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meteor752 · 7 months

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Episode 6 and 7 thoughts

This will now be a regular thing

Also im writing this as I go

Episode 6

So Izzy thought Ed was Roach. Huh. Does he and Roach talk regularly? <- Coming from a Rizzy shipper

“Do weeeee?” Fang I love you

Oh my god, Frenchie and Jim coming to Ed and Stede like they’re kids asking if their cousins can sleep over

The crew going shoppiiiiiiiiing!!!

Frenchie’s lil dancey dance added many years to my life

Ed being nice and giving kids mon- oh never mind, oh that’s a knife okay. Ed never have kids please

“Don’t pirate kids” well listen okay I don’t have HBO Max it’s the only way I can watch this show

MY QUEEN

Wee John you’re so beautiful and amazing and we don’t deserve you

Jim’s lil mustache, like yeah me too <- Non-Binary person

Stede looks so happy about seeing Wee John!! He’s so proud of his son!

Izzy is gorgeous. I’m actually so happy to see him explore more sides of himself, and to find things he can indulge in. This whole season has really just been Izzy’s big therapy arc

His hair makes him look a bit like Cinderella’s evil stepmother though

Oh he can sing too! Izzy!!! <- A person who did not like Izzy in season one

Wee John X Izzy? Roach X Fang?

YO THE

POLYCULE DANCING?!

Ed protecting Stede….just, immediately putting him behind himself…I just…

I rewatched that clip five times

“Because I only hang out with cool pirates” Stede’s face!!! He’s just like Oh Snapppp

Despite it all, Stede and Ed are still the cutest couple that has ever graced the TV screen. Like hell yeah, make fun of people together!

Ed keeps being protective…..okay I need a moment…

Roach you’re a lunatic and I love you

“Whatever this is it’s just gonna turn me on” Izzy you’re a shining star

Also I just now noticed that Black Pete and Lucius aren’t there. I’m guessing they eloped somewhere and are currently taking care of their adopted cat

Nope okay, literally the second I unpaused there they are. That’s the worst timing

Hell yeah my dudes, I hope you broke whatever bed you used

“I’m just doing it for the lolz” Yeah that’s sounds like something someone from the 1700s would say

I know this is a pirate ship but why do they just have so many knives and swords laying about

Who is this fanged torture queen, and how do I acquire her number?

Stede remains best employer, while Aziraphale is the best landlord. Can these two people just run the world please and thank you

Hell Cat Maggie is my soulmate

I feel like there needs to be a pirate workers union

The crew of the revenge is the best found family of all time

Stede Bonnet can rival Steven Universe in reforming villains, like he’s just such a genuinely nice dude

“Alright gang! Let’s talk profit sharing”

Oh protective Stede, alright let’s go mate defend your mans

Okay but why is Stede kinda 👀 in this scene

Oh Stede, love…

OH THEY FAWHKING

That French? Izzy speaks french?

I want to see that man get dicked down

I guess the revenge now has a pet goat

Episode 7

Okay Ed is a soft boy again, aight

NO NOT THE LEATHER JACKET

The anime toast in mouth thing. He’s officially been baby girl for a long while, but we’re really solidifying it

OH THEY FUCKED

Isn’t there an anime where a mob boss becomes a house wife? Yeah that’s Ed

Oh we’re telling him about the mermaid fantasy, okay

Izzy what the fuck, you’re amazing

“He’s jealous” my darling

The polycule is going strong, and I love the absolute lack of jealousy. This is the best representation I have ever had

Oh they’re going on a date! That’s so sweet actually

It’s really sweet that they’re talking about their time apart

Stede’s famous now? Good for him!

I need to stop falling in love with every pirate lady In this show. That being said, I hope we see more of the fangirl lady

I’m reinforcing my claim that Stede and Ed are cuter than anything that has ever been on screen

OH MY GOD SWEDE

The Söt Och Saftig, my love. Also this far in and this is the first time the character “The Swede” actually says something in Swedish

Scammer Frenchie is back in business, love that

Jim and Archie trying to get their boyfriend set up is very sweet actually

The character development of Izzy going from wanting Ed to remain “Blackbeard” to him saying if being a softie makes him happy then he should do that, like I get it now, I know why you all love this man

OH MY FUCKING GOD STEDE

Can’t believe Stede is an official Slut now

Open communication? Like genuine conversation about their relationship, and the pace they’re taking it? Ed being honest that he’s not ready for the steps they’re taking in their relationship?

What is this argument

I live for Lucius and Black Pete’s nicknames for each other

“I’ve only known you for a few hours Bonnet, but I’d fucking die for ya” Same random dude. Same

Izzy🥹

Zheng and Olu are really cute actually

Oh my god the polycule will end my fucking life

DONT BRING ED INTO THIS ZHENG

“That was really mean” YOU TELL HER STEAK KNIFE

Protective Jim my beloved

Oh my god

Roach and Fang friendship?

Roach is the queen of self care

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thetidemice · 9 months

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PLEASE watch summercamp island its so good its so silly its got that thang where random stuff in the first season is built upon and makes a complex lore, theres a he/him lesbian, mini stories, all sorts of stuff. i still have to find where to watch the last season because hbo max nixed it before it released, but its so good

!!! it sounds so lovely!!! i cant believe i put off watching it a few years ago (some guy called it ugly.. not even true. i love looking at it i think the way they developed julia pott's style for animation is really cute and charming. same thing happened for clarence but now sometimes i see clips of it and its genuinely funny idk what the hate was for). i watched some episodes last night and the pacing is so light and refreshing and nonserious and sincere all at once.. it's a nice breath of fresh air since i havent watched cartoons in a while. it reminds me so much of adventure time and over the garden wall (particularly the animal school and greg's dreams! super whimsical and offbeat and straightforward. how we see the world when we're children)

and thank god:

i felt a hyperfixation forming for this show before i even watched it but i've seen how many people love susie and she does deserve it. my first impression was that she was a kind of over-it 20-something who just wants the kids at her camp to not die but she is perpetually 15 and an utter bitch (who genuinely thinks her meanness is charming) god bless. i believe it's also julia pott who voices her and she does a brilliant job. her voice stands out where most of the main cast are american (and because i'm an accent freak i find hers interesting it's sort of a mix of a standard london accent but instead of pronouncing the t in a word like "better" or dropping it for "be' er" she uses a slightly more american "bedder" while still not swapping the -uh sound on the end for a more rhotic -err). anyway she's the high-maintenance butch representation we need in media, i LOVE her eyebrows, & i cant wait to see her get more complex and sympathetic as time goes on.

going back to the main characters, oscar and hedgehog are the best protagonists!! he's incredibly nervous! she's an academic weapon! they grew up together and are the perfect vessel for these silly stories to be told. i appreciate your wisdom and i will definitely be watching more of it!! i will have more to say about it and might end up doing some art for it because the charm of this show is irresistible.

as for places to watch... i heard they got major fucked over by HBO max.. even if it was all on there i wouldnt be able to watch since i'm in the uk. i wish i could stream it somewhere where i could fully support it, but for situations like this, these two are my secret weapons - there are little to no adverts and none of them are gross or for nsfw sites. they're both clean and they WORK:

#summer camp island #thank u anon!

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akajustmerry · 2 years

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hi merryana !!! can’t believe you’re stuck in an airport for so long ….. properly evil </3 <\3 anyway ! what are some books/movies/shows u think not enough people speak about ? also just for fun, what’s your favourite colour?

hellooo babe! I got out after 6 hours 😭 finally made it to my sister's and am snuggled up with my baby nephew!

I'm not v good at gauging underappreciated things. however these are some random media I wish I saw more ppl yell about

soulmates (tv series) - written by roy kent himself, brett goldstein this spec fic/scifi show lives in my mind RENT FREE. it's a series of stories set in a future where ppl can get a DNA test that tells them who their soulmate is and its INSANELY good. simultaneously some of the most horrifying and most romantic episodes of TV ever.

Preppers (tv series) - just a crazy funny weird show that I adore for its incredible Aboriginal representation and also bisexual diaster representation. Nowhere near enough ppl talk about it despite it easily being one of the best shows of 2021.

Brave New World (tv) - it was literally cancelled because not enough ppl saw its bat shit crazyness for the brilliance it was but by GOD. Best "improved on the source material" adaptation ever made.

Movies

Nude Tuesday (2022) - best comedy of the year easy. Best if you go in as blind as possible, it's streaming on Stan and it's so full of weirdness and heart and polyamory. Not enough ppl screaming with me about bisexual wellness cringefail cult leader jemaine clemet

The Grey Zone (2001) - huge mood pivot but I recently watched this film for the first time after watching a video essay about how it was made and it truly is one of the most harrowingly honest yet compassionate portrayal of life for Jews in Auschwitz I've seen. The cast is stacked too, and I can't believe its a film I'd never have heard of if not for a video essay. I can't believe it's not mentioned alongside other unforgettable Holocaust films.

Sirens (2022) - doco about Lebanon's first all woman metal band. It's literally like we are lady parts brought to life! These women are amazing. It's coming to hbo Max I think and its so good I need more ppl to see it so bad

Books

Gonna do a little self promo here and say not enough ppl are talking about my stories that were published in history making anthologies by First Nations and Black authors this year. Go to your nearest bookstore and buy the 'This All Come Back Now' and 'Unlimited Futures' anthologies and read my stories as well some other great stories and poems from Black and Aboriginal authors!!!

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.... I just need more ppl to read this because I wanna talk about it more with ppl because it's such an interesting scifi novel and I have questions I wanna ask ppl!!!!

