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#laura neal i hate you so much

josephgraham · 1 year

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it’s fine to be unhappy with writing decisions or characters but when you start directly targetting writers/actor it gets so gross. like, i still think the killing eve fandom’s targetting of laura neal was insane. i hated that ending so much but not enough to send death threats and smear her as a bigot because of it. be normal, lmao.

#txt #this goes for other fans as well #don't harass other fans/screenshot their tweets/posts to take the mick

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stryc-9 · 2 years

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#1 in my series of 5 obvious things Lauren Seal completely misunderstands about storytelling... character development

In order to talk about character development, we must start with characters themselves.

In any story, characters are integral (obviously). They need to have personalities, DO things, and have things happen to/around them that they react to. In most stories, they interact with other characters.

The best characters feel like real people. We often refer to these as 3-Dimensional.

They have a purpose for existing beyond a plot point. They have an inner thought life and motivations. They are, in essence, fully formed individuals.

Because of this, we can relate to them on a human level. We have feelings toward them — love, hate, indifference, joy, frustration, etc.

So yeah, characters are a thing.

Now to what we’re here for — it is absolutely essential that characters CHANGE over the course of a story. This change doesn’t need to be forward progress and it doesn’t need to be lasting, so long as the writer makes deliberate choices (otherwise they’re just lazy and incompetent — looking at you Laura Neal).

These “changes” make up a character’s “arc.” Arcs come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. They can rise or decline, loop around themselves, go forward then backwards, be realizations about what always was, or just about anything you can think of. What they cannot achieve — in a quality story — is NOTHING.

If a character perpetually exists in a stagnant position, they are essentially useless. They’re not 3D individuals. They’re objects. And a collection of objects do not a compelling story make.

Here’s where we run into issues with hacks like Laura Neal. She wasn’t supposed to be writing a NEW story. She was tasked with adding onto an existing story, one where characters were in the middle of their arcs. One where they’d made progress in some areas and fallen back in others. One where relationships had been established and explored.

And what did she do with the story that was handed off to her? IGNORED IT.

She picked one or two minor elements from past canon and wiped the rest of the slate clean. She vilified Villanelle, a character long proven to not be so easily categorized, by stripping her of humanity. She simplified Eve, a character who always had a darkness that was slowly being revealed and embraced, and made her instead into a poor victim of circumstance.

She took a grey story and black and whited the hell out of it. (Yes I know that’s not proper grammar, but damn if it doesn’t make a point.)

She used characters in service of a plot/agenda she decided without considering who these people were and what they’d been through.

Oh and by the way, the plot sucked too, so she gets no points on that front for making established characters do and say things they never would for whatever reason even she can’t reasonably define.

Villanelle was not a villain and Eve was not a poor victim of circumstance. These characters made so many choices and those choices created arcs and Laura defied the existence of both.

When all was said and done, in the story Laura decided to tell (if you can even call it a story rather than a collection of pathetic homages and random scenes), the general character arc of both leads was — NOTHING.

Beyond nothing, it didn’t even go back to where the characters started from because she held a deliberate “misunderstanding” of who these people ever were, much less who they’d developed into before she got her stupid paws on the narrative.

Also I’d be remiss if I didn’t issue a hearty fuck off to SWG for the mess she both created and supported.

Don’t pick up other people’s stories if you hate their characters and FFS don’t hire people who are obviously hacks.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

#maybe learn how to tell a story #killing eve #killingeve #killing eve season 4 #villanelle #oksana astankova #eve polastri #villaneve #as always fuck Lauren seal

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popculty · 2 years

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🎧 New Episode: ‘Killing Eve’ Fans Fight to Bury a Deadly Trope

When the critically-acclaimed TV series Killing Eve shocked viewers by ending with the oldest homophobic trope known as Bury Your Gays, it re-opened old wounds for the LGBTQ+ community. But fans are turning their betrayal into action, to ensure the next generation of queer viewers get to see happy endings for the characters they love - and themselves. (photo credit: @evilvillanelle)

This episode was a global, collaborative labor of love. Huge thank you to @anevolutionarynecessity for being such an integral part of this project, and to @loving-villanelle for your tireless engagement with The Discourse. Thank you @horde-princess and @doks-aux for your contributions to my favorite segment, “Queers Read Mean Tweets About the Killing Eve Finale”! 😉

Wherever you are in the stages of grief, I hope you find sympathetic rage/comfort in this episode. You are heard, famdom, and our fight is not in vain. 🏳️‍🌈✊

🎧 Listen here, or check out the interactive transcript below 👇

✨ Follow the show: Twitter | Instagram | Youtube

🙏 Support future episodes of independent pop culture criticism by joining our Patreon!

SJ: Gay Pride is over, bebes. Buckle up for Gay Wrath Month!

[upbeat punk/rock music kicks in]

This is The Popculty Podcast where we are somehow still fighting for the radical idea that queer characters deserve happy endings too. I'm your host, SJ.

[music fades out]

It's been dubbed "the worst ending of any TV show in the last 12 years," and "the new Game of Thrones." (Ouch.) It's the physical manifestation of that meme where the back half of a horse has been drawn professionally, and its front half has been completed by a two year-old. Vanity Fair proclaimed it "atrocious." Yahoo! Entertainment called it "tired and unforgivable." "Insulting to the audience," said Vulture. Variety declared it "a total betrayal of what once made it great," and Bleeding Cool marveled that, "it didn't so much end as just...stop -- As if the writers just threw up their hands and wanted it over and done with." A conclusion so nonsensical and abrupt, it spawned conspiracy theories of a secret ninth episode - which never materialized. A petition to have head writer Laura Neal arrested for hate crimes has gotten nearly 5000 signatures. And another petition to have original showrunner Phoebe Waller-Bridge rewrite the episode accumulated 10,000 signatures in two weeks.

I'm talking about the Killing Eve finale that aired on April 10, 2022, which saw the main characters, Eve and Villanelle, embrace after accomplishing their series-long goal of defeating the evil organization known as The Twelve, only for Villanelle to be shot multiple times by an unseen shooter and bleed out in Eve's arms as the words 'The End' appeared across our screens, abruptly cutting to black. Four years of 'will-they-won't-they', four years of the relationship evolving from toxic to pure, and it was all for...THAT?? In its final two minutes, Killing Eve went from being one of the queerest shows on TV to a brutal morality lesson, killing off every single queer character, except for Eve, in one of the oldest and most damaging homophobic tropes, known as Bury Your Gays.

I mentioned Bury Your Gays tangentially in our Jessica Jones conversation on queerbaiting and queer representation, but we never really got into the history or the context behind it. Bury Your Gays has been an insidious staple of American film and television for both mediums near-entire existence. As AJ Willingham writes for CNN, in an article called 'The Harmful Trope That's Still Haunting Queer TV,' queer or queer-coded characters being "punished" by death was once the legal norm in entertainment: “In the 1930s, efforts by the Supreme Court, local governments and conservative censorship groups led film industry leaders to establish the Motion Picture Production Code. The Hays Code, (as it became known), effectively forbade depictions of homosexuality, which was considered a form of sexual deviancy. The code mandated that, ‘the sympathy of the audience shall never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.’ So characters could be (subtextually) coded as gay, but only if they were portrayed negatively, and received some sort of punishment. Bound by these rules for decades, gay characters on screen were evil, conniving, and ultimately doomed.”

