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mst3kproject · 5 years

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SHORT: Undersea Kingdom

My previous experiences with serials on this blog have not been good. If I watch them all in one sitting they’re boring, and if I watch them one installment at a time I forget what happened. I was therefore kind of dreading Undersea Kingdom, and I decided that if this was my last chance to watch the edited-down ‘movie’ version, I was going to take it. Well, guess what? I can’t find the edited-down ‘movie’ version! So here I am, tackling the whole twelve-part series. Again.

An opening montage introduces us to Ray ‘Crash’ Corrigan, the finest specimen of white manhood ever to enlist in the US Navy. He is invited to join an expedition let by Professor Norton in his extremely roomy bubble-powered Rocket Submarine, to make contact with the lost city of Atlantis. Also along for the ride are Norton’s son Billy, Briny and Salty the obnoxious comic-relief sailors, Diana the reporter, and Sinbad the parrot. They arrive to find that all is not well at the bottom of the sea. Sharad, who is like the Pope of Atlantis or something, is engaged in an ongoing war with the tyrant Unga Khan, who wants to take over the city and then destroy the upper world with earthquakes so he can rule that, too! You can tell the difference between the two sides because Sharad’s guys wear white capes and Unga Khan’s wear black ones and are assisted by their old allies, the Neptune Men.

I mean, obviously a city at the bottom of the ocean has ties with the Neptune Men. Right? Right?

So after all the time I spent dreading this short, how much of an ordeal was it? Well… I watched it over the course of two days, and honestly? I kind of enjoyed it. Undersea Kingdom is pure low-budget cheese, but it somehow feels like low-budget cheese people cared about. Somebody was truly excited to tell this story, rather than just slotting themed setpieces into a formula. The ending lost me, but the rest really wasn’t awful.

Literally everything that happens in Undersea Kingdom is ridiculous. As Joel and the bots pointed out, the costumes are truly epic. Sharad wears a cross between a crown and a chef’s hat, with big fake plastic jewels on it. Unga Khan’s troops wear miniskirts and lightning bolts on their heads – his chief honcho, Hakkor, is played by Lon Chaney Jr, unusually sober and unsure what the hell he’s doing here. Unga Khan himself wears Genghis' pajamas, and Billy goes around in his little sailor suits with a shirt that keeps changing colour from scene to scene.

The Most Ridiculous Costume Award, however, has to go to Crash Corrigan himself. After saving Sharad’s life he is rewarded with command of the Whitecape army, and spends the rest of the serial in a scaly golden diaper, gladiator sandals, and a helmet that looks like it belonged to a Spartan who dressed as a chicken for Hallowe’en. I love it.

The plot, as is usual for a serial like this, is a nigh-endless series of narrow escapes, breathless chases, near-disasters, and Corrigan doing the one wrestling move he knows, which is picking a guy up over his shoulders and throwing him into a few other guys. People keep saying things like “that’s the end of Crash Corrigan!” and “there’s no chance anyone survived that explosion!” when they really ought to know better. In Radar Men from the Moon and The Phantom Creeps this stuff was pretty tiresome, as it felt like the plot was just wandering around without ever really escalating. In Undersea Kingdom, however, stuff actually happens and even has long-term consequences!

There’s an early scene where it looks as if we’re just going to get more of the repetitive shit, as Crash arrives in the nick of time to save Professor Norton from Unga Khan’s brainwashing machine – in the very next episode, Norton is recaptured and brainwashed anyway. This made me groan, because I was expecting it to go on like The Phantom Creeps’ endless game of Capture the Meteor. Instead, though, it actually moves the plot forward – the rest of the story ended up being about trying to rescue Norton, who didn’t want to be rescued because he’d been brainwashed! Although it did make me wonder why Unga Khan didn’t just put Corrigan in the brainwashing chamber… he had several oppotunities to do so.

While Radar Men from the Moon and The Phantom Creeps made liberal use of stock footage from both newsreels and previous serials, I think almost everything that appears in Undersea Kingdom was actually shot for it. The only notable exceptions are some of the sports sequences in the first episode and the sea battle in the last. Even better, it completely lacks the boring recap episode both of those felt they had to shove in before the climax! Some of the footage, like the shots of dozens of horsemen riding forth from Unga Khan’s underground fortress, is used repeatedly, but you probably wouldn’t notice that if you were watching it week-by-week. Oddly, the horses are the only animals we ever see in Atlantis. I wonder what the people there eat.

