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neighbourskid · 3 years

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2020

What a year, huh? Surely not anything anyone has expected to happen when we woke up on this day a year ago. I certainly haven’t. I’m not even sure, now, where to begin to sum up this year like I’ve done years prior. But then again... I may just as well just dive right into all the media I consumed this year, as I have done every year. I haven’t kept track as detailed as I have last year, but my year was definitely punctuated by pieces of entertainment that have come into my life.

Continuing on from 2019, my obsession with Good Omens was still going strong. Which was ideal, since I was gonna spend the first half of the year writing my Bachelor thesis on it. The intensity of the obsession may have waned a bit since, but I still love that show and book dearly and hold it close to my heart, and I don’t think that will ever stop. But while Good Omens was certainly an overall theme throughout my year, there were some other things that actually stood out.

With January came new episodes of Doctor Who, and having returned to that particular bandwagon the year prior, I was all about that. Jodie’s second season finally brought what I had longed for in her first--a darker kind of Doctor. She wasn’t quite as bubbly anymore, you could finally see some of the depths in the character that I loved so in the previous regenerations, which made me love Peter’s Doctor so incredibly much. In this season, I felt, Jodie was finally becoming the Doctor. Overall, that season catered to me personally every single episode. So many of the time periods they visited were of people I loved, and the introduction of Sacha Dhawan as the Master was absolutely....well, masterful. Sacha is brilliant in that role and I am utterly stunned by his talent. Although both John Simm and Michelle Gomez brought things to the Master that I liked, it’s Sacha’s completely unhinged take on it that made me finally like the character. He’s a madman and I love it.

The next major thing was The Good Place. I tend to have a talent of getting into shows just as they either ended their entire show, or the final season is just coming up. It’s happened quite a bit, and it was the same with this. I finally binged the show early in January and it would end its final season at the end of the month. True to form, I was completely obsessed with it for about a month, before I only occasionally thought about it again. But, thinking back now, I get this incredibly fond feeling for this show, and I remember that the finale absolutely wrecked me and I basically ugly sobbed through the entirety of it. Also very true to form, actually. I want to rewatch it again some time, but honestly preferably with someone who has never seen it before. Which, obviously, is a difficult thing to do given, well, everything.

Next up is something that surprised me a lot. In the middle of having to write my BA thesis, my procrastination thought it would be a great idea to rewatch and catch up on the entirety of Criminal Minds. And so I binged 15 seasons of that instead of writing my thesis. Which, coincidentally, had also just aired its final season not long before I started my binge in March. Rewatching this, I realised just how little I took in of the actual, like, stuff in the show when I first watched it as a teen. Although I mostly cared about the characters and their found family this time around--although I do find the cases really fascinating most of the time too--I noticed just how much I am not watching this for the fact that they are in the FBI. I was hyperaware of how often they shot at people before doing anything else, how many of the suspects died before ever being questioned or being brought in, and it made my skin crawl. I am aware how fucked up the criminal justice system is, and especially in the US, how the police functions and how incredibly glorified they are in the media. But rewatching this show, I realised how little I actually paid attention to anything when I was younger. Big yikes. Still, I remembered my love for these characters, and I really enjoyed that rewatch a whole lot. Found family will always get to me.

Once I finished writing my thesis and handed it in early in July, I then found my next momentary obsession: Community. The show had finally come to Netflix earlier in the year and a friend of mine had watched it then. I remember watching that pilot episode back then and being completely uninterested in watching it. The comedy felt like it wasn’t quite up my street, the characters were entirely unlikeable, and I especially disliked Jeff who the show was more or less centred around. I binged Criminal Minds instead, but then decided to give it another try. And, well, I watched it twice through without taking a break to watch something else in-between. Ironically, and maybe actually unsurprisingly, Jeff ended up being my favourite and I found myself relating a lot to him and his arc throughout the series. I even found myself writing some short ficlet-like things in the notes app on my phone. I made an attempt at starting a third watch, but I guess then the month was up, and my brain decided it was time for something else. My hyperfixations usually tend to die out after about a month. Which is why my complete devotion to Good Omens was a pleasant surprise. I did, however, end up watching quite a bit of Joel McHale and Ken Jeong’s The Darkest Timeline podcast throughout August.

Early in September, while already preparing for the new term at uni, and my first semester in my Master’s studies, I then turned to New Girl. Friends of mine had seen it and recommended it, and I remember watching probably the entire first season on TV while I was in San Diego the first time around back in 2016. Or at least I think it was the entire first season. Either way, I binged that whole thing, realised through Nick Miller that the go-to character I am drawn to and tend to project on in any piece of media is usually what I like to call “the garbage man,” which Nick is a prime example of. And although I spent a month watching the show in-between starting university again and volunteering at a film festival, I didn’t spend much time afterward thinking about it and moved on to other things rather quickly. I enjoyed watching it, that much I remember, and I’m pretty sure I cried at the finale because it was done wonderfully, but seeing as another month was up, my brain was probably like “okay fine that’s enough”.

I then spent most of fall and early winter watching every single bad Christmas movie available on Netflix, which was quite fun. In that moment of festivity, I also watched a movie I found absolutely brilliant and fell in love with immediately. It’s a beautiful movie called Jingle Jangle, it has a magnificent soundtrack and is absolutely incredible. I had no idea Forest Whitaker could sing and he completely blew me away. If you haven’t seen it already, I highly recommend it. It doesn’t matter that Christmas is already over, it’s beautiful either way.