The Hays Code was eventually replaced by the MPAA rating system in 1968, but its effect on pop culture is still deeply ingrained. And you have to remember that up until 1973, homosexuality was considered a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association, and homosexual acts were federally criminalized in the US until 2003. Even as the number of LGBTQ characters on our screens has steadily increased over the past few decades, the majority of those have been side characters, not leads, and most have met untimely ends, often for the story progression of those straight leads.

Now, we're not saying that no queer characters can ever die in media from now on. Of course they can. We want them to be treated as human beings, same as any other character. The problem is that they're not treated the same, in two distinct ways: For one, they're killed off at a disproportionate rate compared to their straight counterparts. And two, the way they're often killed is markedly more brutal than their straight counterparts' deaths. For example, you will almost never see a queer character pass away peacefully in their sleep, or die of old age with their loved ones. Much more often, you will see them suffer an agonizing death from AIDS, in the case of gay male characters, or be brutally murdered, in the case of lesbians. For the latter, this often takes the form of the lesbian or bisexual female character being shot out of nowhere-- usually, notably, by an angry white man. Think Tara in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, think Lexa in The 100, think Root in Person of Interest. And now, think Villanelle. According to a list compiled by Autostraddle, to date, over 200 just lesbian and bisexual characters have been killed on screen. Considering the fact that there have only *ever* been a few hundred lesbian and bi characters in all of TV history, that's a mortality rate of like 80%. The mortality rate for straight characters, meanwhile-- of which there are arguably far too many-- is closer to 20%. So you combine the scarcity of queer representation with a high grisly mortality rate, and you've got a repeatedly traumatized demographic, who keep getting attached to the one or two characters they can identify with, only for that character to be murdered, often moments after finding happiness for the first time.

Queer characters *can* die without it falling into Bury Your Gays - Hannibal, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and the “San Junipero“ episode of Black Mirror are all really good examples of how to kill a gay character in a respectful, satisfying, and inevitable way. To be honest, I would have actually preferred that the Killing Eve writers had buried *both* gays respectfully, than one gay carelessly, like they did. I, along with many other viewers, kind of expected-- and would have been satisfied with-- a Thelma and Louise-type ending. Instead, we got a finale that “re-traumatized an entire community that was finally starting to believe it deserved better.”

When the entire world is already so hostile to queer folks, often our only refuge is in fictional worlds. When those fictional worlds reveal themselves to be just as cruel, dangerous, and bleak as the real world, where is our safe haven? For queer women, the lack of representation, combined with lack of opportunity to tell their own stories, puts them in a double bind. As one viewer put it, "Being gay and having next to no queer writers telling our stories is like, do I want my queer (female) characters to be sexualized by straight men, or killed by straight women?"

Straight women like season four head writer and showrunner Laura Neal. Ninety years after the Hays Code's explicit categorization of queerness as sin, that notion is implicitly reinforced by Killing Eve-- which utilizes a conversion subplot and religious iconography in Villanelle's death-- and explicitly confirmed by Neal, who insists it was necessary for the "rebirth" (her word) of Eve - the previously straight main character.

Even *if* you can set aside the big-ass BYG elephant in the room, the final episode of Killing Eve was a microcosm of the final season itself, in that-- it was a damn mess! Nothing made any sense. Things established in previous seasons were confoundingly ignored or reversed. Every creative decision was like a slap in the face to the series' very premise. From day one, the show had been about Eve learning to embrace her darkness, only for the writers to insist on her "rebirth" and "cleansing" at the literal last minute. Why this emphasis on a happy ending that looks "normal", when the whole point of the show has been that both characters-- and all of us-- contain light *and* dark, and they deserve to be loved for both?

From a narrative standpoint, the choices made were mind-boggling. We talk in screenwriting about constantly delivering what we call "inevitable surprises" to the audience. A good writer doesn't telegraph their plot twists, but when those plot twists happen, the audience should feel like, "Ahh, of course!" It should feel right and satisfying. This wasn't that. It wasn't original; It didn't deliver on its own foreshadowing (Scorpion and The Frog metaphor, where'd you go?); It didn't even make logistical sense-- You know, Eve has Villanelle's blood on her shirt, but the bullet didn't hit her...? Where was the shooter? They are literally on the water! And it certainly wasn't what fans wanted.

Despite a writers room largely comprised of comedy writers, and despite OG showrunner Phoebe Waller-Bridge setting a decidedly cheeky tone for the show in season one, season four is downright cynical. For all its claims of being about freedom, choice, and rebirth for women, it actually seems to be telling its largely female audience repeatedly that any attempt to break free of a cycle you've been trapped in is futile and will only end in death or loss. Which is not a revolutionary or helpful idea. But it is, ironically, a perfect metaphor for show that ended up continuing the cycle of re-traumatizing already marginalized viewers, when it had the opportunity to break that cycle.

In her excellent piece for Vulture entitled 'Killing Eve Chose Cruelty,' Angelica Jade Bastien further points out the strain of racism embedded in the show throughout its run, from its all-white writers room, to its lack of interest in the title character's interiority compared to her white counterparts. Eve herself was an Asian woman who defied the passive Asian woman stereotype, only for the show to punish her for that subversion. On top of letting its characters and audience down, the final season is also a direct betrayal of the original creators' vision for it. Author Luke Jennings has voiced his disapproval of the ending, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who first adapted his book series for television, infamously stated back in season one, "Every moment in the show exists so that these two women can end up alone in a room together. Really, it would have been a betrayal of the audience if they didn't come together in the end." She said it best.

Look, I could go on about the show's devolution of fashion, color palette, and cinematography. I could talk about how by the end, the production value was so bad, you couldn't tell Cuba from Margate. But enough from me. I'm actually going to let the internet speak for itself, in a segment I'm calling "Queers Read Mean Tweets About the Killing Eve Finale." It's like that bit from Jimmy Kimmel, except, you know, gay. Take it away, Twitter!

Queer Reader #1: (@alicia_desousa) Killing Eve really said "it was just a phase." [Twitter chirp]

Queer Reader #2: (@bertimic) Season four of Killing Eve felt like a homophobic corporation doing a pride event. [Twitter chirp]

Queer Reader #3: (@bigswisses) Killing Eve having Villanelle and Eve deliver the most passionate kiss in all of television history after five years of sexual tension, and then saying their relationship can be interpreted as platonic? Just say you hate gay people and go. [Twitter chirp]

Queer Reader #1: (@ke_sufferer) Whenever I think I'm overreacting to Killing Eve, I remember that Villanelle was brutally murdered at a gay wedding so the straight side character could get her job back. Eve left screaming in suicidal despair. Bonus Christian imagery. Conventionality and homophobia prevail. [Twitter chirp]

Queer Reader #4: (@fkacernes) Killing Eve season four did more for Christianity than the Crusades, and you really hate to see it. [Twitter chirp]

Queer Reader #5: (anon) The way they made Eve an allegory for biblical Eve and Vill the snake tempting her from the Garden of Heteronormativity with the fruit of queerness...? I expected subversion of the Evil Gay trope in the end, not an adaptation of the 1966 novel Satan Was A Lesbian. [Twitter chirp]

Queer Reader #6: (@killingeveeditx) I'd love to hold my girlfriend's hand in public, but I'm afraid the Killing Eve writers room will have me shot. [Twitter chirp]