Also my favourite colour, at least atm, is emerald/Forrest green! But I also love silver and burgundy and deep yellows. thank you for asking 🥰

#thegodfatherll1972 #tv #film recommendations #books #/

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its-ashley-95baybe · 2 years

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Ashley read what this one blog just posted

“First of all please don't even call me a Tom fan I'm far from it, so get it right, and second, there's absolutely no way you wrote all that with a straight face the amount of fantasy there it's insane, zendaya might have introduced people to euphoria, but they most definitely did not stay for her, she's literally the character that people care about the least, or are we gonna ignore that it was Maddy's make up looks that got people OBSESSED, or the whole vibe and cinematography, and now in season two the WHOLE Cassie and Nate thing are we just gonna pretend that it wasn't that, that people were excited about and don't even get me started on you saying that people actually know all her projects, babes they don't and there's a difference between knowing and actually enjoying come on, and you know what's absolutely crazy is that yall are still so obsessed with her Emmy I swear yall talk about it more than she does were yall the ones that won am I missing that part?? And also do I need to bring up again the HUGE list of actors who have a long list of well known, liked and successful projects and yet no award, you're gonna tell me they are less important or talented, and finally please hun search the definition of hate for the love of god, just bc you don't like what others say doesn't mean it's hate”

Euphoria didn’t break records in season 1 because people watched it for the other cast members when no one even knew them. Euphoria got so popular on twitter because the amount of love Zendaya gets on that app which made people subscribe to HBO just for Zendaya. Zendaya is the most popular actor right now and this person above hates on her to the point they think she’s not the one bringing in the people. Every article that came out mentioned how Zendaya made this show what it is today and even HBO max came out and thanked her and said it’s all thanks to Zendaya that people are watching this show. This person above and their anon always makes tom to be this guy that brings people to watch his movies when that’s no the case and they always say that he is so popular so if he is how come people don’t care for what he does outside of spiderman? She also mentioned that people got obsessed because of Maddy’s makeup completely forgetting that Men who don’t do makeup watch this show? There’s so many movies and show that have an amazing cinematography but that isn’t bringing in watchers is it? No. These haters can’t fathom that Zendaya brings in people to watch her no matter what shit she’s on. As if there isn’t multiple virals tweets saying that they wouldn’t have watch this show if Zendaya wasn’t in it. Funny thing is she said people care about Rue the least but wasn’t she the number one most mentioned character on Euphoria on twitter? We keep mentioning her Emmy because she is the youngest lead actress in a show to win an Emmy and that’s an accomplishment. Zendaya is critically acclaimed actress no matter how much they try to dismiss that. Also what’s with this obsession of them saying Zendaya is the one who needs this pr more than him? She’s a household name no matter where she is she’s trending number and people will do anything to watch what she’s on but can’t say the same for someone else who needed this pr far more then her. People completely ignored him on his own movie while Tobey and Andrew trended for 3 month straight on twitter. Too bad he will forever be known as Spiderman and Zendaya’s boyfriend.

That Friday the thirteenth is hitting hard this go around. Still going strong lol.

Im glad people are speaking up still.

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bewitching-elizabeth-olsen · 3 years

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Press: Elizabeth Olsen and Jurnee Smollett Compare Notes on Genre-Blending Acting and Advocating for Performers on Set

VARIETY: Neither Elizabeth Olsen nor Jurnee Smollett are strangers to having to really stretch their imaginations to dive into complex characters and even more complicated worlds.

Both have superhero films on their résumés: Smollett portrayed Black Canary in DC’s “Birds of Prey,” while Olsen stepped into Wanda Maximoff aka the Scarlet Witch’s shoes for Marvel’s “Avengers” franchise and then some — including Disney Plus’ first Marvel series, “WandaVision.” They are both now Emmy-nominated for projects that tasked them with jumping through time, blending genres and telling epic love stories (Olsen with “WandaVision,” Smollett with HBO’s “Lovecraft Country”). And, even though they are up in different categories (Olsen in lead limited series/TV movie actress; Smollett in lead drama actress), both of these shows are one-season wonders, leaving the performers and their audiences wanting more.

Olsen and Smollett dissected all that of when Variety brought them together post-nominations to talk about their celebrated roles and surreal playgrounds.

You both had a lot of magical or otherwise surreal elements to interact with on your shows. What did you actually have in front of you to react to on set?

Jurnee Smollett: We were very fortunate on “Lovecraft Country” because the whole VFX team worked so hard to create an atmosphere that was also practical in our space. I remember on Episode 3, the exorcism scene, we shot it over a course of three days and, while there was not a man in real life with a baby head on him, you’ve got the wind machines and the pictures are blowing and all the special effects makeup is being touched up. Atticus [Jonathan Majors] has pretty much turned into a rabid dog and I’m doing this spell with my ancestors and whether they were shooting behind us or shooting the elements, we were at our max capacity regardless because that’s just how we approach the craft. It was such a big sequence to shoot that that’s when the actor in you has to advocate for your instrument. I did go to the director and say, “Can you jump in and cross shoot Jonathan and I?” As an actor it is our job to shoot however many takes, however many angles you need, but then it is also our job to advocate for yourselves. And I love playing in this space because you get to use your imagination you get to go to crazy places. Because even while the practical elements are there; you get to go to crazy places. But I was grateful for the practical elements because it’s just so much easier.

Elizabeth Olsen: Did they have pre-viz so you knew what some of the supernatural elements looked like?

Smollett: With the Shoggoths they not only had a pre-viz for us, but for some of the scenes they had massive sculptures, like a dude standing there in a green suit with a Shoggoth head. The pilot we didn’t have this puppet, but by Episode 8, maybe we got more of a budget or something, but eventually we did get a puppet — which was really cool because you could see, “This is the moment his mouth is opening.” But also, Misha [Green], our showrunner, she just wants more blood, more dirt. She’d try to get them to blow spittle at us.

Olsen: That’s so gross!

Smollett: This concoction of Shoggoth spit, throwing it in front of this wind machine. I find the more practical stuff we have to work with, it just helps so much. And then there were the moments where it’s like, “No it’s just a green tennis ball and an X, and go.” How about you?

Olsen: For all those little things in the air and stuff in the ’50s, it was really important to our director [Matt Shakman] that we did everything ala “Bewitched.” It was all camera tricks, it was all wires. Our head of special effects had a lineage of a father who [did] special effects before him, and so puppetry and wire work and stuff like that were things that were already in his vocabulary, but we would have our special effect guys who are used to blowing things up and putting things on fire just balancing and making sure things aren’t swinging but they have to move. Even in the ’70s when she’s pregnant and everything’s in chaos, we really had a picture on the wall going in circles; they just figured out things with magnets.

When we were filming the finale, it was during COVID, during the fires last summer, and we shot Kathryn [Hahn’s] side at the beginning of the episode when she has my boys with her magic — we had to shoot them out because you always have to shoot the side with the kid out and also Kathryn was doing wires for the first time and of course it was with a corset and it was really hot and really bad air quality and so she had to be sent home by the medic at the end of the day. And so, on my side we were running out of days, and I think we had 35 minutes to shoot my side and my reactions to all of that, and there’s quite a bit of back and forth and throwing myself to the ground and hitting a different mark that will then stitch with the stunt double being pulled. I did a weird one-woman show sans kids, sans Kathryn. Our stand-ins were such a huge part of our show and I was so grateful to have them they’re reading lines with me, and our director, Matt Shakman, was like, “If you feel like you can’t do this, we’ll just do this tomorrow.” That gave an adrenaline rush to me and it just became, “I’m just going to do it.” There’s a lot of fear when you’re like, “Oh I don’t have the elements and I am on my own, literally.” But I’ve had to do this before and I’m just scared to do it because I feel stupid. But I already look kind of stupid — I’m shooting things out of my hands — so why don’t I just lean into it as full as possible and just do it and find it in some core, guttural space of desperation? That day was bizarre, but I was actually very happy that I didn’t put it off. I feel like sometimes as actors when there are things that make us nervous it’s like, “Oh we don’t have enough time to explore so let’s do it the next day if we can,” and then you’re in your head all night about it. And so, it’s nice to just do it, even if it feels silly.

Smollett: I’d imagine surrendering and using the fear and all that that you were feeling probably served you so well in it.

Olsen: And don’t you feel that, though? When you feel unsupported you just want to break down in tears and you’re not supposed to break down in tears or you’re not supposed to have those it’s those feelings in the moment, but there are other times where it is really useful and there’s something freeing about channeling it in some way.

Smollett: Yeah and it’s that word you just used: freeing. Being able to surrender — leap and the net will appear. And you’re right, if you would have gone home, you probably would have come back the next day and you would have overthought it. There’s something about using the adrenaline in that moment that I don’t think you can really teach an actor to do; it’s just experience. Because we go and we prep and we do all these things, and then you get to the set and there’s one distraction, two distractions, and those are the elements that just through experience you’ve learned to use.

But I have to say, when I was little, I used to go to sleep every night watching Nick at Nite and “Bewitched” was one of my favorite shows. I did not expect you guys, at all, to go to land of “Bewitched.”

Olsen: I didn’t either. I’m so grateful to it. I felt like I like forgot my body as an actor. You’re a very physical actor, so I feel like you probably don’t have that experience because you just seem so connected and free whether it’s on stage or doing action. And I really felt disconnected from my body until “WandaVision.” I was like, “Right, I have posture; I can walk; I have legs — all of these things are going to be telling the story and it’s period and so I get to move differently.” It’s been a while since I needed to create quite a different character, and it felt so good to wake up my body to the full character work.

Just watching you in the first episode on stage, I was like, “God damn, I want to feel that free on stage with a song and with an audience.” I’m a self-conscious actor when it comes to extras and things like that. There’s something about it where the crew’s the family, and with extras, I feel so vulnerable. And you seemed so at ease and in control and confident. It made you understand her fierceness and how fearless she was.

Smollett: Thank you so much! It’s so interesting that you point that out because, for me, singing in front of people terrifies me. It truly is one of the things that terrifies me the most. The thing about Misha’s writing is, she finds a way to teach you so much about a character in such a small amount of time. And in that first sequence we learn so much about Leti, from that fearlessness you talk about, the ease that she has in herself and in her person, but then you learn so much about her hypocrisy and the contrasting ideas that are at play inside. She’s a very complex one. In the scene with her sister where she’s talking about having dreams of pioneering into an all-white neighborhood in 1955, but she can’t afford to may for socks. [Laughs.] She didn’t come to her mother’s funeral, and yet she’s here yearning for some sort of family connection. And so, I just remember reading that and feeling so drawn to her and feeling like it’s a side of myself that I needed to unearth — there’s a Leti in me that I desired to actually be, but sometimes am not. And it’s interesting because through Leti, she really forced me to do so many things that I hadn’t done before and really become more fearless, become more unbound. It was just such a very cathartic experience for me.

Olsen: I felt that way with getting to do this sitcom comedy part. I felt like I was touching my childhood version of myself who was a ham doing children’s musical theater, who just who just like played for the laughs or whatever — that part that I don’t access at all, really, when filming. And Kathryn Hahn was such a force and Paul Bettany raised to the challenge, as well, of these comedic performances that were really physically funny. I started to get more comfortable — in the ’60s, ’70s, really got comfortable — and it was so much fun to touch that child that maybe was told too many times, “Oh, you’re such a ham” or you just felt like your big personality as a kid was not OK or wasn’t as appropriate. And so, getting to play with that was really freeing and very fun. As you were saying, there’s a release I needed to have, and through the comedy I was able to have it.

How did this sense of empowerment affect how you carried your own characters’ power? Was there something your character that inspired you to advocate for yourself or did advocating behind-the-scenes inform in-world behavior?

Olsen: I felt very lucky coming into this, because this is a world I know. And so, where my voice of advocacy came in was for actors who are coming into the world — like Teyonah [Parris], wanting to make sure that she had everything that she needed to understand where her character was going because this was a character that’s going to continue [and] if she had everything she needed for stunts. And then similarly with Kathryn, she didn’t realize there was someone who she could use to teach her hand gestures for her magic. And so, she was feeling nervous and lost, like, “How do I do this thing?” And I was like, “Oh, how do you not have that information!?” And then having a conversation with whom you need to on the crew up top and figure out how to keep everyone else feeling like they had everything they needed. And luckily, because this was a show with characters that Paul and I had before, the pieces came together and it was a situation where your voice is welcomed and heard.