By the time December finally rolled around, I was already over the whole Christmas thing, to be honest and I turned away from festive movies or shows, and eventually ended up finally picking up a gem I had heard much about and had been meaning to watch for a while. A show which, as it were, also aired its final season earlier this year. This little show is Schitt’s Creek. I will be going on about what this show means to me probably in another post at length, but for now just let me say: if you haven’t seen it, find some place to watch it, and put this beautiful show in your eyeballs. I am on my second run through already (although I’ve seen the second half of the show a second time already while watching it with a friend on their first run through), and it brings me so much fucking joy. It’s a gift, this show. And it will likely stay with me for a very, very long time.

That’s about it for the big things. I also watched a whole lot of other stuff, including entirely new things, or just newly released seasons of things I was already watching. Here’s what I can remember off the top of my head:

Charlie’s Angels (2020). The Night Manager. The Witcher. Dolittle (2020). The Librarians (rewatch). Harley Quinn (2020). Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). The Chef Show (S1 part 3, S2 part 1). Avenue 5. Money Heist (part 4). The Good Fight (S4). Brooklyn Nine-Nine (S7). DuckTales (2017 reboot). Frankenstein live. Staged (2020). Hamilton. Sense8. Julie and the Phantoms. The Boys in the Band. One Night in Miami. Enola Holmes. Supernova. His Dark Materials (S2). Happiest Season. The Great Canadian Baking Show.

I also got some reading done in-between what I had to read for my thesis in spring, and then for regular university courses in fall. Here’s some of what I can remember:

Anthony Horowitz, The House of Silk. Ramona Meisel, Sunblind. Donna Tartt, The Secret History. Good Omens novel and script book. Matt Forbeck, Leverage: The Con Job. Keith R.A. Decandido, Leverage: The Zoo Job. Greg Cox, Leverage: The Bestseller Job. Greg Cox, The Librarians and the Lost Lamp. Greg Cox, The Librarians and the Mother Goose Chase. Greg Cox, The Librarians and the Pot of Gold. Neil Gaiman, Marvel 1602. Christina Henry, The Lost Boy. Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology. John Green, An Abundance of Katherines. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh. Maria Konnikova, The Confidence Game.

Having mulled over all this entertainment I consumed in 2020, there are also some non-tv or book things I need to point out. As many, many other people around the globe, I have also spent a large amount of time this year on my Nintendo Switch, playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It is a game I have waited for since the Switch was first announced, and I fell in love with it from the moment the first trailer dropped. It has brought me great joy in this weird fucking year, and I have more or less consistently played it since it came out in March. I ended this year with the in-game New Year’s Eve celebration and I feel like that summed up this year quite neatly and appropriately.

This year also brought with it another game very close to my heart: Super Mario Sunshine. With their release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars in September, Nintendo finally brought my all-time favourite Mario game to my all-time favourite console, and I played the entire game through in the first week of owning it, in-between university courses and volunteering at the film festival. Also contained in that package was Super Mario Galaxy which I have also played through in its entirety since. All that’s left for me now is Super Mario 64, which I am excited to play through in the coming year.

And to round off my year of entertainment, there are two more things I would like to mention. First, David Tennant Does A Podcast With..., which released its second season this summer. It is one of the only, if not the only podcast I keep up to date with and listen to immediately whenever a new episode drops. I’ve loved the first season dearly, and David came back with some incredibly fantastic guests for the second season as well. I can’t wait for what the podcast will bring in the future, but I will wait patiently until it is time. I can highly recommend it for everyone who likes interesting conversations between lovely people who clearly adore each other a whole lot.

And finally, while this year brought a whole lot of bullshit with it, it also gave me something I never thought possible and did not even dare to imagine in my wildest dreams. My all-time favourite show announced that it would be rebooted with the same main cast (minus one), a new wonderful member, and involvement of the original creators, and even started filming already in summer. Leverage is coming back. I still cannot believe it. I hoped for a movie, always. That maybe one day, they might bring the gang back together, for one last job, just one more encore. But to get a whole new tv-show with Aldis, Christian, Gina and Beth returning? With the addition of Noah Wyle? I can’t wrap my head around it. I am so excited for this. I predict that I will ugly sob through the entirety of the pilot episode, if not the first season, and will have to rewatch every episode because of it, but I have no doubt that it will be brilliant and wonderful.

True to form, I have now gone on about tv shows and movies for far too long, and haven’t really said anything about this year at all. 2020 was fucking weird. And I don’t think 2021 will be much different quite yet. I wrote an entire BA thesis in 2020. I successfully finished by Bachelor’s degree and started my Master’s studies and even got some excellent first grades in as well. I was lucky enough to be able to see some friends and family throughout the year, and even celebrate my birthday with a small circle of friends. I’ve become closer with friends, shared experiences I wouldn’t trade for the world, and, I think, maybe also grown a bit as a person.

I started this year excited to finally be able to start taking testosterone in February, and to finish the first part of my studies by summer. Although I did both of these things, they didn’t happen quite how I imagined them, but I am glad that I could do these things nevertheless.

2020 was a hell year, for sure. But there were some moments in there that I wouldn’t want to lose.

I’ve tried very hard to not be optimistic about this upcoming year, and rather take a more realistic, even pessimistic approach. But I can’t help but be hopeful. Hopeful that this year will be kind to us, and if it isn’t, that at least, we’ll be kind to ourselves and each other. It won’t be easy, and not much will change, I think. But we have to approach the coming time with kindness and compassion. That’s where I’m at currently. And I think that’s all for now.