Queer Reader #7: (@doks-aux) Wait, wait. [record scratch] I don't go here, but you're telling me Killing Eve is based on a series of novels that ended with the main characters in lesbians ever after, and the show specifically chose to ignore that helpfully provided conclusion to deliberately bury the gays?? Oh my God, ya'll. I'm so, so sorry. I only knew your fucked-up little gals from gif-sets, but I was really rooting for them. [Twitter chirp]

SJ: Now, I've never been a lesbian, but as a queer, non-binary trans person who hosts *this* podcast, their fight is very much my fight. And the most frustrating thing for me personally is that I've already fought this fight - six years ago, to be exact. And frankly, I thought we had won it. After The 100 fiasco-- or as I call it, Lexapocalypse-- I along with thousands of other hurt and outraged fans turned our grief into action. We mobilized to raise awareness of Bury Your Gays through every available avenue, emailing, sending letters, and tweeting, educating the TV industry of their complicity and perpetuation of the trope. We raised $160,000 for the Trevor Project, and established the nonprofit LGBT Fans Deserve Better, with the mission of responsible queer storytelling. Together, we created The Lexa Pledge, which acknowledges the damage of BYG, promises to include queer characters in larger roles, and to consult with sources within the LGBTQ community when writing queer characters, among other things. The pledge was signed and adopted by 15 current shows. That was a huge win. And for the past few years, thanks in large part to those efforts, queer rep on TV has steadily gotten better.

Which is why what Killing Eve did is so shocking. Gaining all that ground just a few years ago, and suddenly it feels like we're back at square one. All those calluses I'd built up to protect myself from getting too attached to any character that remotely felt like me were finally starting to fall off from disuse. And now I've just been tricked into watching yet another queer character I had grown to love be shot to death in her sobbing girlfriend's arms - reminding me of Lexa, and Tara, and Root. It's like the same fictional bullet just circles the Earth constantly, seeking out every lesbian character, putting them in their place as soon as they get too happy, or too comfortable, too close to a normal life. A giant, cosmic reminder that, "if you relate to this character, THERE IS NO FUTURE FOR YOU." As if we ever had a reason to imagine otherwise.

We all thought Killing Eve was different. From the beginning, it gave us its word it *was* different, introducing us to not one but two complex queer women caught on opposite sides of an international thriller. The way it let them be unapologetically dark and messy, and unapologetically attracted to each other, despite their differences and circumstances, was something new. This show baited us, promising to subvert tired tropes, and then played right into them. And as I watched those final minutes, I felt like an idiot. Psychology Today just published an article on the lasting effects of the finale on the queer community, three months later. The author, a licensed clinical psychologist, PhD, and queer and trans person of color themselves, normalized fans feelings of stress, anger, exhaustion, grief, and betrayal. They liken the experience to being dumped out of nowhere and then ghosted, or having a friend you considered a woke ally suddenly say or do something super racist. They write that, "Both situations require a person to question everything about the relationship. Should I not have trusted the writers in the first place? How could I have missed the likely reality that they never understood queer lives and stories to begin with?" I was once again made to feel stupid for having faith that the writers of one of my favorite shows would do the right thing. And THAT pissed me off. So I did something about it, because clearly, the fight isn't over after all.

Once again, the community rallied. Once again, we spent the next weeks in action mode, sending emails and letters to the network and production company, tweeting and messaging those responsible, again educating them, since they apparently missed the previous memo. No response. We demanded acknowledgement of the harm they caused. Crickets. Article after damning article came out, but they had nothing to say for themselves. With The 100, the showrunner eventually apologized, and they even brought Lexa back for an episode as a peace offering. This time, amidst continued calls for an apology or redaction, there was no sign of humanity, whatsoever. I sent follow-up emails, canceled my subscription to AMC+. I talked to many other fans who were doing the same. None of us was getting anything back, beyond an auto-reply. The network knew they were in the middle of a shitstorm, and they made the executive decision to pretend they weren't and just hope it would blow over. When it didn't, after a month and counting, then-- all of a sudden-- some of us did start getting replies - dismissive, patronizing and curt. Along the lines of, "We're sorry you weren't satisfied. That sounds like a you problem." The showrunner doubled down on her stance in subsequent interviews, and the writers meanwhile reveled in the backlash as some sort of badge of honor, mocking fans online. AMC and BBC America continued to promote the final season as if it were being well-received, except instead of live Q&As with cast and writers, everything was pre-recorded, to preempt any audience criticism or questions, and the comments were disabled. It was a one-two punch of silencing outcry, followed by gaslighting. A Trumpian playbook of 'deny, deny, deny.' It truly felt as if we were screaming into the void. Things have changed in six years, and not for the better. This time, we realized there would be no apology, no renewed pledge, no amends to the community. There would be nothing... *Except* for what we make ourselves.

When our repeated appeals to GLAAD-- the organization whose literal mission statement is to improve the depiction of queer characters on screen-- went unanswered, we realized we could not count on seemingly benign institutions to have our backs, when their very existence is built upon conflicts of interest - close associations with the same industry we are often fighting. We were in this alone, and we would just have to make ourselves heard. But in recognizing their limitations, we realized our extent. GLAAD's betrayal was the final straw for me. That's when I decided what I could do-- this episode-- to ensure that those who are hurting would be heard, to provide a space for anyone who had been stonewalled by the TV powers that be could say their piece, and to highlight the efforts being done to ensure this never happens again. When I asked folks online to share what this show and these characters meant to them, one of the people I heard from is Viktorija. She has written extensive critical analyses of Killing Eve over the course of its run, including an eye-opening piece on how the show has been queerbaiting us from the beginning, and she was often one of the most thoughtful voices I encountered in the post-finale discourse.

Viktorija: My name is Viktorija. I'm 27 years old. I was born in Serbia, and grew up in Canada. What Villanelle means to me is defying convention. Villanelle is such an important character, particularly for Slavic cultures, because so many are still entrenched in homophobia. And so many of us, like me, are still closeted, unfortunately, where we don't feel safe to come out to our closest circles, or, you know, social pressure doesn't allow us to come out. Despite this, Villanelle symbolizes hope. I think she gives us a sense of freedom and independence. And, you know, whether you identify with her charm, or her rude humor, her style, her flamboyant kills, just the panache that she carries wherever she goes, and her deep capacity for love, you can recognize the power of finding strength within yourself to overcome anything. And so, in situations where I find myself sad or angry, or just feeling trapped, I think about Villanelle and I think about how she overcame so much so that she could love Eve. Villanelle symbolizes defying convention, and confidence, and overcoming no matter what, so that you can live your life, on your own terms, and live freely. That's why she's important to so many people around the world - Across cultures, across time, and across homophobia. Villanelle transcends her fate. And she will continue to inspire generations of women to be who they really are.

