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happymeishappylife · 1 month ago

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Books I've Read in 2024 Part 2

1. Hawking's Hallway by Neal Shusterman and Eric Elfman (Book #3 in the Acceleratti Trilogy)

This series has been a fast and wild ride, but I enjoyed it a lot overall. Even this last one which not only reckoned with Einstein but played with time travel in a wild and crazy manor. Plus I thought the stakes were high in the other books, but nothing beats having your dad and brother brainwashed to forget you while also splitting yourself into seven different versions of yourself at different ages. And yet that’s where the twist came in because it turns out Nick Slater isn’t just any old Nick. But I loved the way that gets explained and explored and the time travel while unexpected, is done well and brings about a happiness I didn’t think the book could end with. Plus while we won’t get to see what Nick and his friends get into, its nice to see that they are still puzzling away and solving new mysteries together. Though it was a choice also add that sometimes friendships are formed based on certain experiences and that isn’t any less valid but accurate to a lot of us.

2. OCDaniel by Wesley King

I too am a star kid. But I don’t have the compulsions that Daniel does as far as having to have his routines to fall asleep and hating certain numbers so much you have to scratch them out. But overthinking and feeling like you don’t fit in with your peers, yeah that tracks. Not too mention writing a cooler version of yourself that you wish you could escape your real life to be. Which is why I loved and related to this book about OCD. But this book was also more than that. It was about self discovery, acceptance, and friendship. Daniel is moderately popular, but terrible at football because of his anxiety, plus he is in love with one of the popular girls so most of the time he is stressed out. Then Sara, a girl everyone knows as being kind of weird, talks to him, helps him to understand his mental illness, and also recruits him to help what she believes is solving her Dad’s murder. And yet, as stressful as that is, Daniel too becomes friends with her and helps her discover the truth. It was heartfelt and I think an important book for younger people to help see themselves when it doesn’t feel like they are normal.

3. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

It’s amazing how poignant this book is even though its over 50 years old. People still are afraid of what’s in books and with the most recent book ban movements picking up steam in the past couple years the idea that eventually the government will not only ban them but burn them is not far fetched at all. Especially not when the replacement is multiple screens of people talking to you from all four walls. I mean truthfully other than having Firemen come to burn those of us with books we’re already there. That’s why Clarice and her discussions with Montag early on were refreshing. And Montag’s rebellion and escape from this life is both liberating and terrifying. Especially when he burns Captain Beatty alive. But the heartbreaking part of the novel is that it doesn’t end satisfactorily. Guy escapes and meets others who have been excommunicated from society for their love of books and while yes, they survive the war, there doesn’t seem to be a clear projection for what happens next. Is the future this bleak? Sometimes I think it is.

4. The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordian (Book #1 of The Kane Chronicles)

I already was in love with the PJO universe, but I’m a fan Rick. His ability to hop into a completely different history and set of rules to play off Egyptian myths, legends, and gods, show just how much he cares and how well he can bring that readers in a fun and inventive way. In this story we meet Carter and Sadie Kane who are siblings who have been kept apart for 6 years, but thrust together when their dad sets off a chain of events that traps him inside Osiris soul and give’s Set control to start wreaking havoc in the world. But as Carter and Sadie learn about Egyptian history and their own personal history, they go on a wild ride to stop Set while also hosting Horus and Isis inside them to train their new magical powers. Plus, Sadie’s cat muffin is hosting Bast, the goddess of cats, and she end up being the most wild and interesting guardian. What was also impressive was just how much action was in this book in such a short amount of time. But the pacing was perfect and getting both Carter and Sadie’s interpretations and reactions to different scenes really tied together. Also, the bonus short story with Carter trying to capture a god infused crocodile and running into Percy Jackson, was hilarious. Of course we only Carter’s perspective, but seeing Percy’s reactions, I can totally picture how he thought through the whole thing and the two are very much alike. Can’t wait to see them team up again later.

5. 13 Curses by Michelle Harrison (Book #2 of the 13 Treasures Trilogy)

I didn’t know where the story was going to go in this book but while the plot was interesting, I felt a little disappointed that we switched the main character. I appreciated getting to see the world from Tanya’s eyes as she now has an understanding of what is going on around her and people to support her. But instead the novel switched to Red/Rowan’s perspective and granted the story absolutely justified her as a main character, but it was just odd to me. Especially because for side characters, Tanya and Fabian had some harrowing experiences. But the story that Red wasn’t really a human girl and wasn’t really trying to save her brother, but her cousin was quite the twist and an interesting way to introduce the readers to the realm of the Fey. It is a little darker than most other books aimed at kids about fairies and I appreciated that too because it dealt with some pretty traumatic experiences.

16. The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani

This novel was heartbreaking and yet so eye opening for me. So far, most media I’ve encountered regarding Partition is told from the perspective of Muslim people escaping to Pakistan. But this novel is interesting because it is about a half Muslim, half Hindu family who is escaping what is declared as Pakistan’s territory back into India. And its told through the diary of 12-year-old girl who is barely trying to navigate her world to begin with and then suddenly has to navigate this huge political change. And her family suffers as they try to journey to India, her twin brother and grandmother dying. But along the way, she learns not only about this big scary change, but more about her mother who she writes to nightly. In fact, it’s a sad fact when she has to leave her uncle’s house because even though he doesn’t speak, they connect so much. But I also can’t fault her for wanting a friend in such a scary time. Partition is such a horrible event and the people it destroyed can’t ever be undone. But novels like this help to shine a light, and show the humanity behind the tragedy.

17. Prodigy by Marie Lu (Book #2 of the Legend Novels)

I was curious what was going to happen to Day and June after the fallout of their escape from the Republic and this novel answers that. They try to meet up with the Patriots to find Tess and save Day’s brother, only to then be turned out to try and assassinate Anden. But though June has the skills, her own intuition into Anden’s character makes her doubt the Patriots and jeopardizes the only help she thinks she and Day can get. But since he is just as head over heels for her as she is to him, he helps foil the attempt and the two escape to the Colonies to recover and plan next steps. What I enjoyed about this novel was getting to see the opposite sides of the Republic to understand what most of us do about the world and that is that there is no Utopia place. Sure we may not hate the place we’re living, but there is bad and good to everywhere in the world. The question is more of what bad can you tolerate and what good can you channel to work towards permanent change. I think that’s a very valuable lesson that this book puts its reader through. And as much as the romance doesn’t thrill me, I do find the twists and turns to keep June and Day apart for large parts of this novel and from the looks of things going into the next, more interesting because it still allows the two to shine individually.

8. Home is not a country by Safia Elhillo

I went into this book knowing only that it was going to be about young girl whose heritage and background is in Sudan, but that she was struggling with that identity in America. However, what I wasn’t expecting was for it to be in a way that teetered on supernatural/mystical events where the girl she envisions herself to be could literally take over her life and shows her the memories in her parents past. But even more interesting, was this book was told in a series of poems. Poems that read more like prose, but poems none the less. This was such a fascinating way to tell the story and I loved the way she made the poems read like a story, but also rhythmically like poems should be. And beyond just the adventure with Yasmeen, it was also fitting for Nima’s actual events in her life as she struggles with this identity and how that affects her childhood Haitham while also dealing with the ignorance of American children because she is also Muslim. Overall I enjoyed this rare find and would love to read more stories like this.

