an early book for a lot of girls out there when they got into reading. I do plan on continuing this “Learning” series as I like to call it, and my next plan is to begin the Lunar Chronicles series with Cinder.

Overview:

Ella Enchanted was written by Gail Carson  Levine and was published in 1997, which makes the book about a year older than me. The book also shared its name with a very bad movie. It’s meant for kids and early/pre-teens, and the story is centered around Ella, a girl born to a vague level of nobility.She is cursed from birth by a fairy to follow any command, yet despite this she becomes an extremely rebellious and strong-willed young lady.

The story is an emotional roller coaster from the end of the first chapter to the epilogue, and the story truly begins after (spoiler alert, but the book’s 20 years old and it happens in Ch. 1) Ella’s mother dies and her world falls apart, as she and her mother were very close and her father is estranged and ignorant of her curse. The next two hundred pages or so are the trials and tribulations of Ella in her quest to find the fairy that cursed her and get her to remove the curse. In doing so she overcomes challenges from finishing school to hungry ogres.

My Thoughts:

The story is very touching, and if I could find one word to describe it I think I’d go with endearing. The story is packed with an ever-growing sense of anticipation and emotion, and along with the story comes some very humorous writing and dialogue such as:

…. Dame Olga agreed. “Ella is not outfitted in accordance with her station, Sir Peter. My girls have eight trunks between them.”

“Hattie has five and a half trunks, Mother. And I have only—” Olive stopped speaking to count on her fingers. “Less. I have less, and it’s not fair.”

Father cut in smoothly. “It’s most kind of you to take Ella with you, Dame Olga. I only hope she won’t be a bother.”

“Oh, she won’t bother me, Sir P. I’m not going.”

Father winced at the abbreviation.

It’s written for kids in middle-school so I give it a pass for being pretty simplistic is terms of pacing and plot devices, like the prince showing up out of nowhere every once in a while. However that doesn’t stop it from managing to pull your heartstrings as Ella copes with her desires and her own dreams to throw off a curse while struggling with patriarchal expectations being forced on her.

What I Learned:

I wasn’t sure what I was going to learn reading this book when I first got it given that it seemed rather simplistic. However I think this book is filled with subtle commentary and symbolism throughout, starting with the first chapter. For example, the story begins with Ella being born and being cursed by the fairy Lucinda with obedience in order to make her stop crying. Both Ella’s mother and her midwife beg Lucinda to remove the curse and she won’t, and I see this as Lucinda, who is represented as the stereotypical ultra-girly fairy, cursing Ella with the patriarchal societal expectation that women and girls must be obedient.

The fact that the mother and midwife also beg to remove the curse I think symbolizes the understanding and fear that a woman has when she has a daughter knowing the societal and gender norms that are going to try to keep her down. Additionally I think Lucinda fits a kind of “toxic femininity”, at least for most of the story, being a mostly two-dimensional stereotype that goes around making the lives of everyone harder as she reinforces toxic social norms. These aren’t the only points of symbolism that capture society in the book, they’re just the beginning (literally) and this book got pretty deep throughout the story considering it’s for kids. I think I also found points in this book particularly enlightening because as a male I was never raised with issues like these and the book manages to really explain a lot about them while saying little.

Aside from the writing and the background, I also wondered: what did Ella teach me? After thinking about it for a while I think Ella taught that strength can be found on the inside, and girls particularly must rely on their inner strength until they can find their voice and be able to assert themselves. Ella is no knight or assassin or wizard, she’s just a girl, and a small one at that, because girls weren’t allowed to be brought up like that; no, she had to go to finishing school to sew instead. For breaking patriarchal norms it can seem like even more of a challenge for girls in which they are raised to be docile, but Ella teaches that you don’t need to be a fighter or magician to be strong, you just have to find the strength inside you despite the world trying to put you down from birth for your sex or gender.

Conclusion:

I liked the book more than I thought I would. It was simple of course, but it was also very charming. The author’s charisma can be seen in the ink with interesting characters, funny dialogue, and her ability to make us feel endearment and sorrow. The book also packs a meaningful message thinly veiled under its charm about girl power and overcoming misogynistic norms that is neither easy to overlook or ham-fisted.

I’d give the book 4/5 stars.

Will I read it again? Probably not.