Be well, friends, and take care.

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gra-sonas · 4 years

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Damn that ratings drop was brutal! NGL, after what they did in 2x2 I feel avenged but also I do love some of the cast so I feel bad too. Anyway, in your opinion, what do you think is a bigger factor in affecting ratings in an upcoming episode: the ep synopsis or the previous episode itself? Cuz I'm in the fandom and I don't even go searching for a sysnopsis. I highly doubt a casual viewer would. So thoughts?

Yeah, that drop was rather significant. :/

I think there’s more than one reason.

1/ The super long hiatus. Many casual viewers simply forgot the show even exists (there are still people on Twitter, who only now discover that the show wasn’t actually cancelled and is back for S2. I can’t even imagine how many casual viewers who’re not active on social media have no idea the show’s back).

2/ The total lack of promotion for the show between S1 & 2. The official social media accounts went radio silent after S1 ended, there was zero effort to attract new viewers by telling them the show’s on Netflix, or that there would be a S2.

3/ No new content for almost a year. The only new content we (as in 'the people already invested in the show’) got between S1 and 2 was random pics/vids and some spoilers the cast/Carina shared + the NYCC trailer. A trailer in super wonky, distorted quality, yet it still provided better and more exciting glimpses into S2 than the official S2 trailer did (which was only released about 2 weeks prior to the S2 premiere…) So for almost 11 months, there was basically nothing to get people excited unless they were actively looking for news.

4/ Lacklustre S2 promo. CW promo’s always kinda bad, but the one for RNM is pretty much non-existent. Leading up to S2, there was nothing but the occasional pre-scheduled promo post (with S1 promo pics and clips and the hint to download the CW app or sth like that). And they didn’t even start to promote S2 until about two weeks before to the premiere. They had to cancel a press day bc of COVID-19, instead they’ve organized the weekly IG takeovers now, which are really cool, but also mostly of interest to those who’re already following the show more closely. Any casual viewers are probably unaware.

Currently it seems like the CW PR team pretty much forgot about the show (we didn’t get any 2x03 promo pics prior to the episode, and they didn’t release a preview clip either). There’s basically no effort made to promote the show, and I’m not even talking about huge billboards or AOL Build talks (though stuff like that wouldn’t hurt), just… IDK, keeping things going and flowing between S1 & 2, and actively making more people catch up on S1 on Netflix could’ve gone a long way, y’know. :/

I think the lack of PR on every level is definitely playing a role in the dropping numbers. It shows, that not only didn’t they manage to attract new viewers, they even lost S1 viewers. Whether that’s entirely due to the lack of promo, or is in part to blame on the writing, is impossible to say.

5/ That being said, S1 didn’t exactly end in a good place, and 11 months is a looooong time to forget about characters you may have cared for (just a normal amount :P) a year ago. I don’t know how happy or unhappy casual viewers have been with the show’s writing, but you don’t have such a drop in ratings just from a lack of promo.

No idea whether this will change anything in regards to the writing of the show next season. Who knows how decisions by TV higher ups are made, where the ‘blame’ is put for stuff like that, and whether Carina would actually be ‘ordered’ to make changes? (I don’t really think that will be the case tbh)

For now, we don’t have to worry, S3′s a go, and once that’s wrapped, I doubt the show’ll get cancelled (broadcast syndication/international sales is where The CW makes most of their money, and the more episodes a show has, the more valuable it becomes for syndication and outside-of-the-US sales).

Another bonus: they’re filming in Santa Fe, which is cheaper than LA, Georgia or Vancouver (where many other shows are produced) and comes with additional tax incentives. The cast isn’t as expensive as the cast of most other CW shows either, neither does the show rely on expensive special effects (like all the Arrowverse shows) - all good reasons for the CW to keep the show in production, especially as a mid-season show.

Dropping viewership numbers still suck tho, and I feel sorry for the cast. :(

They’ve been working so hard for almost 8 months to make the show, the least The CW could do is properly promote it, and also look for more opportunities to get the cast out for interviews (like, why isn’t there a single RNM related interview with Tyler about Alex Manes in S2 - a gay amputee veteran character - or an interview with Trevino, he was at atVfest, and last year he did an interview or two, but apart from that, there’s nothing, and both Trevino and Tyler are two of the ‘bigger names’ on RNM, with people knowing them from their TVD/PLL days).

And please, for the love of humans and aliens alike, up your laaame social media game, CW pr team. The RNM Costume IG account is doing a much better job at promoting the show than you, and it’s NOT ACTUALLY THEIR JOB.

#nonnie asks #rnm ratings

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69annebowlin69 · 5 years

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14/3/19 - 14/7/19 Watching True Detective Episode Six and Seven

7.06

It’s likely that this version of my body - flabby in the centre, bulky around the edges - will be the one i die with, allowing i maintain it properly, and for the first time today i realised it might be ok, that i was so scared of turning doughy and shapeless again that i missed that my body right now might be ok to have for thirty more years or whatever.

7.14

‘Wondering why it took two days to find that backpack’

‘Took god six days to make the world!’

***

17.19

Okay so a few things. First, i only remember the pink room and Vulture is pay-walled now so i can’t crib from their recaps, which are usually basic but written smartly. Two, i started watching Ep Seven on one of the small screens where the backs of peoples heads should be, halfway through an eight-hour flight. The person reclined ten-mins in. Thirdly i’ve not taken adderall today, in fact i finished the valium we had before boarding. Fourth, I no longer feel comfortable admitting that my body will stay the same til i die (see 7.06, written months ago).