9. A Tale of Witchcraft by Chris Colfer (Book #2 in the Tale of Magic Series)

Returning to this prequel world of the Land of Stories series, I knew we would get just as much interesting storytelling with great messages as we did the first one and I like that it was explored differently. Like some of the themes still carried through, like having the magic community represent the LGBTQIA+ community and being outsiders to the world. Because time has passed since the last book we get to see how embraced the community has been, but the plot still centers around how the people against them are trying to find ways to destroy them. And it works. That’s the twist and it was good. Some of it I saw coming, but some of the characters did surprise me. Brystal definitely has her work cut out in the next book. But there are two gripes I have with it. First it was weird to switch perspectives in the middle of this novel to Lucy. I thought the general mental health storyline of Brystal was good until it was revealed she was curse. And to me, while it is something she can’t banish, it still feels like mental health issues is something that just happen and that you can fix them, when in reality there is a lot more work that you need to do. So we’ll see how we get to the end of this story. At least now we not only have set up the Fairy Godmother but Mother Goose too.

10. Around the World in 80 Days & Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne

I understand that one of these stories is more famous than the other, but I wish you had read them in the opposite order. Partially because you can tell Five Weeks in a Balloon was written first, partially because there was way more random scientific facts that didn’t flow well, but most importantly the heavy racist and colonialism sentiments were hard to read. Now the idea, that you could create a balloon to take you from one side of Africa to the next with little to no gas? Interesting. Some of the scenarios were also interesting to read through. But the whole tone of Fergussen, Kennedy, and Joe towards Africa was unbearable. There were parts of the colonialism and racist tones in Around the World in 80 Days too as Fogg and Passepartout traveled through India. But maybe because that part of the book was short it wasn’t as overbearing. I also like Fogg as a character more than Fergussen because Fogg comes off as this random British gentlemen who isn’t that easily troubled, but has the craziest idea to travel around the world in 80 days. And any setback, he is cool as a cucumber in trying to solve. Though money also helped him a lot. Still I enjoyed seeing different parts of the world and while today you could travel the world in less than a day, doing a journey like this sounds kind of fun, except for the fact you wouldn’t actually see a lot of the world.

#2024 rewind #books i read in 2024

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eclecticflowerbanditathlete · 4 years ago

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Gonna change it up and talked about xmen series The Gifted:

Started rewatching and the first episode is such a great mimic/reflection of our society right. Will also mention things from later on as well. Someone else might have mentioned this already but it’s been stuck in brain.

So xmen fans should know that they were created as a reflection of racism; different from the societal norm by a few pieces of DNA. The core four are all mutants and minorities in the US (Asian, indigenous, Hispanic, Jewish) fighting for their rights and wanted to be treated equally.

The Strucker family is a white suburban family who do not see the inequality that mutants face; since they benefit from the law. The father even prosecutes mutants that define themselves from attack; occasionally aren’t able to control their abilities. Some of the attacks are what trigger mutants abilities for the first time.

Once the abilities appear, if in public and or changes their physical appearance, that persons life is over. They get targeted by police as mutants and get extra surveillance and treated like they have something to hide or did something wrong, and no protection from hate groups. Cause the humans don’t see them the same way, they have to cross over the us vs them line (aka the Strucker family) Then there are “them” that were born into mutant parents, or had their ability appear at an early age and have lived as outcasts for most (since early to late teens) or their whole lives (the core four).

Their parents and or themselves barely making ends meet, living in undesirable area and working in shitty jobs; if they can find them, because of discrimination of mutants under the designs of fear for public safety. Can’t t get higher paid positions or skill/trained jobs cause that takes extra money and time to learn those things (college/university). Some get pushed to there breaking point and are just desperate, and consider using their abilities to help just once (Clarice stealing food after being chased out of town). However, it’s not seen that way it framed as using their abilities to cheat the system and take advantage of others and therefore need to be punished. In The Gifted there even enhanced and minimum sentencing for mutants, even when abilities first appear and it’s an accident - the bowling scene where a teen girl is provoked and accidentally uses her ability to blow food around and ADA Strucker tells them to just leave and let it go.

Back to the Strucker’s, they didn’t see any of that until Andy’s abilities appear in public and Lauren was forced to show herself as well. They don’t know how to live or get off the grid; basically got caught after 1 day. Though the parents acknowledge that they were privileged, they still can’t see why they can’t get help from some people and the law, like they had before. Also think that they, their ideas, and their problems are more important/better then the other mutants (mom Strucker) that have been navigating the article injustices longer and know the real rules of mutant life. Dad Strucker started out lecturing Andy about how using his abilities could hurt people, as if he wasn’t raised to fear/distrust mutant abilities. When Andy acknowledged liking using them to destroy things when trying to learn control, he didn’t mean he liked hurting people at that time. I think that he got to let out some of his pent up frustration at that he had about being bullied; that same frustration of being mistreated and his dad basically told what he was feeling was wrong.

#the gifted #xmen #Thunderblink #thunderbird #blink #polaris #eclipse #mutants #gifted #andy strucker #lauren strucker #fenris

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firespirited · 4 years ago

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Clarice episode12 Spoilers under cut

I hesistated to watch this one without waiting for episode 13 as 10-11 were two parts of a whole and browsing the AVclub for something else caught a glimpse of a C grade review calling it "dumb" https://www.avclub.com/clarice-starlings-past-and-present-all-fall-apart-at-on-1847124928. I disagree.

Here's the basic of the episode: Agent Starling can't accept she's angry, she pushes back, reaches a breaking point, recognizes something very loud within her, names it: it is indeed anger, does the smart thing. She's in a job where you're supposed to gaslight yourself into working until burn-out, multiple characters say to compartmentalize or bulldoze on. She makes a choice not to. Not dumb.

*Adding the "you're a good father" line to Krendler leads to a messy surface read but that's where Clarice was at mentally (and where we are storywise): fathers and fatherhood. Her vicap crew had very slowly become family that have her back. Krendler has been a true mentor in the past few episodes: protective, trusting but honest about her limitations, not letting the punch slide.

*Catherine is fantastic, she knows her mother's flaws and strengths. It's good to see her healing in a psychiatric hospital. Can I just say how rare and precious it is to have a psych ward not shown as hell on earth but a safe haven for once, a place to rebuild yourself.

*The reviewer for the avclub seems to think we're in a normal crime procedural universe and the show has gone 'over the top' with the villain. Did the lack of name dropping Hannibal make you forget that this is the Harris-verse where serial killers become gods and monsters and make art from violence. DUDE. You really thought this was going to be about a bad guy who makes money off a bad medicine? LMAO. This is limb-sculpture, wolf-mecha, beehive-head and dragon who eats the sun territory. If CBS has guts, it'll end with a man eating a human in the style of that 'Saturn devours his son' Goya painting.