SJ: That global resonance Viktorija talks about, that Villanelle had with viewers, was everywhere I looked in the weeks following the finale. Reactions poured in from every corner of the world. A group of fans started collecting these responses, and on May 23, the Killing Eve Open Letter Project was published online. The result is a nearly 100-page PDF compilation of 306 responses gathered from South Africa, Ireland, the Philippines, Argentina... Viewers of every gender, from dozens of different countries are represented in this document, along with the impact the show and its finale had on them, in their own words, I reached out to the Killing Eve Open Letter Project, to see if they would like to say something for this episode. They asked to remain anonymous, which I totally respect, but they did want to contribute and sent the following statement, which they asked me to read on their behalf:

"We started the Killing Eve Open Letter Project as a way for viewers to grieve. It serves as a physical manifestation of fans who are not only processing what they saw in the finale, but also discussing how Killing Eve helped shape their lives. As the introduction to the letter mentions, fans of Killing Eve thought the show recognized the weight and responsibility of having a queer audience. We thought we had finally found a show where its queer leads weren't destined for suffering. Which is what makes the ending such a punch in the gut. None of us expected such a critically-acclaimed show to have a Bury Your Gays ending. It's safe to say that Killing Eve impacted hundreds, if not thousands, of lives worldwide. While collecting responses, it was amazing to see so many people talk about how the show has helped them over the years, especially through the pandemic. Yet those same responses were also some of the hardest to read. Countless people detailed how the finale not only hurt them, but betrayed them. Over the years, Killing Eve became a refuge for those of us who yearn for representation. Those who searched endlessly for a show where they could see themselves reflected back on screen-- sometimes even parts of us that we hadn't even begun to discover yet. And in the end, not only did the show let us down, it truly betrayed the trust we placed in it."

The Open Letter Project perfectly demonstrates how the industry's silence forced us to get creative. If those responsible won't respond to us in private, we'll call them out in public. Billboards were a huge part of the public awareness campaign during our first fight, and one group of fans saw the need for them again now.

AV: Hi, this is AV. I'm from Canada. I use any pronouns, and I'm Two-Spirit. I came up with the idea to put up billboards about the Killing Eve ending, because the Killing Eve ending was *an atrocity*. It was absolutely horrendous. I know I myself felt very hurt after watching the ending, especially with the religious undertones. It was so harmful, so terrible. And after it ended, I went online, like everyone else, and I saw just how hurt people were. And it ranged from wherever you could imagine - Different places in the country, all age ranges... I just couldn't believe that people from like 18 to 50, and from the United States to Uganda, people were hurting about the Killing Eve ending. And so I felt like something had to be done. So I suggested the idea to make Killing Eve billboards, and a lot of people helped me with that - Mainly Ines and Kate, who helped make the GoFundMe account, because we didn't want to deal with overseas finances, as I am a Canadian and the billboard was put up in the Thames. We put up the billboard because this trope cannot continue - Not in the year 2022. Straight people don't have to go through this every day. Heterosexual people get so many diverse, creative stories. And the one time we finally get one, it becomes tainted with this Bury Your Gays ending. And that is just not acceptable anymore.

SJ: The first billboard went up at 53 Aldgate High Street in London, on June 7. I'll be posting pictures of it on social media - It's amazing. 400 meters from where Villanelle was killed, it says in large letters, in the Killing Eve font, "LET THE TROPE SINK TO THE BOTTOM OF THE THAMES. End 'Bury Your Gays' in media."

The Killing Eve Open Letter and Billboard Projects are just two examples of fan resilience, ingenuity, and collaboration that I've witnessed in the months following the finale. In working on this episode, I encountered so many other fans discovering how they can use their skills to help heal the community. Laura Neal may have killed Villanelle, but they brought her back to life - with comics, fan fiction, gif-sets and fan videos that gave Eve and Villanelle the happy ending they deserved, effectively retconning that bullshit finale out of our collective memory. I've seen incredible street art - murals of the kiss painted across rooftops. I've seen #VillanelleLives appearing on signs and T-shirts at Pride parades, and memorials to her sprouting up across London - flowers piled up at Tower Bridge, where she was killed, with handwritten letters telling her, "You were never evil." A memorial fund was started for the Trevor Project, the world's largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ youth. On their homepage, they write, "We hope for a future where queer characters are not treated as disposable, and our tragic stories are told with the same reverence and respect as non-queer characters. LGBTQ youth are disproportionately impacted by these harmful tropes. Young people rely on fiction as a vehicle of self discovery, and it's for them that we should be speaking up when we see popular media continuing to make the same mistakes."

Between the (previously) escapist realm of Killing Eve and the real-world news, it's hard not to feel like 2022 has set us back 50 years. And I'll be honest, this episode almost didn't make it. Months of fits and starts; me trying desperately to maintain my sanity, let alone focus, while the rights of women and trans folks were being gutted in the country I live was...challenging, to say the least. But every time I started down the mental path of, 'How can I focus on a TV show right now?', I just go online, and the lasting effect of that TV show would hit me like a brick wall. And as the host of a podcast about the importance of representation in pop culture, I knew I had to see my part through.

Years ago, when then-Vice President Joe Biden unequivocally announced his support for same-sex marriage, he said he thought the TV show Will & Grace probably did more to familiarize the American public with gay people as human beings than anything else. This might sound like an exaggeration, but I think that's a fair assertion. As television historians have noted, TV is a unique medium, in which families allow fictional characters into their homes every night, enabling them to relate to those characters as they would a friend - Which was a revolutionary step in storytelling as empathy-building. The fact that American approval of same-sex marriage is currently at an all-time high, at the same time we have the most queer characters on TV, is not a coincidence. This is why I talk about representation so much. This is why I started this podcast. The thing is-- as this whole Killing Eve fiasco has reminded us-- representation cuts both ways. When it's done well, it can save lives. But when it's done poorly, it can cost them.

Which is why I pulled myself out of surgery recovery three weeks early to rejoin a fight I've fought before, in the hopes that one day it will end and we will be able to move on to other important battles; in the hopes that Gen Z won't even know what BYG is. I think that's why any of us are doing what we can in response to this mess. And hope is what I want to leave you with, dear listeners, because here's the thing:

Even without a response from the network, we have seen and will continue to see the results of our hard work. In the weeks following the finale, AMC Networks saw its stock fall to an all-time low and lost thousands of subscribers. Our letters and emails may have gone unanswered, but they haven't gone unread. Those responsible can log off Twitter, but they still have to live in the real world. They have to pass the billboards shaming them on their way to work, and the memorials to a queer icon they signed a death warrant for. They have to explain to their board members why they are now forced to cancel that Killing Eve spin-off due to-- ahem-- lack of viewer interest, to put it mildly. Primetime Emmy nominations were announced this week, and for the first time in three years, the show was rightfully ignored in all categories, except for double Lead Actress nods. And honestly, shout-out to Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer for their incredible acting and chemistry, in a show that did not deserve them.

Eve: Relationships are out a lot of work. They require effort. And you will have tough times. Sometimes you'll feel like you're losing your way, and sometimes you'll feel like you're losing each other. But the beauty in your relationship will be found in the ways you reunite. Have you ever heard of Kintsugi? Okay, Kintsugi is the Japanese art form of gluing-- stay with me here-- It's a way of gluing broken pots back together with gold. It actually strengthens the pot. It's a way of bonding to create something new. Something completely your own.

