I for one loved the final season of tmmm. It’s getting a lot of hate for not doing this or that or just not being 100% a happy ending (how dare it be bitter sweet??? She’s?? Isolated from her loved ones because of the inevitable cost of her ambition and fame??? ImPoSsiBle!!).
When we first started with the flash forwards of Midge’s children and we saw how estranged they were, I admit I wasn’t too pleased, but as the season was coming out I was also doing a rewatch, and the more of the old seasons I watched, the more s5 made sense. This is where we’ve always been headed. Every big turn in the series has always presented Midge with the question “will you choose your domestic life or your career?” and she chose her career. Every. Time. Over men, over family, over her children. Even when she was presented with Benjamin, ostensibly an opportunity to try and make it work with a man who actively supported her career, she walked away from him because she knew that he would never matter to her as much as being on stage would. To be honest, I think the flash forwards were nearly kind. They started out rough in the first half of the season with the estrangement, the several failed marriages, and the implication of a falling out with Susie, but eventually they balanced out. She fought with Susie, but they eventually found their way back to each other. She was distant from her family, but she still loved them and used her money to support her mother’s dream. She got everything she wanted because she made a choice and she took it as far as she could.
As far back as s2e7 (and honestly even before that), this message has been explicit in the show with that painter showing Midge his master piece and explaining how it ruined his life because he put everything he had into that. The epilogue is showing us Midge’s version of that, and tbh, it still pulls its punches, because she still manages to have meaningful (if distant) relationships with Susie, her family, and Joel whereas the painter’s story was somehow even more depressing.
Was s5 perfect? Of course not. Some of the scenes didn’t land for me, and there are things I wish they would’ve done differently, but when it comes down to it, this was a pretty good conclusion. It showed how the characters grew, and how they were still exactly who they always were. It gave every character an ending that made sense for them (even when some of them made me sad) and honestly, Midge’s four minute set on the Gordon Ford show (which could not possibly have been just four minutes) could not more blatantly have been a thesis statement that the show never once veered away from. Everything was building to this conclusion, and I for one found it satisfying in the way that a well crafted story/conclusion is always satisfying, even if it’s a conclusion that makes people uncomfortable.
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Thinking a LOT about Lucifer in the latest Hazbin episode. Idk what I was expecting but not this??
As I was watching my immediate thought was just "huh... Lucifer is kinda of weird..." but as the episode went on I realized the issue
the dude is off the chain depressed, like he says it as a joke but holy cow it is SO BAD
He's manically just creating rubber ducks cuz his daughter really like it that one time but it's empty, it's never good enough but he keeps doing it, maybe cuz he doesn't know how to pass the time otherwise.
like I get the feeling he HAS better things he SHOULD be doing than making rubber duck after rubber duck. At first I was like, "Bruh why isn't the king of hell doing anything?" aaaaand then it became clear...
The dude is disassociating so bad he can barely hold a conversation let alone remember information. He clearly WANTS to, he wants to be involved with his daughter so bad, he wants to care about the things she's doing so bad, but his depression keeps interfering. It's like he can only hear every other word and he grasps onto the ones he does hear semi-out of context. Like you can see every time he catches something that he hadn't before and he just "well shit I didn't catch that part"
and that's why he reacts so weird when people talk to him. He is struggling so bad to engage with the conversation he's only getting 50% of it
does that look like the face of a man who knows what the hell the conversation is even about??? he is STRUGGLING
like Charlie spent so long telling him about the hotel, and he STILL didn't understand what she wanted. Yeah it comes off as ditzy but literally I've been in that position where your brain just "nope, not doing this right now" and nerfs your conversation comprehension. So as someone who's BEEN in that position, to me it feels exactly like what he's dealing with. He's sorta engaged with the conversation, but only as much as his brain will allow
For example, when I'm dealing with this, this is what someone talking to me feels like this where the crossed out parts are what I missed and bold is what I catch, "Hey! You know I was thinking for dinner we could either make some chicken with rice? But if you don't feel like cooking, pasta is super easy and you love that right? What do you want to do?" you can kinda get that someone is trying to talk to you about dinner, and towards the end you get the impression that they asked something that needs your input so you can decently put 2 and 2 together and try and pass off, but crucial bits were left out, I would have no idea that either chicken or pasta is in the conversation only having heard "rice". When someone is just talking at me, I can decently pass off as being engaged but the second I'm required to participate in the conversation I'm screwed. Seem familiar? At which point I have 2 options, try to give a bullshit answer, or admit that I missed what they were saying and ask them to repeat
Lucifer, unfortunately, is trying so damn hard to hide that he's dealing with like 24/7 dissociation, so he can't admit that he's missing entire chunks of the conversation, hence his really weird replies. He does eventually get the full picture and then he and Charlie start having the real conversation
Also, the Alastor/Lucifer rivalry was hilarious but also really indicative of more of what Lucifer is dealing with
Alastor is, unfortunately, really good at picking up people's insecurities, and thanks to Charlie's description earlier and watching Lucifer clearly trying to overcompensate, he immediately picks up on the fact that Lucifer KNOWS he struggles to be a good dad (we know cuz it's cuz of the depression, hard to be engaged when your brain keeps turning off) and decides to rub salt in the wound by pretending he's been acting as a surrogate father to Charlie. Now why Alastor decided to pick a fight with the king of hell is beyond me, I do not understand Alastor (and I LIKE IT) (maybe it's cuz Alastor thinks he's hot shit and was expecting Lucifer to at least have heard of him but Lucifer just treats him like a nobody? who knows)(why would Lucifer listen to radio anyways when he can't even pay attention to a conversation it'd just be white noise)
But yeah I just was expecting someone who oozed either charisma or presence and instead I got a depressed dad who's dissociating so bad he can barely function and be present in his life. The only thing it seems he CAN do is make rubber ducks cuz his daughter really liked it that one time
Idk Lucifer is tragic to me. Whatever the full details of what heavan did to him absolutely broke him and he can't deal with it. He's aware of it, and he doesn't know how to fix it, so he tries to over compensate and sorta makes an ass out of himself but no one says or does anything cuz this guy is supposed to be THE king of hell
Suddenly it's making a lot more sense why he just rolls over and lets heaven do what it wants and even told Charlie to go in his place the start of the show. He's not in any headspace to hold a basic conversation let alone negotiate! He didn't even know who Alastor was, he's been so out of touch
idk I like him, he seems sweet, I hope Charlie brings some light back into his life. He really needs to get out of that rubber duck room
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