*Not mentioned in the review but adding the bad dad angle is new to the character and could be seen as cliché to turn the Clarice Starling into a "daddy issues" woman but that would be too simplistic: 1/ West Virginia lawman in the 70s who was a good father but also a bad copper - sanctified and cystallised into an ideal by early death and being sent away from home is not a stretch. 2/ Clarice isn't just driven by spite, empathy and intellectual curiosity there's always been something about needing to understand the nature of evil as a corrupting force beyond meat farming metaphors. Also I love that she gave Hannibal just enough to feel he was in but he was just one layer deep. He can hurt her but she's still protecting the core. 3/ Working a straight very white male institution is punishing, profiling bad men is punishing, working for the feds who are a very shady institution because it's also got quantico is morally punishing. Clarice engages in a punishing lifestyle AND risky behaviour: Krendler is right, she should never have gone in alone: repeatedly. Her actually listening to her therapist and profiling herself is good. Taking herself off the job is good. It doesn't fit the classic tropes but it makes sense that a smart woman finally listened to other smart women and made a change. I like this plotline far better than her soldiering on. It's intelligent. 4/ Her recognizing she has an empathy weakness and blindspots is probably going to allow her to pick up on something in the next episode that saves her life.

You build yourself on what you've got and then learn to build your own self when those foundations crumble, there was a sense there was always a little more to it than just losing a dad and being sent to live on a meat farm. My guess uptil recently was some unresolvable grief about something explaining why her mother couldn't keep her around, it was dad related instead. That's a 3 dimensional character. Sorry if that breaks your female badass ideal. I was really concerned with where they were going with the dad angle which is why ep10 gave me pause but it's been treated with a bit more subtletly; the perfect dad was a crutch she's been using that she needs to drop to be able to grieve what happened with Gumb but also how she was forced to sacrifice parts of herself to Hannibal for info and was thrown to that wolf by her mentor Crawford. The throughline the season has been drawing is parents and mentors: from Chronos and Alaster to Jame Gumb's mother to Catherine's mother to Clarice's father: what they give us, what we take and what we reject to build our own selves.

Of course the finale could bungle it all. pessimistic me says cliffhanger because they were told season 2 was guaranteed (it was but now it's not because streaming companies are fighting).

#saf #clarice #clarice cbs #clarice starling #let ardelia shine next week plz #tv #review

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sparklyjojos · 6 years ago

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[THE CHILDISH DARKNESS Recaps, Chapters 3-5]

[tw: self-harm, rape, gore, mentions of underage sex, a dog is killed]

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THREE

Yurio didn’t want to come to Hashimoto’s funeral, instead opting to watch the procession from the town’s library. Saburou barely managed to keep her from jumping through the window in despair and withstood the kicking and biting that followed.

“It’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright,” he chanted both to calm her down and to show forgiveness.

Yurio, now staying in the Natsukawa house, had a tendency to self-harm. Her arms were covered in scars, and she still had a bit of pencil lead stuck in her neck where she had stabbed herself once. Shirou and his girlfriend Atena both had medical training, so they helped with patching up her wounds, and Shirou took it upon himself to get the girl proper therapy. The therapy at first just shifted her behaviour from self-harm to rage against others. Sometimes she’d blame Saburou for not letting her die, sometimes yelled at him to go die already.

One night Saburou awoke to see Yurio standing by his bed with a knife, but after a tense moment she broke down, crawled into the bed and hugged him.

“It’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright,” he chanted again, unsure what else to do other than to let her fall asleep next to him.

Yurio disappeared next morning. Saburou found her at the Mouryou Pond, the characteristic round lake in the mountains where they had first met, and finally had a proper conversation about her and Hashimoto.

The two teens had met through an online chat and gravitated towards each other because of their similar alienation from peers, as well as their obsession with UFOs which were said to sometimes appear in Nishi Akatsuki. The teens would sneak out together at night and observe the sky for hours. Even though the only thing they talked about were UFOs, they became an item and even started having sex the previous year (which Saburou was now internally screaming about, because dear God, that’s a 13-year-old with a 16-year-old, and they didn’t even have a connection other than through some fictional nonsense).

Pregnancy happened, but Yurio’s outraged parents quietly got rid of the problem. They didn’t know about Hashimoto and he never learned he could have become a father. The teens continued to meet in secret, sinking further and further into their own world. After the Jawakutora case, Yurio got the idea of using the points of the spiral for a new purpose: creating a letter to the aliens. The image of two people on the plaque made it look almost like she and Hashimoto were the only two people in the entire universe.

Yurio said crying that maybe she’d never actually liked Hashimoto, maybe she’d be fine with anyone else who would stick around her, “I’m sorry, Takeshi, I’m sorry!” Maybe these self-accusations she was repeating to herself were yet another form of self-harm.

Saburou recalled finding Hashimoto’s body. Cut off arms, legs, head and trunk strewn on a table in the storehouse of the Nishi Akatsuki middle school. The message left next to it said: DEATH GOD JAWAKUTORA.

Yurio continued to act violently towards herself and others to the point Atena and Shirou had problems keeping her in check. She ran away repeatedly, she asked Hashimoto for forgiveness one second and badmouthed him the next, she broke Saburou’s nose with a thrown soda can.

After that last event, Saburou stumbled upon his old friend Sarue Kaede on his way back from the doctor.

“You should put that child in a proper hospital,” Kaede insisted. Saburou thought that it’d be probably the right thing to do, but he wanted to let Yurio live in a normal house.

Shirou had kept it secret from others until now, but in the face of the new case he had to voice his suspicions about Jirou being the one responsible for all the Jawakutora attacks, and/or hiding under the name Kawaji Natsurou.

Saburou was skeptical. Kawaji Natsurou didn’t look... wild enough in the photos to be a grown-up Jirou, even if he could have gotten a plastic surgery. However, Kawaji’s personal documents from before he had entered university had all gone missing and nobody knew anything about his family.

Shirou wanted to believe that it meant their formerly violent older brother had turned over a new leaf.

One day Yurio ran away somewhere again and couldn’t be found. Saburou returned home exhausted and went to sleep in his mother’s room, which always helped him relax.

This time he couldn’t sleep. He felt a presence outside the room, heard someone’s footsteps approaching closer and then a child sobbing. It wasn’t Yurio.

A small girl was crying right by his bed, her hair cut in traditional okappa style, her ghostly face completely white. She gave petrified Saburou a look as if she knew him, then turned back and left the bedroom.

Trying to follow her weeping, Saburou went downstairs to the kitchen, opened the trapdoor to the underground food storage, and found Yurio sleeping there.

Later that night, Saburou had a strange dream. Above the Mouryou Pond hovered a big glass box containing Kawaji Natsurou, or maybe Jirou. The man kept calling Saburou ‘Clarice’ and eventually turned into Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, reciting his lines from the book Hannibal. Saburou answered with the appropriate line of Clarice Starling.

It may look like I’m closed in this glass case, Jirou / Hopkins / Hannibal said, but depending on your viewpoint, the glass case is simultaneously closing in the rest of the world, including you.You can’t tell which side of the glass is “inside” and which one is “outside”.

Then came the last scene from Hannibal -- with Krendler duct-taped to a chair, about to have his brain eaten -- except the person in the chair was another Saburou.

Would you like to say grace before our meal, Mr. Krendler?

When Saburou woke up in the still dark room, somehow he still felt trapped by a glass box without an inside or an outside.

