#there is a moment however in the episode where the murderer is a female TV executive

[giantkillerjack]

This is, of course, assuming he is a human man and not a ghost with one name and a fake first name that he had to put on his fake police ID ;)

I have watched COLUMBO with my grandpa so many times when I was a kid and I never knew Lieutenant Columbo's first name was Frank! Frank Columbo! Frank!

[doubleaspectrum]

School Days Anime, Analyzing the Real Tragedy

About 4 months ago, I got around to watching the notorious School Days anime. And boy, was that unpleasant. If the words “despairfest hellscape” don’t sum it up, nothing will.

That being said, there are some things of value there. It is arguably the most realistic depiction of a harem protagonist and harem storyline. Also, even if the male lead has all the sympathetic qualities of a serial killer who targets Muppets, the female leads were still interesting characters with sympathetic qualities.

Anyways, my topic was about the idea of Tragedy. Well, I looked it up on TV Tropes and that wiki points out that Tragedy isn’t defined in a literary sense as something that makes the audience sad. It’s more about the self-inflicted fall of the protagonist. And that does fit the School Days anime to a T.

Think about it. School Days is about a psychopath named Makoto Itou who wants to have sex with a pretty girl. With some “help,” he ends up getting exactly what he’s looking for, and then some. However, his psychopathic tendencies leave him with a lack of conventional morals. To be more specific, he’s a whiny, irresponsible manchild who can never stop cheating because he’s incapable of seeing himself as being wrong. By the end of it, he finally crosses a line by running away from the girl he supposedly impregnated and insisting that she gets an abortion that she doesn’t want. The end results? He’s a corpse.

It really is a Tragedy since Makoto Itou rose to the top as a master of his own harem, but he loses it all, and (despite his attempts) there really is nobody to blame but himself. However, it’s not a Tragedy in the literal sense because I’m not sad that he died. Makoto Itou deserved every moment of his murder, and every subsequent moment burning in Hell.

And here’s where I stop setting the details and get to the point. You see, I took notes when I watched the anime, so I was able to remember a key moment in the eleventh episode that was an eye-opener for me. I was able to determine that there was another Tragedy in School Days, and it actually made me sad.

And that eye opening moment? This line from Kotonoha.

To set a bit of the context with this line. It’s during a scene where Kotonoha is sitting on a swing while talking to her phone, with the phone responding that she can’t reach Makoto’s number. It’s ultimately a sad and terrifying scene that shows how Kotonoha has gone insane in her attempts to believe that Makoto didn’t betray her for Sekai. But it’s also the moment that I realized where the real tragedy was.

You see, Kotonoha is well-aware that Makoto was cheating on her with Sekai, and she chose to blame Sekai for it, but here she is wanting Sekai back in her life. That’s when I realized how similar they both are, and where they went wrong.

Both of the female leads are insecure, mentally-damaged people who only want to be loved. Both of them also had their fulfillment right at the start of the show, before they end up losing it.

Kotonoha was able to feel like a better person because Sekai offered her friendship while also making sure that Kotonoha would hook up with Makoto. But when both of them betray her, Kotonoha goes crazy in her attempts to believe that she was never betrayed.

Meanwhile, Sekai is able to be the confident wingman(wingwoman?) at the start because she had Setsuna to look out for her, and when Setsuna moves away, Sekai shuts down until she latches onto a phantom pregnancy in the hopes that it’ll force Makoto back into her arms.

I think you already see where I’m going with this. The realization I had was that Sekai and Kotonoha never needed Makoto to be their boyfriend. They needed each other! Both of them understand that being alone sucks! And they both valued their friendship with each other until they tore it all apart in the name of Makoto “I can’t rot in Hell fast enough” Itou! And the reason I feel sorry for Kotonoha in her swing scene is because this is the closest Kotonoha came to that realization, and she still misses it!

Speaking as a biased asexual, I can tell you exactly why Kotonoha and Sekai never decided that their mutual emotional validation was worth more than a philandering psycho. The answer? Amatonormativity.

One of the things that sickens me nowadays is the idea that somehow getting into a relationship can automatically make you better. That’s an insult to the concept of character development, and the unique individual natures of the human race!

This is a lesson people need to learn fast. People aren’t better because they’re in relationships! You can’t “fix” your lover! And you can’t better yourself by getting a relationship! Maybe you can put the effort to change for the better because you value a relationship, but that’s more because of your efforts! RELATIONSHIPS DON’T FIX PEOPLE! PEOPLE FIX THEMSELVES!

That’s the lesson I try to take away from the depairfest hellscape that is the School Days anime. And the lack of that realization is the flaw that leads to Kotonoha and Sekai’s downfalls. The real tragedy isn’t that some philandering psycho got what was coming to him. The real tragedy is that two girls who could have been great friends tore each other apart for nothing.

[legends-of-time]

Amelia’s Story (BBC Merlin Story)

Chapter 1: The Awakening

Masterlist

Well, she died.

Well, Amelia did not just simply die. She got stabbed in the back – literally – by her ex. She thought they had split amicably, but apparently not considering.

Amelia supposes her obsession with watching murder documentaries finally caught up with her. She can't help but wonder whether there will be one about her's.

But this story is not about her murder (though that could be an entirely different tale). No, it's about what happened afterwards.

Amelia never really thought about what would happen when she died. Wait, no that was a lie. She had wondered if she would be reincarnated she supposed or just simply go to some sort of afterlife. Or maybe she would wake up in the world of one of the very first Tv shows that she had got obsessed with.

Amelia genuinely did not think this would happen, fanfiction is just that! Fanfiction!

But hey ho here she is.

However, unlike most fanfiction where people wake up at the beginning of the first episode of the first series, Amelia wakes up while being birthed (took her a while to realise what the sensation was) years before the show began.

Yes she had been reborn as a baby but not only that, she still has her own mind, her own memories from her previous life. Amelia had died and then came back as a baby but has the mind of a 21 year old (so being breastfeed was a weird experience).

From what Amelia remembers is that everything went black then suddenly there is this force pushing her forward. Then she abruptly experiences a falling sensation before being caught by a pair of hands. It takes her a moment to realise that the crying noise she heard was actually herself.

She is being wrapped up in a blanket before being carried towards, what she realises, is a bowl of water as she is then being rubbed down. It takes Amelia a while but when she is able to, she opens her eyes. The first thing Amelia sees is a blurry face with long white hair staring at her.

"A healthy baby girl My Lady," He says. From the sound of his voice, she can tell that he is middle aged man.

"No," cries a female voice. "Do not show me her. It will only hurt me more!"

Amelia would've listened more but due to the fact that she had only just been born (she is still physically a baby), Amelia fell asleep again. She is only again woken by the feeling of being bounced up and down. Opening her eyes, she can see the same blurry figure as before she went to sleep above her. Amelia realises that they must be on top of a horse though she did not know what their destination is, she can tell that it is night time due to how dark everything is.

After a while, they slow to a stop and the man, with Amelia in his arms, gets off the horse before walking towards what she can see to be a Manor House. The man knocks on the door and waits till the door opens and a woman steps out of the house closing the door behind her.

"Is that her Gaius?" She whispers.

"Yes My Lady," Gaius responds. Gaius. Huh. That name is familiar.

Amelia then feels herself be moved from Gaius's arms to the lady's. She felt warm and comforting. Safe.

"Know one should know where she came from. She is George's and I's daughter now." Says the woman.

"Of course My Lady"

The woman then turns around and steps inside the house, closing the door behind her. Amelia cannot help but think: 'What the hell is going on?'

——

A/N: Please leave comments on how you're enjoying this story and what you think.

[charcubed]

When is the campaign against Big Skies?

https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a34795822/big-sky-abc-controversy-backlash/

Wow, thanks for this info, Anon. I'd never heard of this show until this morning since people are now talking about Jensen Ackles being a guest star, so this is obviously all very new to me.

Let me put together a little post about this for people here and now.

Big Sky was and is criticized by Indigenous groups for its cultural insensitivity, because the inspiration for its plot is rooted in a largely-silenced epidemic against Indigenous women and girls specifically. However, the show whitewashes this rather than using it as a teachable moment. The concerns Indigenous groups sent to ABC were not sufficiently addressed.

Clickable link for the URL Anon sent above.

So, here's what Big Sky is about: it's "a series about private detectives Cassie Dewell and Cody Hoyt, who join forces with Cody's estranged wife and ex-cop, Jenny Hoyt, to search for two sisters who have been kidnapped by a truck driver on a remote highway in Montana."

In November 2020, even before the show aired, Indigenous groups and leaders spoke out against the premise of this show. Their overall critique is that the story erases the real-life tragedy of the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), who are disproportionately murdered and abducted, particularly in Montana. These Indigenous groups were also behind the documentary Somebody’s Daughter, which is specifically about this crisis.

Here's part of their initial open letter to ABC:

"We write with serious concerns of at best, cultural insensitivity, and at worst, appropriation, in respect to the soon- to-be premiered series, Big Sky. We understand that the plot of Big Sky is based on C. J. Box’s novel The Highway. Unfortunately, neither Big Sky nor The Highway address the fact that the disproportionate majority of missing and murdered women in Montana are Indigenous, a situation replicated across Indian Country, which has made this tragedy an existential threat to Native Americans. To ignore this fact, and to portray this devastation with a white female face, is the height of cultural insensitivity, made even more egregious given the national awakening to the need for racial justice."

Season one was filmed in Vancouver, in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, West Canada. (Later seasons have since been filmed in New Mexicon.) British Columbia is also the area where "the Highway of Tears" is located–as pointed out by Melissa Moses, a representative for the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC), in the article sent by Anon. Highway 16 is called as such because so many women and girls, most of whom are Indigenous, have been murdered or abducted from that stretch of road. The plot of Big Sky echoes this, but makes no sufficient mention of it either in the show or as a PSA connected to the show to use it as a teaching/awareness moment.

The subpar response in December 2020 from the producers in response to the open letter was as follows:

“After meaningful conversations with representatives of the Indigenous community, our eyes have been opened to the outsized number of Native American and Indigenous women who go missing and are murdered each year, a sad and shocking fact. We are grateful for this education and are working with Indigenous groups to help bring attention to this important issue."

However, Tom Rodgers, president of the Global Indigenous Council, stated that he knew of no Indigenous organization working with ABC to rectify the problems. “So we’re interested in learning who ABC is working with, since it is curious that no purported Indigenous partners are named in its statement. In our culture, trust can only be earned, not promised.”

An organized campaign was then mounted by Indigenous groups in early 2021 in regards to this show. Their demands sent to ABC:

“I’m not in the entertainment business. We are not asking them to cancel the show, to put people out of work, no. There is no client here but justice. We want them to tell the truth, not myth making but the true historically accurate Native American story,” Rogers said. The list of demands presented to Kelley, ABC and its parent company Disney include a credit line at the end of each episode so people can educate themselves on the issue. They are also asking for a healing fund for Native American families that have lost their daughters to sex trafficking, and that ABC broadcast “Somebody’s Daughter,” a documentary about murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls. They want ABC to produce a public service announcement on the issue, and a meaningful contribution toward the establishment of an advocacy fund for lobbying efforts.

These demands were not adequately addressed. Apparently ABC attempted to ~remedy~ this by asking "to verify accuracy in the show's depiction of a fictional version of their tribal office and an exterior military seal." One of the scenes took place in a fictitious version of the office of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT).

The Tribes' response:

"This is not how you connect with a sovereign nation. You haven’t offered to share the script, and you have not hired any Native filmmakers. It seems the studio that brought us the animated Pocahontas will continue to tell American Indian stories without Indigenous writers or filmmakers... Shame on you for your unacceptable behavior."

Here is a good resource to quickly educate yourself on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis.

I understand that everyone's excited to see Jensen in a new role, albeit a small one. But if you've not been watching this show previously, based on the sound of this, it's a good idea to not start watching and avoid getting invested so you avoid giving it excessive support. You can look up Jensen's clips if you're interested, enjoy the GIFs, or find an alternative way to watch that episode specifically without contributing to ABC's official streaming numbers, without using Big Sky's hashtags or key words on social media to increase their interest numbers, etc. Be cognizant of this, please.

Consider donating to the nonprofit organization Native Hope–even a very small amount–to help the Indigenous people this affects.

Please also share this post to spread awareness, especially if you're going to be talking about Jensen's scenes in this show.

Thank you so much Anon for bringing this to my attention! I’ve shared this on Twitter as well over at @CharCubed. Everyone feel free to share this post wherever.

All information and quotes in this post are taken from the articles linked throughout, so it should be pretty solid. But if I've misrepresented anything about this Indigenous issue or about Indigenous culture, someone please let me know.