I was not looking forward to the episodes being peppered with the ‘hilarious’ ‘antics’ of Briny, Salty, and Sinbad, but to my surprise, they were barely in it. They get captured in the second episode and are completely forgotten about until something like the sixth, where we find them working in an Atlantean boulder mine and ‘comedically’ trying to escape. They must have managed it somehow because they reappear on the submarine at the end, but I think I missed how they did it. Maybe they were so annoying and unfunny that the majority of their scenes were cut.

None of this, of course, is to say that the serial is in any way really good. The costumes are ridiculous, the plot is dumb, and the whole thing is full of gaping holes in the logic, especially where the Atlantean technology is concerned. Unga Khan is able to spy on both Sharad and the Upper World through some kind of Atlantean CCTV, but it only shows him what the plot requires. The Neptune Men have ray guns but can’t hit anything. Unga Khan has a dirigible thing that would have been really useful during the siege scenes but never appears in them. And this applies to the low technology as much as the high kind – all the Atlanteans carry swords and nobody ever stabs anyone.

The weirdest moment is the bit where Corrigan just straight up becomes Hercules and bends prison bars to get through. He even bends them back afterwards, and his pursuers are astonished to find themselves unable to replicate the feat. Why is he able to do that? Does knowing one wrestling move and being able to walk a tightrope (which he does twice to get into or out of a place) grant superhuman strength?

Having been made in the 1930’s, the whole thing is kinda racist and deeply sexist. The racism is pretty mild as these things go – everybody’s white but Unga Khan is made up to look kind of Fu-Manchu-ish because he’s the Bad Guy. The sexism, on the other hand, is pervasive and sometimes puzzling. Everybody refers to Diana, played by twenty-nine-year-old Lois Wilde, as a ‘girl’, even the title cards, but at least she does get to do one useful thing by telling Sharad that Unga Khan is plotting to invade the surface world. Thing is, Diana is the only female character. In the whole serial I think I saw one Atlantean woman and she never spoke. How do you survive in isolation for six thousand years with no women?

I guess it doesn’t matter, since Atlantis wasn’t fated to last any longer. In the second-last episode, Unga Khan’s tower blasts off for the surface, piercing the roof of Atlantis and letting the ocean in. Our heroes escape to the submarine in time to avoid being drowned, but what about, like, everybody else? I think we’re meant to believe that a substantial number of the remaining Atlanteans were killed when Unga Khan bombed the rebel stronghold, but that can’t have been the whole population, can it? Somebody’s gotta be providing food for everybody… there must be farmers and ranchers around, even if we never met them. What happened to them? An entire civilization was just destroyed, and nobody seems to care except me!

The most annoying thing about this is that I think the reason it was written that way was so Crash Corrigan could have a happy ending! When Sharad made him commander, he made Corrigan responsible for the safety of the Atlantean people. If Atlantis hadn’t been flooded, or if anyone had survived, Corrigan would have had to stay and help them. In particular there’s Corrigan’s Atlantean BFF Molock, who owes him a life debt and pledges to follow him until he’s repaid it. If he lived Corrigan would be stuck with him. With the whole place destroyed, our hero is free to return to his naval career with no hitches.

Well, there’s one hitch. At the end Corrigan and Diana get married – despite having spent almost no time together over the course of the story. I guess they live happily ever after or something. I mostly enjoyed Undersea Kingdom, but the way it offhandedly killed all the Atlanteans so there wouldn’t be any consequences pissed me off enough that I refuse to recommend it.

#mst3k #reviews #undersea kingdom #30s

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jtb1963 · 5 years

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On the 7/11/13, a Thursday, Nowhere Boys first premiered.

I remember the trailer for the first episode. The show looked interesting. Boys go missing in a forest then get home to find that no one knows them and reality is altered? You’ve got my attention. I’ll check it out for sure. I also remember the individual Bremin 4 trailers. I only got to see Felix’s and Jake’s and that annoyed me. I wanted to see all of them. I wanted to know the characters.