From “Sorry For Your Loss,” the TV show I did with Facebook, I now have a producer voice that I can’t shut up. I now just need to talk to ADs a lot, and I need to talk to line producers a lot. I realize that I like having — especially if I’m No. 1 on the call sheet; if I’m a primary part — all of the information so I can understand why decisions that seem weird are happening, or else I’m going to get in my head about, “Why are we doing this this way? I just let people know that off the bat now because it makes me less of a control freak, having information. And it is a team effort and I think the actor’s value has changed in that in that respect. There’s a lot more opportunity for women to be vocal now, and so I’m just really seizing that opportunity.

Smollett: It was a very personal growing experience for me. It was time of transition [and] I’m still going through that transition in my life. In order to truly surrender and do the text justice, there was so much I had to bring to the altar every day to sacrifice. I remember talking to Jonathan about that, and he would refer to it as allowing your heart to break and hoping that the Holy Spirit would put it back together. She was essentially a woman trying to navigate her womanhood but she was never actually allowed to have a childhood. She was habitually abandoned by her mother and didn’t know her father and there’s something in that parental-daughter split that I found myself really relating to. Oddly enough like Leti, I was estranged from my father for years. He eventually passed away, really before there was that healing and so, oh man, it brought up so much shit with Leti. How does she see the world? She sees the world through the eyes of an abandoned child. With Leti, that made her overcompensate; with Jurnee, it made me shrink a lot. When you talk about that artist child, those of us who have been in this business for so long, you take on all the sensors. And I found myself just trying to love her a little more. One of the things I admired so much about Leti is this desire to love herself — this real desire to own herself unapologetically in a world that told her she was too Black and female, to exist in her entirety. It’s still a transition that I’m in, but I definitely feel so grateful to have been able to walk through some of that and navigate through some of that with Leti. But that’s, I think, the blessing and the curse of being an artist. You’ve got to be willing to bring your whole mind, body and spirit to it; nothing’s off limits.

Jurnee, the last time you spoke with Variety we were all assuming you’d get to return to this character, but now that HBO has said it’s not being renewed, do you have unfinished business with her?

Smollett: It’s no secret I’m heartbroken. I loved Leti and of course would have loved to continue playing her. But I am so incredibly proud of the work that we all created together — it feels so special and unique — and I am finding peace in that. We’re artists and there’s an endless well that dwells inside us— and there’s so much that’s out of our control. And I think I’ve done this long enough and I’ve experienced enough heartbreaks to know you don’t get attached to the results too much; you just try to stay in a moment. And I feel just so proud and blessed to have been chosen to go on this ride with these collaborators, so I am more so in the place of gratitude than loss.

On the other end of the spectrum, “WandaVision” was a limited series but Wanda Maximoff is a character you have been coming back to for years, Elizabeth. How do you approach that longevity — the changes in her, the changes in you and the interest in revisiting her at all?

Olsen: I’m 32 and I was 25 — so seven years ago — when I did the first one. There’s so much change that I’ve had, even as an actor and how I approach work and, I think, honor work so much more in the last five years, four years of my life. [Jurnee’s film] “Birds of Prey” feels like such a female-empowered thing, so I feel there’s a really incredible energy to beginning it, but then with me you hear people make comments about Marvel movies and it affects your own process. “WandaVision” really shook that up for me and made me reinvest.

Smollett: I so want to know your process with that because the comic book space was new for me. I’d been a fan; I’d seen all your movies and the other movies. How did you navigate all of those voices? Because they can be very loud.

Olsen: Luckily and also frustratingly my character was always this emotional anchor to a piece of the story. It was like the heart, if there’s a heart. Paul and I were the only romance that was really fleshed out in those movies. And so I just treated it like I would anything. And then, we have a really fun time filming “Avengers” And so it’s really goofy and the Russos are great. And so we, it feels light-hearted, and it feels like we have the last laugh at the end of the day. But when it comes to the reinvesting, that’s the whole mind game, right? Because you just hope that it continues to have this quality control, but the more the more things get made, you’re worried about that. Especially because I did a show on Facebook that was scripted, and I didn’t love the way they handled it. And it was hard. And so second season, we went back and we literally, as a team of producers, had meetings with people who ran Facebook Watch about where we thought they could improve. We had a whole presentation for them. And then eventually, they were like, “We’re not doing scripted anymore.” And so I didn’t have the greatest experience being a part of the launch of another streaming service. And so, the Disney Plus part made me nervous and then bringing these characters that are so big to television made me nervous. But Kevin Fiege explained to us that that they were not going to cut corners, and they’re going to try and create the same attention to detail, and they did. And I think it was really important for them to have that care for these first three shows that they were putting out because it was defining a new thing for them. And so, we were taken care of.

I think more for me with this with the reinvestment moving forward, I never had a six-movie or nine-movie thing; it was always two or three at a time — those were my contracts. And so, it’s always a really conscious decision. I wrapped “WandaVision” on a Wednesday and flew to London on a Friday to continue playing this part [in “Doctor Strange 2”]. I could have used getting out of the mindset, though, because they were totally different utilizations of the character and people would have had more time to understand “WandaVision” had we not just wrapped. And so there’s just a lot of, “We covered this in ‘WandaVision…’” It’s bigger than me, there’s lots of threads that are continuing on after me that I’m not aware of, and so it’s always about, “What can I get from this journey with this character that maybe I haven’t tapped into yet with her?” That’s where I keep approaching things from, so that I feel like I have some sort of strap-hang — that I can know that there’s going to be growth of some kind, even though it all maybe looks the same to other people. There is that conscious decision to learn a new element of this woman, or even of myself as an actor — something that I want to explore that I can bring to it.

Your passion for acting is apparent and you both produce as well. What about directing?

Smollett: I would love to one day. I find myself currently being incredibly excited about producing and ushering new voices and excited voices. I don’t know that I would want to direct myself — that’s a whole other skill. I remember watching Denzel Washington, who directed me in “Great Debaters” but he was also in it, and at that point he had such a command of his instrument that he was able to do that. But it’s a lot. And I remember him telling me, before directing himself, he went and made himself watch all his films just so that he could stomach this idea of watching himself in the editing room. And so, I love the idea of storytelling; I’m obsessed with just telling stories, but I don’t know that I would self-direct.

Olsen: I find myself still loving producing so much because I love asking questions and poking holes and thinking about reorganizing of storylines, things that I feel maybe need more structure. I loved writing essays in school so much; it was like something that I found creative because it was about putting so many different sources into a braid that could maybe create this larger conversation or thought at the end. And so, that’s how I look at scripts. That’s really satisfying enough for me, to play that role. I think one day I’ll think about it more honestly, what it what it would mean to be a director. I fear that if I were to do it anytime soon, I wouldn’t have the tools that I would want. I do ask lots of lens-y questions because I’ve really only been working for 11 years and only recently have I tried to really understand the art of what lenses to choose and why and what it makes an audience feel based on what you’re choosing. I want to have a better, more holistic understanding of [that] before attempting [directing] because I do think it’s such an art and just because I understand the structuring of a story or how a set works, I want to be able to provide the the image in my head. I don’t know if I have that skill yet, but I am curious about feeding it and nurturing that.

Press: Elizabeth Olsen and Jurnee Smollett Compare Notes on Genre-Blending Acting and Advocating for Performers on Set was originally published on Elizabeth Olsen Source • Your source for everything Elizabeth Olsen

#Elizabeth Olsen #WandaVision #Avengers #Scarlet Witch #Wanda Maximoff #Sorry For Your Loss #Avengers Infinity War #Avengers Age of Ultron #Captain America Civil War #Ingrid Goes West #Godzilla #Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness #Marvel #MCU #Candy Montgomery #Love and Death #Avengers Endgame

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necronymie · 4 years

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Meet the Writers of gen:LOCK Season 2 Panel Summary

Summary under the cut because this shit is LONG

There's a fun ad before the panel about how attractive MBJ is

“We may be lesbians, but we’re not blind!”

Moderated by Dorian Parks, editor in chief of Geeks of Color

Panel starts with a thank-you to HBO Max for facilitating the production of Season 2, as well as other RT shows.

Panel members include:

Daniel Dominguez: Head writer of s2

Maasai Singleton: Writer’s assistant, wrote a few episodes

Evan Narcisse: Staff writer, wrote on s1 as well

Kristle Peluso: Staff writer

Gavin Hignight: Staff writer

How did the writer’s room come together?

Dan and Evan are old friends

Kristle and Dan were introduced by a common friend/coworker

Dan and Gavin also knew each other before working together

Maasai was the only person who Dan did not know previously

To Evan: How has your journey as a writer informed your writing choices

He began as a critic, and that has made a big impact

He now pays much attention to the impact of a show’s message

To Dan: what made you want to write for GL?

He's been writing his whole life, as cheesy as that is

His first novella was written at 6 years old and it was a rip off of Nightmare on Elm Street

It was 7 pages of a woman turning into a cockroach

Kristle jokes that it's his best work to date

They joke that s2 is 8 episodes of a woman turning into a cockroach in the shower.

(Honestly I’d still watch it)

What drew him to GL: its this wonderful diverse cast telling a meaningful story about giant robot battles.

To Maasai: How was this as a start into the industry?

“We just vibed.”

“We would always say, there's mindshare in GL, and there's mindshare between the writers!”

Everyone cries at that

His first script was amazing, according to the rest of the writers

Daniel talks about how incredible Maasai is

Maasai and Kristle talk about how creative a leader Daniel is

The writers talk about how insane some of the pitches for s2 were, and how the environment in the writers room was very accepting of the more outlandish ideas

“At the end of the day, our job is about being vulnerable, because that's what storytelling is”

What inspired you and made you want to write?

Gavin has always been writing

Evan is an old school comichead; he's always been a reader, and for the bulk of his career, he was a journalist and critic.

Helping create the worlds he used to analyze is fascinating

Daniel jokes how Evan is going to get a kick out of the terrible reddit thread that will come from s2

Kristle remembers in second grade when she wrote a comedy for class and a kid laughed so hard that he fell out of his chair, and that made her realize that words have power.

She was a journalist and worked in marketing for a while (she hated it)

Especially as a woman, its very exciting working in a male-dominated industry

How do you guys feel about how inclusive the writers room is, and how did that affect the writing?

It was very intentional. No one can better tell the stories of these people than the writers who understand their struggles

Hollywood has been dominated by a monoculture of writers

Dan jokes that he is “the whitest Mexican-American that you've ever met”

Our writers room needs to look like the people whose stories we’re telling

There was a good amount of religious diversity in the room, and that shaded the story in various ways

Its implied that the above comment has a lot to do with the storyline of s2

Dan kept running around the table and yelling “Where is your god now?”

Evan recalls how Dan made the team pull apart the DNA of s1 to construct s2

What do you think the turning point of inclusivity came?