If I have kids will I make them read it? Definitely!

I hope you guys like my first real piece of original content! I actually put some effort into this and I hope to do more of them.

[amandajoyce118]

Cloak and Dagger Episodes 1-4 Easter Eggs and References

Okay, I promised Easter eggs and references for the episodes, so here they are. I pitched a few Cloak and Dagger related articles for Screen Rant, but the show hasn’t been garnering enough attention for the site to cover it. Moral of this story: if you want to see content about shows you like, and you want writers to get paid for covering shows you like, you have to actually read about the shows you like.

Easter eggs will go up after the new episodes on Thursdays nights. And, obviously, spoilers for the episodes follow.

Series Premiere “First Light” and “Suicide Sprints”

The Marvel Flip

The Marvel Flip that plays comic book art at the opening of every MCU project is pretty standard. Most of the same “whoosh,” “Fooom,” and outlines are used in all of them. But there’s usually a change depending on the project. The flip for Cloak and Dagger has Daggers light knives appear for a split second. I’m sure there’s something related to Cloak as well.

Ballet

Ballet was a big part of Tandy’s life as a little girl in the comics too. In fact, her original white leotard costume was inspired by ones worn during rehearsals. I love that it’s still so much a part of her that she wears ballet slippers as a teenager too.

Mom’s Back Problem

Mom’s drug use is not a result of the things that happen to her and Tandy after Dad dies. Her “back problem” is code for her taking lots of pain pills. Tandy’s mom was already in trouble long before they lost their money and security.

On The Bridge

Tandy’s dad on the phone discussing complete structural collapse and energy dispersion with someone we don’t know? That’s, uh, not so subtle foreshadowing of the “oil rig” that explodes moments later. I’d bet money that the structural issues aren’t a result of them drilling for oil though.

Tandy’s dad being the guy warning the higher-ups, and not being listened to, is also a nod to the levees breaking when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the BP rig in the gulf having structural issues that no one ever took care of. The show is shot in New Orleans, and there are a lot of nods to the history throughout the series.

Billy

In the comics, Billy isn’t Ty’s brother. Instead, he’s Ty’s best friend, whom he also witnesses get shot. The effect on Ty is pretty much the same. (He does have a sister in one of the series, but she’s never given a name or anything.)

Roxxon

It’s no coincidence that the truck that runs Tandy and her father off the road belongs to Roxxon. Or that the oil rig belongs to Roxxon, as we find out later. Both Tandy’s father and Ty’s mother work for the company. It’s also pretty evident that whatever was in the truck is what gave Tandy and Ty their abilities as that’s the first manifestation of their powers (right after the shockwave through the water). That’s not how they get them in the comics - instead they’re kidnapped and experimented on. This is better. It would be interesting to see if there’s anyone else in the area that also ended up with abilities. Just saying.

Number 11

Ty’s jersey is #11. That might be a coincidence, but I thought it was cute because, while they were introduced in Spider-Man books and got a four issue mini series after, their first “real” series only lasted 11 issues. After that, they and Doctor Strange were given short stories in a revival of Strange Tales.

St. Sebastian’s

Not a Marvel reference, but I like that the school is named for Saint Sebastian, who had to be killed multiple times because people kept saving him. He supposedly offers protections against plagues and he’s the patron saint of athletes, which fits for a school where basketball is hugely important.

Glowsticks

The club where Tandy finds her rich kid victims? It has glowsticks that look a lot like her light daggers.

Tandy using the knife as a screwdriver later also reminded me that she’s the one with “daggers.”

The Crick-Hits

This band appears on Tandy’s shirt when she goes to the party in the woods and meets Tyrone. They’re an obscure band in Marvel Comics that were meant to be a nod to the Beatles. (I’ll admit that I never would have spotted this if the showrunner hadn’t talked about it in an interview. Apparently, the band will have more nods on the show too.)

Tandy’s Name

There really was a computer named Tandy. In fact, there was a whole company of them. Tandy Corporation started out as a leather company in Texas before diversifying. They owned the now defunct RadioShack.

Tandy the Pickpocket

Her being good with her hands reminds me of the early Skye days on Agents of SHIELD. Skye distracting Mike Peterson with a three card monte of sugar packets while she swipes his ID, anyone?