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FOUR

Maybe it never reached the extent of Jirou’s crimes, but Saburou also did some horrible things in his life.

In the last year of middle school his teacher Ms. Yoshida got married to another teacher, Mr. Kumono. Maybe precisely because of this fact Saburou got interested, planned carefully for some time on how to corner the prey in a vulnerable moment, and smoothly reenacted the plan to initiate sex with her. Then with help of his three friends (Fujita, Kato and Nakayama) Saburou beat up Mr. Kumono, tied him up in the basement and told him in details about the sex with Yoshida, all of which culminated in Saburou raping the woman in front of her husband and wondering why on earth his three friends were sobbing all he while.

It’s like there was some sadistic snake coiling inside him, always ready to hurt other people for no reason. He always intentionally chose to sleep with girlfriends and wives of his friends (including Fujita, Kato and Nakayama).

Was there really a difference between people and animals, considering how much libido could drive them?

The Fujitas had a black dog called Makki that was quite active in terms of attempting procreation. Saburou took this dog into the mountains, killed it with a knife, cut off its genitalia, and buried the body. Why did he feel the need to do that? Maybe he was projecting himself onto the dog, so the one he really wanted to kill was himself, he wasn’t sure.

Could one simultanously love and hate himself? Was it love or hate he felt towards his brothers and parents, his friends and their girlfriends?

Kaede always told him that he was stuck ‘trying out’ this whole relationship thing while not wanting to commit -- maybe because he didn’t believe he was capable of love -- and that he should try to meet a decent single woman, and was his relationship misshaps really that different than what was between his parents?

When he was nine, Saburou would sometimes sleep in one bed with his mother. Sometimes when she seemed sad, she’d embrace him and say: you’re the only one mom loves in this family, not dad or Ichirou or Jirou or Shirou, and you only love mom too, right? He would start falling asleep in the comfortable darkness, and she would say: never go away from me. But she didn’t really say anything when he grew up and left for university.

Kaede was having a streak of unsuccessful relationships and often meeting Saburou for drinks. He told her that she should be looking for a honest, loyal and benevolent man instead of all these idiots. She proposed dating each other, but Saburou just spouted the same advice, and they exchanged friendly drunk banter like usual.

One time in the hospital, Saburou was lying next to his still comatose mother and thinking.

She had been almost lost and brought back to life by doctors 37 times already. Maybe they should let her pass away? But Saburou knew he could never do it. He wanted to hear her voice again. He had crawled into her hospital bed to feel a little of that nostalgic safety.

At this moment he got a call from Yurio, who joked that he shouldn’t try to molest his own mother, and Saburou actually got aroused at the prospect.

A little later Shirou called Saburou to tell him about a new murder (and scolded him for using a cell phone inside a hospital, so Saburou had to leave the building). The case that had started with Hashimoto’s death claimed a few other victims: a man impaled on a stake driven from his mouth to bottom, and two people found in a condition suggesting they were repeatedly thrown to the ground from somewhere high up. The bodies were all found near elementary schools in nearby towns. The same was true about the newest case, with the victim having all his bones broken. Shirou asked Saburou to look into the possibility of the murders being related to old execution methods.

Saburou returned to the hospital room and discovered that his mother had suddenly disappeared. Nobody saw her leave, even if the nurses arrived to the room immediately after the alarm went off. Even a thourough search didn’t help. A true locked room situation.

While Saburou knew he didn’t have anything resembling Shirou’s detective talent, he forced himself to think.

There had been a moment in which he went to buy a newspaper, then returned to his mother’s room for just a brief moment before Shirou yelled at him to please get outside with the phone. In that brief moment, his mother’s face seemed younger than it should. When everybody was frantically searching for her later, Saburou briefly spotted Yurio in the crowd, but it didn’t really register until now.

Yurio and his mother had switched places, allowing the latter to escape.

He found Yurio on the roof, still in white patient clothes. She explained that Mrs. Natsukawa had woken up last night and asked for help in escaping somewhere where no one would find her. They spoke very briefly, but Mrs. Natsukawa said she’s leaving Saburou in Yurio’s hands, and that Saburou was a little strange, but a good child.

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FIVE

When the Natsukawa brothers were children, on winter nights they would gather around their mother and ask for stories about her and their father’s younger years. One of the stories felt different than others and went like this.

There was once a girl taking a bath alone. She walked out to the hallway to turn off the light before returning to the bathtub, first putting a hand in to make sure no monster was lurking underneath the surface.

The world outside the window was completely dark and seemingly connected into one being with the darkness inside, enveloping and beckoning her. The girl liked the feeling of calm it brought. It felt like her skin was no longer a barrier of her existence, as if she was a part of the darkness, as if the darkness was her true self. She would hold her breath underwater as long as she could until she could hear the heartbeat pounding in her ears. The sound of her own life.

Around that time, the girl was in love with old jazz the likes of Coleman Hawkins, and liked to listen to Buck Clayton’s trumpet the most. No other music captivated her that much. People around her couldn’t really understand her love. Even her jazz loving boyfriend who seemed to like it didn’t understand it like she did.

One Christmas Eve, the girl and her boyfriend were walking through a dark city when a black high-end car stopped nearby and an unusually tall man was forcibly pushed outside. The man was half-naked, his shivering body covered in countless scars. A woman in the car threw the rest of his clothes on the wet ground, which he picked up only after she disappeared in the distance. The man then left for the nearest phone booth.

Before the girl could realize, she had already walked away from her boyfriend towards this man. She managed to catch his name and address from the phone call. When the boyfriend tried to pull her away, she let go of him again.

Something had changed within her the instant she’d noticed that mysterious man’s scars. It’s not that she suddenly fell in love. She couldn’t quite explain the change to her boyfriend.

That evening, when she was taking a bath again, she discovered she couldn’t become a part of the darkness anymore. Maybe when she had looked at that man’s scars, she was wounded as well, scarred in some unseen part of herself. She found the man later, and the weird change stopped.

The sound of jazz never returned to her; the sound of Buck Clayton’s trumpet had already been broken.

But in reality their mother’s story was much shorter, and talked about how she first saw her future husband on that Christmas Eve, and how she later found him again at a political rally. The children couldn’t really understand everything yet.

It’s a curious thing, she said, how just seeing somebody else’s scars can wound you, how it may change you and make you grow closer with another.

Maybe their father’s scars wounded them and changed them too.

[>>>NEXT>>>]

#sparkly reads tcd #maijo and jdc stuff #I WARNED YOU ABOUT THE NARRATOR

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miss-musings · 7 years ago

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My Top 10 Lizzington Moments

In lieu of my recent appearance on a local TV/movies podcast, where I defended Lizzington, I started mentally preparing a list of reasons why the romantic pairing is legitimate and why the father/daughter reading of Spader and Boone’s characters is wrong.

Granted, this isn’t to say that there can’t and hasn’t been some aspects of their relationship that have felt more like a father/daughter, uncle/niece, teacher/student, mentor/mentee relationship than it does a romantic coupling… but that doesn’t prevent the relationship from evolving into something romantic later on, or from Lizzington being the endgame.