Never. It still hasn't happened

Shame is an incredibly powerful weapon, and that is what forces the people in charge to change

Evan talks about how media like the Black Panther movie definitely inspire writers and creators to create more inclusive media.

gL is a part of the movement, but the wave hasn't crashed yet

Dan talks about how lucrative inclusive media is

“Do it for the money, if not the people!”

We don't just want to see ourselves in protagonists, we want to see other people, we want to see other viewpoints, experience other experiences

“I personally don't know what it's like to pilot a giant mech, but-” “you don't?”

Looking for a common ground like this important for the storyline of s2. This struggle and this attempt of unity through looking into each other's minds is a key theme.

Maasai brings up that diversity is good because you need conflict in a story. Our character's diversity drives their character arcs, and forces them to change. They make each other think differently, literally and metaphorically

The conflicts that we see in s2, both micro and macro, the seeds are all there in s1, the camera is just pulled out to see the larger picture.

Evan jokingly “spoils” that there is war in season 2

What media inspired s2? Did you draw from any specific influences?

Gavin says that he focused on the horror of the technology. How does this technology affect those who use it?

Dan talks about how Gavin made him think more about how terrifying gL is, made him question his own humanity.

They drew from so many influences from youtube video essays to Shakespeare

They ripped off even more of Tempest in s2

Kristle talks about keeping the hope in the disaster that is s2

She says that s2 has many parallels with 2020 and the pandemic, some explicit, some not

Evan always worked remotely; that prepared the room to work from home when the pandemic struck

Evan says that he was inspired by writers who focused on how prejudices perpetuate over centuries, and how humanity changes the world

Evan has always tried to emphasize the mutual responsibility humanity has to care for each other, and the past year has made him put more energy behind that message.

Dan talks about how s2 tries to make people ask themselves if humanity is even capable of fixing our mistakes

“We got big robots, man!” “its dope!”

Can you spoil anything about s2 before the panel ends?

In GL, in the future, the only restaurant left is Taco Bell

Chase has some heavy stuff ahead of him.

#genlock #RTX #gen:lock #genlock s2 #gL s2

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brinaedwards · 3 years

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Hi, my name is Brina... and I’m a workaholic

As the above title states, my name is Brina and yes, I am a workaholic. I don't think of that as a bad thing since I enjoy the self-motivation and the feeling of accomplishment when I get tasks done. However, my boyfriend thinks that I should focus some of that time getting more hours of sleep, haha.

I attended Valley Central High school and graduated in 2017. High school was an okay experience, if I wasn’t apart of the band program I feel that I would have disliked it more and would not have an interest in the things I do now. I’m not trying to shit on the school, but I feel that it needed a deep cleanse on administration staffing and just an overall re-look on how to spend the funding. Just saying, I think the asbestos issue should have been handled before the bleachers and locker rooms. But, not my problem anymore, Thank God.

When it came to deciding colleges and all that jazz, my high school was zero help in the whole process. Yes, they talked about it but at that age things should be more simplified to understand what needs to be done. I’m 22 and I just finally figured out how to build up my credit score? Like, HELLO, start teaching kids about loans and all the other financial shit that goes into college. Not to mention the absolute lack of help I got when picking my major. I knew I wanted to go into the music or media industry and of course, none of my advisors had a clue what I was talking about. I decided on OCCC for the pricing and that cushion of still figuring out what I wanted to do. I attended SUNY Orange Fall of 2017 as a liberal arts: music emphasis major. Fast forward a year later to find out that they actually have a music program! Got to love the help advisors give you right? More so, the help wrong advisors give you. That following fall I was a full Music: Performing Arts major and loved every second of it. I met amazing, talented people that I am very glad to still be in touch with. When I was on my last semester and was on the edge of graduating I had the moment of “Oh, God.. What the hell am I going to do after this”. I decided I wasn't ready to move on from SUNY Orange, since I had no idea what direction to go. I started looking into another major and that's when I found New Media! I was always interested on how content was made and what went into making a film. I remember my cousin and I used to make these little movie clips with the windows movie maker. We thought we were going to be these big movie-making hot shots at 8/9 years old haha.

I am grateful that I took my time with school and by the end of this OCCC journey I will be graduating next Fall with two A.A.S degrees and a clear idea of where I want to go.

Aside from anything media related I’ve been on this reading kick. Genres from fantasy, horror and some history. This summer my boyfriend and I got really into reading/collecting comic books! He has way more comics than I do but at least once a week we’re at Middletown Comics seeing what new issues came out! Now with the fall/Halloween season fast approaching I have been planning some great ideas for this year! I know I may catch a lot of eye-rolls/ mini-hate from those not wishing summer to be over but I can’t wait for fall. Besides, halloween is everyday haha. I’ve been looking at Pinterest ideas on how to DIY some awesome decorations. I guess Pinterest is somewhat media related though? Ah well, since I'm back talking about it, I might as well talk about the last movie and TV show I watched. The last movie I watched was actually what had to be watched for COM 105. It was the 1995 movie Kids and uh.. it was definitely something haha. I understood the point of how it related to youth culture but I would not want to watch that movie again. As for the last TV show I watched, was again what I had to be watched for COM 105. It was Euphoria season 1 and that was a really good show. I know I only had to watch the first four episodes but I binged the whole season. The way the story was told was creative, I enjoyed the narrative back a forth style and how each character had their own stories. It made it worth getting a month of HBO Max.

Being on the topic of last things done, I suppose the next order is the last book/video game played or finished. The last book I finished was A Map of the Dark by Karen Ellis. I got that book from Thrill Club. It’s basically a horror/thriller/anything dark and creepy book subscription. I canceled thrill club awhile ago and just now getting into the books I was sent. Anyway back to this book that I read. I found it a little empty. I just wanted more from it, it was very predictable and dry. I wanted more character depth, more suspense and just more of everything. The book is in the corner of my room at this moment because I’m going to donate it, that's how unsatisfying it was to me. But HEY if anyone is interested in a dry thriller let me know! Haha. As for the last video game played it would have to be Assassins Creed Valhalla and that was a few weeks ago. I do love to game but when I’m getting into a project or assignment, more of my focus goes into that rather than a video game. But my goal this semster is to take more time to myself and have self-care days, so Valhalla here I come!

Going down the “Lasts” list I have to my right here is, the last thing I created. Um, I guess the last thing I created was a make up look, that I will post a pic of at the bottom! I do have ideas I wish to create such as uploading my podcast and YouTube videos! Im a really big planner so when it comes to things like that I want to have clear, organized agenda. I do have a date that I want things done and released so there’s that! I will probably mention more of my podcast in future posts but for now things are in the works.

Which now brings us to the last thing of the “Lasts” list. Im sure there is a tongue twister in there somewhere but I don’t have the brain capacity to think of one. My last meal on earth would have to be what I had for dinner last night. I ate cheese ravioli with a side of mozzarella sticks.

I know this assignment was supposed to be a minimum of 500 words and I believe I exceeded that. I look forward to these blog assignments since I can let my mind go and word things as if I was actually speaking. Well with a post this long I guess it’s safe to say I was ranting.

To future rants and of course the required MLA formatted references!

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer Review – Richard Ramirez Docuseries Speaks Plainly

https://ift.tt/3bvDDPw

Netflix dives into one of the most horrifying cases of multiple murders with its eyes wide open in Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer. The documentary is told from the perspective of the investigators at the heart of the case, particularly a veteran homicide detective and his young, enthusiastic partner. They had nothing going into the case, and when they did dig out the clues, they often lost what they had because of its newsworthiness. The series works because it treats the audience the same way as the cops were treated: infuriatingly.

Every clue, setback, and recalculation in Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer is satisfyingly frustrating. We all know the story by now, so director Tiller Russell can leisurely fill in the plot. We don’t even get the name of the serial killer until the end of the third episode. It’s not in the title, and if the detectives don’t know it, the series won’t disclose it. This is an internal affair, and early disclosures to the media contaminate clues like dancing on a crime scene in a pair of size 12 Avia sneakers.

The four-part series opens in a hot and happy Los Angeles, filled with glossy tinsel and hair metal. The city hosted the Olympics in 1984, and the Lakers were international superstars. Archival weather reports continually update a sweltering heat wave, and the citizens cool off leisurely and diversely. But not after dark, where the bulk of the docu-series is set. That is LA Noir. The same kind of darkness that crept into the headlines when the Black Dahlia murder struck, but more similar to the Manson Family killings.

One bad boy, who will later be described as having incredible sex appeal, rips the nightlife apart. At the time, though, all anyone knows about him is he has bad teeth, smells like a goat, and loves AC/DC. Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer captures the mid-eighties period well, with archival TV news and clips of then-current shows. When the events turn creepy, Max Headroom is playing on a black and white TV in the distance, almost out of focus.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Detective Gil Carrillo and renowned homicide cop Frank Salerno are great storytellers whose obvious gravitas centers the documentary. There is one other standout from law enforcement. San Francisco Police Department homicide Inspector Frank Falzon actually breaks down what it’s like to be goaded into punching a possible witness. He completely explains the forces which lead him to do it. The frustration, the horrid images of the case which flashed into his mind. The disgust he felt at the actual details. Carrillo has a similar incident, convinced of a suspect who fits too perfectly only to be told “He’s a freak, but not your freak.” But his defining moment probably comes when he can’t bear to even listen to a discussion of putting a child who had been sexually assaulted on the stand to testify.

Even though we know how it ends, the limited docu-series captures the race against the clock tension of the summer of 1985. Initially tagged “The Walk-In Killer” and “The Valley Intruder” by the press, the satanic beast prowling Los Angeles came to be known as “The Night Stalker.” His crimes seemed disconnected because the victims were so varied. Serial killers usually have a specific type of victim. The Night Stalker’s crimes appeared to be random. “There was no pattern,” a detective bemoans in an interview.

The detectives get blowback from inside and out. We hear about an important theory being laughed out of a meeting. Investigators have to deal with cops in different districts not sharing information, as multiple jurisdictions spark “a pissing match between Type A dudes.” The investigators don’t only have to deal with the media blowing the case. They get the information from a politician who releases details which tip off the suspect. Many of these details have never been told.

We also get to hear Laurel Erickson and Paul Skolnick, the journalists who covered the story from the beginning, explain why they were so eager for details, and where they drew the line. Like the Hillside Strangler, who had recently been caught by Salerno’s homicide team, the Night Stalker was a once-in-a-lifetime case. Not only to the press, police and politicians, but to the community, which ultimately plays the most emotionally satisfying part in the documentary. When the suspect is caught in East Los Angeles, he tells the arresting officers “Thank God you came.”

The mystery unfolds through first-person interviews with victims who lived through the attacks, some of whom were allowed to survive. One woman remembers being dropped off at a gas station to call someone to take her home after the killer had sexually assaulted her in a dingy room. She was a child when that happened, one of the youngest of the Night Stalker’s victims. They ranged in age from six to 82; were men, women and children; some affluent, others poor; and of a mix of races. Anyone could be the next victim. The persistent updates on the heatwave accentuate this, because in a town under siege no one can sleep with their windows open. After Charles Manson had been caught, the people in Los Angeles didn’t feel the need to lock their doors, the documentary asserts. Now residents barred their windows.