[90363462]

Commentary

Kanye West's ‘Drink Champs’ episode failed us all

At this point, it’s time to turn off Ye’s mic

Last week, when SpringHill Company CEO Maverick Carter announced it would not air Kanye West’s appearance on The Shop due to his “hate speech,” it felt like a turning point in the rapper’s prolonged vile publicity run. Finally, outlets — namely, Black outlets — were pushing back and refusing to air West’s nonsense, even if it meant missing out on viral moments. That pivot, however, was short-lived.

Just a couple of days after The Shop interview got clipped, Drink Champs — the Revolt podcast where hosts Noreaga and DJ EFN interview musicians while drinking copious amounts of liquor — announced that West, who now goes by Ye, would be on the show. The resulting episode that aired Sunday was three hours of antisemitism, anti-Blackness, falsehoods about the murder of George Floyd while in police custody, and Jewish people in the music industry. The entire fiasco was a disgrace, and the worst moment in Drink Champs’ history. It was also a reminder that Black outlets have a responsibility to be better in how we treat the people who stand to suffer the most from Ye’s antics — and, yes, even how we treat Ye, by keeping his rhetoric off of these platforms. Especially if they’re going to go unchallenged in real time.

Related Story

‘Logged In’: Lil Nas X shocks Twitter, Kanye West’s White Lives Matter T-shirt, and Uno shenanigans

Drink Champs started as fun. It featured rapper Noreaga hanging out with his rap friends, drinking a whole lot and reminiscing about the good old days. As the platform grew, eventually landing at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Revolt TV network, the show became a touchstone in pop culture, a must for any musician trying to gain support for a new project or get attention in general. But these stops, and the increased visibility of the show, put Noreaga in situations where he was simply in over his head.

For instance, when he encouraged former NBA champion Lamar Odom, who has struggled with addiction, to drink to the point of intoxication, it led to a misunderstanding that almost ended in a fight. A few months later, Noreaga held a conversation about Black Lives Matter in the midst of the protests that occurred in response to Floyd’s murder and had record executive Russell Simmons as a guest soon after a documentary about his sexual assault accusations had been released.

And then there were Ye’s appearances.

It’s been years since Ye wrapped himself in the Confederate flag (like he did in 2013), and began spouting things like “slavery was a choice.” So when Ye appeared on Drink Champs a year ago, it didn’t come as a surprise that he’d continue on that same path, insulting anyone and everyone close to him. But the Ye that appeared on Drink Champs on Sunday was even further gone than the one from last year. This Ye has become friends with conservative commentator Candace Owens, is trying to sell shirts that say “White Lives Matter,” has tweeted out “death con 3” for Jews, and targeted a Black female journalist because she criticized his antics.

Ye has also been open about his mental health struggles. This makes Drink Champs’ choice to give Ye alcohol, offer him a blunt (as Noreaga did), and allow him an open mic to continue his rants unchecked, even more irresponsible.

When Ye said that George Floyd died from a fentanyl overdose and not a result of the physical pressure applied to his neck by then-Minneapolis police officerDerek Chauvin, Noreaga and DJ EFN just nodded silently — much like they did last week when Boosie spread his anti-gay bias about needing to enforce “normal sex” on children so they don’t “get swayed the other way.” The hosts also never checked him for insinuating that fashion designer Virgil Abloh died from something other than cancer. And they allowed him to continue his antisemitism with lies that Jewish execs owned all of the record labels.

Noreaga called in to The Breakfast Club Monday morning to apologize for not checking Ye during his rant about Floyd, which only served to demonstrate how ill-equipped he was to handle such an interview. “I just wanna be honest, I support freedom of speech,” he said. “I support anybody, you know, not being censored. But I do not support anybody being hurt. I did not realize that the George Floyd statements on my show was so hurtful.

“You gotta realize, it was the first five minutes of the show,” Noreaga continued. “When he walked in, he told my producer, he said that if he stop filming, he’ll walk out.”

Refusing to refute Ye’s assertion about Floyd’s murder is even more of an indication that publicity and attention were more important to Noreaga than standing up to his friend. Noreaga also invoked friendship, particularly with Jewish people, to distance himself from Ye’s antisemitic remarks.

“I don’t support none of it,” he said. “I don’t support the George Floyd comments, the antisemitic comments. All I have is Jewish friends, all I have is Black friends. That’s it.”

Previously, Noreaga has hidden behind the idea that he’s not a real journalist, even though he’s declared himself to be one before. Even if Noreaga isn’t a journalist, he’s still a Black man and human being. And all it should take is a morsel of humanity to stop Ye while he’s yelling out hate speech. But the buck doesn’t stop with Noreaga and DJ EFN.

Related Story

‘White Lives Matter’ Kanye is a provocateur who dismisses Black pain

For the episode of Drink Champs to see the light of day, various people had to watch, approve and publish it. Revolt did run a story fact-checking Ye’s rant (though it contained its own inaccuracies), but it was taken down. It’s also telling that Combs, who is always front and center when it comes to hip-hop, has been silent on this issue, though he did call Ye out over the “White Lives Matter” shirts. There’s no excuse for any journalistic entity, let alone a Black-owned one, to allow three hours of unfettered anti-Blackness to air on its platform. There’s no merit to letting West unleash hell on marginalized people, beyond Revolt and Drink Champs getting more views and cashing out. But at what cost? Letting Ye spew his rhetoric does not only do a disservice to his Black fan base, it’s also grossly unfair to Ye himself with his history of mental health issues.

I reached out to Noreaga and Revolt for comment, but I have yet to hear back.

Some of West’s fans are still enamored with the old Ye who made classics and wasn’t an enemy of Black people. But this isn’t a blip on his publicity radar anymore. At the very least, we should understand the danger of allowing him to disseminate hate speech and stop airing it. Because all we’re doing is harming our audiences, our own credibility and West himself. All parties deserve better.

David Dennis Jr. is a senior writer at Andscape and an American Mosaic Journalism Prize recipient. His book, The Movement Made Us, will be released in 2022. David is a graduate of Davidson College.

[jamlavender]

Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss: Mrs Coulter, misogyny and the His Dark Materials TV show

The show went hard on misogyny as a vital part of Mrs Coulter’s backstory, and I want to talk about how they did it, and why, and how it might have been done better. This is quite long (when is anything I write not, let’s be real) so it’s under the cut. Read on for thoughts on women, power and fictional villainy.

As a quick disclaimer, though: I’ve enjoyed the show a lot! I’m so glad they made it! Ruth Wilson is mesmerising as Mrs Coulter! There’s so much to appreciate about the show overall, including many aspects of Mrs Coulter’s portrayal. But the HDM team have also made gender politics and misogyny very explicit themes of the show – particularly season two, particularly season two, episode five – and I think it’s fair to critique that.

Let’s be clear: Mrs Coulter is a villain. She murders kids by tearing out their souls. She kills and tortures friends and foes alike without a second thought. She abuses her daughter. She upholds and advances a totalitarian regime. She’s a Bad Person, as confirmed by God himself with the unforgettable line: “You are a cesspit of moral filth.” She’s fucking terrible, but, in life as in art, many of us are fascinated by how such awful people are made. What drives someone to commit atrocities? I am keen to see such questions examined in fiction, because I don’t think exploring a character necessarily means excusing their actions, and because it’s interesting (I mean, of course I find her fascinating, I’ve written a novel’s worth of fic about her). However, after a few snarky comments (“What sort of woman raised Father Graves, do you think?”) and some subtler commentary on sexuality, gender and power (her unsettling MacPhail with the key in the bra in S1E2), S2E5 drew a weird line between sexism in Mrs Coulter’s professional and academic life and her vast and senseless institutionalised child murder, and the longer I’ve sat with that the more I’m like: what the fuck?

Look, Mrs Coulter doesn’t tear apart children to search for sin inside them and poison Boreal and break a witch’s fingers because she’s experienced sexism in the workplace and in her education. That’s… a very odd thing to imply. We have to remember that there are lots of women in Lyra’s world, all of whom will also have experienced sexism, misogyny and other forms of marginalisation (many in more expansive and pernicious ways than Mrs Coulter, who’s a woman, yes, but also white, wealthy, highly educated and very thin and beautiful), and none of them are running arctic torture stations. She will have experienced misogyny, absolutely, and that will have affected her in various ways that inform how she approaches her work, but to imply that being denied a doctorate is the reason she became a sadistic killer is frankly bizarre. Here are a few of the lines from that episode with my commentary:

“Do you know who I could have been in this world?” What does this mean? If she’d been roughly the same person in our world, the answer is: Margaret Thatcher, which is probably a step down for Marisa, all things considered, because the Magisterium is far more autocratic than any recent Tory government and would be a much easier institutional environment in which to enact her cruelty. What we’re supposed to think, clearly, is that she’d have been a different person: a scientist and a mother, and she’s had this realisation because she saw a woman with a baby and a laptop and had a three-minute conversation with Mary. This doesn’t make sense. We live in our world! It’s less repressive than Lyra’s world but it’s hardly a gender utopia. If Mrs Coulter had chosen the scientist-and-mother life (which, as I’ll revisit later, she could have done in her world but chose not to because of her megalomaniac tendencies), she’d still have been affected by misogyny here too. Our world is not kind to young mothers, nor young women embroiled in scandals, nor is the world teeming with female physicists. It might be a little better, sure, but it’s hardly as if those gendered challenges would have been solved.  

“What do you mean she runs a department?” This is just the show forgetting its own canon. Marisa, you ran a massive government organisation (the GOB), including a huge murder science research initiative in the Arctic. That’s a much bigger undertaking and much more impressive than running a university department in our world. Pull yourself together.

“But because I was a woman, I was denied a doctorate by the Magisterium.” This is the show flagrantly ignoring the source material to make a clumsy political point. In the books, there are women with doctorates (notably Hannah Relf, also a major player in the new Book of Dust trilogy) and at least one women’s college full of female scholars. Now, would that women’s college likely be underfunded and disrespected compared to the men’s colleges? Almost certainly. But saying that is different than saying “I couldn’t get my doctorate!” when women in Lyra’s world can. The show knew what point they wanted to make, and were willing to ignore canon to do so, which is frustrating. Also, given that there are female academics and scientists in Lyra’s world, and that Mrs Coulter is a member of St Sophia’s college, it’s clear that she could have lived that life if she so desired. But she didn’t want that, because being a scientist and academic at St Sophia’s imbues her with no real power, and that’s what she craves.

I’m not opposed, in theory, to exploring Mrs Coulter and misogyny in more depth, but I think doing so through an examination of the sexual politics of her life would have made a lot more narrative sense and been much more powerful. It’s better evidenced in the text – her using her sexuality to manipulate people and taking lovers for political sway is entirely canon, as is her backstory where genuine love and lust blew up her life – and it links much more closely with the most shocking of her villainy, which involves cutting out children’s dæmons to stop them developing “troublesome thoughts and feelings,” referencing sexual and romantic desire (and what Lyra and Will do to save Dust is clearly a big ‘fuck you’ to those aims). She even says this to MacPhail in TAS, “If you thought for one moment that I would release my daughter into the care - the care! - of a body of men with a feverish obsession with sexuality, men with dirty fingernails, reeking of ancient sweat, men whose furtive imaginations would crawl over her body like cockroaches - if you thought I would expose my child to that, my Lord President, you are more stupid than you take me for.” Don’t get me wrong, she’d have been a villain regardless, but I do believe that there’s a much stronger link between her sexual and romantic experiences and her murder work than between professional and academic stifling and child murder. It would have been a lot more interesting and a lot less tenuous.

However, the show is trying to be family-friendly, and digging into why this terrible, cruel woman might want to cut the ability for desire and love (and other non-sexual adult feelings, I’m sure) out of people could get dark. We know that the show doesn’t want to go there, because they’ve actively toned down her weaponising her sexuality: in the books, she has an established sexual relationship with Boreal, whereas the show made it seem like she’s been stringing him along all this time, and made it about potentially ‘sharing a life’ together rather than fucking, which was clearly the arrangement in the books. Also, I think Ruth Wilson said she and Ariyon Bakare filmed a “steamy scene” together, and given that only a single chaste kiss between them aired it must have been cut. I think they deliberately minimised the sexual elements of the text, particularly regarding Mrs Coulter (the mountain scene with Asriel, which I did still love, was also a lot less horny than in the book) and replaced that with another gender issue, that of professional sexism, as if the two are interchangeable, which they are not. This is a shame, both for Mrs Coulter’s character and also for the story as a whole, because the characters’ relationships with sex and desire are an important part of the books! (If this minimised sexuality approach means that they don’t use the TAS scene where Asriel threatens to gag her and she tries to goad him into doing it, I’ll scream). Overall, I think they missed the mark here, which is a shame because I also think it could have been done well, if they’d been bolder and darker and more thoughtful.