Among the bigger reasons I could think of were:

In-show evidence (which we will get into more in a second), including the original pilot script

Comments from the actors, producers, writers, showrunners, etc.

The types of roles James Spader takes interest in (ie, romantic leads, not fatherly figures)

Parallels to other couples in literature/history/pop culture, including but not limited to: Edmond Dantes/Haydee from The Count of Monte Cristo; Bill/The Bride from Kill Bill; Hannibal/Clarice from The Silence of the Lambs universe; and real-life Whitey Bulger, who had at least one long-term relationship with a woman 16 years his junior

While talking with the two guys on the podcast who had seen the show, they argued that they hadn’t seen any evidence of Red’s romantic love for Liz or the Lizzington endgame possibility, citing their age gap and Red’s paternal type relationship with Liz as their reasoning.

I, in turn, mentioned a few scenes on the show where Red acts less than fatherly, such as when he surrenders himself on bent knee in 1x21, and when he narrates the tango milonga very sexily to Liz in 2x11.

Either they didn’t recall these instances at all, or didn’t see them as being romantic/sexual.

Thus, long after the podcast recording was over, I started mentally forming a list of the Top 10 Lizzington moments on the show that scream romance rather than father/daughter. Like, moments where if my dad or fatherly figures ever acted like that around me, I’d be freaking the fuck out. Or, moments where if I were writing a father/daughter pair (whether biological or honorary), I would completely avoid such moments for the squick factor, etc.

Granted, there are plenty of moments to choose from, but I wanted to pick big, meaningful moments, rather than just things like Red’s casual reference to the G-spot in front of Liz, etc.

And, really, each individual entry on this list doesn’t prove in and of itself that Lizzington will happen, but it’s really more a combination of all these moments PLUS all the ones I didn’t list (along with all the other stuff I mentioned above). One or two squicky moments can be waved off, but all of these, and as iconic and important as they are in the show… yeah, Lizzington is legit.

I tried to pick out single, individual moments, but there are two exceptions on the list. And, I only went up to the end of S4. I haven’t found any really strong Lizzington moments in S5 thus far, mostly because Liz believes Red is her dad.

And, again, these aren’t my favorite Lizzington moments; rather, the ones that I feel like most “prove” or support the idea of a Lizzington endgame/coupling. Once the series is over, I might do a full list of my favorite moments between Red and Liz.

(It wasn’t until after I’d made this list that I remembered the scene in 4x22 where Liz confronts Red about being her dad and he neither confirms nor denies that he is. Instead, he has this look on his face that I’ve seen on the faces of other TV/movie characters when they’ve been “friend-zoned” or, in Red’s case, “father-zoned.” Eh. Whatever. I’m going with the list as I already wrote it.)

But, now, starting at Number 10 and work our way up to Number 1:

#10: The Fulcrum memory extraction scene in 2x10

I put this one pretty low on the list, because it’s mostly the cinematography that implies the lack of personal space and physical closeness between Red and Liz. Like, he never actually does anything untoward or inappropriate to her, but he definitely gets super close to her face, and holding her, and some of the angles on those shots make it look so close between them.

And, granted, I’m not technically including the fall-out of this sequence, but I absolutely love the scene after when Liz accuses Red of only being in her life because he’s using her to find the Fulcrum. Like, all of his attention and affection toward her has been a manipulation, and as he reaches out to give her a reassuring touch, she recoils and spits venom at him. And he looks absolutely devastated. I feel like that scene is one of my favorites in the whole series, but, as far as the entry on this list goes… the closeness between them in that memory extraction… it’s low down on the list, but, it deserves a spot.

#9: Waiting for her outside the courthouse in 3x10

Again, this is also pretty low on the list, because – in and of itself – it doesn’t scream Lizzington. Not the actual action of the scene itself. I can imagine plenty of dads or father figures waiting patiently outside courthouses for their daughters.

But, it wasn’t really WHAT happened in the scene, but HOW it happened. The music, the fact that the had the bus move, and he was there behind it… a notable romantic trope. The fact that he was waiting OUTSIDE. My dad would absolutely be right inside the door, wanting to see me as soon as possible. Granted, other dads are different, but the music and the staging with the bus were strong factors for this scene being where it is. The looks on their faces when they embrace; the fact that they don’t say anything… again, low down, but it deserves a spot.

#8: Red’s explanation of Tom’s betrayal in 2x19

This is another instance where WHAT is happening in the scene isn’t as important as HOW it’s happening. In this instance: HOW Red explains Tom’s betrayal, how he emphasizes that Tom betrayed him because he wanted a life of intimacy and commitment to Liz… and the look that Spader has on his face when he says it. He’s absolutely shattered. It’s something that’s beyond jealousy, I feel like. It’s this sense of complete heartbreak that, not only did Tom achieve something Red now longs for (intimacy with Liz), but that Liz was happy in that life with Tom, even if it was built on a lie. That Red’s loss was Tom and Liz’s gain.

Granted, I don’t think Red was in love with Liz whenever he found out about Tom’s betrayal. He absolutely cared for her and wanted her to be safe. Hence why he felt he had to turn himself in. But, now that Red has met Liz and presumably fallen in love with her, he completely hates Tom for what he did to both Liz and himself; and I think that his obvious devastation over Liz’s discovery that Red initially hired Tom is more because he feels guilty himself, not because Liz now thinks badly of him (again).

This one is low on the list, but I felt like it deserved a spot because I can’t imagine a father or father-figure speaking to his daughter (figure) the way Red does here. I imagine it’d be more like, “Hey, I may have hired your ex-husband, but he was an asshole and betrayed me to save himself and needle his way into your life.” Not the way Spader delivers it… with that emphasis on Tom’s desire to be intimate and committed to Liz.

#7: The dinner date in 1x02

You know, because if I were a dad and I reunited with my long-lost now-adult daughter after years and years, I’d tell her to get dressed up, because I want to take her out to dinner. And then while we’re on said fancy dinner-date, I’ll bring up out of nowhere, and with little to no need, that if anyone asks she’s MY GIRLFRIEND. Squick indeed.

And for those of you who might be saying/thinking, “Yeah, but THEN, he says she can be his daughter.” To which I reply, “THEN WHY EVEN BRING UP THE GIRLFRIEND THING IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!”

When coupled with everything else that happens in that scene: how he whispers, orders her a drink in French (showing off), asks her to profile him, etc., … what father acts like that while on a dinner date with his daughter? Ew.

#6: The May/September reference in 3x05 (and other Blacklisters’ references to Lizzington)

“Some say it’s a daddy/daughter thing; others swear it’s May/September. I prefer to believe it’s a little of both.” –Matias Solomon

This is one of those entries where I’m going to cheat, because while I think Solomon’s quote is the most pro-Lizzington thing a Blacklister has ever said, he’s not the only one to point out Lizzington. From Anslo Garrick to Luther Braxton to Berlin to that lady in the all-woman thief squad to The Director to Madeline Pratt to that annoying FBI agent in S4c to Naomi Hyland.

Liz is Red’s girlfriend, princess, prima ballerina … someone he chose through fate; someone he cares for as much as he care for his wife; someone who blinds him to his passion; someone with whom Red “still has the touch”; someone Red makes feel like she’s the center of the world; someone whose relationship with Red is described as “still the in honeymoon phase”; someone who charmed Liz.