Books

The Last Book on the Left Takes on the Grim History of Serial Killers

By Alec Bojalad

Movies

Crazy, Not Insane Doc Studies Serial Killers’ Minds on HBO

By Tony Sokol

The assailant also varied his weaponry, using knives, hammers, tire irons, and a .22 caliber pistol. The savage specter takes on an almost occult status when the investigators find pentagrams drawn and carved on walls, and occasionally on victims. The killer gouged the eyes out of one woman. He used thumb cuffs, which comes as a visual surprise to the detective recounting it. He relives that one moment of discovery with both a personal revulsion and a cop’s curiosity. He still hasn’t gotten his head around it, and it’s only one detail. Like an Avia sneaker, size 11 and a half, the only one shipped to Los Angeles since the company was founded.

There have been several features on the notorious killer at the center of Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer. Chris Fisher’s film Nightstalker (2002), Ulli Lommel’s Nighstalker from 2009, and Megan Griffiths’ The Night Stalker (2016). His story was dramatized in the 1989 TV movie Manhunt: Search for the Night Stalker. Zach Villa played Ramirez on American Horror Story: 1984. Director Russell, whose father worked in the Dallas DA’s office, grew up in courthouses, jails and police precincts.He keeps his focus steadily on the investigators and the victims.

Russell presents the evidence plainly. Emotionally, he wants to present the feel that anyone in the horrific footage could have been a viewer or someone they know. He never treats the victims like statistics. We get personal stories, like one told by a granddaughter remembering how she preferred a grandma who did cartwheels over any necklace heirloom which could be bequeathed. The documentary occasionally lets the camera wander around recreated footage too long, and takes leisurely pauses of action with only music over grim background sets to amplify the atmosphere. We also get the occasional emotion-cam closeup, with a frozen face willing a testimony into a camera wordlessly.

The first glimmer of a name the documentary provides for the suspect is Richard Mena, who is being treated for an impacted tooth. Richard Ramirez actually doesn’t get much screen time. We get a very curt statement on why he turned out the way he did. “All the things that could poison a child were part of his life,” a detective explains. The only detail is a recollection of how Ramirez was tied to a cross in a cemetery overnight as a reprimand from his religious father. Ramirez explains himself throughout, although without credit until we learn the quotes and affirmations come from a recorded interview the Night Stalker gave from prison. But we never learn how Satan was “a stabilizing force in his life,” which prompted “a motivational charge.”

The documentary explores the killer-groupie phenomenon, but it is from the amazed and uncomprehending reactions of the investigating officers, and the families of the victims. They don’t get it. The journalists who covered it have never seen anything like it. It proves everything about the case is unprecedented. We see Ramirez, upon sentencing, tell the families, as well as the judge, jurors and investigating officers: “You don’t understand me. You are not expected to. You are not capable of it. I am beyond your experience.” The doc cuts his last lines, “I will be avenged. Lucifer dwells in us all.” What replaces it is a snippet of Ramirez requesting a promise that his recorded interviews be erased after his death.

Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer is a satisfyingly exhaustive account of the investigation into the Richard Ramirez murder-and-assault-spree. But know it is limited to the crimes and the cities they were committed in. Los Angeles is a bigger character in the documentary than Ramirez. The docu-series isn’t about him. It’s about what he did, and the people he did it to. Survivors describe his very presence in the court as “evil,” and the documentary resolutely chalks the case up as a triumph for good. By following the timelines so deliberately, Russell lays out the arc of a perfect detective story. That being said, I could have watched two more installments on the villain and collateral damage.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer streams on Netflix on Jan. 13.

The post Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer Review – Richard Ramirez Docuseries Speaks Plainly appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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qqueenofhades · 5 years

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I know you dont watch GoT anymore. And that Braime and Sansa are your favorites. But I know you've read the books and are obviously really interested in the story. And I was just wondering what your thoughts are on the whole Jon killing Dany thing? Is that something you can see happening in the books? And if it is do you think it'd be in the same context as the show did it?

Ahaha, welp. Just jumping right in there.

(Also, you never have to apologise for asking GOT/ASOIAF questions. I obviously have been a fan for 16 years and wrote fuckin’ TNR with its half-million-plus words, so I clearly do have Thoughts on the story/characters, especially with the bag of lukewarm cat vomit that was s8 of the show.)

I already answered this ask discussing how much I hated the Mad Queen Dany thing, both because a) it was horrifically badly handled and b) these mediocre misogynist douchegobblers have managed to outdo themselves in terms of the gross messages they’ve sent about women, after 8 seasons of that. (These are the same people who made Sansa say that she was grateful for her rapes and who claimed that Dany’s turn into madness was foreshadowed by her having a “chilly” reaction to the death of her abuser, Viserys, in s1, so…. make of that what you will.) I’m not saying that it was narratively impossible, especially since GRRM has been toying with the same thing in the books and has more than his own share of Male Author Syndrome. But at the start of 8x04, Dany is in Winterfell, perfectly sane, toasting Arya as hero of the battle. By the end of 8x06, she’s crazy, a war criminal, and dead, murdered by her boyfriend, because… well, something something plot reasons. Even if you didn’t like Dany or were rooting for her to go mad or whatever, that was wildly badly handled.

I personally think it would be pretty gross for GRRM to also go down the Mad Queen route, though at least if he does, we will have had Dany’s POV chapters beforehand and presumably something resembling a justification and a building narrative momentum toward it. But she also got stuck in Meereen for so long because by his own admission he didn’t know what to do with her there or how to get her out of the situation and moved onto Westeros, which remains, theoretically, her outstanding goal in the books. It would obviously not be outside the realm of possibility for this to happen, given GRRM’s focus on “grittiness” that the show took to max factor 5000. I would still find it reductive and trying to make a Clever Postmodern Point and etc if it happened in the books, because literally why invest us in a character this long, especially one who has tried so hard to overcome the circumstances of her past/to not be her father, and then just do exactly that? Obviously there would be elements of Shakespearean tragedy to it, and if done well it could be compelling, but I personally just have a different approach to fiction and what people want out of a story (especially one now as famous as GOT/ASOIAF and how universally betrayed everyone seems to feel by the ending). I’m not saying Dany’s ultimate ending needs to be sunshine and roses and getting what she wants, because often character arcs and resolutions become all the more powerful for being subverted and thwarted (think the “I said I wanted [x] but [y] was there instead” sort of endings). But whatever it is, it needs to be…. not that.

Also, Jon in both books and especially show has been the epitome of Mediocre White Man. I stopped watching in s4, but Kit Harington’s acting was so wooden and the writing for him was very much Standard Misunderstood Brooding Fantasy Hero that I could barely pay attention to his scenes. I find him somewhat more interesting in the books, though ADWD dragged for everyone and it was obvious GRRM was writing in circles. But everyone has noticed that especially in the show, Jon does absolutely bupkis. His ass is constantly saved by the women in his life, he makes an absolute hash of any power that he is given and doesn’t want it anyway, and his ultimate ending was…. going back to the Night’s Watch (as their idea of satisfying narrative storytelling is to literally put everyone back where they were in the very first episode, apparently). Never mind the fact that there’s no need for the Night’s Watch, but the point is, even the fact that Jon is Rhaegar and Lyanna’s son ended up being relevant for like half an episode. That has been one of the major plot points/secrets of the books (although not so much anymore) and it just…. fizzled out like a damp squib. Dany actually TRIED for multiple seasons to be a good ruler and to learn how to handle power and become a queen, so for her to have to be the one to die for Jon to once again do diddlysquat is… well, as I have said before, the misogyny leaps out. They ended up wasting so much potential and so many other things that were also foreshadowed (and far more convincingly than “wah wah she was gonna go evil!”). For this? So Jon can just go brood in the snow again? Cool.

Not to mention, I find it gross on principle that Dany’s boyfriend had to be the one to kill her, especially after rape/sexual violence/loss of agency was such a big part of her early-season storylines (and how horrifyingly and grossly that has been handled on the show overall). We’re obviously supposed to sympathize with Jon in this scenario and to feel that it is justified to “stop a tyrant” or whatever. Also, if the episode was going to be called “Queenslayer,” why the fuck wasn’t it Jaime fulfilling the valonqar prophecy, another thing they forgot about, and killing Cersei, at great personal grief/cost, to once more stop an insane monarch from burning down King’s Landing? But that, of course, would be actual character development/overall arc, and they preferred to also trash that by having Jaime “killed Aerys Targaryen literally to save half a million innocent people and lived with his reputation being destroyed ever after” Lannister unironically claim that he never cared about the lives of the innocent and only wanted Cersei. After she again tried to kill him and Tyrion like three days ago, not even to mention what they did to Brienne and with that whole arc, but I will have a ragestroke if I think about it too much.

Basically, the ending wasn’t “bittersweet.” It was tragic, reductionist, ham-handed, hugely disappointing for everyone who put years of investment into these characters, and ended up in the amusing position of making Bran Stark the younger and more beautiful queen who comes to cast Cersei down. He became king because… reasons? Whatever? And he knows literally everything about everyone thanks to being the Three-Eyed Raven, so there’s no way that can go horribly wrong. He has basically done nothing except sit in a wheelchair and look creepy for several years now, his arc has never been remotely about being king, and Isaac Hempstead-Wright himself is apparently on record as saying he genuinely thought it was a joke script when he read it. This after both Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington broke down over learning what happened to their characters/Kit apparently realized it for the first time at the read-through and was horrified. Emilia already talked about wandering for five hours and having a crisis and calling her mom and asking to be talked off the ledge like….. fictional choices/characters completely aside, that’s a gross thing to do to your actors. I know they’re all proud of their work and they have apparently and understandably been defensive about the existence of the petition to rewrite s8, but they’ve all been pretty clear, while still being professional and supportive, that there is stuff that they’re just as much WTF about as we are.

Basically, as everyone keeps saying, the acting, cinematography, visual effects, music, etc was clearly up to as high a standard as ever, but was betrayed fundamentally and comprehensively by this god-awfully shit writing by a couple of hacks who clearly rushed the final season to get on to ruining working on Star Wars. They have also been on record about saying “you can’t do what the audience expects or it’ll get boring blah blah blah,” which is a profoundly flawed storytelling strategy if you’re paranoid and trying to outsmart your audience and do something that nobody has ever thought of because you’re an Intellectual Postmodern Commentator On Our Violent Society. If your audience can guess where a story is going, but are still surprised by major twists along the way that then make sense in hindsight, you’ve done your job. If you’re relying on grimdark and cramming in gimmicky plot twists and deus ex machinas and Shocking Moments rather than authentically developing your story, it’s going to bite you in the ass in a big way, as was just proven.