I immediately deemed Felix as my favourite even before the show started because I was heavily into Pewdiepie at the time. That quickly changed during the show. No hate on Felix, I just preferred Jake after a few episodes.

I watched the first episode and I enjoyed it greatly, as well as the rest of the season. The ending of the first episode when Oscar stood up was stunning. Trying to figure out if the boys were in another world or had manipulated their own, what and who the fifth element was, why had this predicament happened in the first place was fun. This show was so exciting. I became a full-on fangirl quickly.

It was also relatable for me. As an Australian teenager the show was so homely in this weird way. Hearing magpies squawk in the background and the bogan-ness of the characters were nice because most of the shows that interested me like this weren’t Australian. It was 2013 and I was in 10th grade like the characters which was pretty cool too, but 2013 was the beginning of the rough patch of my life. I won’t get too deep into it because this post isn’t about that but I will briefly go over it. I started getting sick, massive stomach cramps almost every day, and all sectors of life started to falter because of them.

Before the season final, three of the Nowhere Boys, Joel (Andy), Matt (Jake), and Dougie (Felix), were doing a live Q and A. It was hectic. Once you posted your question you wouldn’t see it for another ten minutes. Some replies I could only see once the Q and A was over. I asked two questions and got two replies. I felt like the luckiest person in the world that I didn’t just get one but two replies.

For the below question I asked Matt what he was afraid of.

Then Season 1 was left on a cliffhanger. They had powers, of course, that made sense. And Alice was back and ready to cause trouble. I couldn’t wait to see what could happen.

I remember thinking that Nowhere Boys wouldn’t get a second season. I knew it was successful, it won a Logie and an AACTA, but I just didn’t think that it would. So I was very excited when we did get a second season confirmed, especially as it was a very bad day I had. We were going to get answers to every question we had from those last few minutes of Season 1.

I remember the sneak preview of Season 2. It was Halloween and I had to tape it because I was over my friend’s, NN (only using initials in case she doesn’t want to be named), for Halloween like usual. I remember thinking that Andy couldn’t be missing for the whole season. He’s one of the Bremin Four. He’s got to be fine in about three episodes, right? Yeah, no, okay…

Season 2 felt a lot more serious to me in general too, stakes felt higher. Other than Andy going missing and for the first half of the season we had no clue where he was we had a death technically with Saskia, we had a proper villain with Alice, someone we could see and fear, we had real life consequences for the Nowhere Boys with the police investigation, etc. I really liked season 2.

Then the most horrid year of my life happened, 2015. Again, I won’t go into deep detail as this post isn’t about that, but every month something horrible happened. People died, pets died, my school life died and I felt like I was dying as I was in pain every day.

I fell into a deep depression and really didn’t want to live. One of the only things that kept me going, kept me motivated, was Nowhere Boys. I became obsessed with it. Every waking second I thought about the show. It was what I needed. I needed something to take over and give me some kind of structure to live with. I needed a positive outlet to fill my day as there was hardly anything positive for me.

I was researching elements and other things involved with Nowhere Boys, I was making art (that no one will see because most are pretty terrible), I was writing fanfic (again, that no one will ever see, not right now anyway), I was coming up with insane theories, I even made this blog so I could post theories (which I didn’t really do for some reason). Everything revolved around the show, and I wouldn’t say this type of obsession is healthy, but at the time it was. It anchored me to life.

I invited NN around to watch the final of Season 2. She missed about five episodes so I rewatched them with her and we got them done in time before the new episode aired. However, something happened. About an hour before the episode was going to air, my entire suburb had a power outage. I was livid. I can’t miss this episode. This could be the last episode ever and I’m going to miss it.

I knew that I would be able to watch it eventually, ABC iView is a thing and so are repeats, but I really wanted to watch it when it premiered. A first world problem I know, but my obsession was that serious. It was also about 30 degrees Celsius so we were sweating a lot. After the episode aired and was uploaded to iView we watched it and Andy finally came back.