But really, this moment plays to the role reversal in the show. Tandy picks Ty’s pocket at the party, but in the comics, after they’ve both already run away from home, it’s Ty who thinks about stealing Tandy’s purse when they first cross paths. Ultimately, he decides not to, someone else does, and he ends up getting her purse back for her. The show does a nice twist on their first meeting.

In the comics, Tandy runs away from her privileged life because her mom doesn’t have time for her (among other things) and ends up an addict. Ty runs away from home because the police think he robbed a store, when really, he saw his friend get shot. Ty doesn’t come from a wealthy background in the comics like he does in the show, and it’s a nice change.

The Black Sheet

Ty finds himself teleporting in only a black sheet. Looks kind of like a cloak, no? I mean, I figure this one’s obvious, but I thought it was a nice touch. (Sidenote for those wondering about his powers: in the comics, he actually accesses his power through the Dark Dimension, which is wear Darkforce comes from. We’ve already seen Darkforce AKA Zero Matter in action on Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter. The latter, conveniently, was wear a subsidiary of Roxxon tried to experiment with it and opened a doorway to another dimension. Who’s sensing a connection?)

“I’m afraid even if you do everything perfectly, I’m going to lose you.”

Valid concern for a woman with a black teenage son in America. It had to be said.

Tandy And The Hoodie

In case it’s not clear, Tandy is more sentimental than she lets on. Her favorite hoodie is the one Ty took from his brother and rescued her in. She kept it just like she kept her old ballet bag. Aw.

Emma Lahana

In case anyone is wondering, that detective used to be a Power Ranger. She was the Yellow Ranger in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder. You’re welcome.

The detective, who doesn’t get a lot of lines until the next couple episodes, is named Brigid O’Reilly. In the comics, she’s also a cop that initially goes after Cloak and Dagger, but she also becomes a vigilante herself. Her name is Mayhem.

The Tarp

I love that once he teleports with it, Tyrone decides to test to see if he can use it again. It really looks like a cloak when he wraps himself in it. I also like that he tries it again a few times with other black tarps/fabrics. He’s learning.

Father Delgado

The priest that Tyrone spends so much time with also gave Cloak and Dagger a hand in the comics. He gave them a place to stay when they had nowhere else to go. He also defended them when police came looking for him. Father Delgado traditionally has a church in Hell’s Kitchen in the comics and he’s also hosted the New Mutants and Spider-Man. As the story goes on though, he becomes convinced that Cloak s a demon and that he has to save Dagger from him. He also actually becomes possessed by a demon and tries to kill Dagger, soooo… he should be fun.

“The cumberbatch too.”

It’s okay that he didn’t know it was called a cummerbund. It’s funnier because Cumberbatch is the actor playing Doctor Strange. Whom Cloak and Dagger shared issues of Strange Tales with. It’s fitting. And purposeful. The showrunner confirmed it on twitter.

“We fail. You still profit. Ain’t that America?”

Social commentary at its finest. And true. Which is a little depressing.

Pill Bottles and Gravestones

The showrunner said that pill bottles and gravestones might include names that are Easter eggs, but I didn’t get a good look at any of them, so help a girl out if you did!

S1E03 “Stained Glass”

Tyrone Thinks He’s Cursed

In the comics, there were a lot of people who thought he was cursed. As it turned out, there was a demon in the Dark Dimension that he was connected to. It was that demon that actually “fed” on energy and light, and was part of the reason Tyrone loved being around Tandy when using their abilities.

Damballah Voodoo Tours

Voodoo Tours (and other tours involving historic sites) are a real thing in New Orleans. Damballah though is a being that appears in Marvel comics. Sometimes portrayed as a god, sometimes as a demon, Damballah looks like a snake. He’s appeared in a few obscure issues and was banished by Scarlet Witch.

For anyone who wants even more trivia, Gerry Conway is credited with creating Damballah. Conway also created Punisher, Vrellnexians (you know, the roaches in space on Agents of SHIELD), and made the decision to kill off Gwen Stacy.

The Dolls On The Mantle

During the show livetweet, it was mentioned that fans should pay attention to the detail in the dolls on the mantle. All I’ve got is that they all appear in pairs. Tyrone has been added to the mantle, but Tandy hasn’t yet.

“You have to try something else.”