SJ: The final season of Killing Eve invoked many allegories it never followed through on - allegories which ended up being about us, the audience. In the wake of the finale, this community picked up the broken pieces of our imagined futures for these characters, our shattered faith in a show we trusted, and we started gluing them back together - with art, with words, with action. We rewrote this story, which is *our* story, reclaiming the happy ending we were robbed of yet again, of which other narrow minds could not conceive. True to the meaning of Kintsugi, we mended our broken pieces into something more beautiful than the original, something stronger - wholly new, and wholly ours. Not until we are allowed in the room to tell our stories authentically will they be treated with the care they deserve. And so our fight continues. And this podcast's mission statement has never been clearer or more necessary. To the community, I see you - all your hard work, your pain, and your resilience. To the networks, showrunners, and writers, it is past time to do better. Do your homework, hire queer writers, and-- for the love of God-- bury your tropes, instead of us. 'Kay?

[”Bury It” by Chvrches feat. Hayley Williams kicks in]

This was the most collaborative episode I've ever done, and it literally would not exist without the people whose voices you heard. I want to thank Viktorija, for being the first person to reach out to me for this episode, and for sharing what Villanelle means to her. You can follow her on Tumblr @anevolutionarynecessity. I want to thank AV for talking to us about the Killing Eve Billboard Project, as well as Sanna for putting us in touch, and the entire Killing Eve Billboard team, for their ongoing efforts to educate the networks and the public about the harmful legacy of Bury Your Gays. Listeners can help them reach their fundraising goal, which will allow them to roll out more billboards across the UK and US, by donating to their GoFundMe. I also want to thank the Killing Eve Open Letter Project for writing in especially for this episode, and for all the work they've done on behalf of fans. Thank you to the entire fandom for these long months of discourse, fanfic, fan art, et cetera, that has gotten us all through. Thank you Twitter and Tumblr-verse, for all your incisive and hilarious takedowns, especially the @loving-villanelle Tumblr and all y'all linked (above) for some of my favorite tweets. And a very special thank you to my Sapphic chorus, my queer readers, for giving voice to those tweets - Julianna, Laurel, Alyssa, Glenn, Trisha, Lisa and AJ.

Links to everything mentioned in this episode, as well as further resources, are embedded in the interactive transcript on Tumblr at popculty.blog. You can also find me on Twitter @popculty, and on Instagram @thepopculty. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on Apple podcasts - It really helps other people discover the show. You can also directly support the show by joining our Patreon for as little as $2 a month. Throwing us a couple bucks helps cover operating expenses and gets you some sweet perks as a thank you. Check it out at patreon.com/popculty. A huge shout-out to our sustaining patrons: Suzy, Mary, and Alexandra. Thank you all so much for your continued support. This episode was written, produced, and edited by yours truly. Thanks for tuning in, and please take care of yourselves - There's a lot of shit going down right now. This is Popculty, reminding you that self-care means watching that life-giving kiss on a loop and pretending the last few minutes of Killing Eve never happened. Until next time - Support women directors, stay critical, and demand representation.

“Bury it, bury it, bury it, and rise above...”

[song crescendos and concludes]

[beep]

Queer Reader #1: Killing Eve having Villanelle and Eve deliver the most passionate kiss of-- oops, let me take it again. Sorry. [beep] Killing Eve having Villanelle and Eve delivered the most passionate kiss in all of television history after five years of sexual tension, and then saying their relationship can be interrup-- [sigh] "Interrupted," oh my gosh.

[beep]

Queer Reader #2: Killing Eve season four is like your homophobic aunt rewrote the last two paragraphs of your gay romance novel. [beep] Killing Eve says, "You better stop hanging out with that butch girl, or everyone will think you're a lesbian." Byeeee! [beep]

#the popculty podcast #killing eve #bury your gays #fandom #villanelle lives #lgbtq+#lgbtq+ representation #wlw #new episode #transcript #orig

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whilereadingandwalking · 2 years

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An Evening with Neil Gaiman in Chicago

On a warm night on Friday the 13th, Neil Gaiman strode on stage in the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. A packed crowd held their recently purchased signed books close as he settled in at the podium, dark blue and grey cloud shifting on a curtain behind him. He had to ask the crowd to calm down, before noting that Chicago is one of the first places he did readings back in the day.

Over the course of the evening, Gaiman read “Orange,” requested by Cat Mihos, and a poem about Batman dedicated to Neal Adams; to my delight, he read “The October Tale,” one of my favorite short stories; and he read “The Price,” which he described as a Midwestern story, “a story as much about living here as it is about anything else.”

He would finish out the night with a reading of “What You Need to Be Warm,” a poem he wrote in his role as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ambassador to usher in a 2019 winter emergency appeal to help refugees. The night held hushed, teary silences, but also many laughs.

@neil-gaiman interspersed readings with answering pre-submitted audience questions—he mentioned early on that our stack of post-its, index cards, and torn-off pieces of paper held the best set of questions he’d seen on his tour.

Here are a couple highlights.

Favorite character to write?

Delirium. “Because she did her own dialogue. And most characters don’t.”

A lot of your works are inspired by religion. How do you do that research?

“I would have loved to have been a practical theologian.” Actually, no, he corrected—he would have liked to be “somebody who professionally made up religions.” The job doesn’t exist, he said. “But it ought to.”

How does he feel about people idolizing his works and teaching them in classrooms?

“Uncomfortable.” Why? “Because I loathe Thomas Hardy.” And he suspects that if he hadn’t been forced to read Hardy at age 12, he maybe could have liked him just fine. So he worries a bit about his works being taught in classrooms.

What advice do you have for working with an artist or illustrator?

He advised asking two questions: What do you like drawing or want to draw that you haven’t gotten to much? and What don’t you like drawing? It can get you into an artist’s good graces, and you also want to be able to try and work with what they’re good at and try to amplify it, push them to be even better. McKean hated drawing big crowds of people—Sam Keith enjoyed it—Jill Thompson doesn’t like cars.

Americans Gods the show gave Laura more personhood (”It did,” he agreed). Will Anansi Boys do the same for its women characters, and how do you feel about updating of your material?

Anansi Boys has wrapped shooting and will be a six-episode miniseries. It will have more of Rosie and Daisy and who they are than in the book, and he’s very proud of this. Neil said at the start that while he would write the first and final episodes, he wanted other writers in the room. Ultimately he worked with four writers of color—two of whom were women—to produce the full product of the Anansi Boys that we’ll get on-screen.

I admit I was personally proud that he answered this one, as it was my question.

What fountain pen and ink are you using right now?

He is using a Pilot 823 and a Namiki Falcon, primarily to sign books. He uses a lot of Pilot inks, because they offer well-packaged, secure sample sizes, which he can buy in a wide variety of wonderful colors, and which then won’t be as much of a liability to the rest of his luggage while traveling on tour.

Who is the coolest person you’ve worked with and why is it Terry Pratchett?

Terry was always certain that he wasn’t cool “and he was terrified that I ‘was.’” But Neil will never forget when Terry called him and said, Do you remember that story you sent me? Are you doing anything with that? And Neil said no, he was very busy with Sandman. “I know what happens next,” Terry said. So they had two options: Neil could sell him the idea, or they could write the book together.

Of course Neil said that they should write it together. “It was like Michelangelo calling you up and saying ‘Do you want to do a ceiling together?’”

Favorite Pratchett story?

One day after Terry’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, he called up Neil, starting the call (as he always did) with, “Hallo. It’s me.” He was writing a memoir and couldn’t remember something. Could Neil help him? Neil felt a flood of emotion. His good friend, his brilliant friend, couldn’t remember something. “I could be your memory, Terry,” he said internally.