Okee, in the words of Hays, “lets True Detective!!” - that famous and good catchphrase we all love

17.36

Two people have text me that The Beguiled is on Netflix. Looking forward to watching it through Emmy’s account later! Stephen Dorff is in a lesser Sofia Coppola, i think. Where he’s an exiled actor holed up at the Chateau Marmont and his daughter gets dumped on him? I’m looking to watch that one, i love that early 2010s earnest low-concept, major release, arthouse director stuff. Tree of Life core. Basically any trailer where bed sheets are unfurled, curtains billow and there’s a pool, i’m pre-booking.

17.49

Not to dig up old ground…this title sequence is such a downer. Really cools one off after the Previously On.. sequence.

17.53

This man Mahershala really going to be the next Blade. Folks, he’s already been up against Deacon Frost. Folks? I said he’s… oh we did that already.

17.56

First earnest post of the blog: the shot ascending the rusted stairwell towards, first Tom Purcell’s prone legs and then his bloodied body, with Roland crouched over, is a nice touch.

17.57

Emmy has thrush, it’s called Thrush, not a yeast infection, which i keep saying instead, and to which she squirms. It’s not gross, i remember the phrase ‘cottage cheese-like discharge’ from school, which is also not gross. Just, i can’t not imagine a container of cottage cheese, one of the 300g tubs that i used to eat, even though I can’t imagine it’s so much that’s released. We had sex last night and everything was, uh, extremely good. Sex

18.04

This season’s palette is immoveable. That slate grey, wide open spaces of the midwest containing nothing, not terrifying, not hopeful. Just drab. In the first season, there were nuances between locations and eras. When they drove out to the meth lab, Woody wore the Keith Haring t-shirt etc, the bayou was saturated and chemical-bright. Season two a kind of bright shimmering L.A. was counterpoised by seedy neon bars in which Farrell drank.

18.19

Tonally, the voices of Mr and Mrs Hays are at odds. Sonic discord between his steady montone and her fluttering, often close to cracking, timbre.

18.25

Rust and Marty! In the papers! On the laptop! Feels kind of sad. Pizzolato revelling in former glory.

18.28

They should redo s2, with all the same actors, but give someone else the job of fleshing out the story. They should redo s2 every five or ten years. I suppose HBO always do a similar version anyway. Scratch that. Keep up the good-to-middling work, my friends at HBO!

18.31

My man is looking at FLIGHT RECORDS!!! Fuck yes, sound the Epstein alarm. IS Pizz on those flight logs? How does he know so much about this racket? Same question for Stan Kubrick. I read Kubrick made Kidman and Cruise keep things from one another on the set of Eyes Wide Shut, or like set it up so that Cruise was unsure where he stood with Kidman and over time developed insecurities and doubts and misgivings, which transpired on screen, but also in their personal life. Damn. WIld.

The latest on Epstein, there was a comprehensive Daily Beast piece about his ties to Clinton and how their relationship stretched earlier than ’02, which is what Clinton claimed. Epstein actually attended balls or galas in the white house as early as ’92 and donated money to whatever that charity is that aims to protect the white house as a historic landmark.

Anyway, back to these mf flight records.

18.39

This is eerily similar to the Clinton Kill List. All these people, all these suicides, what a tragedy! Such morbid bad luck!!

18.47

Ok the pace of this is course-correcting - less of the meandering stuff and how much of a bummer it is to get old, lose your family and memory etc, and more long and birds-eye shots of cars snaking after one another on eerily empty nighttime b-roads.

An empty, rotting barn lit only by headlamp, gloves, cuts and bruises. The music hitting.

18.56

If i’d paid more attention i might have seen the signs, but i’m not sure that there were clear signs of the rift between Hays and Roland developing over a dead body that they atmospherically had to bury in the backwoods. Always burying stuff in the backwoods at dusk.

18.59

“say it. Say it then, motherfucker.”

“no… i just want you to know that i’m thinking it.”

White HBO crime writers really think they have a pass on saying, writing or alluding to the n-word.

19.00

The complex form doesn’t fit the simplicity of the relatively straightforward story of a child sex ring. We saw the same conspiracy uncovered in s1, with a more interesting narrative structure where Hart and Cole were dishonest to the investigators and we got to see their words diverge from the events of the case as they kept more aside. Their own memories and fragments of what only each one knew, never revealed to the other.

This narration is reaching for something grander, more poignant but it’s hurt by the poor storytelling of the missing children. I don’t care about the missing children, i have a passing morbid curiosity of the details of the child sex ring and dirty underground parlours and pink rooms where the kidnapped children were taken, there’s interest in seeing why this was never uncovered. However, even though they’ve built the character Hays very well, the three different iterations of him that circle round one another, drop in on one another - that’s controlled structure done in a way that suggests chaos, but if there’s nothing interesting to structure, what purpose does it serve?

#true detective

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inevitably-johnlocked · 6 years

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Hey Lovely! I was wondering how you first became a part of the fandom? When did you start watching the show, at what point did you feel John and Sherlock might be(come) a thing, what made you start a blog on these two? I just want to know it all ^^ Hope you don't mind sharing a bit :) Thank you for everything you do for this fandom, love you lots!

Hi Lovely!