Look, there is sooooo much symbolism going on in their visions, and I think you can dissect them a million different ways to interpret them the way you see fit. Some of my personal favorites though are Tyrone appearing with what looks like old school plantation wear and dining spread in the middle of the bayou in Tandy’s vision, only to repeatedly end up in modern street clothes when he’s targeted by the cops, while Tandy giving up her dagger for him and adding it to the table gives him a new path. I also love that Tyrone’s vision of Tandy shows that she knows that the more she struggles, the more she gets caught in metaphorical quicksand, and it’s not until he uses his own power on her that she attempts to try something else. Tyrone has the pressure of so many people investing in his future. Tandy has the guilt of bringing Liam into her life. Etc. Etc.

They balance each other out, which isn’t a coincidence, of course. But man, their visions are good.

S1E04 “Call/Response”

“He chased your cop away yesterday.”

I’m throwing this line in here because it shows how condensed the timeline for this series is so far. Episode four is the next day from episode three. (Apparently Tandy heals really quickly since the gash on her head is gone.) The first three hours take place relatively quickly as well. Only a few days have passed in the lives of Tandy and Tyrone and yet everything has changed for them.

Their Powers

Okay, so this episode gives you a better idea of what their actual abilities are.

Tandy is the literal embodiment of hope and light. Yeah, she can grab light daggers out of nothing, but her actual power in the comics is the manipulation of Lightforce (oh, hey, the opposite of Tyrone’s Darkforce, right?). With her ability in the comics, she can create daggers from light, but she also stores that energy inside of herself. It builds up over time, and if she doesn’t use it every so often, it discharges on its own and she has no control over it. Her daggers can be used to drain someone’s energy in the comics and also to manipulate their “life force” to a new direction, giving them a glimpse at what their life would be like if they made a different choice. Tandy being able to see people’s hopes when she touches them is the show’s take on that.

Tyrone’s ability to get into people’s nightmares is an example of him being the opposite of Tandy, of course. In the comics, he doesn’t have that ability, but I think it’s a nice touch for the show. Instead, he can channel Darkforce and absorb people’s energy with it. He can become intangible using it, and he can access the Dark Dimension to teleport, of course. Something we haven’t seen on the show yet is that he can also teleport other people through the Dark Dimension, but because it’s so dangerous, Tandy is usually the only one to accompany him. Her Lightforce offers her a measure of protection. Tyrone making the comment that his ability seems to bring him to Tandy is likely a nod to his Darkforce being drawn to her in the comics. The demon that controls the Dark Dimension likes to absorb her Lightforce.

“Character is what you do when no one else is watching.”

I can’t decide if Tandy’s dad was paraphrasing writer C.S. Lewis or UCLA basketball coach John Wooden here, who both said a variation of this. Probably the latter is what the show’s writers were going for since Tyrone plays basketball.

Stashing the Bike

On twitter, the showrunner mentioned that the debris where Tyrone tosses his bike holds some clues, but honestly, I didn’t notice anything that stood out. I figured I’d note it in case anyone else did.

Mardis Gras Indians

This group is the real deal. Essentially a secret society that’s not so secret in New Orleans, the group is made up of Black Americans who partake in the carnival. Their parade during Mardis Gras is one of the biggest. You want to learn more about the history of the group, this is a pretty good start.

“Shit goes boom.”

This made me laugh a little bit because Olivia Holt used to be on a Disney show called Kickin’ It where her character used the phrase “boom goes the dynamite” all the time. The girl likes a good use of the word “boom.”

Founded 1982

This phrase appears on one of the flags in the Red Hawk’s place. When did Cloak and Dagger make their comic book debut? You guessed it, 1982.

Cloak

While it’s sad (and also sweet) that Tyrone picks Billy’s cloak from the room of failures, I love that it looks like his comic book cloak come to life. Where the beadwork is references where most artists use different shading to show changes in light and it’s just perfect.

I also love his dad’s speech about the costumes giving them strength. That’s why superheroes wear what they do.

Tandy Likes Tyrone’s Eyes

I just think it’s cute that she already told him she liked the way his jacket hangs on his shoulders in an earlier episode and now she likes his eyes. She’s not shy. She’s honest. It’s nice. In fact, all of the women in this show are, and it’s a nice change from the usual idea of women on TV that have to be cryptic with the men around them.