Season 2 ended and again I thought that was it, no more Nowhere Boys. I even made another ‘ode’ post because I thought that was the end. It made me sad to think about the end. The show had ended on another cliff hanger, and I thought we’d never find out the truth of it (which we technically didn’t).

I wanted to make a bucket list of things that I wanted to do, as mortality became a thing I thought about a lot at the time, and at the top of the list was meeting someone who had worked on Nowhere Boys. An actor, a writer, a camera operator, an extra... it didn’t matter. I just wanted to meet someone who had worked on this show that helped me live and thank them for it. I didn’t think that would happen but I hoped. Maybe somehow with some weird coincidence it would happen, weird things can happen.

I have very weird dreams and during this time they mainly resolved around meeting the Nowhere Boys, but they were never coherent. There’d always be some weird scenario like I was at my local shops and some of the Nowhere Boys were there somehow, or I had powers and I was helping them defeat some monster. There were probably whackier ones but I cannot remember them.

Then on 14/5/15, Nowhere Boys: Book of Shadows was announced and it was amazing. I remember thinking that there would be a premiere for it like with the first four episodes of Season 1 and 2, and that maybe there’d be a competition. That’d be cool. Maybe I could win. Maybe not, again weird things can happen.

I remember the cinema locations and being disappointed there weren’t any near me. I knew it wouldn’t be possible to travel an hour to see a movie in some dingy theatre. There’s no way I could have convinced my mum to take me that far to see a movie, and with it premiering on ABC3 early the next year, what would the point be? I understood that I’d have to wait, even if I didn’t want to. Everyone else had to and I was like everyone else, again it’s a first world problem. A competition would change things though. My mum would take it seriously if I won a competition and it wouldn’t just be to see the movie. It’d be more important.

2015 wasn’t a good year, until one thing happened.

On the 7/12/15, I woke up with this gut feeling that something had happened with Nowhere Boys. I turned my phone on and went on the ABC3 FB page, and there it was: A competition to win tickets to the world premiere of Nowhere Boys: Book of Shadows and to meet the cast. I freaked out. This is exactly what I said would happen. I need to win this. I’m going to win this.

I messaged NN and I told her to enter. I would take her and she would take me if either of us won. She agreed and I then immediately got to crafting the most perfect response I could make. The rule to enter was ‘write who your favourite character is and why in 25 words or less.’ At first I was unsure which character to use. I was tossing up whether to use my actual favourite character, Jake, or the most popular character, Felix. I wanted the best chance to win. Should I go with my heart or cater to the people choosing the winners? After a little deliberating I went with my heart. If I was going to lose this competition I would lose it by doing what felt right. I perfected a sentence that I felt wasn’t too over the top but seemed like it had some amount of effort put into it, and I commented it and waited.

It’s three days later when I got a notification from the ABC3 FB page. All it said was that they had replied to my comment. My heart started beating faster, and in my gut I knew what it would say, but I tried to be level headed. Maybe they’re informing me that I lost, but would they go through every losing comment and say sorry? No they wouldn’t. I click on the notification, and there it is. “Hi (my name) You’ve won!”

I cried. I was so happy I just cried. My dream was about to come true. I left my room and entered the front room freaking out my mum. The last time she had seen me leave my room in tears I told her somebody I knew died. I managed to tell her that I won the competition. At first she’s confused, then shocked, then concerned. She’s terrified of being on planes and we’d have to go on one.

Oh yeah, we had to go on a plane. The premiere was in Melbourne, Victoria, and I lived an hour from Sydney, New South Wales. I needed to be in Melbourne in two days. I needed plane tickets and a place nearby the cinema to stay in in two days. I had been saving money for years in case there was a circumstance like this or an emergency. I guess it paid off, literally.

My mum called my great aunt, her aunt, and asked her for a very big favour. Would she accompany me, my nan, and NN to Melbourne? Luckily, she said yes. I hastily messaged NN as my family and I drove to the nearest travel agency. We’d never travelled anywhere like this, we’d never gone on holiday so not only was it very stressful to get everything in time we had no clue what we were doing. Luckily everything turned out alright. The agent we went to and spoke to was very kind and helped us out.