Nobody expected a completely happy ending from GoT. But the fact that they went to such lengths, especially in s8, to build up characters/ships (Jonerys, Braime, Gendrya were all torched after major canon moments completely unexpected by fans, especially the latter two – why even include it unless to just be more Tragique, and Gendrya is the only one that has even a chance in the future since half of it didn’t end up idiotically dead) and then just wrecked all of it…. as I’ve said, good endings don’t need to be rainbows and unicorns and kittens. But if you’ve asked eight years of audience investment, there has to be something that makes it worth it and that doesn’t make everyone feel like they were duped and stupid to get involved in the first place. They have been beating the “it’s a hard world and bad things happen to the characters” drum for all they’re worth, but… it’s just bad. You can analyse and ask why the hell they did things and so forth, but it’s bad. At this rate, the show should have either ended after 8x03, or they should have taken the money HBO offered and done the proper 10 episodes and let Bryan Cogman write all of them. He was the only one who appeared to remotely give a shit about the characters, and since D&D wrote the last four episodes themselves, yeah, this disaster is on them.

Fortunately, I left the show years ago and have TNR and am used to ignoring their version of things. And I knew all along that they never really got the characters or the story. But I feel really bad for everyone who has had this thrown back in their face, and it seems like a communal disenchantment with this ending is going to enter the pop-culture consciousness on a possibly unprecedented level. So if GRRM does do the Mad Queen Dany killed by Jon in the books (though he has apparently called the show’s ending “traumatic”), I’ll probably still not like it. He has a chance to sell me it on/justify it to me narratively, which the show categorically failed to do. I don’t think I will, just because as I said, I don’t like anything about it, but yes.

Anyway. This is a long post already, and I probably have more to say still, but it’s pretty obvious I think it’s just really, really bad, and that’s about the essence of it.

#got #got spoilers #got critical #anonymous #ask

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ivorygossamer · 4 years

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Not my normal topic but ...Don’t hate me....I Can’t wait for Zack Snyder’s Cut of Justice League.

For Zack Snyder’s DCEU Vision To Be Realized, Henry Cavill Must Return As Superman - By Travis Bean

I have never been more happy to read an article in my life. I felt like crying.

Hear me out,

I love superhero films, and considering I was born in 1991 and neither of my parents were comic book fans, my first foray into the DC realm was Christopher Reeves as Superman. I watched every film after that, I bought the Lois and Clark TV series, and own every season of Smallville.

Superman was my first Superhero Crush. Which may or may not have had something to do with the charm of the actor playing him.

So when Marvel launched their Cinematic Universe, and the success those movies gained, I couldn’t wait until someone did the same with DC.

I can’t say why I always preferred DC to Marvel, maybe it was my parents fault for allowing my younger self to watch the Dark Knight Franchise. Thank you Christopher Nolan, but Marvel was doing what needed to be done with DC.

Creating a cinematic universe.

It didn’t matter if each movie stood alone or tied into another, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam are a testament to the former. And I can’t speak for comic book lovers, but as a writer, building a universe is often the greatest part of writing, and seeing the characters from my teen years arrive on the big screen was indescribable.

I should mention that I was self educated on DC. Whenever a new character was introduced in Smallville, I read up everything about them, and wondered what aspect of their story, which issue was going to be incorporated into the show.

I fell in love with Superhero stories because of my own insatiable curiosity for world building, and DC is one of the biggest fictional worlds out there, and wanted nothing more then to see Superman on the big screen in my generation.

But what I didn’t want was DC done Marvel style.

I wanted a DC universe set in the real world, movies where they aren’t just about which famous star is playing the next hero in the next franchise, and how epic can we make this battle, (I’m looking at you END GAME ). I wanted the characters to represent something other than the fact they’re an Alien on Earth.

I wanted a world grounded in reality, heightened by real world issues. I wanted an emotional core that underlined the universe. It didn’t have to be seen in every film, or even spoken of. But it had to be felt. It had to make you feel when you watched it that there was something heavy underneath, a sense of weight to the story. I wanted a story where I was made to see Superman as innately human.

I wanted someone to make a superhero movie that wasn’t about making the big bucks, that they were as invested with the characters and story as the millions of people who gorged every issue of the superman comics, because the story meant more to them then making money.

I wanted to damn cry. Something that if I’m being honest, didn’t occur with Marvel until End Game. You know the scene.

But that took 22 films for an emotional investment.

And comic lovers, please correct me if I’m wrong, but shouldn’t we be emotionally invested with these characters before we reach #22.

So when i heard about Man of Steel, and read everything I could about Zack Snyder’s vision, in truth, I felt like someone was going to screw it up.

And then it came out, and Henry Cavill was brilliant and everything I wanted as a Superman. And the best part was that it was grounded. In our world.

And BvS - the Extended Edition - because there is not other version in my book, is in my opinion, one of the greatest cinematic films of the 21st century.

And my favourite part, the resolution behind Batman and Superman coming together - One Word. A Name. Because it was so simple. And sometimes the best solution is the simple one, the one we don’t see.

When someone asks me which superhero movie is my favourite, hell, ask me my favourite and I’d likely, always say Dawn of Justice.

Why?

Imagine Superman existed in our world, right now.

He wouldn’t be seen as a hero, not straight away. Humanity would vilify him, the media would crucify him. Humanity would want to hold him to our standards, force him to be confined by our laws.

And that is exactly what we would do. Deep down, our fear would take over. Because as the article says, Superman is a God, but he is a reflection of the state of the world and the energy you put into it.

Superman was more human then most humans are. He loves, he fears, he mourns as we do, but he also carries the world on his shoulders, a feat only accomplished by someone who is simultaneously, both physically and metaphysically a God and a human.

And one very much needed in the world.

And Zack Synder knew that. BvS is that.The universe he was creating was exactly that. I know not everyone will share my opinion, and I’ve been a Joss Whedon fan since Buffy, current rumours not withstanding, so I mean this with all sincerity.

Justice League was a travesty of a film.

What works with Marvel, does not work with DC.

And with the announcement that the Snyder Cut is being released on HBO Max, it appears, perhaps, at least for Superman, Warner Bros might be contemplating the same thing. Considering the DC films panned by critics, are the same films they interfered with, maybe they’ve learned a lesson.

Sure BvS may not have done as well as they expected - that may have been the result of forcing a theatrical release on movie goers, or it may have been the years of Marvel that have coated our psyches. But I know I’m not the only person who would not have cared if Warner Bros brought back intermissions.

The same can be said for Suicide Squad and what would have been a darker tone Ayer Cut as advertised in the trailer at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con which Inverse described as “promising as hell”, had Warner not given in to the negative reviews of BvS and altered things and forced Ayer to adhere to changes in the editing room.

If the recent HBO Max announcement is anything to go by, it too may see the light of day, or our living rooms.

I’ve always been of the opinion that Zack Snyder started everything. It was his vision that brought the DCEU into existence, his vision and casting of Gal Gadot and Jason Mamoa that made Wonder Woman and Aquaman come to fruition, and I think this is the universe paying him back.

There is a quote by Shruti Gauesh

Once is a mistake.

Twice sign’s reason.

Thrice smells treason.

And even once more then thrice spells destruction.

Perhaps Warner Brothers are sensing such and are attempting to save themselves. Perhaps they saw the simple solution.

And considering Henry Cavill’s elevated fame thanks to The Witcher, they would be suicidal to not utilise him again as the Man of Steel.

Thank You Travis Bean for writing this article.

Here’s the Suicide Squad one for any one interested.

#snyder cut #justice league #dceu #zack synder #henry cavill #superman #man of steel #BvS #dawn of justice #Justice League the Snyder Cut #Forbes #Travis Bean #just my opinion #this is not a marvel vs dc #nor is it dc is better than marvel #or marvel better than dc #justice league dceu

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ladystylestores · 4 years

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Shaky Reopenings, Boris Johnson, Coronavirus: Your Thursday Briefing

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)

Good morning.

We’re covering what reopenings look like in countries with rising coronavirus cases, Boris Johnson’s response to the U.S. protests and answers to a decades-old Swedish murder mystery.

Shaky reopenings in countries with virus problems

India has more new daily coronavirus infections than all but the United States and Brazil. But, ready or not, much of India’s lockdown has ended, as have those in other countries struggling to balance economic damage with coronavirus risk.

Some leaders, especially in the developing world, said they couldn’t sustain the punishing lockdowns without risking economic catastrophe for their poorest citizens.

Our correspondents looked at the reopening in India and four other countries — Russia, Iran, Pakistan and Mexico — whose leaders have prioritized restarting even with rising coronavirus cases.

Russia: The country is adding 8,000 to 9,000 new infections each day; even so, Moscow’s mayor lifted many restrictions on Tuesday. One reason, analysts say, is to encourage turnout at a July 1 referendum that could allow President Vladimir V. Putin to remain in power until 2036.

India: In New Delhi, an already strained public health care system may be reaching a breaking point. People can’t get tested. And government officials, desperate for hospital beds, proposed turning the city’s fanciest hotels into health centers.

Iran: Iran, an early epicenter of the global pandemic, reopened in early May to salvage its economy. It’s now seeing a second surge; experts reported 3,574 new infections on June 4, the highest number of new cases since the coronavirus crisis began.

Boris Johnson’s response to Britain’s racism

At a time when the unrest in the United States is prompting many Britons to examine their own society’s racial injustice, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is still struggling to find his voice.

Mr. Johnson was late to address the protests in London and other cities after George Floyd’s death. He has oscillated between calls for law and order and promises to listen to black Britons.

Erdogan and Trump form new bond

Relations between President Trump and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey were in the worst state in recent memory 10 months ago — heading toward clashes between their armies across the Syrian-Turkish border.

But as the coronavirus threatens recession and rallies their opponents, the two leaders are finding a common cause — for now. On Monday, they shared a few jokes during a phone call, according to Turkey.

“To be honest, after our conversation tonight, a new era can begin between the United States and Turkey,” Mr. Erdogan said afterward.

Details: In recent months, Mr. Trump has even assisted Turkey’s interventions in Syria and Libya. He also did not impose sanctions on Turkey for its purchase of a Russian S-400 missile system, which has helped Turkey stay closer to the West.

Also: President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine won an endorsement for his anti-corruption policies with the approval of a $5 billion lending program from the International Monetary Fund.

If you have 5 minutes, this is worth it

Russia’s oil spill spreads toward the Arctic Ocean

Here’s what else is happening

Sweden: The country’s judiciary has finally named a man who they believe assassinated Prime Minister Olof Palme on a quiet Stockholm street in 1986. A prosecutor said “reasonable evidence” pointed to Stig Engstrom, a graphic designer, who took his own life in 2000 at the age of 66.

Brazil: As deaths in the country from the coronavirus outbreak surge to the world’s highest, President Jair Bolsonaro is threatening military intervention to protect his grip on power. Political leaders and analysts say that military action remains unlikely; even so, the possibility is destabilizing the nation’s democratic institutions.

‘Gone With the Wind’: The streaming service HBO Max has removed the 1939 movie from its catalog, pledging to eventually bring the film back “with a discussion of its historical context.” Long considered a cinematic triumph, the movie has come under scrutiny for romanticizing the Civil War-era South and glossing over the horrors of slavery.