Why might this happen? Why might the show take this approach? Why might it be latched onto by viewers? Personally, I think the conversations we have about women and power are very simplistic, which leaves us in a tight spot when we see women seizing power for themselves (even in fiction) and weaponising that against others, not just other women but people of all genders, because we struggle to move past ‘women have overall been denied power, so them taking it ‘back’ is good,’ even if that immediately becomes a hot mess of white, corporate feminism and results in the ongoing oppression of many people. I think we are so hungry for representations of powerful women that we – producers and viewers alike – struggle to see them as bad, because it’s uncomfortable to be so intoxicated by Mrs Coulter effortlessly dominating the men around her, subverting systems designed to marginalise her for her own benefit, and generally being aggressive and intelligent and ruthless, and then realise that you are entranced by someone who is, objectively, a terrible, terrible person. It can be hard to realise that if you channelled the energy of someone who mesmerises you, you’d be the villain. So instead of sitting with that (more on this below), a lot of legwork goes into reworking her villainy into, somehow, a just act, a result of oppression, as her taking back power that has been denied to her, rather than grappling with the fact that for anyone to desire power in such a merciless way, even if they have to overcome marginalisation to get it, is really, really dangerous.

The joy, of course, is that Mrs Coulter is not real! She’s not real! Adoring fictional characters does not mean condoning their (imaginary) decisions, nor do stories exist for each person in them to fit neatly into a good or bad box so you know who you’re allowed to love. Furthermore, fiction can be a fabulous tool for exploring and interrogating the parts of yourself that, if left to bloom unexamined, might perpetuate beliefs or behaviour that cause harm to others. Mrs Coulter doesn’t need to be a feminist or taking down the patriarchy or a righteous powerful woman to illuminate things about gender, power and feminism for those reading and watching. In fact, it’s important that we explore what happens when women (most commonly white, wealthy women, as she is) continue to perpetuate brutal systems under the guise of sticking it to ‘men,’ because it happens all the time in the real world, and it’s a serious issue. Finding characters like Mrs Coulter so cool and compelling doesn’t make you a bad person, but it might tell you something about yourself – not that you want to be a villain or kill kids or whatever, but something about how you relate to your gender or women or men or power – and that knowledge can be useful! We all have better and worse impulses, and finding art that helps us make sense of ourselves, both the good and bad parts, is a gift that we should relish.

Anyway, tl;dr, Mrs Coulter doesn’t need to be sympathetic or understandable or redeemable to be brilliant – but you wouldn’t know that from how she’s been portrayed in the new adaptation.

[lesserfandomappreciation]

Is that Supa Strikers show really that great? Would I like it even if I don’t like soccer/football? (I’m asking because I’ve never seen it. In fact, your posts are the only reason I know it exists at all.)

Okay. Okay, okay I was going to work on requests during this meeting but then I saw this and I have many feelings on this show so you're getting an essay. Buckle up son. Brief History

For those not in the know, Supa Strikas is a series from South Africa that started as a futbol-themed comic in I want to say the early 2000s. It quickly gained popularity throughout most of Africa and today is published in Latin-America, South America, Africa, some parts of Europe and Asia.

Almost every continent has this comic. You cannot tell me that isn't cool and also very telling of how many people like this series.

Seeing the comic get so popular so fast, a TV show followed up in 2009 by the same name and is still going to this day. This series has been along longer than most presidential terms.

The show had a similar story with only slight character changes, and while the entirety of the 2021 season is already out, there are signs that they may be more coming out in 2022 so. Fingers crossed!

What is it about?

The story centers around Shakes, a young futbol player who has recently joined the Supa Strikas, a team based in an unspecified African country. The comic follows the team winning the Super League during different seasons, going around the world to find out new techniques, deal with teams that cheat and overcome their own inner problems as well.

The series differs from the comics in that we don't see Shakes' journey to becoming a Supa Strika and we don't get the official names for the characters either, only their nicknames. Wikipedia has their official names listed I think, but if anyone whose read the comics wishes to tell me, by all means do so.

It's a pretty straight forward storyline, with some good story consistency (characters who appear in one episode do show up again and are given consistent writing). Very episodic.

Why should I watch the series?

The series is fun. Sincerely, un-apologetically fun.

The main characters get good screen time and we get to see some fun, decently written personalities that act off each other well. The Supa Strikas is a team of himbos but different varieties of himbos and I love them for it. You do get the feeling that this is a group of people that cares for each other, not a group of characters just shoved together because the series said so.

The side-characters are also great. Some of them are a little one-note but many of them are just as crazy, if not more fun, than the main characters of the show. There's an American dude named Ninja whose entire gimmick is that he's a reality star fame-seeking dude straight out of Las Vegas and I love him. He's one of the tamer character concepts.

Coach. That is all.

There's a vast array of diverse representation. While the Supa Strikas team is the only team is they only team of mixed nationalities (South African, Jamaican, Brazilian, Spanish, etc) every team is representing a different country. There's a Brazilian Team, a Mexican Team, a Saudi Arabian Team and many others.

In connection - the Supa Strikas have players from around the world. Dancing Rasta is Jamaican, the captain of the team, an incredibly competent leader and very down-to-earth. You do have players that are a little stereotypical (North Shaw is an Australian who loves extreme sports, shocker) but are written in ways that you find yourself not minding.

It's funny. There's a lot of good moments both in writing and in the animation. As someone who got to study animation, I can say without a shadow of doubt that the team behind the character animations had no fear in pushing what they can do and making the characters feel fun.

Some of the stereotypes used in the show are used well and are written in a fairly respectful way. El Matador, a Spanish player, fills the stereotype of being a self-absorbed Spaniard. but he's also written to care for friends and to be very competent in other areas. Plus, there are other Spanish characters like Riano that are nothing like that and have distinctly different personalities. As a Spaniard, I found this to be a good writing choice. These jokes are seen less as insults and more like friendly barbs between most countries and it doesn't detract from the show.

The technology. It's a running gag that the tech used to train the guys is progressively more outrageous.

No forced romance storylines! There's no character moment where boy meets girl and then we're stuck watching this inevitable couple find reasons to not be a couple. It's nice to not have the forced hetero-normative relationships we see in a lot of other shows.

To that end, fantastic healthy male friendships! There's no "no homo" moment and the characters all have very good chemistry. Again, you feel like they're actually friends. They all have different dynamics too, so the friendships don't feel uniform and stale.

Good emotional moments.

Bromances for the win! Genuinely shocked there's not more fandom for it considering the sheer quantity of POSSIBILITIES of bromances and potential ships to work with.

It's 100% fine if you don't know anything about futbol. The show shows literally what matters, not every single little throw-in, and most times there's some world-breaking nonsense going on that distracts from that. There's literally an episode where the opposing team changes gravity on the the field to try and beat the Supa Strikas, the rules barely matter. I promise you, you don't need to know what "Offsides" means in order to watch.

The commentators. I love them both.

The episodes are varied in stories. There's ones about training, ones about exploring a different country, others where the opponents cheat, etc. There's an episode which is almost a murder mystery and I love it.

All the episodes can be found free online on Youtube on the official channel for the show. I love this creative team so much.

There's a lot of good writing choices!

What might I not like about the show?

Some people like episodic shows, some don't. For those in the latter category this may drive them away from Supa Strikas.

There's like. 4 female characters. I can see why they did that, but I can also see why that is upsetting (speaking as a woman who is very tired of the Smurfette principle). The humor may not be for everyone. That's more based on personality, because I think there's something for everyone, but there are jokes that I recognize fall quite flat.

In connection to that, the stereotypes. Like I mentioned earlier, the show utilizes and breaks some stereotypes very well. There's a character (Spenza) who is written to be the chubby comic relief that is also 9/10 times the guy who saves LITERALLY EVERYONE from trouble and gets recognized for it, for example. However, the entire Japanese team is a karate-based team with a Coach named Ura Giri who wears Chinese clothes despite being Japanese. The German team is just a military branch and, while funny, might be offensive depending on which German you ask. It can be detracting from the show.

There's some bad writing choices that can be rough, but they are episode centric.

What should I do?

Watch the show. Give it 2-3 episodes and if it doesn't grab you, okay! You tried! If it does, welcome! it's literally for free on youtube, Seasons 1 through the last number I can't remember. I watch it when I'm working on something because it's fun and gets me to laugh, you might watch it with a bowl of popcorn. Just do your own thing!

If you do like it though, come back, hit me up with talks and questions about it. Besides multydoodles I haven't found a lot of people who really are into it so come! Join us! One of us!

Hope this mini-essay helped out and that the show works out for you!

[sophieakatz]

Thursday Thoughts: Marvel What If’s Women Problem

Welcome back to the feminist rant!

I really didn’t intend to spend three weeks in a row writing about the Marvel animated series What If…? But I wanted to see this through.

Last week we talked about this show’s abundant use of the “fridged woman” trope. However, a show doesn’t need to kill its female characters in order to fail them.

Remember that time I made up a feminist movie test? I call it the “Want Test.” You can read the full explanation here, but here’s the summary:

This test requires that a film (or, in this case, an episode of a TV show) has at least one named female character. After watching the show, ask, “Does what the named female character want matter to the plot?” Then, score the movie based on the answer to this question.

If the answer is “Yes, what the named female character wants matters to the plot,” then give the movie a checkmark!”

If the answer is “Yes, AND this is true of multiple named female characters,” then the movie gets a check-plus. If these characters help each other get what they want, the movie gets a check-double-plus!

If the answer is “Yes, BUT her wants are an obstacle to a male character’s goal,” then the movie gets a check-minus. The woman may matter to the plot, but her importance is centered on her relationship to a male character and how much he matters to the plot. Often movies with a check-minus involve a male protagonist actively trying to stop a female character from getting what she wants; while she has an impact on the world around her, the movie isn’t rooting for the woman.

If the answer is “No, what she wants doesn’t matter,” then the movie fails the test. Give it a minus.

Okay, now let’s talk about Marvel What If. Once again, there are spoilers for the first seven episodes of this show below the cut, and some discussion of the plot points in the movies these episodes are based on.

When I compare the first seven episodes of What If to the Want Test, they each barely scrape their way to a check-minus (though after my rant last week, I’m tempted to edit my test so that a show that fridges a female character automatically fails). In summary, it does not matter what most of the named female characters want. Each episode has a single woman whose wants do affect the plot, but what she wants is always some kind of obstacle to a male character’s goal. Even when the women of What If survive the episode, the male characters’ feelings are the primary engine of the show.

As I neared the end of Episode Six, “What If… Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?” I said to myself, “Well, at least Pepper and Shuri aren’t dead.” But then, in the last minute of the episode, Shuri and Pepper meet and state their intent to take down Killmonger. And I said to myself, “Okay, so why didn’t we get THAT episode?”

Sure, it’s cool to see two smart girls teaming up, but they don’t get to do anything! This episode repeatedly puts Pepper and Shuri down. Every time they express suspicion of Killmonger, someone contradicts them. What they want does not matter. They are obstacles to the men, and they are easily pushed aside, and so all they can do is stand in the background and watch while the boys run around and play war games.

If your named female characters only matter in the last scene of the show, then they don’t really matter. This episode wasn’t about the women at all. It was about the men killing each other and making each other sad.

*

I really don’t want to say much about the seventh episode, “What If… Thor Were an Only Child?”

What I will say is, “Why, why, WHY is Dr. Jane Foster more concerned about hurting the hot guy’s feelings than she is about how the hot guy is about to cause the end of the world?”

And I will also say, “Why does Captain Marvel need to be nice to Thor at the end of the episode after he spent the entire episode being a jackass to her?”

And I will end this section of the blog post by saying, “Frigga deserves so much better than any man in her family has ever given her.”

*

The second episode of this show, “What If… T’Challa Became a Star-Lord?” might be my favorite episode. Mainly because it’s the only one I genuinely liked while I was watching it. It was fun, and I was happy to hear Chadwick Boseman’s voice one more time. Overall, it’s a lovely tribute to both the actor and his character.

But, for me, liking this episode required ignoring a big problem: Nebula and Thanos’s relationship.

We don’t know exactly when in this timeline T’Challa met Thanos and convinced him to give up on the “murder half the universe” plan. But we do know that even before Thanos collected the Infinity Stones, he was roaming the universe slaughtering millions. We know he committed genocide against Gamora’s people the day he “adopted” her, and it’s safe to assume he did the same to Nebula’s. We know that he raised Gamora and Nebula to fight each other, and every time Nebula lost a fight, he replaced a part of her body with cybernetics, constantly torturing her.

What If never tells us that that Thanos did not abuse his daughters. It never tells us that he did not slaughter millions, including his daughters’ birth families. But it does tell us that Thanos is Nebula’s father. And he wouldn’t be her father if he hadn’t been roaming the universe killing people.

In this episode, we see an adult Nebula who seems to think her dad is annoying, but any feelings she might have about how genuinely terrible he is – feelings she was freely willing to admit in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies – go completely unmentioned.