Again, if you’re writing a father/daughter-type relationship: WHY EVEN FUCKING BRING IT UP IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!

If you’re just trying to throw red herrings at the audience, why do it in that way? And, if anyone points back to Solomon’s quote and says that it’s both, I say: EXACTLY. Red can definitely have a mentoring relationship with Liz and be overly protective of her, while also still being in love with her.

#5: “My life, My heart” in 3x19

What dad, upon watching his daughter die, would describe her as “a woman… who was my life, my heart”? The fact that Red is talking to his own imagination, or at least to a complete stranger makes me wonder why the hell he would ever phrase it so vaguely – instead of saying something more straight-forward, like, “My daughter was my life. My heart is broken now that she’s dead.”

Also, if Red is her dad, why does he feel like killing himself? Yes, his daughter died, but he still has Agnes. Tom be damned; if Red’s her grandfather, he deserves an opportunity to be in her life. No, Red feeling like the love of his life is gone makes more sense. As much as he wants to be, he has no right to be in Agnes’ life if that’s the case, and Tom (as Agnes’ dad) has every right to tell Red to leave them alone.

#4: Surrendering on bent knee in 1x21

Even IF Red doesn’t know he’s related to Liz, the writers HAVE to know. What idiot writes a bajillion-dollar network show and says, “Fuck it, idk how these peeps are connected! We’ll make it up as we go along!” No, the writers absolutely know what the connection is between Red and Liz, and if they were related, there’s absolutely no way they would ever write a scene where the man GETS DOWN ON HIS KNEES after a super-moving monologue about what Liz means to him and how a kiss from a woman making nearly dying well worth it.

I don’t care if he’s just surrendering himself to the authorities. There’s less dramatic, less trope-y, less romance-hinting ways to do it. The fact that he does it so slowly, so meaningfully, never breaking eye contact with her… fucking hell, what dad does that to his daughter? Or what writers would have an unwitting dad act like that with his daughter? Either Red’s fucked up or the writers are, if they’re really and truly related.

And, even if it’s just an honorary father/daughter thing, the point still stands. I have plenty of fatherly figures in my life, and if any of them looked at me the way Red looks at Liz, gets done on his knees and surrenders (to the authorities) in front of me, I’d definitely be weirded out. Remember, that IN-SHOW, Liz already has a fatherly figure: Cooper. I know other people have pointed this out before, but these two men act very differently for both supposedly being fatherly figures in Liz’s life. By contrast, Red is much physically closer, more intimate and more “romantic” (but not like overtly) and in a way more chivalrous than Cooper would ever be. Could you imagine Cooper getting down on his knees as Red does? No, and that’s a good thing.

#3: Sexy tango narration in 2x11

This is another instance where, if you substitute Cooper into this scene in Red’s place, it becomes immediately weird. James Spader can pull it off because he’s James Spader. He’s drawn to characters who are erotic and sensual and intelligent and romantic; or, if they’re not already, he makes them so, because that’s how he is.

I think that maybe has blinded people to how weird and inappropriate this scene would feel if it was a father/daughter or father-figure and his protege (like, with Cooper and Liz). Imagine Cooper saying the same things to Liz in this scene; describing the tango in the exact same way, with the same tone of voice. It’s no wonder James Spader gets a pass. We’ve come to expect the weird and sensual from Red (like the G-spot reference in 1x03), even though it wouldn’t be accepted in everyday conversation. That’s just the guy Red is.

Or is it more that it’s how Red is around Liz? Yes, Red is plenty weird and sensual and stuff around Samar and other people on the show, but he seemingly cranks it up to 11 around Liz.

Definitely not something a father or fatherly figure should do.

#2: The Ugly Fish and North Star monologues in 2x09 and 3x02

People on Tumblr have brought up before Red’s parallels to Edmond Dantes from The Count of Monte Cristo; it makes sense: Red, our anti-hero of the story, has certain parallels to the classical Byronic hero, which Dantes falls into. You know who else is a classic Byronic hero? Mr. Rochester from “Jane Eyre.”

“Jane Eyre,” for those of you who’ve never read it or seen an adaptation of it, is about a young governess fresh out of school who eventually falls in love with her moody but intelligent employer, Mr. Rochester. He tells Jane, after she saves him from a fire, that he knew she would do him good one day, that she would revive some goodness in him. Later, he refers to her as regenerating him with a vengeance and that she would be his means/instrument of salvation, and that he believes she would help him to live in a higher and purer way.

Now, who else does that sound like?

I get that people believe their kids are their saving graces, their second chances, their fresh starts, etc. Hell, one of the reasons The Bride leaves Bill in “Kill Bill” is so she can make a fresh start with their child. But, the way Red words these little speeches, the meaning behind them, how he gazes at her with complete adoration, how frequently he tells Liz that he sees his “second chance” and saving grace, etc. … it seems a little overkill for a parent to do. A simple “I wanted to make a fresh start with you” or whatever would be just fine.

The strong parallels between Red and Byronic heroes like Edmond Dantes and Mr. Rochester – both of whom end up with women who are much younger than them… young enough to be their biological daughters – absolutely make me roll my eyes any time people say that Red’s love for Liz is fatherly, and only fatherly.

Plus, with the North Star scene, that song that plays over the scene also doesn’t exactly scream “platonic” or “familial,” now does it?

I really want anyone who believes Red is Liz’s dad to watch any adaptation of Jane Eyre, or at least the scene where she saves him from the fire, and then rewatch one or both of these TBL scenes, and notice the similarities and parallels. Y’all. It’s like ridiculous how romantic these scenes are.

#1: The sexy dream (“What do you really want?”) in 2x03

Because, you know, when I have dreams about my dad or my fatherly figure withholding secrets from me, I imagine him in my hotel room while I’m somewhat scantily dressed and laying on the bed, standing over me and asking in a husky voice, “What do you really want?” This gives us a hint very early in the show that maybe Liz doesn’t see Red as quite so fatherly as some believe. All his little hints and sensual comments… all the lip-staring and meaningful looks between them… Liz’s “I feel possessive of him” and similar comments… all comes to a head here (at least at this point in the show). Already, Liz subconsciously, if nothing else, realizes Red’s love for her is not quite platonic and that he’s a very sensual man who – while he would definitely give his life for hers without a second thought – also sees her as a man sees a woman, not as a friend sees a friend (or honorary father sees an honorary daughter).

Now, I realize that might be unfair, as Liz can’t consciously control her dreams. But the writers can and do. Why write that scene like that? Why stage it in that exact way, with Liz holding onto the headboard of the bed, with Red standing over her? Why have those exact camera movements, with Red coming toward Liz’s bed, and the shot moving down to her legs and then up to her head? Him standing where he was would’ve been just fine, but, no, he comes closer to her while she looks up at him a little bit taken aback.

Also, notice how there’s no wide-shot in that whole sequence with Red standing over Liz’s bed? It’s a panning or moving shot. It’s almost like lingering on this image of Red standing next to Liz’s bed while she’s scantily dressed and asking her what she really wants would be … gasp, sensual! Or I guess even more overtly sensual.