Oh gosh, what a nice question! I think I’ve talked about this in snippets in various posts, this post being the one talking the most about it, but never as a whole! Apologies if this turns into a long ramble, hah hah!

So I remember exactly when I got into the show SO CLEARLY. It was July of 2013, just a few months before S3 was to air in January 2014. I was over at my friends’ place, and they suggested the show to watch, since we always watch movies together whenever I visit. I remember asking, “Is that the show with Martin Freeman and that Khan actor from Star Trek 2?”. We finished Season one all in one go, and immediately fell in love with Ben and Martin’s portrayals and their chemistry. And then I had to head back home. I was ANGRY because OMG WHAT HAPPENS NEXT and my friends just laughed.

So as soon as I got home, I downloaded S1 and S2 and watched them ALL the way through. I needed more. So, because I already had a Tumblr and knew it was for fandoms, I decided to see what it had to offer.

Oh boy what did I get into???

So I lurked for a bit, and then I discovered something called “meta”, back when the TRF theories were the prominent meta in the fandom. So while I was getting deep into meta, I started switching my fanart from Ninja Turtles to Sherlock, because I was warming up to Ben’s ethereal face and I wanted to draw it. And I wanted to be a Sherlock fanartist. I briefly shipped Sher1011ie for a week or so, until I rewatched the series again and it just didn’t jive like it did the first few watch-throughs. I was too invested in John and Sherlock’s friendship – I saw them as bestest friends ever, too devoted to each other.

Now, at this point, y’all need to remember this: I was naïve, have never been exposed at length nor ever heard of subtext, was and am not part of the LGBT community (I grew up in a different time and in a conservative city, so being “gay” just wasn’t a thing), had a very heteronormative view on my life, and I just had always just insisted that in all of my fandoms, when I liked two male characters together, it was because “bestest friends ever!!”. I didn’t know I was ace and I’d never read smut up until 3 years ago (yes hi hello I’m so old and so innocent LOL).

Okay, so I was just lurking for a bit, learning my way around fandom, reading meta and just generally dipping my toes quietly into the fandom.

Then came Season 3.

As many of my followers know, a lot of my fondness for season 3 stems from this being the season that LITERALLY opened my eyes to EVERYTHING: subtext, Johnlock, my own sexuality, and my meta-writing career.

So, season 3 aired and I decided to dip my toes into “reviewing” the episodes as my first “meta”. They were posted onto my multi-fandom blog here, here and here. I was so proud of them, because it reinvigorated my love for writing (I used to be a pretty prominent Sonic fan-fic author back in the 90′s… I never finished my stories because my interest in the fandom died before I finished them), despite how laughably bad they were, haha. I got a couple compliments on them, but nothing beyond that, especially since I sat down and wrote them for HOURS after each episode aired.

Sometime between TSo3 and HLV, I discovered loudest-subtext-in-television (aka LSiT) and deducingbbcsherlock completely by accident and I was FASCINATED. I ate up everything they wrote. The first time I watched TSo3, something was niggling at my brain but I couldn’t quite place it. It was one of LSiT’s meta that twigged at it. That’s when I learned about subtext, heteronormativity and the queer community. And suddenly, just like that, something in my brain clicked.

Oh. My god. This show is gay, and I actually SHIP these idiots like I did in the Mother Ship (ie. The X-Files Mulder / Scully). That’s why I was SO ANNOYED with Irene. Why Molly was slowly grating on me. Why Mary’s introduction kind of annoyed me but okay I guess I can deal with it. Why everything seemed really romantic but it just couldn’t be, could it?

I rewatched the series. And it was gay. Y’all, those rainbow-coloured glasses were suddenly GLUED to my head, and I saw gay EVERYWHERE.

So, after HLV, I discovered The Johnlock Conspiracy and I was eating up all the meta about Johnlock I could. Around this time, I also was learning a lot about the LGBT community, its history and sexual fluidity from wsswatson. It was also around this time I discovered asexuality, and I started reading a lot about it.

In February of 2014, I started this blog because I wanted a place to reblog Johnlock meta. This was the first post I made on this blog, and looking back at it now, I am DYING because wow I never imagined I was going to be this deep into the fandom the day I wrote that. I don’t even remember writing it, to be very honest. I just shake my head, HAH. I think I really started understanding Johnlock because of this post here. It’s still one of my favourites and is one of the ones I credit for helping me understand what I was watching was actually a romance, not a “crime show”.

Anyway, after learning how to read subtext from mostly LSiT (they wrote a meta about how to read subtext and it was super informative) and other Johnlock bloggers, I wanted to try my hand at my own little Johnlock meta. It was more of an observational post, as my way of trying to interact with the fandom. I am a terribly nervous and shy person, so I never tagged anyone in anything. It was an overwhelming fandom, and it was terrifying to interact. A few bigger bloggers noticed me and were nice enough to comment on a couple of my posts, but I mostly stayed in my little corner, and interacted with my small little group of other smaller fans. I dabbled in both fanart and writing, just plopping my thoughts and art into the aether, hoping something would interest someone enough to start a discussion.

I started getting braver, and I was “moderating” some of my favourite posts that weren’t mine, but had my additions to it. Mostly, the Phones and Hearts post. I didn’t want to impede, but it was one of my favourite posts, so I went and copied all of the comments in the notes and put them onto one post. I don’t honestly remember HOW I ended up moderating it, but I just did because I was FASCINATED with symbolism, and I was excited because I could finally read subtext and understand it. I still had a small following, and a few people I regularly interacted with on my blog.