Two days later I was in Melbourne. The hotel we stayed in was nice. It wasn’t a five star hotel or anything, we got one of the cheaper ones because it didn’t matter, but it was so fancy to me. We had two suites but they were conjoined, so NN and I stayed in one, and my nan and her sister stayed in the other.

We had a nice view of the petrol station which mind sound sarcastic as it wasn’t very scenic, but I did think it was a nice view. The drawers in the kitchen were weird though. You pushed them in and then they’d open. I almost hit NN in the head with one.

NN and I went to bed watching Lord of the Rings, which was really good. I’d never watched it before. Don’t judge. Then the next day came by so quickly.

We got into our outfits, not too over the top but still something nice, this was a movie premiere after all. Then an hour and a half before the premiere, 2:30pm, we hopped in the taxi and went to Lido Cinema.

It was situated in this long hallway of shops. In the centre were the stairs up to the cinema and Book of Shadows.

There were a few people there but the place started buzzing about 30 minutes later. Most people probably don’t remember but there was a host of ABC3 named Tim and he turned up with a cameraman to showcase the event for the channel. NN and I freaked because this was someone from TV, which might sound a bit sad but seeing people from TV isn’t a thing that happens.

It got really awkward though because we somehow got wedged between the ensuing interview Tim was conducting and the nearby wall. We couldn’t move and the interview was a metre away. The interview wasn’t very good as the people he interviewed had no idea who the characters of the show were which confused me. Why are you here if the show doesn’t matter that much to you?

After the incident which was the weird interview, the first actors of the show started turning up. The first person from Nowhere Boys to arrive was Daniel Di Giovanni (Vince, Sam’s brother). Then we saw Joel. That was exciting. There’s a Nowhere Boy right there about 30 metres away from us. Then everyone started to pile into this corridor in what felt like the next five minutes.

It was like a school hallway but with a little more breathing room, somehow. Us fans all slowly shuffled to the cast in a surprisingly, orderly fashion, even if it did look chaotic. Then NN and I got to the front of the crowd. I let NN go first as my anxiety started to play up, but then it was my turn and they looked to me. I wanted to meet all of them but at that moment my eyes were only for Matt. I asked him for a hug and he obliged. I got my photos with Matt, Joel and Rahart (Sam), and then we moved to the next group which was Dougie and Sean (Oscar).

It was a lot less crowded for the onscreen brothers which surprised me as I always thought, and still believe, that Felix was the most popular. Because there wasn’t anyone around, NN talked to Dougie about fashion and I talked to Sean about ‘Kath and Kim’ and it was very surreal for both of us. We then got our items signed (NN’s DVD and my book) and moved on back to the previous three as Dougie and Sean moved on too.

We chatted a little bit, Rahart especially as he seemed the most calm and collected. I know he’s doing, and has done, pretty well for himself so meeting fans must be second nature to him now. I told them about my 2015 and thanked them for just being them, inadvertently helping me in the process. I gave Rahart the letter I had written and he said he would read it, but I don’t believe he got to it which I completely understand. The day was hectic for me so I can’t imagine what it was like for him and the others.

Then it was time to go upstairs and watch the movie. I tripped up the stairs twice but luckily didn’t fall flat on my face. It would have been memorable but not for a good reason. I had trouble finding two seats next to each other in the theatre but I managed to find one eventually. Before the movie aired the creators and the cast spoke for a bit, and they were so funny and nice.

Then we watched the movie. It was heartbreaking, funny, interesting, and all these emotions. It was goodbye to the original Nowhere Boys and so the happiness of what was happening around me mixed with sadness that it was goodbye.

After the movie we wandered around a bit, still soaking in the atmosphere but knowing this moment was about to end. We then got to meet Darci (Ellen) and she was very nice, and she was shorter than me. Somehow I met someone shorter than me. That was surprising.

We also got an interview after Michala Banas (Phoebe) which in hindsight was horrible. I spoke in clichés because I had no idea what to say and now I wish I would have said something a tiny bit insightful. It turned out that I didn’t have to worry though, as all those interviews are nowhere, no pun intended. I’ve searched for the cast interviews but I can’t find them, but I’m not too mad about that.