Thanos and Nebula’s relationship is played for laughs, like they just need to get over their past and hug it out. That bothers me a lot. It’s like the show is saying that Nebula’s pain doesn’t matter. What matters is that Thanos is sad she doesn’t want to hang out with him.

I should also point out that in Avengers: Infinity War, Gamora gets fridged. Her feelings are unimportant to the plot; her stated desire to die before she can be used as a part of Thanos’s plot is mocked and discarded. When she is murdered, the moment of her death is all about how it would hurt Thanos to kill her. Gamora’s death also serves as motivation for Peter Quill to sabotage the other heroes’ efforts to stop Thanos.

Gamora is nowhere to be seen in this episode of What If. The women that Thanos abused really don’t matter here at all.

*

I’ve been putting off talking about this show’s pilot episode, “What If… Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?” This episode was… You know, it was fun, in a very similar way to how the Star Lord T’Challa episode was fun. I can’t lie and say I didn’t like seeing super buff Peggy Carter beat the crap out of Nazis. That was a lot of fun.

But the thing I couldn’t stop thinking while watching was, “This isn’t Peggy’s story. It’s Steve’s!”

Peggy Carter may have gotten the super serum in this reality, but Steve Rogers is still the main driving force of the plot. Peggy goes to Germany to save Steve’s best friend. She works with Steve’s allies, the Howling Commandoes, instead of finding her own. Steve’s issues and emotions are central to everything Peggy does; she may say in dialogue that she wants to end the war, but what we see is that Steve is her motivation. In fact, he’s everyone’s motivation – in the scene where Peggy, Bucky, Howard, and the Howling Commandoes decide to go take down Red Skull, they all go around the table and say that they’re doing it “for Steve.” Not because ending the war is the right thing to do, not because they care about the millions of people murdered and tortured by the Nazis – but because they care about Steve.

When I first heard about this show, I thought that Steve was going to die, and that would be why Captain Carter would exist. The interesting/ironic thing here is that the episode pokes at the idea of fridging Steve, but it doesn’t quite have the guts to go through with it. Everyone thinks that Steve died on the train, but then they find him in Red Skull’s castle, and he’s totally fine! Killing off Captain America would have been an interesting, powerful new direction to take the story. But this episode doesn’t seem interested in taking new directions. It seems more interested in showing how things would stay the same even if Steve didn’t get the serum, even if Peggy switched careers from secret agent to superhero, even if Bucky never became the Winter Soldier, even if Red Skull decided to open a portal to tentacle hell. Things just stay the same.

And I don’t get the point of presenting us with a show where there are “endless possibilities” if things are just going to stay the same. If Peggy Carter will still be a side character in Steve Roger’s story. If Hank Pym’s grief still matters more than Janet and Hope Van Dyne’s lives. If Thanos will still never be held accountable for abusing Gamora and Nebula. If Doctor Strange is still an arrogant jackass. If the only realities we see are ones where men get to act and feel, and women get to be plot devices.

The truth is that the Watcher just isn’t interested in showing us realities where women live and thrive in their own right. For all its emphasis on how different decisions can cause dramatic changes to reality, the creators of What If have no real investment in making different decisions in how they portray female characters. It’s just more of the same.

I’m done thinking about this show. Let’s talk about something else next week, okay?

Be good to yourself, be kind to each other, and you’ll hear from me again soon!

[aloneeedra]

The Smile Has Left Your Eyes (2018)

Where to watch it: VIKI (free with Ads)

Episodes: 16

Summary: How do I summarize this without spoiling it? Basically, the main lead can't feel things or something and he starts hooking up with the rich girl who happens to be best friends with the female lead. (Wild). The female lead has an older brother who is kind of a cop and is kind of investigating a murder case. As the main leads start getting closer, the brother starts to suspect that the first male lead is involved with the murder case. Then about a little more than halfway through the drama, this plotline is thrown into a volcano with all good characters, and the last few episodes involve the same flashback being shown again and again and again and again until finally, it ends.

Rating: 6/10

Best Part: Let's do the Worst Part first. Spoilers.

Worst Part: okay so basically after the original plot burst into flames, they catch the murder and the best friend ends up dying. She dies in a car crash that was caused by her ex-boyfriend while the main lead guy is in the seat next to her. He's involved in the car accident but then goes missing for a couple of days while he gets taken to like a secret hospital and when he leaves the hospital the brother confronts him and the main guy is like 'I would do it all again even though I know that the best friend would die' (Because the main male technically causes the accident to happen by trying to win over the ex-boyfriend. You would think this would be important enough for me to explain it more, but it really doesn't matter whether you know or not because, again, it's thrown into a volcano and forgotten) and so the brother goes to the main female lead and is like 'this guy [the main male lead] is insane, stay away from him and so, of course, the main girl lead confronts the main male lead too and while confronting him she reveals that while her best friend was in the hospital, literally on her death bed, she was worried about him (cause, you know, he was taken to the secret hospital and was 'missing'). So that was the moment I was like 'whatnow' and it only got worse from there. After the main female lead confessed her feelings to the guy responsible for the death of her only friend, she breaks up with the second romance male lead (honestly this guy deserves so much better) and then goes back to the main male lead and like wants to date him now and he's like idk but he also likes her and she's like 'i can fix you' and that's when I paused it and started to laugh. This was made in 2018. I thought we were past romanticizing this abusive shit. ANyways. So then they start dating but 'shhh' it's a secret from the older brother. Until it's not and the older brother (who I thought was pretty chill up to this point) finds out and stabs the main male, but the main male doesn't report him and instead goes to this doctor that he knows and then that's when the drama starts to focus on the same flashback for like six episodes and it starts to hint that maybe the main male and female are actually long lost siblings (which of course is connected to that one flashback) and Ummm... I already didn't like this couple. It was already cringe that it was wayyyy too easy for the main girl to just forget her friend. I also didn't think the leads had good chemistry (though the kisses are nice, I must admit). Not to mention the two leads both don't have friends which harm them as characters in my opinion because we only get to see them when they are together or when they are talking to the brother. Doing this is kind of like sucking the life out of the drama. We're not really 'a part' of their lives at this point- like we aren't pulled into their world, we're just watching them. ANyways we don't find out until the very end if they are or aren't siblings, but by that point, it doesn't matter, I'm too grossed out already. And the ending, in my opinion, was unnecessary. It does nothing. So. Those are the worst parts. No friends. Might be siblings. Bad brother. Shit relationships. Bad ending. The last half of the drama is the worst part.

In the comments on VIKI (which if you do end up watching this drama, I highly recommend you put them on) a lot of people were saying that this was their favorite drama. Which, each to their own I guess, but personally, I can say with the most confidence that this is not my favorite drama.

Best Part: I finished it so obviously it isn't too bad. Not too long ago I watched the drama Save Me (2017) and I liked it and Woo Do-hwan so much that I decided to watch another drama where Woo Do-hwan starred in, Tempted (2017), and I hated it. I couldn't finish it and I didn't make it very far either, so I didn't make a review on it since I didn't think it was fair reviewing something I couldn't finish. Watching it felt a lot like watching reality tv for me, where my brain just becomes this mess and feels a lot like it's rotting or something. Idk, I just couldn't do it. (Though, I think it should also be mention that I do not like Cruel Intentions (which is another remake made in America based on the same story that Tempted was based on. So it could be that I just didn't like the story at all.). Anyways, The Smile Has Left Your Eyes (2018) has the edginess that I feel Tempted was trying to capture but failed to do so. So kudos to them for that.

Do I Recommend it: no. Now if you like Tempted (2017) I think you'll like this. So watch it if that's the case. However, I do not think this drama has anything good to say or even has anything to say at all. It has no point and tbh I don't even consider it a thriller. I don't recommend it.

[freakygirlie]

YEs! Please give your take on the J&G PR show. I'm relatively new to the fandom and have only recently begun watching interviews/cons. One thing that's always bothered me (even before I started shipping j2 and being on the fence about tinhatting), was how MUCH J tries to talk about Gen...but always in the SAME way. Like everytime he has to talk about "fave moment" etc, it's always the same exact answer. When he talks about how amazing she is, it's always the same narrative and tone too. I get that there are people out there who like to talk about their SO whenever possible, but for me it always felt so forced and cringey. Which. He comes off as someone who's desperately trying to paint his spouse in an amazing light, tooting her horn etc, while the rest of the world is left scratching their heads when she doesn't measure up. It's all so weird. Now especially with all this PR stuff for Walker when she is no where near being the female lead. I feel bad for Lindsey. Like, J and LINDSEY should being doing all the joint interviews.

Hi anon! Welcome to the fandom! Hope you have fun(or as much fun as possible) scrolling through our fandom and tinhat blogs if you’re looking to be persuaded!<33

I’m going to start this off by first saying: I’m not a gigantic stan of Gen’s or Jay and G’s marriage. Tbvh even before i became a tinhat, or found out that there were people who shipped them/believed they were together, I wasn’t overly invested in any of the J’s marriages. I’ve always been a big fan of j2 first and foremost, and then came the rest. 

Now, for my take on the J&G pr show. Let’s go a little further back, just a tiny summary-ish of my thoughts and then we’ll tackle recent events. 

Everything you’ve said anon, is exactly what I think, and so so very true. Sometimes, I don’t know what het stans see in the marriage. I remember watching some of their interactions before I got involved in the tinhatting part of the fandom and always, I would always get such weird vibes from it. Forget the interactions, everything J says about her felt so forced. It was like he was trying to make her out to be this perfect goddess when she wasn’t. 

If I was a het stan or wanted to become one i would’ve hightailed it outta there in a week or something. Has anyone ever noticed that whenever Jared and Gen get asked about their marriage all they can say is: Working relationship is excellent! She’s a great mother! Handles everything so well! I fell in love with her on s4! Working relationship, kids, work, kids, mother, father, THAT’S IT! You’d think after 11 years of marriage they’d find something else to say about each other. It’s always the same narrative, same tone, same answer, GOD. It’s so boring and flat, idk how ppl put up with it. The contrast in how Jared talks about Jensen and his relationship with him and when he talks about Gen and his relationship with her IS HUGE. You can see it for yourself anon. J talks so much about G and that wouldn’t be a bad thing! Who wouldn’t love their S/O hyping them up and loving them all the time? And it’d be beautiful to witness...if it wasn’t the same thing over and over and over again. Look at the recent ‘The Talk CBS’ interview. They’re still hyping the marriage up(after 11 years!) like they’re trying to prove something is there even when it’s not. And even then, it’s all work, kids, work, kids. I don’t want to know about your work and kids! We’ve heard it a billion times! If you’re so in love, why can’t you find the chance to say something about each other as a couple?? Like that’s the shit i’d be into, I want to know about you guys, as a couple as a team! But instead we get the same recycled shit all over again. It’s so weird and so suspicious. 

Now let’s talk about recent events. Let’s break a couple things here before we can address the absolute shitstorm that has been recent events, regarding the amount of PR Gen’s been getting despite being a guest star on the show.

What is Gen’s character on Walker? Cordell’s dead wife, Emily. The storyline is about her. Finding her murderer and solving her case, moving on from her death as a family. In case you haven’t seen Walker, it’s similar to the finding dad/mom’s killer storyline on spn. That’s the main goal, but there are quite a few other things sprinkled in between. Gen is a guest star. REMEMBER THAT.

What is Lindsey’s character on Walker? Micki Ramirez, Cordell’s partner, co-lead of the show, she has her own stable relationship with Jeff Pierre’s character Trey, her own backstory and storyline revolving around her mother and her being the first female as well as WOC and a Latina Texas Ranger. She’s learning to trust others, to do her job despite the discrimination, and to build meaningful relationships. Lindsey is a co-lead of the show. REMEMBER THAT.

Now normally, the leads would be promoting the show giving joint interviews and getting all sorts of press for it. Who are the leads? Jared and Lindsey. Who are not the leads? Gen. 

Why is she getting this much amount of attention and press when she’s a guest star on Walker?! Why is the co-lead being ignored and passed up for interviews??? Jared and LINDSEY should be the one giving joint interviews, not Jared and Gen. This is blatant nepotism. 

Some of the excuses for this situation are(which I will shoot down right before your eyes):

-It’s a pandemic: Um, so what video calling suddenly ceased to exist? Honey, CBS has given interviews with 2 people from 2 different places. Did y’all forget about the J2 interview where they were in two different locations? Why can’t this be done with Jared and Lindsey? Not to mention, controlled environments, masks, covid protocols exist! If entire episodes of TV shows are being filmed, why the hell can’t one small interview be too????