So, during the hiatus between S3 and TAB, somewhere along the way I suddenly had a sexuality crisis, when I suddenly realized I wasn’t broken and there was absolutely nothing wrong with me, and damn it, there’s such thing as split attraction model and asexuality?? Mind was BLOWN. I was also slowly becoming obsessed with Mary’s character, and at the time I couldn’t understand why (inevitably, it was because of events happening in my own life and me trying to understand them), but I really enjoyed just psychoanalyzing her. It’s something I’ve ALWAYS loved doing – character studies; I’ve done it in EVERY fandom I’ve been in – and I was doing it for her, Sherlock and John’s characters.

So yeah, nothing much really happened to me during the S3 hiatus, except my entire world view flipped on its head and I was completely Johnlocked beyond repair. I became known for some painful posts and some lovely revelations and writing a lot of character study posts on both John and Sherlock. I’m very proud of some of my earlier meta, just sad they never really got seen (some of my earliest meta can be seen on my Ao3).

Then came the announcement for TAB in 2015, and the start of my “Tumblr Career”. I put a lot of my energy into my fandom life. I was OBSESSED with TAB, and became known for it. I put my moderation skills to use and created the TAB Starter Pack, which started gaining me some followers because OMG some loser is taking the time out of their day to compile all the news about this new series! AWESOME. I remember, it was around this time I was excited because I got to 1895 followers and it was one of those milestones all Johnlockers like having, hahah.

In October of 2015, I lost my job and was unemployed. Conveniently, this is also the time when the promo season for TAB started, because we now had a name and airdate. I devoted a LOT of my time, when I wasn’t job hunting, to working on this blog. I was just writing a lot, and obsessing about the upcoming episode.

Then the trailer aired.

And immediately after that trailer dropped on October 24, 2015, I made this post here, which, some would probably say, was the beginning of everything for me. As I was writing that post, with a cracking headache, something clicked in my head, and several hours later, I had written and posted the original Mind Palace Theories of TAB at 2AM-ish, and went to bed.

When I woke up, my post had suddenly gone viral and I couldn’t figure out why. Then it just kept expanding from there, and I made sure to include everything I could onto it, because WOW something I wrote was gaining traction, and interaction, and I just wanted us all to have a good time with it. And as the time for TAB drew closer, suddenly I was gaining followers, and more people interested in what I had to write. I welcomed everyone to continue to predict the outcome with me.

January 1st. Was a complete and total mind fuck. I was liveblogging the episode, and inadvertently created another viral post with my Mycroft’s Death post because FUCK ARE THEY KILLING MYCROFT OFF?? kind of freaked people out (sorry loves!), which gained me some more followers, and at the time, my top post was my December 31st reblog of my Mind Palace Theories post, so anyone who came to my blog, it would have been on the first page of it.

After the episode aired, suddenly, EVERYONE had questions for me, about EVERYTHING, but mostly to scream at me that I was a mind reader, LOL. No, I’m not, I was just a sad, unemployed twat with too much time on my hands and was avoiding job hunting. But good god, all DAY on Jan 1, I was replying to asks, gaining followers like crazy, and pretty much just stating my opinion on anything that someone wanted to know.

I became known as the unofficial TAB blog, and the one to come to with questions about my interpretation of the episode. I was SO obsessed with TAB, studied every nuance and narrative structure I could. 2016 was “my heyday”, and it was fun. I found my niche, and meta-writing is what I became known for. And until I got a job in April of that year, I was a pretty solid presence in the fandom, if I understand some of what I’ve been told correctly. I still ran my blog as full-time as I could having a full-time job, and still do in some ways, but yeah, 2016 is when I produced a LOT of meta, mostly Mary meta because, as I said above, I was and am obsessed with her character arc. I was learning about myself a lot more by writing meta, and my “original” meta turned into “asks” meta, which was fine by me, because I do like a good prompt to get me going.

Somewhere in there I also somehow became the blog new bloggers came to, which I didn’t and don’t mind at all, because being new in a fandom is scary and I wanted to be a friendly face because I like meeting new people.

Then we got an announcement for S4, and like TAB I also kept track of anything and everything S4-related, so once again I was sort of the “go-to” place for everything S4 because I compiled all the stuff from setlock bloggers and listed them all for easy-access. I kept track of everything promotional, and I reblogged some of my favourite pre-S4 meta here.

Essentially, I LOVE organizing things, and people liked that I LOVED doing it, so that’s sort of how I kept my following when I wasn’t posting as much new meta. I did make a few original meta before S4, and I made a 68 day video countdown to the series which is cringy AF and I’m not linking it (lol you can find it if you look hard enough).

We all know what happened in S4. I took a bit of heat after S4 aired, because I got people’s hopes up. I was discouraged for a bit, but then I started receiving asks that weren’t really asks, but “I need advice” and “I need support”.

And I started answering life questions, and realized people LIKED my responses, liked my little personal anecdotes in each of my replies, and felt comforted by it. So, after S4 aired, I became an eclectic mix of life advice, meta, fics, music and TJLC / tinhatting blog. I have a “no judgement” approach to my blogging, and I think that’s why I’m still gaining a steady dozen or so followers every couple weeks, rather than losing. The only time I took a big hit was the Tumblr Feedpocalypse, where they fucked up the algorithm and I’m not getting nearly as many hits on my posts as I used to, but that could also be because we lost so many people to S4, especially after Jan 1, 2018 when people were hoping for another episode.