We said goodbye to the boys, congratulated them on the movie, and got hugs one last time. I was very worried that I pestered them. I genuinely tried not to. Of course this would have been incredibly overwhelming for them so I tried to keep that in mind. Side note though, Joel gave the best hug. He almost cracked my bones.

There was almost an awkward moment with Matt. He asked if we would see the movie in cinemas with our friends, and I was going to reply with ‘no, because the cinemas are too far away’, right after we told him we were from Sydney. Luckily NN had a plausible and legitimate answer to his question and a fangirl disaster was avoided. Thanks NN for swooping in.

As soon as we left the corridor and walked back into the street and reality, I fell from the high I was just on. I plummeted back to reality and became very home sick. I was fine when I got home. I was still sad it was over but mostly happy that I got this once in a lifetime experience. I still think about it almost every day and get teary because it truly was the best day of my life and I will never forget it.

I was left with one thought after all of this: Where does Nowhere Boys go from here? The Nowhere Boys had lost their powers and given up magic… but there’s a season three and a heavy implication at the end of Book of Shadows that others would have powers… so a new cast. This wasn’t confirmed yet but of course there would be a new cast. I knew people would be apprehensive about a new cast. The originals were and still are amazing. They were what we fans knew, and change usually isn’t welcome. I had hope though. I wouldn’t judge anything until I saw it.

The new cast was announced a few months later, and of course there were unhappy comments, but I had faith in them. I knew the show would not just shut out the past three years. There would be a legacy of some kind. I knew the creators would not let this show waste away by writing a rubbish story or hiring the wrong actors. It could work, people just needed faith.

Fast forward a few months to 11/11/16, a Friday. The new cast debuted and they were great. The episode and the ensuing storyline were intriguing and it just felt like Nowhere Boys. I knew there were different faces but it felt right. It didn’t feel like anything different, and I really appreciated the mentions of previous events and the cast throughout the series.

Luckily though, by the time Season 3 rolled around I had gotten a lot better physically and mentally. I still watched the show religiously but my obsession had calmed down, not a lot but a bit. I didn’t dedicate my life to the show anymore. It was more like a hobby, a branch of my life instead of the whole tree.

I did create more art like a talisman and some other designs. Some that even got noticed by the creators of the show which was awesome.

I had also been writing some more fanfiction at this time. I was intrigued with what happened between Season 2 and Book of Shadows, and there were little things I saw in the show that didn’t make sense. If I was going to write something then I wanted it to be accurate, but what if I couldn’t find the answers anywhere to the questions I had? Well, you ask the person who has the answers.

I went to Twitter and looked at Tony Ayres’ (creator) account. He replied to some fans of his shows and I knew that maybe I could get a reply too. I had a lot of questions but picked out the one I wanted answered the most.

I spent most of the day pacing around my house, my finger fumbling over the tweet button. Should I tweet him? I knew he was a busy man working on about 5 different shows so maybe he couldn’t reply to me right then, but I thought maybe he would. Weirder things have happened, so I tweeted him.

Then I get a notification a few hours later, he replied. I first asked him if I could ask him about Nowhere Boys and he said yes. I replied back with my question and he answered it. I was very grateful, but his answer led me to question more things, so I tweeted him again.

He didn’t reply to me after this though, and I don’t know why. Maybe he was busy and forgot, maybe he didn’t want to, maybe he got annoyed by me, maybe I had just rumbled a plothole that he couldn’t explain. I don’t know, but I don’t really care. I got two replies and that was cool. He isn’t owed to message me back and I certainly am not mad about it. I didn’t get to meet him at the Book of Shadows premiere so this made me happy.

As I have done before, I worried that the show had ended, but this time I believed I had reason to worry. Nowhere Boys should have been announced/aired at a certain time, like the rest of the seasons, but it hadn’t. It was about to be November 2017 and if we were getting a fourth season then it should have been airing this month… but it wasn’t.

Then it was confirmed in the middle of November that we were getting a Season 4, but it wasn’t all good news. The article I read was conflicting but was the first outlet to mention that Season 4 would be the last. I saw it coming, of course I did. I was waiting for this since Season 1 ended, but it didn’t make me feel better. Most times it feels good to be right, but not this time.