-They live together: This one is just dumb actually. Gen shouldn’t be getting this much press ON PRINCIPLE because she is a guest star!!!! In that case, Lindsey and Jared film everyday! Why can’t an interview happen then??? Including Gen in every interview Jared does is going to garner too much attention ALREADY HAS!!! Her living with him has nothing to do with her getting this amount of PR especially because whenever an interview is done with her, it’s always about her character!(the same line too: ‘’There’s more to come’’) her projects!(Towwn, her blog) and their marriage!(more PR). There’s nothing in their about Mantra, or Jared’s character or any of the other storylines! If you think fans aren’t going to be mad about it, do i have something to show you

-Only tinhats are complaining!: Nope. Lindsey stans are too, heck even het stans have found it odd. Do a little research. Lindsey has barely gotten any press for her very important and influential character on Walker. Gen’s barely there, dead character is getting wayyyyy too much attention.

-The storyline revolves around Emily: Saying that Gen should get all the interviews because the story is finding Emily’s killer is like saying JDM or Samantha should have gotten all the interviews in SPN because the story was finding dad/mom’s killer. If Emily was being played by another actress, she would have been number 7 or smth on the call sheet. She wouldn’t be getting this much amount of attention.

So why isn’t Lindsey getting press for her character? Why haven’t we even gotten a single selfie of Jared and Lindsey on set? You want to use the pandemic or storyline excuse for that one as well? 

Now yesterday, there was a war of sorts on Twitter regarding this very issue. After some time the acc @/TheWalkerWiki provided some info on as to why Lindsey wasn’t getting press. They’d said they had emailed her manager and found out that Lindsey had REFUSED press. She was on a hiatus. 

Let’s debunk this as well? Here we go!

@/TheWalkerWiki is a very genuine and helpful account. I have no doubt these emails are true. However the reasons that her manager and publicist have given...

No actress would willingly refuse press like this. It’s like kissing your career goodbye for fuck’s sake. Lindsey’s character is a lead, a female lead, WOC and a Latina, that sort of representation is so important! If they keep refusing press this way, people who don’t know about J&G’s PR team, will automatically think this is WOC hate. And all of us who know Jared, KNOW that Jared would never have interviews refused for Lindsey simply because she’s a women of color. Forget Jared, Lindsey would never do that.

And if she’s on a press hiatus...what about the promo she’s doing for her movie Skylines??? What about this and this interview she’s done for Walker(these are the only 2 I know of, and they too are solo and short.) Those emails are dated March 3rd. The show began on January 21st. What about all the interviews before March? What about NOW? In April??? Its the 22nd of April today(happy birthday JDM!<3). Where’s the explanation for this??? She’s been doing PR for her movie, what about her RIGHTFUL PR for Walker???

Long story short, it’s cross PR work. J&G’s PR have interfered with Lindsey’s. She’s made to keep quite about Walker(at least until the 1st season is over I’m assuming, till Emily’s storyline gets wrapped up) so someone else can ride the newfound success of the show, as well as Jared’s coattails, so they can get all the PR. It’s nepotism, blatant PR of J&G’s marriage. 

I feel terrible for Lindsey and her stans. They don’t know what a shitstorm they walked into.

Now what about the recent interview, The Talk CBS, J&G’s one. God, I’ve seen better interviews. It was the same forced, uncomfortable stance rearing it’s ugly head again, the same stance Jared always takes when in an interview with her. Body language says so much. Jared looked terribly uncomfortable and nervous. They were their same weird selves like they always are, the same awkward moves around each other and whatnot. Lord.

And the interview itself? Nothing but PR for Gen. It was about Gen’s character, her blog, her Towwn project, their marriage, the same boring narrative they’ve stuck to for the past 11 years. And the way they kept saying she was the star of the show??? Hun no. She ain’t. Lindsey is, but y’all are passing her up in the favor of the other star’s wife. They even included that zero chemistry shower video in the interview dhjdjfkslf. It was pointless. Mantra didn’t get any promo, Walker(except for dear old emily) didn’t get any promo, it was just another one of those ‘’let’s convince you we’re in a happy marriage together!’’ interview.

And Gen’s latest post about it. Have y’all looked at the caption?

‘‘don’t take our faces too seriously, i promise we had a good time’‘ THE FACT THAT SHE HAD TO SPECIFY THIS. It’s so highly sus. Not subtle.

And then the things that happened today. Linds reposting the cbs interview post on her acc with the caption ‘’TV’s Hottest Power Couple!’’ , her interacting with fans as if to reassure them she’s here, a sudden glitter magazine interview, Jared(or should I say Gen bc his recent tweet and ig story was not his regular posting/captioning style) on twitter qrting Gen’s post with that sus af caption. I’m completely sure Gen did that. She even replied like 3 minutes later to it. Back in the day spn goss would have jumped on this like anything. Because hello??? Sus as fuck behavior. I smell damage control. 

well there you go. go nuts. i’ve said it. i’m praying for the lindsey stans because see I don’t blame them in the slightest for getting fucking mad about the lack of attention towards Lindsey. 

wow this was long.

[popculturebuffet]

Darkwing Duck Reviews: Darkly Dawns the Duck Pts 1 and 2

It’s a Darkwing Double Feature! Just in time for his ducktales special, I take a look at the introduction of everyone’s favorite Daring Duck of Mystery. In his daring debut we meet Darkwing Duck, an egositical and attention hungry superhero who soon finds himself having to look after a feisty orphan to keep her from getting nabbed by local kingpin of crime Taurus Bulba with the help of his biggest fan. Darkwing owns the night under the cut with decades old spoilers. 

Let’s Get Dangerous.. is tommorow so with that in mind i’m doing a darkwing double feature to refresh myself before the big special. So i’ll be covering both the original series pilot “Darkly Dawns the Duck” and the ducktales reboot episode “The Duck Knight Returns”.  Let’s Get Dangerous Itself because I was so wiped yesterday I didn’t get the other review done and unexpectly got acess to the new episode way earlier than usual so i’d rather focus on that. Got it? Good. Let’s continue past me. 

As usual with a new show a breif bit about my history with it: I watched it years ago, as a friend of mine lent me the first two discs of the season 1 dvd and never found the third one nor asked for them back, nor cared I had them. I thoughtly enjoyed it, had a great time and then it took me a decade or so to actually watch the series again due to a combination of being too stubborn to just buy the season 1 dvd again, a very darkwing move of me in hindsight, and then when disney plus meant I had all episodes at my finger tips I.. sat on them till now.. though to be fair i’ve sat on a LOT of great shows on there including the mandalorian, gargoyles and boy meets world. I have a bad tendency to procastinate, the fact this is coming out so late in the day should be a giveaway. I did read about half of volume 1 of the comic and all of volume 2, so there’s that at least.  Point is this new episode finally made me decide to get off my ass and watch darkwing once again, starting with the pilot and the episodes related to the fearsome four to be ready for tomorrow to see what the differences are (Thoguh I did remember bushroot vividly, so I had that at least).  Something to note before I get started talking about the pilot itself though, is the episode order for Darkwing Duck is a Darkwing Clusterfuck. Now I do understand WHY they aired this way: While some episodes do logically take place after other episodes, you can reasonably pop on just about any darkwing and watch it and enjoy it with minimal need to know what happened in previous episodes, kinda like batman the animated series oddly enough. It was also aired between two networks so on some level I get disney’s confusion here.. but on the other hand it’d take ten minutes, they clearly can call up the creator easily as Tad Stones made a cameo in ducktales 2017 we’ll get to so they could easily get a better order from the creator himself, so they really don’t have an excuse for this, or for slapping the pilot in the middle of season 1. Then again both ducktales 2017 and x-men the animated series were sort of a mess order wise when first put up, so not giving a shit about where episodes are placed for re-watching clearly is a pastime of theirs. 

Now i’ve got that out of my system we can dive into the episode itself and a breif plot synopsis. Darkwing Duck is the superhero protector of St. Canard, a masked vigiliante who takes out crime but wishes he actually got fame and credit for his work. Kind of like Booster Gold but without taking endorsments or as far as we know coming from the future. He also has nothing else as shown by the fact he fights crime, does a training regimine to prepare his breakfast that’s a delight to watch then prepares to sleep. It’s an intresting concept, a hero who HAD a civlian identity once, as the rest of the series would play out, he just no longer needs it. And it’s also ahead of it’s time as batman would explore this idea both seriously with bruce wayne murderer and comedically and seriously with the lego batman movie LONG after this series aired, meaning the writers here figured out what many probably knew about batman and put it into their parody version: Batman is the real identity and Bruce is the mask. Batman only keeps his old self because the bruce id is useful to him: It keeps people away from his company, puts up a playboy facade that draws attention away from him being batman, and allows him to do various charities and what not and help honor his parents in a way that dosen’t involve swooping in and kicking people in the throat. And as seen with bruce wayne murderer when the option to throw bruce away for good came up Batman gladly took it.  This is the same idea: Drake Mallard ONLY cares about crime fighting, has no friends no family, we never do find out jack about his family hopefully if there’s a full reboot series Frank and Matt fix it for their version. He has nothing, and is fine with that. He hasn’t really had a reason to care about anything else than his own glory and works alone not because it’s less efficent but because his oversized ego means he dosen’t want to share credit. IT’s an intresting start and his ego would be a defining bit of who he is and used intrestingly int he reboot but we’ll get to that there. 

His life changes forever though when local crime boss Taurus Bulba unleashes his latest scheme: To steal the Ramrod, a gravity manipulating device created by the late Dr. Quackmeyer.. late because Bulba’s men killed him and were dumb enough not to get the arming code for the ramrod first a year ago. Bulba is also behind bars but in one of my faviorite gags of the episode despite the warden’s constnat gloating, Bulba has taken the “Supervillian makes jail into a base” Or “Jail is nothing to a supervillian who can easily get out trope” to ludcrious machines. He has whole meetings with his minions, keeps the ramrod once he gets his hands on it in the laundry and has a ship SHAPED LIKE HIS FACE built into his cellblock. I’ts just so over the top it’s glorious. But yeah since Bulba can’t go after it at first he sends his three goofy minons, one played by eddie “Mandark” deezen in.. love that guy. 

THey do end up stealing the ramrod thanks to the help of bulba’s cool, non-anthromporhic condor who he uses as his right hand man and as his link to his minons via a small tv aroudn it’s neck. That.. is awesome. Darkwing spots the condor but fails to stop the three stooges or the condor and gets unknowingly blamed for the robbery..and stopped to get glamor shots not realizing the guy thought he was a criminla which.. fair enough. It is a shadowy disguise after all. 

Darkwing ends up grabbing onto the vulture sonic 3 style, but ends up falling off him into a hangar where we meet the original version of Launchpad McQuack, whose apparently quit working for scrooge and has his own hangar now though it wouldn’t be a stretch that scrooge bought it for him.. he does , stingy as he is, appricate hard work and launchpad wanting to start his own buisness and while hte planes were probably all on launchpad, Scrooge would gladly buy a run down buliding for a loyal friend who wants to put in some hard honest work. Plus it’s a free place to store any vehicles he has in the st canard area.. I mean it’s still scrooge. And yes I know the whole “Tad stones said they aren’t the same universe” non sense. I do have the utmost respect for the guy and he seems really, nice but I don’ tlike that, no one likes that and both the comics and the current duckverse with the ducktales reboot entirely ignore that for good reason.While the two shows are diffrent in tone they stil lfit and it’s not a stretch for launchpad to want to spread his wings or failing that scrooge to help push him out of the nest and give him his own buisness or one of scrooge’s to run. 

But while Launchpad does help DW with a propeller plane they fail and while launchpad offers to be his sidekick, DW gives him the old I work alone bit.  However him being alone won’t last for long as Bulba still needs that arming code and since his only lead is Waddlemeyer’s grandaughter who grew up in his lab, he sends his buffonish minons to go get him. Why he never sends his lone female minon with them is because it’s funnier if she dosen’t I guess. Which it is so fair enough.  So thus we enter Goslyn, who the head of the orphanage is fed up with due to her antics. Goslyn is played as most of you knwo by christine cavanagh.. I honestly forgot and it still throws me off a bit she’s using what would later be her chucky finster voice for a character so completely diffrent. Granted it’s not unusual in voice acting, just weird here and only for me personally having grown up with rugrats but not darkwing. The orphanage head is a bit less jarring as she’s played by Marcia Wallace, aka Edna Krabable from the simpsons but A) that show was already running at this point and B), the character is basically a nicer version of edna versus chuckies voice coming out of a tiny if immensly fun to watch hellion. I do like goslyn, sh’es a fun character even in her shadier moments, it’s just something i’d forgotten about i’ll need to get used to is all. 

Bulba’s hired goons come in claming ot be friends of her grandpas and we actually get some really heartwrenching context for Gos’ behavior: While she does act out she actually LIKES THE orphanage.. ti’s just her friends keep getting adopted while no one wants someone “full of spirit”. It’s heartwrecnhing to hear.. and only gets worse when the goons try and kidnap her.  Thankfully Darkwing.. also kidnaps her, but he kindaps her from kidnappers and while Goslyn naturally takes a second to realize he’s the good guy them shooting at him clues her in. Darkwing, in a rare for the series as a whole moment of reason and not wanting to just power though something himself TRIES to do the responsible thing and leave gos with the police where she’ll be protected.. but given they think he’s a wanted criminal they shoot at him.. and the small child in his motorcycle. Yup that’s the police alright. 