Snapshot: Above, members the Sikh Center of New York feeding protesters in Queens. The center has served more than 145,000 free meals in the past 10 weeks. It’s part of a Sikh tradition of feeding anyone in need, which has found new purpose during the coronavirus pandemic and the protests over the killing of George Floyd and police brutality.

Madeleine McCann: With a new suspect, journalists have returned to Praia da Luz, the town in Portugal where the British toddler vanished 13 years ago. Residents are wary of the attention, especially while other unresolved crimes have been archived.

What we’re looking at: This drone footage of green turtles migrating to Raine Island, the world’s largest sea turtle rookery, courtesy of The Sydney Morning Herald.

Now, a break from the news

Cook: These crispy kimchi pancakes are both satisfyingly chewy and shatteringly crisp. Use the most flavorful traditionally prepared kimchi you can find — it’ll make all of the difference in this simple recipe.

Watch: Our TV critic has some suggestions on what to watch if you’re looking for a foreign spy thriller, or simply something light. And, these movies showcase L.G.B.T.Q. characters in all of their wonderful complexity.

Behold: We asked 11 illustrators of Asian descent to create a self-portrait, reflecting on their heritage, their stories of immigration and how they identify as Asian-American.

Read: Here’s a look at down-and-out graphic novels including “The Complete Works of Fante Bukowski,” which our reviewer says is both gleefully malicious and unrepentantly stupid — a winning combination, for the most part.

We may be venturing outside, but we’re still safest inside. At Home can help make staying in tolerable, even fun, with ideas on what to read, cook, watch and do.

And now for the Back Story on …

A Syrian pharmacist’s Covid diary

Hosam al-Ali is a pharmacist in Idlib who volunteered to be the main virus-response coordinator in his region. He keeps an audio diary, which he shared day by day with our Istanbul bureau chief. Here are some of his entries on fighting a pandemic in a war zone. They have been condensed, and edited for clarity.

APRIL 5

A Day of Pain

Today I conducted training for the White Helmets [a Syrian civil defense group].

There were two teams, each with 10 people. We did two sessions to avoid crowding.

The next morning, I woke at 5 a.m., and we modified slides for the lecture. The slides outline the criteria for sending people to health facilities. They also tell people how to handle dead bodies.

The trainees from the White Helmets are very interested. Their motto, I learned, is from the Quran: “Whoever saves the life of one, it is as if he saves the life of all mankind.”

The whole day my mood was very bad, because my tooth infection had moved from my mouth to my eye, and it was very painful. I started to look like a teddy bear.

APRIL 12

The Search for a Ventilator

Yesterday a friend called me. He was looking for a ventilator for his newborn baby. All of the hospital ventilators were busy — and still we don’t have a single coronavirus case.

If that is happening, it means the medical capacity is very poor.

Today I felt depressed: I heard the baby died.

MAY 5

Pressure on All Fronts

There is something very important going on these days. It is not about the coronavirus.

It is about the people. They are in a very difficult situation. Everything is super-expensive now. The dollar is rising, and the Syrian pound is on the floor. The rate of $1 is 1,500 Syrian pounds. People are going crazy. God help the people with Ramadan, coronavirus and high prices. God help the people.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time.

— Isabella

Thank you Carole Landry helped write this briefing. Samin Nosrat provided the recipe, and Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh provided the rest of the break from the news. You can reach the team at [email protected].

P.S. • We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about remembering George Floyd. • Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: Ice cream holder (three letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • Times journalists explained how they decide if scientific research is reliable for Times Insider.

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from World Wide News https://ift.tt/2AULGoP

#World Wide News

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preciousmetals0 · 4 years

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Virus Shakeouts and Earnings Breakouts; Boeing Defies Gravity

Virus Shakeouts and Earnings Breakouts; Boeing Defies Gravity:

See No Virus, Hear No Virus, Speak No Virus

Welcome to 2020, where the earnings reactions are made up … and the coronavirus doesn’t matter.

That’s right, folks. The Wuhan coronavirus just passed 6,000 confirmed cases in mainland China — making it bigger and faster than SARS — and no one on Wall Street cares. I think I’ve said this before, but I don’t expect Mr. Market to start caring until this virus spreads independently in other countries … particularly Western countries.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t prepare now. (After all, just because you’re not paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you … right?)

What’s Wall Street’s focus right now?

Corporate earnings and the Federal Reserve.

Corporate earnings, I completely understand. Here’s a brief rundown of the headline highlights:

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) posted blowout results last night with rising iPhone demand.

General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) revealed solid cash flow. Forget silly things like poor earnings and revenue — cash flow is apparently king for GE.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) apparently doesn’t suck as much as everyone thought … or does it? (We’ll have more on Boeing in a bit.)

The confusing part is the focus on the Fed. The Federal Open Market Committee concluded its two-day policy meeting today … and basically, nothing happened. So we have that going for us, which is nice.

There was no movement on interest rates, barely a nod to the Wuhan virus situation and a smattering of talk about balance sheets and “not-quantitative easing.” Very thrilling indeed.

The Takeaway:

According to Banyan Hill expert Ted Bauman, editor of The Bauman Letter (who saw that coming?), the Fed is essentially “monetizing federal debt via the repo market.”

I’ve talked about the repo market and the problems therein before. I’m not going to rehash that topic again … unless I need a nap later.

Here’s a quick rundown of Great Stuff repo market coverage, if you’re into that kinda thing:

Seriously, though, this is an important market topic and can influence your portfolio returns going forward. If you really want the details on this situation, I highly recommend you follow Ted Bauman.

Here’s Ted’s take on the Fed and the repo market: “The Fed’s Printing Money Again — but Not for You.”

(And you thought Great Stuff was the only publication with snark!) When Ted’s research is right on the money, he doesn’t hold back … especially when it comes to Wall Street/the Fed clobbering everyday people. (Hey, that’s us!)

If Ted’s market outlook jibes with you, be sure to check out The Bauman Letter. Click here to see how you can get the investing research that Ted doesn’t share with just everyone.

Dear God, the virus, man! What about the virus!?

I get from your feedback that many of you are rather interested in the Wuhan virus. Since I can’t be there to update you with every little detail, I found a site where you can track things for yourself right here. Have fun watching your own mini version of Outbreak!

I’m heading back to my bunker now to make sure I have enough bourbon to ride this out.

The Good: The Daddy Mac Will Make You

If you’re looking for a true earnings highlight in today’s deluge, McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) will make you jump (jump!).

The burger master reported impressive earnings this morning, with same-store sales growth coming in at its strongest pace in 10 years. That’s wiggity, wiggity, wiggity whack. (What, no Kris Kross fans out there? Oh well.)

By the numbers, McDonald’s beat earnings expectations by a penny per share, with revenue topping targets by $50 million. The aforementioned same-store sales rose 5.9%, versus Wall Street’s guess of 5.1%. This particular point in McDonald’s earnings was a major confidence booster, after the company missed sales growth expectations last quarter.

Still, analysts remain cautious on the Golden Arches. About 9% of McDonald’s global locations are in China — virus territory.

The Bad: Boeing Inverts

Want to see a neat trick? Look at Boeing’s earnings report. Then look at Boeing stock.

The company reported a surprise loss of $2.33 per share on revenue of $17.91 billion. Wall Street anticipated a profit of $1.73 per share and revenue of $21.67 billion. Now, I’m doing a little back-of-the-envelope math here, but that’s a 234% miss on earnings and a 17% miss on revenue.

Let’s repeat that, shall we? Boeing missed earnings targets by 234%. Whoosh. Missed them by a country mile.

It gets better. Commercial airplane revenue plummeted 67%. Defense revenue dropped 13%. Global services revenue slipped 5%. Boeing even announced $9.2 billion in charges related to 737 Max customers and $4 billion in “abnormal production costs.”

So, where’s Boeing stock after this crash-and-burn performance? Why, it’s up nearly 3%. It defies gravity! It’s literally flying inverted.

This has to be a sentiment rally. The numbers don’t add up … which has me thinking: If these results weren’t as bad as investors expected, how bad is investor sentiment on Boeing right now?

The Ugly: 4.1 Million Subs … Gone

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) took a rather enlightening trip to the earnings confessional today. Earnings beat expectations by a penny per share, and revenue missed by only $100 million.

The company even added more wireless subscribers than Wall Street anticipated, pulling in 229,000 subs on the quarter, compared to targets of 145,000 subs.

But the focus on AT&T has shifted away from wireless subs in the past year. The company is now positioning itself as a major player in the video-content market. Along those lines, AT&T failed miserably.

The company lost roughly 1.2 million pay-TV subscribers (including 219,000 subs lost at DirecTV Now). In total, AT&T shed a record 4.1 million pay-TV subscribers on the year. That’s more than the total population of Los Angeles, California.

The revenue miss is somewhat forgivable. AT&T is spending tons to get its new streaming service, HBO Max, up and running by May. In the meantime, however, the company will be lucky to have any subs left to send to HBO Max. That means more marketing and promotional costs to get new sign-ups.

But wait, scratch those promotional costs. AT&T also said in its earnings conference call that it’ll no longer pursue promotions for low-profit customers.

Where’s my popcorn? This is going to be fun when HBO Max finally launches in May … without a Game of Thrones style headliner to draw subscribers in.

It’s new feature time here at Great Stuff!

Don’t worry, Comic Corner isn’t completely gone … yet. But, to get a better handle on your takes on the market and investing (and whatever other off-the-wall topics we can think of), we’re kicking off the Great Stuff Poll of the Week today.

This question has been burning in the back of my mind for some time now — especially since so many of you have such strong opinions on companies such as Beyond Meat Inc. (Nasdaq: BYND) and Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA).

So, here goes. Click the button below and get started. Oh, and you know that we’ll discuss the results later:

Great Stuff: David vs. Goliath

Did you answer the poll?

Thank you!

With that out of the way … hey, put down the virus tracker and get back here. I’m trying to learn you something here. It’s time to refresh your investing edge.

(Not that edge! Put the blade down! What is this, ADHD day?)

Sigh … let’s face it: The Fed is always gonna feed the big boys on Wall Street. With a steady stream of easy money, these market goliaths will keep getting bigger and bigger … their stocks hitting consecutive all-time highs. It’s like quantitative easing with extra steps.

But remember that every Goliath has its David. And surprise … that’s you! (Well, in the stock market, that is. Unless your name’s David … then you’re David all the time anyway.)

Even with all their millions and billions, big-money investors are actually held back because of their size.

They can’t buy the next tiny tech darling. They can’t stick through volatility or wait for market trends to rise.

But you can. That’s your edge.

I wasn’t joking around on Monday: There’s truly no way to plague-proof your portfolio other than holding stable, well-run companies. And in the coming weeks, you’ll have the perfect opportunity to do so.