I personally don’t think I’m popular, but I suppose I am by Tumblr standards. I dunno, I think we all have that “starry eyed” view of popular bloggers, and I just can’t picture myself as someone anyone would fawn over. I’m just me, and you can take it or leave it.

I think where I’m at now and what I’m known for is a good place to be, to be honest, despite how S4 turned out. I’m not certain, but I FEEL like I have a positive reputation here, but don’t quote me. I know I have people in this fandom who hate me, and quite frankly it saddens me that they feel they need to expel energy on me that way when they deserve to just be happy and forget about me.

ANYWAY, sorry that got long and rambly, but it’s something I’ve wanted to talk about for awhile, but I was waiting for the prompt to come because *shrugs* I dunno, self esteem thing, makes me think no one REALLY cares until someone actually asks, hah.

And if you made it all the way to the end here, Love ya Nonny, and thank you for asking and thank you for being a follower of my blog

#steph replies #about me #fandom life #steph's storytime #fandom history #Anonymous #long post #my blog

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papermoonloveslucy · 7 years

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Lucy and Viv Open a Restaurant

S2;E20 ~ February 17, 1964

Synopsis

Lucy talks Viv buying a run-down cafe. Unable to attract even a single customer, they transform it into a gypsy tea room and then a Colonial themed restaurant – all to no avail. When Mr. Mooney learns a highway will be built nearby, he offers to become a partner. Unfortunately, blasting for the highway ruins both the café and any chance for success.

Regular Cast

Lucille Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Vivian Vance (Vivian Bagley), Gale Gordon (Theodore J. Mooney)

Candy Moore (Chris Carmichael), Ralph Hart (Sherman Bagley) and Jimmy Garrett (Jerry Carmichael) do not appear in this episode. Jerry, however, is mentioned.

Guest Cast

Kathleen Freeman (Olga, the Cook, below left) was ‘born in a trunk’ to a family of vaudevillians. She made her stage debut at age two in her parents’ act. Equally at home on screen and stage, Freeman was appearing on Broadway in The Full Monty in 2001 when she died of lung cancer. This is the second of her five appearances in various character roles on “The Lucy Show.”

This episode was first aired on Freeman’s 45th birthday!

Jack Albertson (Herbert, the Waiter, above right) played the airport dispatcher arranging the helicopter when Lucy misses the ship in “Bon Voyage” (ILL S5;E13). He went on to win a 1969 Oscar for The Subject Was Roses. He would also play Grandpa Joe in the 1971 movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, but is perhaps best known as ‘the man’ on the TV series “Chico and the Man,” which won him a 1974 Emmy.

Alan Hewitt (Mr. Dutton, Society Columnist for the Danfield Tribune) was a veteran of sixteen Broadway shows, including the original production of Death of a Salesman (1949) and Call Me Madam starring Ethel Merman (1950). From 1964 to 1966 he played Detective Brennan on “My Favorite Martian.” This is his only appearance opposite Lucille Ball.

Benny Rubin (Mr. Smith, Linen Supplier, below center) played the snarky Hollywood Bus Driver in “The Tour” (ILL S4;E30). His first “Lucy Show” appearance was in “Lucy and the Runaway Butterfly” (S1;E29). The recognizable character actor is probably best remembered for his association with Jack Benny.

Jay Ose (Mr. Jones, Linen Supplier, above right) made a career combining gambling and up close magic involving cards. He was a favorite at Hollywood’s Magic Castle Club. In this episode, he demonstrates his skills by pulling the table clothes off the tables without disrupting the place settings. Ose has no dialogue; Rubin does all the talking for the pair.

Rubin and Ose are not referred to by their last names in the episode. At one point, however, Rubin does call Ose “Charley.”

Sid Gould (Mailman) made 46 appearances on “The Lucy Show,” all as background characters. He also played a Mailman in “Lucy and the Military Academy” (S2;E10). He did more than 40 episodes of “Here’s Lucy.” Gould (born Sydney Greenfader) was Lucille Ball’s cousin by marriage to Gary Morton. Gould was married to Vanda Barra, who also appeared on “The Lucy Show” starting in 1967, as well as on “Here’s Lucy.”

James Gonzales (Mr. Dutton’s Dinner Guest) was a popular Hollywood extra who first acted with Lucille Ball in the 1953 film The Long, Long Trailer. He was previously seen on the series as Stan Williams in “Lucy Digs Up a Date” (S1;E2). He was seen in more than 20 episodes of “The Lucy Show” and 3 episodes of “Here’s Lucy.” In this episode, he has a line of dialogue when ordering dinner.

William Meader (Mr. Dutton’s Dinner Guest) had appeared as an airport extra in “The Ricardos Go to Japan,” a 1959 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” He made many appearances on “The Lucy Show,” most times as a clerk in Mr. Mooney’s bank. In this episode, he has a line of dialogue when ordering dinner.

Three uncredited women play Mr. Dutton’s other dinner guests.

This episode was filmed on December 19, 1963, the last before the holiday hiatus. The final draft of the script was dated December 12, 1963. It was the 50th episode of the series to be filmed. Although filmed in color, CBS originally aired it in black and white.

The night this episode originally aired (Monday, February 17, 1964) opposite “The Lucy Show” on ABC, “Wagon Train” featured Eliva Allman (left) Marjorie Bennett (center), and Amzie Strickland (right), all of whom had been seen on “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy Show.”

Lucy responds to an ad in the Danfield Tribune.