Again, if it’s just the writers trying to throw us off… there are plenty of other ways to do that … there are plenty of other ways to write this scene without any kind of squick factor … if all you wanted was a dream where Liz imagines Red killing Tom to protect his secrets from Liz, then why write it and then SHOOT it as they did? Everything we see and hear on-screen is intentional.

#lizzington #the blacklist #nbc the blacklist #raymond reddington #elizabeth keen #liz keen #masha rostova #harold cooper

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marriedtothescreen · 7 years ago

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Season Review - The Gifted Season 1

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After thirteen episodes, Fox’s latest edition to the X-Men universe finishes up it’s first season. Set in the few years after the X-Men have left, caring for mutant kind has come down to the Mutant Underground as Sentinal Services hunt them down and society turns against them. The series follows the Strucker family as the two teens Lauren and Andy have their powers revealed at a school dance and with their mom and dad are on the run when the come across the Mutant Underground.

Settling in takes some time as Reed (Stephen Moyer), their father used to be a prosecutor who handled mutant criminals but his skills knowing the enemy and their mother Caitlin (Amy Acker) puts her nursing skills to work to help pull them into the mutant community. Leading the hideout are Eclipse/Marcos (Sean Teale) who was made for the show along with more known comic characters, Thunderbird/John (Blair Redford), Polaris/Lorna (Emma Dumont), Dreamer/Sonya (Elena Satine) while Blink/Clarice (Jamie Chung) joins the Underground with the Strucker family. The mutants discover that the Sentinals are using mutants to catch other mutants who have been so drugged up they don’t know what they are doing besides using their powers. They are a part of the Hound Program that a lab named Trask is creating which has ties to Reed’s father pulling them into a bigger story about who their family is in the mutant community and reveals more about Andy and Lauren’s powers. The family of outcast mutants grows stronger together but with the intervention of another mutant group, the Hellfire Club and three identical telepathic sisters, fractures start to appear leading us to an interesting second season where our main characters have split into two.

Overall it was a very entertaining show using lots of different characters from the X-Men comics, and further builds out a world of mutants that the X-Men have left for them so somewhat referencing something from the Logan film. So probably yet to happen in the film timeline an event with mutants happens leading to this series. If you are a fan of comics or the X-Men, I would highly recommended this show as it is very well done and very entertaining. Only 13 episodes to catch up on before season 2 comes back!

#tv review #the gifted #fox tv series #fox #xmen #X-men #blink #polaris #Stephen Moyer #amy acker #sean teale #blair redford #emma dumont #elena satine #jamie chung

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newsfundastuff · 5 years ago