So with no other options Darkwing takes gos home, hyjinks insue including her activintg the breakfast thing. But the two genuinely start to bond. While Darkwing dosen’t WANT to keep her around, the whole not wanting connections thing, it’s clear he’s growing fond of the little snot as she holds her own with his trianing course, they have a tickle fight and in the sweetest moment of the episode the two sing little girl blue, a song her grandfather used to sing her to sleep that she teaches darkwing. It’s an utterly heartmelting bit and Cummings and Cavanagh really sell the hell out of it. It also however turns out ot be plot relevant: Turns out just in case Dr. Waddlemeyer hid the code for the ramrod in the song, and when Darkwing sees a photo Goslyn got from bulba’s goons, he realizes this and realizes that depsite thinking she didn’t know it Goslyn had it all along.. and that as long as h’es around she won’t know.  Bulba is naturally livid at his minons failure and decides now’s the time to take this into his own hands and while he actually liked the prison hq setup, as it did make sense as it was the perfect cover and the warden was too full of himself to realize Bulba was still active and too convinced the bull was beaten down when he clearly wasn’t, but instead as mentioned above awesomely converts his cellblock into a flying ship in the shape of his own head.  Bulba.. is a great villian and I only think the show didn’t use him more because he’s a dead serious, deadly dangerous villian in an otherwise goofy but fun superhero parody show. The show later gained Negaduck, so they had a more dangerous threat for darkwing that fit the show’s tone better while still being utterly terrifying, and likely simply didn’t need him till the idea for the steerminator came up. But I love the guy: he reminds me a lot of the kingpin, a threatning villian who uses his sheer size to beat our hero down, is cool and suave and is an utter mastermind at planning. He also wears a nice suit.  And naturlaly he has a plan to take out darkwing since despite the two never having met, as Darkwing disparages when Goslyn assumes their lifelong mortal enmies like in the comics, they know of each other.. and thus bulba knows exactly what trap to spring to get him out of the way and goslyn into his ship: He flashes a message in morris code that he wants to surrender to Darkwing while stroking his ego a LOT. And it works... while i’ts an obvious trap Darkwing’s so full of himself he goes despite Goslyn telling him it’s very obviously a trap.  Naturally everything goes pear shaped as a result: Bulba shows up, revealing gos not only to be right but easily pummling Darkwing. Which makes sense: While Darkwing is a vetran crime fighter and secret agent, Bulba’s been at being a villian longer clearly as he’s built up enough of a rep both for Darkwing to know him out of hand and for the warden to be proud capturing him. Given what univese this is, it probably isn’t Bulba’s first round with a superhero and given at this stage St Canard only has one.. yeah Darkwing is outclasssed and the police grab him while Bulba scarpers. And while Gos puts up a good fight using the trianing course, Bulba’s vulture gets her. Bulba has everything he needs.  Darkwing meanwhile actually bemoans what a dick he’s been, that the first person he’s cared about besides himself in possibly ever is now in the hands of a murderous mastermind, and that he’s stuck in jail with no one to call on for help. Thankfully.. help arrives.. and by help I mean launchpad backing the ratcatcher, Darkwing’s bike, into the prisoin. He DID come just to bail DW out despite his earlier jerkishness, but backed in and Darkwing not beliving superheroes have time for paperwork, decides to just bust out. And to be ifair int his case he’s probably right as you know, a ten year old might die if they don’t get there in time. So off they go.. but with Bulba in the air they need something with wings to catch him. ANd luckily as Launchpad mentioned earlier he’s been working on something special for darkwing.  It’s with this we enter the thunderquack, which is DW”S awesome headshaped plane. It’s just cool it’s got a nice design, goofy enough tof it the universe but cool enoguh to still be fun to watch. Darkwing has really damn cool vehicles, as the ratcatcher is also awesomely iconic. But yeah the thunderquack impresses darkwing and rightfully so and he decides to make LP his sidekick afterall.  So now our heroes fly into the danger zone and attack bulba’s airship with Darkwing landing on the bow and a scuffle insues with darkwing and hte minons.. who use actual guns which for a 90′s kids show is  a suprise, especially one this intentioanlly goofy, but boy is it nice. However Bulba, being awesomely evil, isn’t dumb and instead of fighting darkwing, which he could win but would win him nothing and having gotten nothing out of goslyn, figures the hero might know the code.. and while Darkwing lies and says he dosen’t, Bulba points out .. he’s right.. but he’s always been a gambling man and has his condor drop goslyn to lure drake into telling him , with DW putting in the code and bulba testing it with a bank robbery.. before predictably having his condor drop the girl because he no longer needs her. Thankfully launchpad catches her in time and then they get revenge on the condor with the thunderquack BITING IT.. which is awesome. Hopefully the reboot version does that. 

Darkwing meanwhile saves the day, his new daughter and the city by simply sneaking over to the ramrod and mashign the keys till it overloads, silly, but undeniably awesome and effective. Bulba TRIES to finish off darkwing this time for foiling his plan.. btu the ramrod explodes and while bulba’s minons and goslyn and launchpad are safe... bulba and darkwing are apparently dead and it’s effective.  A few weeks later Goslyn’s back at the orphanage utterly distraught and broken at being basically orphaned again. Naturally though Darkwing’s alive, having taken his old identnity back since now he has something worth using it for and adopts her, hinting at who he is so she goes with him. And Drake has changed.. sure he’ll still be as egostical and impuslive as he was here.. but he’s no longer just darkwing.. he’s drake again as he has someone worth fighting for.. two someones in fact. He has a friend, a loyal partner to help him fight cime. And more importantly.. he has a loving daughter. And both needed each other: Goslyn needed someone who understood her despite her manic energy, and Drake needed someone who needed him and not darkwing, a reason to be a person outside the cape and cowl and outside the attention again. He needed a reason to live again... and he’s got it. And it’s going to be great. 

Final Thoughts: This pilot is excellent. Well paced, plenty of laughs, tense action and great introductions for everyone involved as well as a hell of a vilian> This is how you do a first episode: it introduces the main themes of the show, both comedically and dramatically, introduces the cast and gives us a one off , or rather two off it’d turn out, villian whose compelling and intresting. IT’s really damn good stuff and I can’t wait ot see what frank does with a simlar story tommorow. Until then, stay safe, and happy hallowen. We’ll be back shortly for The Duck Knight returns and then Let’s Get Dangerous tommorow. 

[lionheart49er]

My Thoughts on The Boys Season 2 Finale

*This Post Contains Spoilers for “The Boys” Season 2 Finale*

First off, before I get into spoilers, I just want to saw how much I love what “The Boys” have been doing. I loved Season 1 and I feel Season 2 is just as fun and crazy with more in-depth social commentary, especially with the character of Stormfront and her satirizing of alt-right conservative media. Overall, I love how the show combines dark humor with poignant satire of superhero media, celebrity culture, and large corporate conglomerates. And in many ways, the finale was just as good.

The show takes its imperfect social material and elevates it. Turning the macho grim-dark superhero parody that only barely deconstructs superheroes and never deconstructs the just-as-toxic macho characters like Billy Butcher into a show that is just as willing to deconstruct Billy’s toxic masculinity as Homelander’s fascist superhero antics. I think the show does a good handling these serious topics with sprinkles of anti-capitalist ideology. And yeah, the irony of an show with anti-capitalist themes being streamed on Amazon Prime does not escape me. 

However, I read The AV Club’s review of the finale and it raised some points that I simply did not agree with. And I’m going to argue them here. 

The AV Club had a big issue with the reveal that Victoria Neuman was the head-exploder who was working for Vought. They came out with it the belief that this was somehow the show attacking “both-sides” and conflating progressive politicians like AOC with literal nazis. To be frank, I am just not agree with this take. 

First off, I don’t the show did a good job showing how wrong Nazism and fascism is through the characters of Homelander and especially Stormfront. In particular, Stormfront was a character I was initially worried about. There is a risk in portraying Nazi characters where they came off as likable enough to where they can appeal directly to white supremacist and real-life Nazis. And Stormfront’s goofy portrayal as a Tiktok-using millenial-type was certainly running that risk initially. But the show cleverly pulled the covers to show the dangerous ideology that was powering the seemingly innocent meme-exploiting superhero to show how real-life white supremacists and alt-right groups use playful memes and social media to spread hateful ideology. And the show never condones Stormfront’s hateful ideology and always portrays her as in the wrong. Hell, even Homelander is weirded out by her blatantly racist beliefs. 

I say all of this to show how Stormfront is portrayed in the show is way different from how Neuman is and probably will be portrayed. Obviously the fact she is based on progressive  AOC and Iihan Omar, so we immediately are on her side, especially when it comes to the matter of regulating superheroes since we’ve seen how messed-up superheroes like Homelander and A-Train abuse their powers without consequence. Then, it comes the twist that Neuman was secretly working with Vought the whole time. Now, the AV Club believes this means that Neuman is going to be presented as just as bad as Stormfront. Which I simply don’t agree. I don’t see this as the show implying that progressive politicians are worse or even just as bad as Nazis. And I believe the reveal makes sense when looking at Vought and how Stan Edgar runs his business.

I think the reason why Neuman works for Vought is explained in the dining scene between Billy Butcher and Stan Edgar. In that scene, Stan explains why he is willing to work with an awful white-supremacist like Stormfront. Obviously, Stan Edgar as a black man hates the living hell out of her but the man is business-minded as hell. He sees how useful Stormfront is in causing divisions in society. And those kind of divisions are profitable as hell as we know in real-life how much media can prey on said divisions. Even though Stan personally hates Stormfront’s blatant racism, he is willing to tolerate it because her endeavors ends up aligning directly with Vought’s goals to simply make as much money as possible. The scene really shows Edgar’s thinking and reasoning when it comes to how he runs Vought. And it’s a great scene in general especially when Edgar calls out Butcher for his own white privilege. But this scene also shows why Edgar would want someone like Neuman on his side.

The fact is we don’t know yet how genuine Neuman is or was for her progressive superhero-reform goals before joining Vought. We don’t really have a handle on her backstory yet. So whether she is a genuine progressive who is forced to work for Vought or simply a Vought double-agent is not known. However, either way I don’t think it implies Neuman is worse than Stormfront. In fact, more so this is just a brilliant move on Stan Edgar and Vought’s part to curb the superhero narrative in their favor. Just like how Vought benefits from Stormfront’s racist beliefs, they could equally benefit from Neuman’s progressive beliefs. In fact, Vought has already been doing shady stuff under the guise of progressive ideology this entire seasoning (the blatantly pandering “Girls get it done” campaign, the co-opting of Queen Maeve’s gay status for LGBT+ brownie points, etc.) In many ways, it is a reflection of pink capitalism and how much corporations want to appear “woke” while still benefiting from a corrupt capitalist systematic status quo. Essentially, Edgar knows he’s going to get backlash for Vought’s attempts to take-over the world by distributing Compound V. So he wants to control the narrative by having someone on his side pretending to be working against the man but really working for it. This also parallels a lot of brands who claim to be fighting against a capitalist system but is merely paying lip-services to such changes and just another extension of a major corporation’s capitalist endeavors. Just look at all the Che Guevara and Karl Marx merchandise you can buy online. I believe Edgar is working that exact angle with Victoria Neuman.

And there was genuine foreshadowing for this too. This twist did not come out of nowhere despite what some people like the AV Club would have you believe. The fact that Stan Edgar is constantly watching news coverage of Victoria Neuman on TV. During the head-exploding courtroom scene, you can see every person Victoria stares at explodes soon after. After the first time we see someone’s head explode in the beginning of the season, it immediately cuts to Victoria Neuman. So this wasn’t just some twist the writers pulled out of their ass in the last minute. This was clearly planned. Besides, it is entirely possible that Neuman is or at least was a genuinely progressive before being forced to work for Vought against her will. She does mention her daughter multiple times in the season. It is almost a cliche how much sympathy the show pulls from its asshole characters by giving them a kid (just check the Honest Trailers video). But that could very well be the case. Regardless, I do think we will get some understanding as to why Neuman is working for Vought in the next season for whatever reason. And I am genuinely looking forward to it. Besides, this doesn’t even ruin her character and we could see her human side explored in the next season. One of the things I praise this show for is going in-depth into even its worst scumbaggy characters (Homelander, The Deep, A-Train, etc.) to explore their human sides while still presenting them as awful people.

Also, I think the reason why Neuman takes longer to explode the Scientology guy’s head in the last scene while she easily explodes heads quickly in the courtroom scene is just to show to the audience that Neuman is the head exploder. Besides, there is no reason Neuman has to be quick to explode his head since there is no threat that she’ll be exposed for it. I’m sure she can explode heads much quicker when Season 3 comes around.   