“For Sale: Beautiful Restaurant! Great Location! Real Money-Maker! A-1 Condition!”

Viv puts down $1,000 of her ‘nest egg’ to buy the restaurant.

VIV: “If I want to spend a thousand dollars for a meal, I’ll rent a couple of togas and fly in Cary Grant for a Roman banquet.”

Viv may be referring to the 1961 romantic comedy Come September, starring Cary Grant and Gina Lollobridgida and set in Italy. The handsome actor was first mentioned on the series in “No More Double Dates” (S1;E21). He was mentioned in four episodes of “I Love Lucy,” all during the gang’s stay in Hollywood.

Lucy and Viv’s newly refurbished Four Corners Cafe brings in no customers in five days of being “Under New Management”!

Chef Olga’s Advice: “Push the lobster. In one more day he has to go bye-bye.”

Lucy and Viv apply for a GI Loan due to their service in the WAVES. Viv says 'serving their country’ consisted of typing eight hours a day in the Navy purchasing department. Lucy and Viv’s experience in the WAVES was established in “Lucy Becomes an Astronaut” (S1;E6). Unfortunately, they discover they are one week past the ten year window of eligibility. The special delivery letter from the Veteran’s Administration is signed John Foley. In real life, John Foley was the name of the series’ editor.

LUCY: “How about making it a Spanish restaurant? VIV: “Great! How about calling it El Fiasco.”

They settle on a Gypsy Tea Room serving Hungarian fare.

The Gypsy Tea Room – In “No More Double Dates” (S1;E21) Lucy wanted to go to a restaurant called Café Tambourine.

Chef Olga’s Advice: “Push the Hungarian Goulash.”

Lucy Ricardo played Camille, the snaggle-toothed Queen of the Gypsies in “The Pleasant Peasant” during the episode “The Operetta” (ILL S2'E5). This time, Lucy plays the violin while Viv has the tambourine. Lucy Carmichael first played the violin in “Lucy the Music Lover” (S1;E8). Lucille Ball learned to play violin for that episode, but only managed to muster a squeaky rendition of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” In this episode, Lucille Ball is not actually playing.

When the Gypsy Tea Room doesn’t work out, they change to an Early American motif, complete with the George and Martha as greeters.

The Colonial Inn - This was also the name of a Colonial-themed establishment mentioned in “No More Double Dates” (S1;E21).

Chef Olga’s Advice: “Push the Yankee Pot Roast.”

Before quitting, Olga suggests that Viv (dressed as Martha Washington) close the restaurant and open a candy store. The Martha Washington Candy stores were a national chain started in the 1890s, selling ice cream and chocolates, and furnished in an early American motif. By their peak in the twenties, there were several hundred stores across the country, but the Depression and the death of their founder hit them hard and most of the stores had closed by the mid-thirties, although a few lingered into the mid-forties.

The writer of the society column for the Danfield Tribune comes to the Colonial Inn because the bridge to Ridgebury is out. In “Lucy Becomes a Reporter” (S1;E17) Lucy fills in for The Danfield Tribune’s society column editor Betty Gillis.

Mr. Mooney mentions that the new highway to New Rochelle will bypass Brewster and tunnel through Stone Mountain providing the restaurant lots of potential customers. Or so he thinks!

Genealogists say that Lucille Ball is a distant cousin of George Washington!

Lucille Ball in front of the show curtain for publicity stills. (photos by Getty Images)

Callbacks!

This story resembles “The Girls Go Into Business” (ILL S3;E2), where Lucy and Ethel buy Hanson’s Dress Shop, which becomes a potentially much bigger real estate deal when a developer wants to turn the property into a skyscraper. In “The Diner” (ILL S3;E27) the Ricardos and the Mertzes partnered to open a restaurant: A Little Bit of Cuba / A Big Hunk of America.

The bank of wooden ice box doors glimpsed in the kitchen area are the same units used on “I Love Lucy” in “The Diner”, in Tony’s during “The Black Wig”, and in the kitchen of the unnamed Italian restaurant in “Equal Rights”!

Fast Forward!

George Washington (Don Wilson) dropped by for a word with Mr. and Mrs. Paul Revere (Lucy and Jack Benny) on “The Jack Benny Program” in October 1964, eight months after “Lucy and Viv Open A Restaurant”.

The construction of a new highway through town is what galvanizes Lucy Carmichael and all of Bancroft into action in “Main Street U.S.A.” and “Lucy Puts Main Street On the Map” during season five.

Mr. Mooney briefly appeared as ‘the Father of His Country’ (in painting form) when “Lucy Gets Mooney Fired” during season six.

Blooper Alerts!

Memory Lapse! Viv says they started to live together six years ago. Just ten shows earlier, in "The Loophole in the Lease” (S2;E12), Lucy said they had lived together for 5 years.

Where There’s Smoke... When Lucy backs into the candle setting her wig on fire, the smoke is clearly emanating from the wall panel behind her, even after she moves away. Also, the 'smoke’ behaves very much like dry ice, clinging to the counter top.

“Lucy and Viv Open a Restaurant” Rates 4 Paper Hearts out of 5

#Lucy and Viv Open a Restaurant #The Lucy Show #Lucille Ball #Vivian Vance #Gale Gordon #Kathleen Freeman #Jack Albertson #George Washington #Martha Washington Candy #Sid Gould #William Meader #Benny Rubin #Alan Hewitt #Jay Ose #James Gonzales #Cary Grant #veteran's administration #john foley

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