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Television Logline: Follows the world’s most famous Super Hero and comic books’ most famous journalist as they deal with all the stress, pressures and complexities that come with being working parents in today’s society. Based on the characters from DC created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Cast: Tyler Hoechlin, Elizabeth TullocWALKER — Series Order Writer(s): Anna Fricke Producer(s): Dan Lin, Lindsay Liberatore, Jared Padalecki Studio: CBS Television Studios, Rideback. Logline: A reimagining of the long-running series “Walker, Texas Ranger.” Centers on Cordell Walker, a widower and father of two with his own moral code, who returns home to Austin after being undercover for two years, only to discover there’s harder work to be done at home. He’ll attempt to reconnect with his children, navigate clashes with his family, and find unexpected common ground with his new partner (one of the first women in Texas Rangers’ history), while growing increasingly suspicious about the circumstances surrounding his wife’s death. Cast: Jared PadaleckiUNTITLED THE 100 PREQUEL — Backdoor Pilot Production Order Writer(s): Jason Rothenberg Producer(s): Leslie Morgenstein, Gina Girolamo Studio: Alloy Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, CBS Television Studios Logline: Set 97 years before the events of the original series, this project — which is currently being developed as a planted spinoff and will air as an episode of THE 100’s final season — starts with the end of the world, a nuclear apocalypse that wipes out most of the human population on Earth. The epic adventure follows a band of survivors on the ground as they learn to cope in a dangerous world while fighting to create a new and better society from the ashes of what came before.UNTITLED ARROW SPINOFF — Backdoor Pilot Production Order Writer(s): Beth Schwartz, Mark Guggenheim, Jill Blankenship, Oscar Balderrama Producer(s): Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter Studio: Warner Bros. TV, DC Entertainment Logline: Spinoff following the women of Arrow. Cast: Katherine McNamara, Katie Cassidy, Juliana HarkavyBack to Top FOX COMEDYCARLA — Series Commitment Writer(s): Darlene Hunt Producer(s): Jim Parsons, Todd Spiewak, Angie Stephenson, Miranda Hart, Eric Norsoph, Mackenzie Gabriel-Vaught, Mayim Bialik Studio: Warner Bros. Television, FOX Entertainment, That’s Wonderful Productions, Sad Clown Productions, BBC Studios Logline: Carla is a 39-year-old woman who struggles every day against society and her mother to prove that you CANNOT have everything you want — and still be happy. Which is why she spent the money her parents set aside for her wedding to open a Cat Café in Louisville, KY. Based on the BBC UK original seriesMiranda, created by Miranda Hart. (Multi-camera) Cast: Mayim BialikHOUSEBROKEN — Series Order Writer(s): Clea DuVall, Jennifer Crittenden, Gabrielle Allan Producer(s): Sharon Horgan, Clelia Mountford, Aaron Kaplan, Dana Honor Studio: Fox Entertainment, Kapital Entertainment, Bento Box Logline: Explores human dysfunction and neurosis through a group of neighborhood animals who live in the suburbs. (Animated) Cast: Lisa Kudrow, Clea DuVall, Sharon Horgan, Nat Faxon, Will Forte, Tony Hale, Jason Mantzoukas, Sam Richardson, Bresha Webb, Greta LeeTHIS COUNTRY Writer(s): Jenny Bicks Producer(s): Angie Stephenson, Charlie Cooper, Daisy May Cooper, Dan Magnante, Cathy Mason, Rachel Mason Director: Paul Feig Studio: Lionsgate, BBC Studios, FOX Entertainment, Feigco Entertainment, Perkins Street Productions Logline: In this half-hour mockumentary inspired by the BBC format, a documentary crew goes to a small town to study young adults and their current concerns. Their focus is the daily lives of cousins Kelly and Shrub Mallet and their idiosyncratic surroundings. We follow the cousins as they pursue their dreams, confront challenges, and fight each other for frozen pizza. These two don’t have much, but they do have each other. (Single camera)Back to Top FOX DRAMATHE BIG LEAP Writer(s): Liz Heldens Producer(s): Sue Naegle Studio: 20th Century Fox Television, FOX Entertainment Logline: Inspired by a UK format, THE BIG LEAP is a funny and contemporary tale about second chances, chasing your dreams and taking back what’s yours. The show centers on a group of diverse underdogs from all different walks of life who compete to be part of a competition reality series that is putting on a modern, hip remake of “Swan Lake.” What they lack in the traditional dancer body type, they make up for with their edge, wit and desire to reimagine an iconic story to fit their own mold. THE BIG LEAP takes us on a journey of self-acceptance, body-positivity and empowerment at any age.THE CLEANING LADY Writer(s): Miranda Kwok Producer(s): Shay Mitchell, Melissa Carter Studio: Warner Bros Television, FOX Entertainment Logline: A darkly aspirational character drama about a whip-smart doctor who comes to the U.S. for a medical treatment to save her ailing son. But when the system fails and pushes her into hiding, she refuses to be beaten down and marginalized. Instead, she becomes a cleaning lady for the mob and starts playing the game by her own rules. Based on the original Argentine series.Back to Top NBC COMEDYAMERICAN AUTO Writer(s): Justin Spitzer Producer(s): Aaron Kaplan Studio: Universal Television, Kapital Entertainment Logline: Set at the headquarters of a major American automotive company in Detroit, where a floundering group of executives try to rediscover the company identity amidst a rapidly changing industry. (Single camera)CRAZY FOR YOU Writer(s): Rachele Lynn Producer(s): Lorne Michaels, Seth Meyers, Mike Shoemaker Studio(s): Universal Television, Broadway Video, Sethmaker Shoemeyers Productions Logline: Daisy, with her life stalling, re-enters the dating scene only to discover that while she was out of the game, the game sort of, totally, completely changed. Realizing she is a bit rusty at being “normal” and “appealing” on first dates, she’ll need the support of her friends as she strives to succeed while being her true self in today’s quick-to-dismiss dating culture. (Single camera)THE KENAN SHOW — Series Order Writer(s): Jackie Clarke Producer(s): Lorne Michaels, Andrew Singer Director: Chris Rock Studio: Universal Television, Broadway Video Logline: Kenan Thompson strives to be a super dad to his two adorable girls while simultaneously balancing his job and a father-in-law who “helps” in the most inappropriate ways. (Single camera) Cast: Kenan Thompson, Punam Patel, Dani Lockett, Dannah Lockett, Andy GarciaJEFFERIES Writer(s): Suzanne Martin Producer(s): Jim Jefferies, Sean Hayes, Todd Milliner, Tim Sarkes, Alex Murray Studio: Universal Television, Hazy Mills, Brillstein Entertainment Partners Logline: Jim Jefferies stars as a fictionalized version of himself – a comedian with a unique and often controversial take on modern life, relationships and co-parenting with his best friend. (Multi-camera) Cast: Jim JefferiesNIGHT SCHOOL Writer(s): Chris Moynihan Producer(s): Kevin Hart, Will Packer, Malcolm Lee Studio: Universal Television, Hartbeat Productions, Will Packer Productions, Bicycle Path Productions Logline: An adaptation of the 2018 film, “Night School” centers on a unique mix of adults at a night school GED prep class who unexpectedly bond over their shared experience and find themselves helping each other both inside and outside of the classroom. (Multi-camera)SOMEONE OUT THERE Writer(s): Matt Hubbard, Josh Siegal, Dylan Morgan Producer(s): Emiliano Calemzuk, Gonzalo Sagardia, Javier Veiga Studio: Universal Television Logline: A romantic comedy about two set-in-their-ways adults who are challenged by very unexpected strangers to become the best versions of themselves in order to find love and possibly each other. Based on the format “Pequeñas Coincidencias,” created by Javier Veiga. (Multi-camera)YOUNG ROCK — Series Order Writer(s): Nahnatchka Khan, Jeff Chiang Producer(s): Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, Brian Gewirtz, Jennifer Carreras Studio: Universal Television, Seven Bucks Productions, Fierce Baby Productions Logline: Inspired by the formative years of Dwayne Johnson. (Single camera) Cast: Dwayne JohnsonUNTITLED PHIL JACKSON/DAN GOOR Writer(s): Phil Jackson Producer(s): Dan Goor Studio: Universal Television Logline: Ensemble comedy about black people, dating and wine. (Single camera)UNTITLED TINA FEY/ROBERT CARLOCK — Series Order Writer(s): Tina Fey, Robert Carlock Producer(s): Jeff Richmond, David Miner, Eric Gurian Studio: Universal Television, 3 Arts Entertainment, Little Stranger Logline: A wealthy businessman runs for mayor of Los Angeles for all the wrong reasons. Once he wins he has to figure out what he stands for, gain the respect of his staff and connect with his teenage daughter, all while humanely controlling the coyote population. (Single camera) Cast: Ted Danson, Holly Hunter, Bobby MoynihanBack to Top NBC DRAMAAT THAT AGE Writer(s): Carla Banks-Waddles Producer(s): Malcolm D. Lee, Debra Martin Chase Studio: Universal Television, Blackmaled Productions Logline: An exploration of an African-American family’s legacy. After the Cooper family’s golden child suffers a catastrophic event, seven family members face a foundational shift, make life-altering decisions and deal with deep secrets coming to light.DEBRIS Writer(s): J.H. Wyman Producer(s): Jason Hoffs Studio: Legendary Television, Frequency Films Logline: Two agents from two different continents, and two different mindsets, must work together to investigate when wreckage from a destroyed alien spacecraft has mysterious effects on humankind.ECHO Writer(s): JJ Bailey Producer(s): John Davis, John Fox Studio: Universal Television, Davis Entertainment Logline: A high-concept, genre procedural revolving around a team of investigators who solve the highest-profile crimes by sending our heroes 36 hours into the past … in the body of the victim. They assume the victim’s identity and must race against time to prevent the crime before it happens.LA BREA Writer(s): David Appelbaum Producer(s): Avi Nir, Alon Shtruzman, Peter Traugott, Rachel Kaplan, Ken Woodruff Studio: Universal Television, Keshet Studios Logline: When a massive sinkhole mysteriously opens in Los Angeles, it tears a family in half, separating mother and son from father and daughter. When part of the family find themselves in an unexplainable primeval world, alongside a disparate group of strangers, they must work to survive and uncover the mystery of where they are and if there is a way back home.LANGDON Writer(s): Dan Dworkin, Jay Beattie Producer(s): Dan Brown, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Anna Culp, Samie Falvey Studio: CBS Television Studios, Universal Television, Imagine Television Logline: Based on Dan Brown’s international best-selling thriller “The Lost Symbol,” the series follows the early adventures of famed Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, who must solve a series of deadly puzzles to save his kidnapped mentor and thwart a chilling global conspiracy.ORDINARY JOE Writer(s): Russel Friend, Garrett Lerner Producer(s): Matt Reeves, Adam Kassan, Rafi Crohn, Howard Klein Studio: 20th Century Fox Television, 6th & Idaho, 3Arts Entertainment Logline: Explores the three parallel lives of the show’s main character after he makes a pivotal choice at a crossroads in his life. The series asks the question of how different life might look if you made your decision based on love, loyalty or passion.Back to TopRead original story TV Pilot Season 2020: TheWrap’s Complete Guide At TheWrap

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Fakers by Meg Collett: Kyra Aberdeen is a YouTube sensation, but she masks her depression with a bright smile and a stack of bracelets to cover her cutting scars. Needing a change, she buys her deceased mother’s rundown childhood home on Canaan Island and starts falling for the grumpy, tattooed contractor renovating it. Hale Cooper is as brutally honest as he is intriguing, and Kyra is constantly challenged to be her true self around him.