So really that was all my thoughts on the whole Victoria Neuman reveal. I just wanted to give some more praise for The Boy’s awesome finale. The episode was full of fun, awesome moments that were super satisfying. The three female superheroes kicking the shit out of the Nazi, Homelander being rendered completely impotent by the end, Billy Butcher deciding to do the selfless thing to protect the child for once (right after nearly trying to murder him), Edgar pointing out as a black man how little he can lash out, The Deep getting cucked out of The Seven, etc. I loved what the Season 2 finale did. I am looking forward to Season 3. Let me know what you think. I would love to hear your thoughts.         

[aion-rsa]

Van Helsing Returns For A Final Season And Adds Time Travel To Its Narrative Palette

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This Van Helsing article contains major spoilers for the season 5 premiere.

From the dynamically retooled opening title sequence to the Jack-centric Transylvania storyline, it takes only moments to recognize that Van Helsing’s fifth and final season promises to take fans on a wild ride as it brings to a close its delightfully circuitous tale of horror’s most iconic vampire hunting family. Season premiere “Past Tense” doesn’t represent the first time the Van Helsing family story finds itself in the past, but there seems to be a more concerted effort this time to employ traditional time travel elements as the unanswered questions mount.

It’s been sixteen months since the season four finale, but the head of the Van Helsing clan remains noticeably absent from the story even though her imprint is unmistakable. Fans of the series understand Kelly Overton’s (Vanessa Van Helsing) pregnancy last season limited her participation, and though she doesn’t appear in the season premiere, Nicole Muñoz (Jack) and Tricia Helfer (Olivia/The Dark One) deliver strong performances that skillfully carry the episode. Still, where’s Vanessa?

Before we address Vanessa’s whereabouts, however, it’s the stunning narrative redirect showrunner/writer Jonathan Lloyd Walker and director Jonathan Scarfe (Axel) throw at viewers that suggests a new approach to bringing the vampire apocalypse to an end. What appears to be a truth on Van Helsing doesn’t always play out the way we think it will, but when Jack leaves the Dark Realm and finds herself in renaissance Transylvania, there seems to be only one logical explanation – time travel. You have to love that Jack immediately recognizes the drastically changed landscape and sets out to take care of business. 

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Vanessa apparently still resides in the Dark Realm, but it seems clear that she’s the catalyst for Jack’s temporal journey to Dracula’s city of origin.  Of course, Jack’s experience here could turn out to be similar to Vanessa’s meeting with her grandmother Lily in season three,  but for now, we have to consider conventional time travel as the most likely scenario. Needless to say, time travel in the hands of a less skilled writer can lead to a multitude of narrative pitfalls, but with Walker (Continuum) at the helm, the story is in more than competent hands. Still, we have to wonder how Vanessa’s role will play out since it seems reasonable to assume that if she can send Jack to the past, she can leave the Dark Realm at any point herself. So why does she stay?

Once we learn that Count Dalibor’s wife Olivia (Tricia Helfer) may, in fact, be the genesis of the Dark One, it’s only a matter of time before she and Jack come face to face. It doesn’t take long for viewers and Jack to face the quintessential time travel dilemma: if you could go back in time and kill baby Hitler, would you? Traveling to the past to prevent an apocalyptic future has become a science fiction staple, and Jack now faces the ultimate moral decision. “Now I know why my mother sent me here.” Understanding Vanessa’s motivation is one thing, whether she can carry out this gruesome task is quite another. 

While it might be simpler to have Jack kill Olivia and prevent the 21st century evil that plagues the American northwest, other options do exist. “What if you could stop what turns her dark?” Florian (Matúš Kvietik) asks a reticent Jack. Unfortunately, the Transylvanian problem is far more complex than simply eliminating new mother Olivia. Actions have consequences, and if time travel tales tell us anything, it’s that unintended consequences generally rear their ugly heads sooner rather than later. Whether it’s the Grandfather Paradox or the Butterfly Effect, things rarely turn out the way the protagonist thinks they will.

Not surprisingly, Helfer (Battlestar Galactica; Lucifer) seamlessly transitions from the dark, ultra evil creature at the heart of the vampire threat to a loving wife and new mother who unknowingly sells her soul to Michaela and the roots of the Sisterhood. Nonetheless, the plot thickens because killing Olivia and preventing her from becoming the Dark One only takes care of one problem. What about the Sisterhood? Jack and Ivory already killed Michaela in the present, but now Jack can prevent her from creating and expanding the Sisterhood and becoming the Dark One’s bride. Does Jack have it in her to commit what will seem like multiple atrocities to the innocent bystanders who possess no knowledge of the future from which she comes?

Olivia’s role in the coming apocalypse isn’t as cut and dried as it might seem, and when Florian shows Jack the portrait of the count and countess, it’s her last name that stimulates Jack and the fateful decision she ultimately makes. Dracula. Did Vanessa actually send Jack to this point in time with the intention that her daughter could operate in the role previously ascribed to her – mankind’s savior?

Nobody said saving the human race was going to be easy, and we most certainly didn’t expect the Van Helsing storyline to end up in the middle of a Renaissance street fair, but it’s a perfect vehicle for Olivia to meet another major player on the dark side.  “I see two futures diverging,” the fortune teller (Jesse Stanley) tells Olivia, and the woman who will eventually become the Oracle, informs her that two women wish to shape her fate. “Something dark awaits you.” And Jack’s kill list grows taller by the minute.

“I told you; vampires, and I’m the cure,” Jack explains to Florian, but the subtext here implies something quite different than her ability to return victims to the human state. Micheala (Heather Doerksen) wishes to resurrect someone and begins brewing a potion that seems to affect both Jack and Olivia and sets into motion an act which can’t be taken back. We’ve witnessed this watershed moment many times before, and too often the hero hesitates and allows evil to escape. Not this time, however. Jack plunges her dagger into Olivia’s throat. “I’m sorry; I had to.” This is not the first person Jack has killed, but it will be fascinating to watch the effect this murder has on her personality. Still, if she’s to prevent the dark future, there are at least two more deaths to consider. 

“Do not get enchanted by whispers of magic and monsters,” Dalibor (Kim Coates) tells Florian, laying the groundwork for Jack’s revelation that vampires are real and must be stopped. However, Jack’s in a difficult situation since the “I’m from the future,” explanation rarely yields positive results. It’s early, so we don’t know if Vanessa has an exit strategy planned for Jack, but for now, she’s on her own. Is Florian enamored enough of this stranger to overlook the murder of his beloved countess, or can Jack offer some kind of proof that everything she says is true? And how will Dalibor handle his wife’s brutal killing? No one ever said the Dark One has to be female.

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Over the course of five seasons, series creators and showrunners Simon Barry, Neil LaBute, and now Jonathan Lloyd Walker have managed to lure some of genre television’s finest actors for guest spots and recurring roles, and “Past Tense” continues this trend. Filming inside a real Slovakian castle takes the Van Helsing world building to another level which works brilliantly with Jack’s journey to the past, and though it’s likely only a brief paradigm shift, the intriguing introduction of time travel into the overall arc helps assuage the momentary loss we feel in the absence of the core characters. Vanessa will be back. The future’s not as clear for Violet, Doc, Axel, Ivory, and Julius who are still out there somewhere.

The post Van Helsing Returns For A Final Season And Adds Time Travel To Its Narrative Palette appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[lucyreviewcy]

Bride Wars (2009) Dir. Gary Winick

This much-maligned film follows two best friends who accidentally book their weddings on the same day. 

This film gets a bad rep. I’d like to give it the redemption arc it deserves. Let’s start on a shallow level: sometimes I like to watch films where I like the clothes and the hair. Production design is one of the few things I enjoy about Game of Thrones, it can be enough to keep me watching a film or series that I’ve lost interest in. Sometimes, I just want to look at pretty things. Bride Wars is one of the best repositories of late noughties fashion since Gossip Girl. There are CHUNKY BELTS, there are LONG LINE CARDIGANS, there are more ENORMOUS PURSES than you can shake a stick at. This film came out when I was 16, and I can confirm that none of the fashion of that era suited me at all. Not at all. Longline cardigans made me look chunky, and chunky belts made me look chunkier. I have since learned that my fashion niche is “woman who did the murder in an episode of Endeavour” and lads, I’m sticking with it. However, the fashion of Bride Wars captures all that nostalgic desire, all the ways I wanted to dress and never managed. Kate Hudson’s chunky blonde highlights and heavy fringe probably adorned the cover of my beloved Company Magazine (RIP sweet princess) multiple times during my late teens, and Anne Hathaway was a role model for me from the moment Mia Thermopolis graced my TV screen. This film uniquely captures 2009 and bottles it up like a time capsule, a priceless archive of late noughties consumerism. 

On a slightly deeper level though, this film is really fun for a lot of the reasons the original reviewers hated it. Yes - the characters are shallow and fixated on the consumerist side of weddings in a way that is completely unhealthy. Yes - it would be stupid if real women behaved that way. But is that not the point of comedy? 

Comedy is saying “wouldn’t it be stupid if...” and then working through the repercussions of that stupid idea. Wouldn’t it be stupid if two stoners could time travel in a phone box? Wouldn’t it be stupid if two cops had to go back to high school? Wouldn’t it be stupid if two men had to pretend to be women in order to get jobs in a band? Bride Wars as a concept is no more or less ridiculous than any of those, it’s simply: Wouldn’t it be stupid if two best friends got so obsessed with their weddings that they sabotaged eachother? I think people don’t like this film because at an even baser level, it’s “Wouldn’t it be stupid if women took weddings as seriously as the world tells them to?” To think that Bride Wars honestly believes that all women feel this strongly about their “big day” or weddings in general, is to misunderstand it. The comedy comes from the fact that Liv and Emma are behaving in a way that is completely unreasonable. Two of the writers of the film were actual women, and unless the third male writer came in and added the entire plot, I feel like their voices come through here. 

Maybe people don’t like Bride Wars because it showcases some of the more damaging attitudes that the noughties were foisting on women. That having been fat was tantamount to having been addicted to food, that women are always competing, that weddings are all women care about. These were all attitudes I remember sharing in. But Bride Wars doesn’t demonstrate them without questioning them. The whole narrative of this film demonstrates that if women were to take weddings as seriously as they were told to at that time, they would end up damaging their relationships with their friends, family and partners. Emma and Liv lose sight of what’s important about weddings and there are consequences to that. Bride Wars is, in many ways, about the release that comes from letting go of your childhood beliefs and dreams. The character of Emma even learns to let go of her ideas about who she is, to become a stronger, more assertive version of herself. 

Yes, Bride Wars is a screaming pantomime of blue hair and taffeta, but to write it off because of the “femininity” of its subject matter is to miss the point. Bride Wars is critical of the wedding industry, and champions female friendship. Even the small, side-character friends demonstrate the negative attitudes that single women of that era (and it was an era, even if it was a decade ago, just because it’s nearer doesn’t mean it’s not an era) were subjected to. The idea that being a single woman while your friends are getting married is shameful and an indicator that your life is going badly is depicted here - but it’s played as “that’s stupid, isn’t it?” By choosing comedy as the genre to explore this industry, the creative team have the chance to draw our attention to the ideological flaws inherent in it. The comedy is not laughing at silly women, it is laughing at the idea that anybody, male or female, could be driven to such desperate lengths over a wedding. 

When I was 17, I had a big argument with my best friend at the time. I can’t remember what it was about, but we went from talking every minute of the day to feeling awkward around each other. Then I went to her house and we watched Bride Wars. I’m not close with that friend anymore, and that’s fine, people move on. At that time, this film repaired a friendship that was really valuable to me because whatever we were arguing about must have been about as stupid as fighting over a wedding venue. Bride Wars deserves a redemption arc, rewatch it and give it a second chance. 

[unexpected-nightview]

can you recommend some (preferably chinese) tv series to watch after the untamed? i have hard time deciding what to watch next

Okay so *cracks nuckles*

The “budgety+quality” ones Joy of Life : period drama, long but good pacing, COSTUMES BUDGET, intriguing story, lots of political schemes, romance is not that bad, the acting is GODDAMN GOOD (especially for the older actors). Also. The Second Prince. Oh! And Xiao Zhan but he appears later. Winter Begonia : set in 1930, based on a BL and despite Feng Tai having a wife it SHOWS (oh my god they were soulmates). Costumes again are *chef kiss*. More daily life than action-driven but not necessarily slow. Oh and it’s about chinese opera. Acting good (seriously, Feng Tai and Xi Rui’s interactions are just pure bliss). FOOD. The Sleught of Ming Dynasty : detective but in period drama, F O O D. So much food oh my god. The main trio works well and I particularly enjoyed Wang Zhi (but then again that’s my fave type of character so yeah). Pace slows down but then picks up. Based on a BL but does fall into the trap of setting the male couple with their respective female LI. Doesn’t last long, they don’t stand a chance but poor girls suffered from bad writing. However there are some things that were handled with more care than I thought possible so bonus points.