Well, Terry said, do you remember in November 1990, we were on a book tour for Good Omens? And we went to that radio interview and the interviewer had read the cover but hadn’t realized it was fiction, and he asked us what was so interesting about Agnes Nutter and her prophecies, and we told him, and he believed us? And we would see the engineers, and they knew, because they were knocking against the glass to get his attention? And we let him go on for 15 minutes before letting him off the hook? (Neil noted here that Terry was the one who did so, and that he did it very gracefully, making it seem like the host had been in on the joke the whole time.) And remember how we left the studio and walked down the street singing “Shoehorn with Teeth” by They Might Be Giants?

Yes, Neil said. But...what did you need me to remember?

“Was it 30th Street, or 34th?”

When is Sandman coming to Netflix?

He doesn’t know. Netflix will tell us, when they figure it out. “They say they have algorithms and plans, but I think they just go into a dark room with a knife and plunge it into the wall” then turn on the lights and see what calendar date they hit.

Where would your secret lair be, if you had one?

“I’m a traditionalist, so in an extinct volcano above a shark pit.”

#neil gaiman #an evening with neil gaiman #sandman #anansi boys #terry pratchett #good omens #book events

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dollsome-does-tumblr · 2 years

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overall killing eve season 4 thoughts--

so, i really did not like season four for the most part -- the tone felt so off to me right from the get-go, i remember getting on here after the first two eps and being like D: -- and i figured i’ll just document why just to get my Rage out:

it felt to me like this season was written by people who weren’t overly interested in eve and villanelle and didn’t really like the show, which is funny because laura neal was also around for s3, which -- despite its flaws and cracks -- i thought really did deepen the eve/villanelle love story in an authentic way. (and in episodes that she wrote!) season three made the leap to go “in spite of everything, their ability to really see each other is beautiful and a good thing for both of them,” it committed to the romance of that, and then season four put them back in such a weird angry, resentful place with 4x01. it did have some moments that still spoke to that connection beautifully -- a rainbow in beige boots -- but it didn’t seem interested in prioritizing that as the #1 most important thing about the show.

often even with the eve and villanelle stuff (both as separate characters and as a relationship), though it was all beautifully acted, it felt very surface-level in its writing decisions. i feel like i came out of season three with an extremely clear understanding of how villanelle had grown and changed throughout it, but if i was asked to describe her arc in this season, i don’t know if i can. season three was a problem season for eve as she got sidelined by the narrative, but i think i might have felt like i understood what she went through better there than here, too. re: s4, eve felt like she was doing a lot more, but not necessarily in a way that spoke to anything deeper. she was whizzing around onscreen doing a lot, but what did it allow us to know about eve?? this season’s writing seemed to have no interest in really digging into why eve was so into destroying the twelve, why eve got so lured in by helene, etc. etc. etc. i also really think the greatest mistake this show ever made was the villanelle-only ep (though it was a good episode); i always think that i would have immediately followed it with an eve-only ep as episode 3.06 to keep the show THEIRS, but the second-best thing you could’ve done was an eve-only ep this season. which i think would have made a lot of sense because, again, WE NEVER GOT TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HER BACKSTORY!!!!!!!! the fact that instead we got a black and white carolyn and konstantin flashback ep is gonna piss me off forever.

that brings me to: this show trying to be an ensemble show was a horrible decision. i hoped they’d correct that for their last season, but instead they swung even further in the ensemble direction. i don’t have to tell you guys this; i just like to profess my hate for it! i also really, really disliked helene as a character and super did not enjoy her getting so much screentime, though i know that isn’t a universal feeling. (on the flip side of that, i did find pam really engaging -- though idk that her character should have been there in this, the final season -- and i will follow anjana vasan anywhere! so excited that there’s more we are lady parts in the future!!! and if you haven’t watched that, you should, it’s so fun and we could all use some fun right now. it’s on peacock!)

i have, many times, been in the place where i’m trying to write and i’m just not inspired so i just desperately start making anything happen even though i know it’s the wrong thing and it won’t serve the story in the long run. in particular, when i was younger and trying to write SOME novel, ANY novel, i fell back on this a lot, and i still vividly remember the awful feeling of strain that came with it, where you didn’t know what you were doing but you were just flinging random ideas at the page just so there would be SOMETHING. that is the exact feeling i get from this season. like they didn’t really want to be writing it, and they were just flinging random ideas out there all throughout just so something could be written, like an assignment they had to turn in. i found this so frustrating to watch because i feel such an inherent kinship with these two characters and i just have a hard time imagining not wanting to explore them and their relationship. the idea of not wanting to really dig in baffles me and honestly breaks my heart a little bit.

like, i could have accepted villanelle dying if it was written well and paced differently. i get that death is horrific and random, and hits when you least expect it, but i don’t necessarily think that fact of life can be used to make this into effective writing, because it’s not. i’ve been racking my brains trying to find a way to make this ending feel more earned, and i was like, “well, technically, every season finale has ended with villanelle leaving eve: in season 1, she fled after eve stabbed her; in season 2, she left her to die; in season 3, she left because eve asked her to and it was an act of love. so maybe villanelle dying in the final season makes sense. and eve starting and ending the series screaming is bookends-y, i guess!” but like ... i already feel like, just in thinking that, i’ve put more thought into it than the writers did, you know?? i think the writers were just like “ha ha, it’s going to feel like they’ve won the day and they can be together but it’s a TRAGEDY so at the last minute villanelle will DIE HORRIBLY!” it’s just something i feel like anyone could have written about any characters, and if any characters demand and deserve specificity, it’s THESE TWO!

like, the whole thing about tragedy is that the outcome needs to feel inevitable based on the choices the characters have made. and i just don’t think that energy was here AT ALL.

anyway: i love eve and villanelle and the beautiful work that sandra and jodie did all season, breathing gorgeous life into what was usually absolute garbage, but this season can bite me.

they ABSOLUTELY should have had the whole season be “eve and villanelle, road-tripping wives on a hunt for the twelve”, and i at least thank this episode for proving that. ya done messed up, writers.

i do feel very happy that eve and villanelle got (in my humble opinion) the greatest first kiss* ever televised, however. who deserved it more than them after all these years?!?!??!

* first kiss not immediately followed by a headbutt

also: are we supposed to read into it that villanelle just killed a room of random people because carolyn sent them to the wrong place?? but also what boat wedding has a secret meeting room of scheming old guys?? I DON’T UNDERSTAND ANYTHINGGGGGGGG! WHAT WAS THIS SEASON’S “PLOT”, YOU GUYS? [cue sobbing]

it’s so weird to think back to season one and then to everything that happened this season and be like “this is the same show.” what. (in some ways this makes me happy, like in the way that eve and villanelle have developed such genuine love for each other over the years. but in most ways, it does not.)

#dollsome's deep thoughts #killing eve #killing eve spoilers

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loving-villanelle · 2 years

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Wait, I just realized something. Villanelle and Eve hug in front of THE bridge that meant so much to us for 2 years. They’re on a ship where a gay wedding has just taken place, where the Tell Me song played and where Eve proverbially married herself and V.

V gets shot and throws Eve and herself overboard. V dies and Eve is left alone. “The End” pops up, almost like the producers were trying to be funny and mock the fans by having our own ship die on a ship. Making a mockery, hence the laughter from the crew after.