In January 2018, we got more news about Season 4 including confirmation that filming had begun. There was some added exciting news that came with this though. We were getting an original Nowhere Boy back. Some of my old habits came back too. I cried a little bit and then immediately went into investigation mode. I follow the cast on Insta and noticed that two were confirmed to be in Melbourne the time of filming of Season 4; Matt and Rahart. Who were we most likely to get back, what circumstances could I think of that would help me figure out which character could return? I was reading the comments on Insta and someone said Matt was the only original Nowhere Boy following the official account, but then Rahart started posting old photos of Nowhere Boys so… I just had to wait and see.

I also started editing the Nowhere Boys Wiki, but not too much. I saw that a lot of the characters’ biographies were, and still are, incomplete and thought that I could fill them in. I messed it up a little bit, but Mia’s is now almost complete, and I majorly messed up Nicco’s. I managed to somehow have gaps in all my writing and I panicked I’d ruined everything. Luckily I fixed it up the next day. There are still things that need to be changed but for the moment it’s good.

Not too long after the Wiki incident, we got our first trailer for Season 4. It was short and sweet and intriguing, but one part had people talking, a part I didn’t even take in. A man we didn’t see in the trailer spoke and only a few people figured who it was; Jake Riles. At first I didn’t believe it, but then I played the sound bite over and over. That was Jake Riles. Oh my God, it’s Jake. Jake is back! I even made my mum listen to the clip compared with another clip of Jake so she could confirm it. Then a week later we got the full trailer, and who did we see in it? Jake Riles. This was the best news. The trailer made him out to be a villain, however. It must be some trickery for us viewers. He can’t be a bad guy. No, I don’t believe it.

With this newest trailer we got the premiere date of Season 4, 3/12/18. I mapped out that Season 4 would end in February. I would have plenty of time to come to terms with the episodes, make a few theories, and accept the end of this show, but then I couldn’t. I read an article informing me that episodes would air consecutively every day, the day before the premiere. I wouldn’t be saying goodbye in two months but two weeks. I was happy that I would be able to watch an episode a day but I knew those two weeks were going to go by so fast.

It’s still very strange though, even when I’m writing this, the show ending and me. The show returned when I thought it wouldn’t and now it’s confirmed as the final season I can’t believe it. That’s really dumb of me.

I’ve enjoyed Season 4 but I don’t know if I’ve enjoyed it to the full extent. I haven’t had a whole week to mull over each episode, everything felt like it’s happening so quickly, this was the last season and I’ll never experience first viewing jitters again.

There were many things we did get that I enjoyed. We got to see Hicco/Neath become a real couple, Ben redeem himself from the previous season, we got a cool new character with Zeb, we had more LGBT+ inclusion (even if we didn’t get the Darius/Jesse kiss. Not going to lie, disappointed we didn’t see it), Ellen still being a badass and with Mr Bates as the only characters/actors to have done every single Nowhere Boys chapter, and we got Jake back (I know it wasn’t the real universe Jake who we watched for years, but he was virtually the same.)

So today is the 15/12/18, a Saturday, and the last episode of Nowhere Boys just aired. It’s over. That episode was epic. Seeing all the worlds come back, the guardian being activated, the first spell of the show being it’s last... there was a lot to smile about. I do have a lot of questions however, but this isn’t the place to ask them. I’m incredibly sad but I’m okay.

Well, it’s not completely over I guess. I can still watch the reruns, there are plenty of Wiki pages to be edited, there are plenty of gifs to be made and posted on here, more art can be made… It’s just the show that’s finished…

This show is the best. It’s got great storylines, great characters, cool visual effects (I know they’re not Hollywood standard but of course they wouldn’t be). It’s diverse with race, sexuality, gender, disabilities. It’s not afraid to talk about things that are serious like bad injuries or someone coming out and telling the world who they are. It’s not afraid to show the realism of bullying in school, or the effect of a troubled home life on a child. It’s won countless awards for different aspects of the show (music score, directing, etc). It even had a tie-in video game for the first season which does answer some unanswered questions from the show (the Roland conundrum).

I would like to write every name of every single person who has contributed to this show but I know I would miss people out so I’m not going to do that, but I still want to thank them.