The Romance of Tiger and Rose : romance and action-y (more like buffoonery), period drama. It does have an interesting setting premise and some things I genuinely thought were “clever” or worth a conversation. Qianqian and Han Shuo have no business being so cute. Nor does Pei Heng (ot3 for the win fight me). Zi Rui is just the best character ever. Periodt. For real tho : for a romance-focused story I was surprised by how much I like it!

The Ghost Bride : Taiwanese-Malaysian (1890), have watched only 2 episodes (out of 6) but so far so good. So for a short one it could be nice. The Lost Tomb Reboot : like I said, at the very least the first 11 episodes if you enjoy Indiana Jones-esque stories.

Now, the “not that good+lower budget+bless their hearts they tried” who can be enjoyable to watch

My Roommate is a Detective : detective premise (duh), Shanghai in 1920. The costumes are not bad, the acting is a bit mismatch but bearable. Honestly Chu Sheng/Lu Yao/You Ning do work (give it time). CS sugar daddy of LY. The Bromance™ that ends up with a panicky het couple out of fucking nowhere and one dude staring sadly in the distance (don’t watch the final episodes, not worth it). Oh. And not so subtle hints of PATRIOTISM. But it’s funny (ridiculous). Once upon a time in Lingjian mountain : period but fantasy. Bonkers like It don’t even know where to begin with this one. I had me confused. Wang Wu is queen and that’s it. The dubbing is all over the place but weirdly funny. It’s mostly comedy but it does have it’s angsty moments (the last scene had me SAD okay). Costumes and props...they tried. Altho I’m pretty sure Wang Lu wears a thin jacket that looks suspiciously like plastic? IDK. Confusion. Guardian : I mean at this point this one is just iconic. The only good acting comes from Bai Yu and Zhu Yi Long. Bless their hearts they tried. I cannot in good conscience be too harsh with the wigs. Also, based on a BL but yet again, not that subtle (the lollipop pop pop pop). The ending differs from the novel and it sucks so hard that the author of the novel had to make like a short story thingy to fix it. Pretty wild. The Lost Tomb 1 : *circus anthem*. PATRIOTISM. CGI that screams in agony. The tomb feels like a liminal space??? Wu Xie best boi. Still have to see Pangzi again (he is about to enter the scene I just know it). Emo!Xiao Ge with Evanescence on repeat. DRAMATIC MUSIC at random. All very intense, we don’t what or why but it’s all VERY INTENSE. 10000/10 would recommend. And because I cannot go making recommendations without adding these two

Psychopath Diary (kdrama) : it’s one of those that you feel the people working on it had fun and IT SHOWS. Really, really, REALLY satisfying ending. No romance shoved up your throat. Male and Female lead work well and establish a solid friendship. Seo In Woo dancing in his murder room. Strangers from hell (kdrama) : look this shit is scary af but doesn’t rely on jumpscares. It’s just a perhaps not so slow descent into madness and it’s amazing. If you enjoy that genre it’s a must watch.

[secret-diary-of-an-fa]

The End of Year Awards Are Back... and This Time, It’s Personal!

And so we approach the end of 2020, the year that never really began. On paper, at least, it looked incredibly promising. There were lots of great movies slated to come out; culture seemed slightly less paucity-riddled and pointless than usual; good things were in the air. Then COVID happened, and basically fucked everything. Actually, that’s not quite true: my personal year has been fucking spectacular. I’m in a long-term relationship with a gorgeous woman for the first time in forever- no more abrupt trysts and stolen moments for yer humble narrator: I’ve got a sumptuously plus-size lady-friend who actually wants to spend substantial amounts of time me (and has knockers you could sled down, were you so inclined). I also started a Youtube channel where I upload performances of magic tricks I’ve designed and a few people seem to quite like it. Oh, and I’ve written four novels, with a fifth well on its way to completion. Unfortunately, that’s my life, not the life of our civilisation and culture as a whole. The fact that bugger all happened in that makes this end-of-year round-up a little hard to write. With that in mind, I’m going to hand out the gongs for 2020, but I’m also going to do my usual dodge of giving end-of-year awards to things that I discovered in 2020, even if they came out the year, decade or century before. It’s not like any right-minded person gives a hoot about my opinion anyway. Right then, everyone clear on the rules? Then let’s roll up our sleeves and plunge elbow deep into the fetid trough of our decaying society to ferret out the best and worst of the Things That Humans Have Done Recently.

The ‘I Like It Because It Confused Thick People’ Award for Best High-Concept Sci-Fi Movie... … Goes to the sterling Tenet, a spy film that used entropy inversion and symmetric, opposite-direction timelines within the same physical space the way most spy films use hacking and guns. Christopher Nolan films are always intricately constructed and meticulously-executed, but this one must have had Japanese Master Puzzle-Box Makers crying into their breakfast cereal. Is breakfast cereal a thing in Japan? I honestly I have no idea. For some reason, all I can imagine is a sort of dry kedgeree where all the ingredients that aren’t rice have been removed. But I digress. For all its intricacy, Tenet is actually really easy to follow once you’ve grasped the basic premise that there’s a machine that lets people move backwards through time, and that this makes them appear to move in reverse to the rest of the world while they perceive the rest of the world as moving in reverse. Nolan maintains a mastery of cinematic visual language that makes even the most abstruse concept easy to wrap your head around. Nonetheless, following Tenet’s release, dumb people took to the Internet on mass to complain that the film was confusing and stupid, never once realising that their inability to conceptualise time in non-linear ways was their own failing, not Nolan’s. I find that refreshing. It’s nice to see a sci-fi film that’s actually made for smart-cookie sci-fi fans and doesn’t give a hoot if it alienate thickos.

The Award for Most Inexplicably Compelling Web Comic… … Goes to Questionable Content. I originally started reading Questionable Content because I’d heard that the female lead and love interest was a plus size lassie and that shit’s my jam. However, the art style makes everyone look like a skinny indie-type, regardless of their actual, in-universe size, so it doesn’t do much to titillate my Fat Admiring Titillation Centres. And yet, I’m over five hundred ‘episodes’ in and still reading. The thing is, I couldn’t tell you why for the life of me. Maybe it’s the hope that the art style will evolve to the point where the people look like actual human beings with different body types (but then, why would I care unless I was invested for some other reason). Maybe it’s the fact that when I get one of the many, many obscure band or pop culture references, I feel a little buzz of kinship with the writer. Maybe it’s the fact that it takes place in a universe where robots and superheroes are things that regularly happen, yet most of the strips are just normal people chatting shit in a coffee shop and the slice-of-life narrative/sci-fi setting appeals to my sense of juxtaposition. I don’t know, but I find it really compelling to the extent that I’ve pissed away entire days reading it. I have a horrible feeling that it’s a short step from this to really angsty hentai. If I start singing the praises of that, somebody please shoot me in the crotch.

The ‘Forest Gump Debating Peter Andre’ Award For Most Sustained or Elongated Instance of Stupidity… … Goes to Donald Trump. I was tempted just to award this gong to his entire presidency, but that wasn’t just stupid: it was also venal, corrupt, horrifying and punctuated by terrible moments of low cunning. So, instead, this award goes to his ‘soup’ rant. For those of you who missed it, the former President of the United States spent a really, really long time (in the run-up to the election) wittering on about protestors throwing cans of soup at police. What was dumb and weird about it was that he appeared to be extolling the virtues of soup as a siege weapon, going into really specific detail about how it was better than a brick because it could be thrown with more force, finishing with the utterance that protestors would just argue that “this is just soup for my family” if they were caught with the cans… which is phrased wrong in such a subtle and inhuman way it’s hard to imagine that anyone actually ever said it, at least in those words. I have no idea if protestors in America were throwing soup cans at police (which would be entirely justified considering how many innocent people American police have murdered in cold blood quite recently) or if this was a fantasy dreamed up by the former president in the cloudcuckooland that is his diseased little brain. Either way, the connected rant was balls deep in dumb.

The Most Disturbing Unintentional Impression of Vincent Price Award… … Goes to the narrator from One Step Beyond, a Twilight Zone-esque anthology of weirdness that purports to be based on true events and has to be seen to be believed. The stories are oft-disturbing instances of spooky-inflected human drama and can occasionally be quite disconcerting… until they’re book-ended by a dude who sounds like Vincent Price reading a children’s book in a really earnest voice. It’s weird and no, it didn’t hit our screens in Space Year 2020, it dates back to Ye Olden Times of the 1950s or 60s, when men were men, women were women and technincolour was a distant dream that could get you strung up for witchcraft. Nonetheless, I only encountered it this year, so it’s getting its prize. I warned you I was going to pull this shit, but you foolish fools didn’t listen.

The ‘It’s Not Gay If I Don’t Clench’ Award for Cognitive Dissonance… … Goes to Amazon Prime, the content-making branch of evil, tax-dodging, anti-monopoly-law-breaking megalith Amazon. You see, while Big Daddy Amazon is off being incredibly sinister and worrying, like a shifty vampire hanging off the economy’s throat, the creative people at Amazon Prime are busy making or acquiring some of the flat-out best TV ever committed to a streaming-service, from the extra-weird slice of fun-pie that is The Tick, to the entertainingly horrifying cultural dissection of The Boys to the utterly unique Carnival Row, to the superbly adapted American Gods. It’s a bit like discovering that Geoffrey Dahlmer single-handedly created a body of artistic work to rival Vincent Van Gogh’s when he wasn’t pouring acid onto the brains of emotionally vulnerable young adults. It gives me a headache.

The Clint Eastwood Award for Most Effective Older Gentlemen… … Goes to Joe Biden, for unseating dipshit in chief Donald Trump with the casual badassery of a Wild West gunslinger shooting a baddy (probably played by Leonardo Di Caprio) in the balls. I mean, he’s not the best Prez America could ask for but a) as a Brit I don’t have to care and b) anyone who ousts Trump gets mad props from me.

The ‘It’s a Pity Everything Else is Shit Now’ Award for Best New Ongoing Series… … Goes to my own Youtube series, Victor The Magician, in which I claim to be a reality-hopping, interdimensional wizard on an endless quest to… perform magic, basically. I’ll admit that the quality is super-variable (Youtube algorithms and their constant demand for fresh content be a harsh mistress, etc., etc.). However, when I’m good, I’m really good. If you’re looking for a punch-line other than the fact that this whole bit is a self-promoting plug, it’s this: my Youtube series really was the best thing to come out this year. Not because I’m great or anything, just by default. A promising year really did turn into a cultural wasteland the moment COVIDius Rex reared its scaly head.

The Zombie Ian Curtis Award for Most Crushing Disappointment… … Goes to Rick and Morty Series 4. As I think I’ve said before, it was still good, but it just didn’t reach the dizzy heights of nihilistic lunacy achieved in series 1-3. I think the problem is that the audience is meant to learn something from Rick’s poor choices, even if he doesn’t, because the creators saw the amazing success of Bojack Horseman and decided they wanted a slice of that sweet, tangy deconstructionist pie. It worked up to a point in the climax of Series 3, but having made their point, the showrunners probably should have moved onto a different point. They forgot that the appeal of Rick Sanchez is his combination of ‘entertaining car-crash of a human being’ and ‘unstoppable superbeing’. Push him through an arc and you risk breaking the thing that makes him and the show so endlessly watchable. Rick, unlike Bojack, just wasn’t built for heavy introspection. Also, the team hired on new writers who were less than familiar with the characters, setting and subtext, and that’s always an invitation to disaster.

The Special Sir Mixalot Award for Posteriority… ...Goes to… my girlfriend and glamorous assistant, Mystic Miss Terri, who’s arse is gorgeous and majestic.

The ‘Are They STILL Making That?’ Award for a Show You Forgot Existed And is Now Back… … Goes to Supernatural, which never technically went away and whose final series is apparently being broadcast on one of the 4 channels (though who knows which one, any more), It’s kind of nice to realise it’s still out there and be reminded that there are still people who care deeply about what happens to it. It’s like when you remember ‘oh yeah, [insert cute animal here] actually exists and isn’t just an internet meme. That’s nice’. Also, it’s good to see Jared Padelacki working steadily. It can’t be easy to find acting gigs when most producers just want to shoot you and mount your antlers over a fireplace.

The Irritating Magician Award for Something That Just Won’t Fuck Off… ...Goes to this blog entry, which is three pages long in Word. Good grief. Bye y’all! See you next year, assuming that the last few days of 2020 don’t culminate in a civilisation-destroying attack by giant space-ants. If that seems worryingly specific, let’s just say that- as Leonard Cohen would say “I’ve seen the future and, brother, it is murder”… by giant space-ants.