May be a reach but I don’t give a fuck, Laura Neal has proven she likes mocking the fans and doesn’t care for us. It’s reminding me of the sabotage the Sherlock creators did in their final season when they hated the fans.

This whole season was without a doubt a giant fuck you to the fans. Without a doubt. Every intentionally cruel decision, every word spoken in the interviews, their callous reactions to the criticism. They sat down and said how can we really dig the knife in and then set about writing s4 of KE

#killing eve #ke

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those-badass-reeds · 2 years

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Ok this is gonna be the last post I make about Killing Eve (hopefully) but I'm so sick of the 'it was never going to have a happy ending, what did you expect?' takes, because WHY? Why couldn't it have a happy ending? It virtually had one as it was - they had taken down the Twelve with absolutely no problem, and come together with total acceptance of each other. They were together, happy, and finally free. It only ended the way it did because the writers wanted to toy with the viewers (and I personally get the feeling that Laura Neal straight up hates Villanelle).

Of course I never expected to see them getting married, having 9-5 jobs and pretending everything before that point never happened. I was prepared for a violent end, a painful one, but I thought at least that if it was a tragic end, it would still be satisfying (similar to Bly Manor). But I still had hope that the show would surprise us as it often has before, and would give these characters a chance. We watched these two women for four seasons, saw them push away from each other, come back, be pulled apart, struggle emotionally, grow, change...

They've been so much more than just 'a Psycopath and a Normal woman' for a long time now but that's still all some people see in them.

Part of the fun of fiction is that you get to be creative! There are endless ways the finale could have gone, they just chose the laziest and most demeaning one. And honestly, this entire season had problems, it's not like fans are just being pissy because we didn't get the end we wanted, it's because the writers completely misunderstood the characters and disregarded the story that had come before this season. We got to spend more time mourning Kenny than we did Villanelle. Konstantin got a more respectful send-off than Villanelle did. The writers really just had her shot like a dog and left her to sink and that was it!

I mean if you genuinely believe that was the only possible way for the show to end then idk maybe you just need to think outside the box a little, but don't act like fans are stupid for expecting something better.

#Killing eve #Killing eve spoilers #ke spoilers #Sorry but the longer I sit with it the more bothered I get

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mysadcomedylife · 2 years

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another thing that also piss me off about this season is how much they didn't give a shit about kostantin and villanelle relationship. i know in the end of season 3 they ended in bad therms, but we only getting ONE scene of them together was so messed up!!!!!!!! if pam was supposed to be completely USELESS in the show then they should have bring V and K together, for them to work they relationship again (and also helping eve to bring down the twelve) and maybe the both of them would still be alive.

i just hate my own mind thinking about all the possibilities and everything that we could have had. i hate you laura neal, i genuinely hate you.

#killing eve

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wearevillaneve · 1 year

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Eve of Destruction - Conclusion: Entre Nous.

One hundred heads turned and riveted their attention to a small, yet oddly intimidating Asian woman with a magnificent mane of hair and a reputation for killing members of their group with ruthless efficiency. They did not know much about her beyond this and that her name was Eve and she was the beloved of the most dangerous assassin that The Twelve had groomed. “You may not want us to lead you, but trust me when I tell you there is no one else who can. There is no one coming through the door that can do for you what we cannot.” “There is no Helene coming through that door.”

“There is no Lars coming through that door.“ “There is no goddamn Dasha or Raymond coming through that door!”

“And there is no damn chance Carolyn Martens is coming through that door because I personally sent that bitch to hell.”

One hundred heads were riveting their eye and ear on everything the angry Asian woman uttered. Yet one hundred heads were carefully sliding one eye sideways to the serene Russian woman who was saying nothing, looking at no one and seemingly mildly amused by the whole proceedings.

“Here is the long and short of it. WE are running The Twelve now. There will be no discussion, no debate and no decision to be made,” Eve snarled with venomous contempt. “We will provide you with the leadership, the guidance, and the sense of purpose the fools we buried never did,” the ex-MI5 agent shouted and shook her fist. “We have a plan that will shake the world. Not only our enemies, but before we are done, we will become a force to be reckoned with.”

The conclusion to what may (or may not) be my final Killing Eve fic. (illustrations by alig bello, audiododdy, and chenckino) A03 link.

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longtimewish · 2 years

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I was already disappointed by the ending but reading those snippets of Laura Neal's interviews made me so angry... Because you know when I was watching the episode I actually thought it was good. FINALLY we had Eve and Villanelle reunited and working as a team - you know, what should've happen from the beginning of the season. Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer's chemistry is amazing so their scenes together were so satisfactory to watch, and their characters were finally in a place where they could be open with eachother and accept eachother. Also, The Twelve were again in the place they belonged to: simply as a medium to get Villaneve together, and not at center of the stage. And on top of that, we got one of the best kisses on screen ever (thank you Jodie and Sandra for delivering). The episode was just so enjoyable.

But that also made me dread what was ahead of it, because I didn't watch it when it dropped so I was already well aware of the huge black lash it had, yet I managed not to get spoiled so I didn't knew exactly what happened. When I was watching Villaneve interact, travel, share a sleeping bag, kiss, all I could think was: this ep is actually good. What the fuck it's going to happen that made people hate it so much? Three minutes before the ending I knew. Cheap, predictable, unearned, pointless shock value. That was what was going to happen. When Villaneve huged on the boat I knew one of them was going to die somehow. That's how lazy the writing this season has been. And yes, one of them did died (despite that, if they wanted a tragic ending so badly, narratively it would have made way more sense that BOTH of them died). And yes, it was dumb as fuck. We didn't even got a conclusion for them, it was just "and then she died. The end".

I was mad, but Laura Neal's declarations post black lash made me actually angry because apparently we watched the entire episode wrong. Apparently all those cute and funny domestic Villaneve moments were meant to convince us that they would have never worked together?? That Eve craved the normal life she tried to escape from for four seasons and that Villanelle is just a psychopath that wants to be covered in blood??? I was really meant so see Eve dancing with joy after getting together with Villanelle and think "ah yes they are too different, they should separate right away it's for the best"??? I'm just baffled. I'm seriously considering that maybe the Laura Neal of another universe in which Villaneve hate eachother switched places with the Laura Neal of our universe and no one has notice it because everything that that woman has said about the show and Villaneve sounds like it belongs to a completely different show and not the one we have been watching these past years.

#honestly why did she even said anything about the finale. she retroactively made it WORST #killing eve #killing eve spoilers

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thewomanwhowatchedchristmas · 3 years

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The Santa Claus (1994)

So, I’ll say this in every review I write for his films, but I hate Tim Allen. I don’t know exactly why, but I do. But my husband doesn’t, so he watched this with me to help me not be quite so biased in my review process.