Keep an eye on your inbox — Somebody’s coming, woah! — and I’ll be sure to pass along every chance I see to beat Wall Street’s goliaths at their own game.

In the meantime, don’t forget to check out Great Stuff on social media. If you can’t get enough meme-y goodness, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!

Until next time, good trading!

Regards,

Joseph Hargett

Great Stuff Managing Editor, Banyan Hill Publishing

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goldira01 · 4 years

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See No Virus, Hear No Virus, Speak No Virus

Welcome to 2020, where the earnings reactions are made up … and the coronavirus doesn’t matter.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t prepare now. (After all, just because you’re not paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you … right?)

What’s Wall Street’s focus right now?

Corporate earnings and the Federal Reserve.

Corporate earnings, I completely understand. Here’s a brief rundown of the headline highlights:

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) posted blowout results last night with rising iPhone demand.

General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) revealed solid cash flow. Forget silly things like poor earnings and revenue — cash flow is apparently king for GE.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) apparently doesn’t suck as much as everyone thought … or does it? (We’ll have more on Boeing in a bit.)

There was no movement on interest rates, barely a nod to the Wuhan virus situation and a smattering of talk about balance sheets and “not-quantitative easing.” Very thrilling indeed.

The Takeaway:

According to Banyan Hill expert Ted Bauman, editor of The Bauman Letter (who saw that coming?), the Fed is essentially “monetizing federal debt via the repo market.”

I’ve talked about the repo market and the problems therein before. I’m not going to rehash that topic again … unless I need a nap later.

Here’s a quick rundown of Great Stuff repo market coverage, if you’re into that kinda thing:

Here’s Ted’s take on the Fed and the repo market: “The Fed’s Printing Money Again — but Not for You.”

If Ted’s market outlook jibes with you, be sure to check out The Bauman Letter. Click here to see how you can get the investing research that Ted doesn’t share with just everyone.

Dear God, the virus, man! What about the virus!?

I’m heading back to my bunker now to make sure I have enough bourbon to ride this out.

The Good: The Daddy Mac Will Make You

If you’re looking for a true earnings highlight in today’s deluge, McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) will make you jump (jump!).

Still, analysts remain cautious on the Golden Arches. About 9% of McDonald’s global locations are in China — virus territory.

The Bad: Boeing Inverts

Want to see a neat trick? Look at Boeing’s earnings report. Then look at Boeing stock.

Let’s repeat that, shall we? Boeing missed earnings targets by 234%. Whoosh. Missed them by a country mile.

So, where’s Boeing stock after this crash-and-burn performance? Why, it’s up nearly 3%. It defies gravity! It’s literally flying inverted.

This has to be a sentiment rally. The numbers don’t add up … which has me thinking: If these results weren’t as bad as investors expected, how bad is investor sentiment on Boeing right now?

The Ugly: 4.1 Million Subs … Gone

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) took a rather enlightening trip to the earnings confessional today. Earnings beat expectations by a penny per share, and revenue missed by only $100 million.

The company even added more wireless subscribers than Wall Street anticipated, pulling in 229,000 subs on the quarter, compared to targets of 145,000 subs.

But wait, scratch those promotional costs. AT&T also said in its earnings conference call that it’ll no longer pursue promotions for low-profit customers.

Where’s my popcorn? This is going to be fun when HBO Max finally launches in May … without a Game of Thrones style headliner to draw subscribers in.

It’s new feature time here at Great Stuff!

So, here goes. Click the button below and get started. Oh, and you know that we’ll discuss the results later:

Great Stuff: David vs. Goliath

Did you answer the poll?

Thank you!

With that out of the way … hey, put down the virus tracker and get back here. I’m trying to learn you something here. It’s time to refresh your investing edge.

(Not that edge! Put the blade down! What is this, ADHD day?)

But remember that every Goliath has its David. And surprise … that’s you! (Well, in the stock market, that is. Unless your name’s David … then you’re David all the time anyway.)

Even with all their millions and billions, big-money investors are actually held back because of their size.

They can’t buy the next tiny tech darling. They can’t stick through volatility or wait for market trends to rise.

But you can. That’s your edge.

Keep an eye on your inbox — Somebody’s coming, woah! — and I’ll be sure to pass along every chance I see to beat Wall Street’s goliaths at their own game.

In the meantime, don’t forget to check out Great Stuff on social media. If you can’t get enough meme-y goodness, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram!

Until next time, good trading!

Regards,

Joseph Hargett

Great Stuff Managing Editor, Banyan Hill Publishing

#Timor Invest

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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The Knick Is An Ugly, Atmospheric Delight

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Most early photographs look haunted. Perhaps it’s because we view these images with the knowledge that the people inside them are already ghosts. In some early photos the subject had actually already expired at the time of their capture. Photography was expensive and the first and best occasion for many families to pay for a portrait was recently after a loved one died.

But some old timey photos are just ineffably creepy beyond any easy explanation. Consider this snapshot of a surgical operating theater in 1890.

Boston City Hospital operating theater, circa 1890 | A. H. Folsom of Roxbury

The experience of seeing primitive surgeons dressed in angelic white, surrounded by seats of mustachioed men wearing their Sunday best and staring down at a lifeless body is so intensely bizarre. Photos like this are dripping with a grim atmosphere that very few documents or art can really capture. One recent entry into the prestige TV canon, however, did a shockingly good job of recreating that eerie sensation and maintaining it over two full seasons.

Both seasons of Cinemax’s The Knick are now available to stream on HBO Max. Cinemax may no longer be in the original content business, but some of its better shows are finally, thankfully making their way to the WarnerMedia streaming venture. In addition to The Knick other recent Cinemax titles arriving to HBO Max include Banshee and Warrior. All three are superb shows and worth checking out, but let us highlight The Knick in particular as one of recent television history’s most underappreciated gems.

The Knick is quite simply one of the most stylish and atmospheric TV shows ever made. Premiering in 2014, it is set in a fictionalized version of the real Knickerbocker Hospital (a.k.a “The Knick”) which was located in Harlem at the turn of the 19th century. The series begins in 1900 and follows Clive Owen’s Dr. John W. “Thack” Thackery, the chief surgeon at The Knick, as he runs the hospital while barely controlling his addiction to injecting cocaine. Other cast members include André Holland as new assistant chief surgeon Dr. Algernon Edwards, Jeremy Bobb as hospital manager Herman Barrow, and Eve Hewson as nurse Lucy Elkins.

The plotting on The Knick from creators and head writers Jack Amiel & Michael Beglerare is tight and effective. The show capably balances multiple story threads at once, from the series- long arc of Thack’s drug abuse and addiction to season-long arcs about infectious diseases spreading throughout New York to episode-long stories presenting patients simply in need of help.

But what sets The Knick apart from fellow medical dramas (and just about everything else) is the imagery involved and the tone it invokes. Watching The Knick is like staring at the uncanny oddness of that old operating theater photo until the people within it start to move around and vacuum blood out of a patient’s open abdomen.

Television has always been seen as a writers’ medium, with the head writer on many shows often serving as de facto “showrunner” and maintaining the visual style. The Knick, however, benefits greatly from the involvement of filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, who produces and directs every episode. Soderbergh’s cameras, era-authentic gaslamp lighting, and superb production design all conspire to create one hell of a visual mood. That’s not even to mention Cliff Martinez’s excellent, synth-heavy score, which one would be forgiven for thinking is the work of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Just about every scene sounds like a tense mission leading up to a boss battle in an NES game.

Thack and his fellow doctors Bertram “Bertie” Chickering (Michael Angarano) and Everett Gallinger (Eric Johnson) are fond of calling the Knick their “circus.” And like any circus, The Knick is only as good as its performers. Thankfully the doctors, nurses, administrators are all more than up to the task.

Despite being only six years old now, The Knick has proven to be quite an acting talent factory. The series was Hewson’s first TV role and the Irish actress is now on her way to modest stardom thanks to roles in The Luminaries and Behind Her Eyes. Jeremy Bobb has since turned up in everything, including Russian Doll, Jessica Jones, and The Outsider. Chris Sullivan, who plays ambulance operator Tom Cleary now plays Toby on This Is Us. And Juliet Rylance portrays Della Street on Perry Mason.

Meanwhile, Owen is a perfect fit as Thack. The actor seems to relish hiding his handsome movie star features behind sweat, matted hair, and a thin mustache. The effect makes Thack physically resemble some kind of familiar early 1900s pugilist archetype more than a Hollywood leading man. The lifelike performance flows out from there.

Holland as a talented Black surgeon extremely unwelcome in a white hospital is also superb. The actor has racked up award nominations for Selma and Moonlight, but he’s never seemed like a more capable protagonist than he does in The Knick, even if his character isn’t technically the lead.

It does at times feel as though this is really Edwards’ story. Which makes sense, given that the most attention is frequently paid to him as a perceived trespasser in a white world. Also: it probably goes without saying, but one should know before watching that The Knick pulls absolutely no punches in its depiction of early 20th century racism. It’s admirably honest storytelling about the time period but it’s also just brutal to sit through. One season 2 plotline even involves a central character becoming a full-on eugenicist.

Thought that understandably all sounds quite bleak, The Knick isn’t just all crushingly real depictions of racism, gore, and nifty camerawork. The show fills an important prestige TV quotient by frequently bringing something new to the table. In the absurdly crowded TV landscape, oftentimes the best thing any show can do is to present something to the audience that they’ve never seen before. The Knick has many such moments…unless you’ve somehow seen someone inject cocaine into Clive Owen’s penis before. The series also has one of the wildest series finale of all time. The finale of season 2 (which wasn’t necessarily a series finale at the time) features one moment that should take even the most veteran drama watcher by surprise.

The show has some sturdy themes to go along with the stylish flourishes and surprising storytelling. In the series first episode, Thack describes what is simultaneously appealing and devastating about healthcare to him, saying: “God always wins. It’s the longest unbeaten streak in the history of the world.”

There is nothing that any doctor or surgeon can do to stop death. The best they can hope to do is forestall it’s arrival. Thack and the doctors at the Knick have done the best they can in this mission. When Thack proudly announces that life expectancy has gone from 39 to 47 in the past 20 years, it’s a darkly funny moment to the modern viewer. But any small medical advancement or deeper understanding of the human body always feels like a sincere victory throughout The Knick – particularly because we see the very literal blood, swat, and tears it takes to achieve them. These drug-addicted surgeons and frightened, shivering patients are indeed ghosts from an stained old-timey photo of an operating theater. They’re also people. And that’s something that the show is able to capture in addition to capturing all the terrifying gore of 20th century medicine.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Back in September of 2020, Soderbergh revealed that he and producer Barry Jenkins were planning to go through with The Knick season 3, with a pilot script having been written. Given that the Hollywood landscape is particularly turbulent at the moment, who knows if that script will ever find a home. Whether or not The Knick gets a third season, its first two will fit in quite comfortably alongside the greats in its new HBO Max home for years to come.

The post The Knick Is An Ugly, Atmospheric Delight appeared first on Den of Geek.

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