Greg’s Death

We see Greg killed by the water delivery person, but the cards for the episode outline shared on twitter say that the “unseen assailant” was going to be his wife. I’m curious if his estranged wife will still play a part in the episodes ahead or not.

Check Your Privilege

Has another Marvel series ever been so timely? Tandy denied action because she’s a woman doing what she has to do to get by. Tyrone targeted by literally everyone because of the color of his skin. Both of them trying to atone for the things they think are their fault, but going about it in very different ways. So. Good.

[aion-rsa]

The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 12 Review: Diary Queen

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This The Simpsons review contains spoilers.

The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 12

The Simpsons Season 32, episode 12, “Diary Queen,” may be the sweetest offering of the series. It’s not only sentimental and self-esteem-positive, it’s downright edumacational. At least for Bart, who certainly learns a lesson. Thankfully, as the episode explains by example, he probably won’t retain it.

“What’s the matter, Bart? I figure you’d be used to failing by now,” Edna Krabappel once consoled the spiky haired kid who seemed so determined to get through school without schooling. Marcia Wallace, who played the Springfield Elementary teacher, died unexpectedly in October 2013. Edna’s death was first acknowledged in “Four Regrettings and a Funeral,” from season 25, when Bart wrote “We’ll really miss you Mrs. K” on the chalkboard. He only wrote it once. Her death was punishment enough. Both the character and the voice actor were instrumental in the chemistry of The Simpsons, and chemistry happens to be one of the few things Bart’s ever excelled at in school, even pranking a talent show in the “Haw-Haw Land” episode. But he gets his beakers crossed in the latest installment.

“Diary Queen” opens with an inspired West Side Story song parody, “Too Nice” replacing “Tonight.”  It’s time for Ned Flanders’s annual yard sale, and he’s on a holy mission to undersell eBay. Comic Book Guy is looking for a broom to play Quidditch on, Waylen Smithers is going to score some kitsch, and Ned will finally toss those fuzzy dice Maude bought him to the bottom of an impulse item box of jokes he did not get. The Flanders family are parting with their humble possession in a public bid for humility, in case no one notices. Ned gives up Rod’s teeth. Todd consigns his toys to the auction block on the grass. “Playing is a sin that we regret,” one of the Flanders kids explains.

Ned’s bizarre outdoor bazaar is the only segment which has any meanness in it. The Springfieldians want to take advantage of Ned, and openly mock him. Carl and Lenny turn the yard sale into a yarn brawl, and Jimbo’s gang buys commemorative plates just to smash them. It’s enough to send Ned looking for the fans he always carries around in case of stress-induced hot flashes. As Patty and Selma are flicking ashes into Rod and Tod’s baby shoes, it seems Nelson, Bart, and Millhouse are the only ones worthy to buy Ned’s treasured mementos. And, of those, only Nelson’s purchase is authentic. He buys all the bad words, like “adultery” and “fornication,” which Ned cut out of his old religious texts. Nelson has a genuine use for them, you can just tell.

Bart and Millhouse buy the books. Even without the offending admonishments, they swear they’ll still find useful ways to better themselves. Their haul winds up being the fiery centerpiece for a supercool skateboarding feat which no one will ever see. It’s an old joke, but we do get to notice how big Millhouse’s nose looks when he’s picking it. One book, which gives the title to the episode, is spared the conflagration of Bart’s daredevil jump: Edna Krabappel’s diary. Bart recognizes the Ds and Fs, and Millhouse recognizes the smell of Parliament Lights 100s. It’s very telling how these are the most recognizable clues. They are each ready-made character punchlines.

The diary is a font of information. Bart and Millhouse learn all the teachers work night jobs during school hours, and the many lonely secrets of Groundskeeper Willie. But their first use of it is inspired gaggery. Bart learns Superintendent Chalmers keeps his car keys behind the visor. The two kids not only steal the car but take advantage of a free yogurt offer at a car wash. The idea that taking the yogurt and ditching the car is a “perfect crime” is great kids’ logic. It is a little odd, however, that Springfield’s Chief Wiggum sees fourth grade car thieves as inspiration for a little personal time with Officer Lou, but it works within Simpsons logic.