If you haven’t seen this, let me set the scene for you. Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) is a single dad who works for a toy company and is coparenting his son Charlie (Eric Lloyd) with his ex Laura (Wendy Crewson) and her husband Dr. Neal Miller (Judge Reinhold). Scott has a lot of angst towards Neal because he’s “not a doctor, he’s a psychiatrist.” He seems very much like an unreliable figure in Charlie’s life as Charlie openly prefers to spend time with Laura and Neal. But Scott has Charlie for Christmas Eve, and they go to Denny’s for dinner because Scott burned the turkey, and then Scott reads The Night Before Christmas to Charlie until he falls asleep. However, Charlie wakes up to a clatter on the roof! So he wakes Scott up, Scott goes outside to investigate, and Santa Claus slips and falls off the roof. Now, there are a few people who could be the main antagonist in this film. Neal seems like the most obvious choice, but I struggle getting behind that because while he does kind of overstep his role, he also wants what’s best for Charlie. Can you really fault someone whose heart is in the right place? Yes, but not as much as someone who fakes their death to get out of a job. The previous Santa waves right before he vanishes, so his death or whatever it is seems much more like a choice than a tragic accident. I understand getting burned out at one job for too long, but maybe advertise? At least let someone know what they’re signing up for before tricking them into it. An argument could be made for Charlie because he never knew when to shut up, but he’s an actual child, so that’s not as strong. My husband makes an argument for Laura because she seems like the kind of mom who would talk shit about Scott in front of Charlie, which is wildly inappropriate for parents to do.

So Santa is dead. Scott puts on the suit and becomes the new Santa. Scott isn’t very happy, but this is the greatest day of Charlie’s life. Charlie goes with Scott to deliver all the rest of the presents and then to the North Pole, where they meet some of the elves, including Bernard (David Krumholtz). However, they wake up at home on Christmas Day. Scott is in deep denial while Charlie is telling every person he knows about everything that happened. People start to be concerned. It’s a whole thing.

As a Christmas movie, I do think this one does a good job reminding viewers of what’s important without getting too heavy handed (thank the gods). I hate the relationship among the adults in this series because it is so toxic to Charlie. But if that’s the worst part of the movie, I suppose it’s tolerable. Overall, I’m going to give it 3 stars.

#christmas #review #movie review #christmas movies #1994 #disney+#the santa claus #tim allen #judge reinhold #wendy crewson #eric lloyd #david krumholtz

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beautifulpaxielreads · 3 years

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book rec asks - the questions ending in 4 :)

Now THAT is a challenge! My answers are under the cut because - unsurprisingly - this post got very long.

4. a poetry book that reads like a story

I don't really read poetry books, so I might skip this one, sorry!

14. a book that made you trip on literary acid

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. That book made my brain hurt!

24. a book on your nightstand

I don't generally leave books on my nightstand (or bedside table, as I call it). However, I do leave the books I'm currently reading on the floor beside my bed after I finish with them for the night. One of those books is The Library Book by Susan Orlean. It's a non-fiction book and it's basically a love letter to libraries.

34. a book featuring the enemies to lovers trope

I've got a few books that could fit this prompt, but I'm gonna go with Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales.

44. your favourite fantasy novel

If I'd been asked this a few years ago, I would've said Harry Potter, but that certainly isn't the case anymore, for reasons everyone would be well aware of and which I prefer not to dwell on.

Moving on...

Can I answer with more than one book? Because Laini Taylor's Strange the Dreamer duology is a near-perfect example of fantasy writing. However, if I had to choose between the two books, I'd choose Muse of Nightmares, the second book. It's a perfect sequel in just about every way.

54. a book with the best opening line

The opening line of Dark of the West, the first book in Joanna Hathaway's Glass Alliance trilogy is pretty hard to beat, and pretty much sets the tone for what is to come: "War is no good for the young, or for love."

64. a book with a grey cover

I don't think I've got any books that are completely grey in colour. The closest I can get is Burial Rites by Hannah Kent.

74. your favourite love triangle

All my followers in the THG fandom are gonna hate me for this because it's generally agreed that it isn't really a love triangle, but TBH I don't really read a lot of books with love triangles in them, so I'm gonna go ahead and say the Katniss/Peeta/Gale triangle in The Hunger Games trilogy.

*ducks flying tomatoes*

84. your favourite dystopian read

The Hunger Games trilogy, 100%. Although Neal Shusterman's Arc of a Scythe trilogy comes pretty close.

94. a book about grieving

Umm, this is hard. I don't actually read that many books with grief as a central theme.

I think I'm going to have to go with The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He, because I think that grief is a big motivator in the actions of one of the major characters. I can't say anymore because *SPOILERS*.

104. a fluffy, sweet read

A Snowfall of Silver by Laura Wood is the very definition of a fluffy, sweet read, but TBH you could apply it to any of her YA books. But that one is just *chef's kiss*.

114. your favourite chick lit novel

I don't really read much chick-lit stuff, so I think I might pass on this one. Sorry!

124. the book you’re currently reading

I'm actually reading FIVE books:

The Inheritance Games (The Inheritance Games #1) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

After Story by Larissa Behrendt

Defy the Night (Defy the Night #1) by Brigid Kemmerer

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

Talking to my daughter: a brief history of capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis, translated from the original Greek by Varoufakis and Jacob Moe

134. unreccomend any book you like

The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein. Genuinely one of the weirdest books I've ever read, and I only finished it out of spite.

Thank you for the ask!

#beautifulpaxiel reads #bookish asks #my answers #book recs

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zutaralesbian · 4 years

Text

About

Hi! My name is Danielle.

Fandoms:

Wednesday: WENCLAIR. Wednesday is my weird daughter whom I love. Lesbian Enid truther. I also enjoy Tyler as a character but in a villain kind of way. Do not interact if you’re a Percy Hynes White defender.

Fear Street: The movie trilogy that got me to look past my fear of horror and watch it for the lesbians. Sameena and the tragic sibling relationship of Cindy and Ziggy have my heart.

Killing Eve: Villaneve supremacist. Forever bitter about what happened to them and this show. Fuck Laura Neal and Sally Woodward Gentle and their bullshit homophobic narrative.

Shameless USA: Not gonna lie i’m only still here for Gallavich and Mickey Milkovich lol. If you’re looking for someone who still loves the show as a whole I might be the wrong blog for you. There are other characters and relationships that I enjoy and I will talk about them occasionally but i’m under the opinion that the show stopped being good after S4.

Avatar: The Last Airbender: I ship Zutara hardcore but I love or at least like pretty much all the characters on the show. It’s my favorite show from my childhood.

Star Wars: I don’t blog as much about this as I once did and that’s because the sequel trilogy killed a lot of my enthusiasm but it will still pop up occasionally. With the exception of TFA I hate the sequel trilogy and Kylo Ren, so slight warning there lol. Original trilogy lover with a soft spot for the prequels. Luke Skywalker stan.

The Hunger Games: Recently fell back into my thg obsession. Peeta and Katniss own my soul, both as individual characters and as a ship. Katniss Everdeen started my love for grumpy, stoic female characters. My other faves include Finnick, Johanna, and Haymitch. I do not like galeniss as a romantic ship but I’m also a Gale apologist. Mockingjay anti. THG deserved a better final book.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Catradora and Glimbow are my loves. Glimmadora stans are only allowed to interact if they’re normal.

Interactive fiction: Recently got into this stuff. So far my faves are The Wayhaven Chronicles, The Night Market, and the Keeper of the Sun and Moon trilogy. Ava du Mortain, Specialist Agent Morgan, Belladonna Malady, Astrid Adtaz, and Seraphina Delacroix are my loves.

Other fandoms: Arcane, Lucifer, Black Sails, Euphoria, Reign, Life is Strange, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Stranger Things

Sometimes I write fic: https://archiveofourown.org/users/We_Were_Younger

#don’t reblog

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