The central point of the episode is Bart’s relationship with his dead teacher, and his relationship with himself. He actually believes someone he thought only saw him as troublesome also considered him “smart as a whip.” It leads him to believe he actually has potential, which he translates to: all the time he was showing his butt he was showing promise. This spurs him into thinking about getting seriously educated. Not only does he try but he succeeds on his first dry run, resisting the urge to draw a skeleton head on a multiple-choice test grid, and getting an A. Not only does he finally understand how his sister Lisa doesn’t suck, but he puts himself on the same level.

Lisa goes through all the stages of jealousy, and even realizes she’s on the verge of obsession when even her imaginary comfort pony begins to look like Bart. This makes it worse, because realizing he is the only thing she can think about only makes her dwell on it. Lisa is usually the family genius, and how she reacts to Bart doing well really depends on the circumstance and need for story conflict. For instance, when Bart had to apply geometry to miniature golf in an early episode, Lisa brought a Zenlike understanding of all things which putt. Lisa does Bart a disservice tonight in the guise of doing the right thing. It’s her MO.

Of course, Marge and Lisa don’t trust Bart’s recent good grades, but while he comes up clean to Marge, Lisa digs up the dirt. Bart correlates “cruel” with “lying” because “they’re both great.” He thinks he’s going to win a Spelling Bee just because he has the potential to do it. Would it have been less cruel for Lisa to let him see how far his belief would get him? She’s set him up for worse humiliations just for an edge at science fairs.

Millhouse gets a few good gags tonight. When Lisa starts developing a rash because of the stress of not crushing her brother’s potential, he pulls cream out of his fanny pack labeled “rash stash.” Groundskeeper Willie is a highlight of the episode. His character has one of the most interesting takes on passive aggressive behavior in comedy. It’s not that he gets it backwards, so much as he pays it forward: Terrorizing Bart with the idea of simmering a new pet into rabbit stew when all he’s thinking of is how much bunnies love stewed carrots.

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Subtle social commentary makes its way into the episode. As this is the first episode since the Trump presidency, it opens with a Bald Eagle flying a sign asking “Is it safe yet?” We learn Ned doesn’t find Bill Maher funny. A priest tells Bart and Millhouse reading someone else’s diary in church is not the worst thing you can do within the hallowed walls. Moments later we see the priest handcuffed and escorted past the pews by the police. We can only wonder what offenses are happening at Reverend Lovejoy’s competition.

Fat Tony (Tony Montagna) tells his henchmen his crime family doesn’t kill children, “We wait till they’re 18.” Lisa is kept up at night by the cold dead eyes of Mike Pence. Subtle subversive commentary can be found when Principal Skinner declares the drug-free portion of the school assembly a success because Lisa, the only one in the auditorium, tells him she doesn’t do drugs. But the scene comes shortly after we learn Dr. Hibbert is pushing kiddie-Xanax “sleepies” and “dopies” on her. The best bad side effects are “Portuguese insolence” and the “tendency to see yourself as others see you.”

The episode has quite a few sight gags which work well. The sign outside the Spelling Bee contest reads H-E-A-R, and we see one of the losing contestants ripping up a dictionary on the way to the exit. When Ned starts to preachify in the treehouse, he only stops because Bart is drawing back a trigger finger on his slingshot. Mrs. Krabappel’s beloved cat not only was not harmed during the making of the episode, but was a willing participant, according to the closing disclaimer. One of the stills in the photo montage is of Krabappel watching The Bob Newhart Show, which Marcia Wallace was a regular on.

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For the majority of The Simpsons’ run, Mrs. Krabappel was a sexually independent woman who was often “looking for a substitute to teach me a lesson I sorely need.” She began dating widower Ned in “The Ned-Liest Catch” from season 22. They married in secret and stayed together until her death in “The Man Who Grew Too Much.” The cause of Edna’s death has never been revealed, except in a non-canon, future-set episode. For this installment, Wallace’s two lines are taken from earlier episodes. “Diary Queen” will be her last appearance.

This is a different kind of arc for The Simpsons. “Diary Queen” is on an uplifting trajectory until Lisa knocks it off course, and ends in a sudden life-affirming crash. Bart’s final warning to Marge, “I’ll go over the edge if you try to make me feel better,” is wonderfully skewered, but the final twist is a dose of treacle. The episode was originally slated to premiere on Valentine’s Day, and is a sweet sendoff.

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