Thank you to the creators of the show, to the cast, to camera crew, the producers and the directors. Thank you to the designers, the makeup and hair artists, the music composers, editors, and the VFX crew. Thank you to the accountants, camera operators/grips, electricians, safety supervisors and stunt coordinators. Thank you to the nurses, the tutors that made sure the young cast got an education, the sound crew, the location crew and the people who allowed the show to be filmed on their property including the traditional owners of the land. Thank you to the art department and costume department, the casting officials, the drama coaches, the catering crew, and everyone involved with legal. Thank you to the companies that helped produce and develop the show, companies who helped fund the show, and the companies that distributed the show all over the world. Thank you to the people who helped in the most minor way and who weren’t credited. Thank you to every other fan who watched the show and helped it stay on air for over five years. Thank you to everyone else I’ve forgotten.

Thank you Nowhere Boys.

#nowhere boys #nowhereboys #spoilers #long text post #goodbyenowhereboys #i know this is dramatic and over the top #but this show means so much and I had to say goodbye

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mikeyd1986 · 7 years

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MIKEY’S PERSONAL BLOG 69, September 2017

On Monday morning, I had my second last Healthy Cooking on a Budget class at Balla Balla Community Centre in Cranbourne East. Today’s class honestly felt like a bad episode of Hell’s Kitchen minus the nasty chefs. Just a lot of sharing ingredients and cooking utensils. But on the positive side, I was gaining more confidence with making a dough mixture. The hardest part is getting the consistency right, so that it’s not too sticky or too dry. But with the help of Jodie, I finally got there.

Today we ended up making a pumpkin, red onion and feta pide (Turkish bread) and a vegan citrus cake. We started the class by dicing up the vegetables and roasting these in the oven whilst kneading the dough and allowing it to expand for about an hour. Next we worked on the citrus cake. Jodie claimed that this was the “easiest cake recipe” but everyone was looking confused as hell. It required a lot of juicing, zesting and patience but eventually it all came together.

The last part of the class involved assembling the dough mixture into pides. We had cut up the mixture into equal sections and then rolled them out flat. Next we layered the vegetable mixture into the middle of the pides and folded the edges up so that they resembled boat-like shapes. After baking, we seasoned the pides with danish feta, parsley, salt and pepper. http://www.ballaballa.com.au/progra...

On Monday night, I did my Body Balance class with Kaz at YMCA Casey ARC in Narre Warren. They say that the only way to get better at something is to keep practicing. This is certainly the case when it comes to balance and Pilates. I find both of these aspects quite challenging at times but it doesn’t mean I instantly give up because the poses are too hard. I make sure that I give everything a go, even if I’m uncoordinated and look ridiculous doing it.

In tonight’s class, we did the following exercises: Tai-Chi Warmup (Wide-legged stance with overhead sweeping circles), Yoga (Standing forward fold, Downward facing dog, plank, baby cobra, Warrior 2), Balance (Tree pose, Chair pose with raised heels), Pilates (Single leg raise and lower, Bridge pose with pulses, Double leg stretch), Hamstring Stretches (Seated wide legged forward fold) and Relaxation. https://www.lesmills.com/workouts/f...

On Tuesday morning, I had my first appointment with Dr. Yasmin Baliz at CNS: Comprehensive Neuropsychological Services in Narre Warren. Sitting in the large spacious waiting room outside the Waterman Business Centre, the nerves were already kicking in and I could feel myself getting hot and flustered in the chair. But thankfully those feelings began to subside when she walked in and introduced herself to me. She guided me into one of the suites which contained comfy leather sofas, fake plastic palms and oval-shaped lamps. Next door was the “Rainforest Room” which made for an interesting session, hearing these random frog and cricket sounds.

Dr. Yasmin is a clinical neuropsychologist and I was here to begin my assessment for the Autism Spectrum Disorder. Both my mum and my counselor recommended this due to a family history of the disorder and for the sake of clarity. During the session, Yasmin asked me questions about my childhood, school life, employment history, education, how my mental illness has affected my life and current interests. I felt like I was on episode of Millionaire Hot Seat though she was friendly, patient and easy to talk with which made the process easier.

My biggest concern was the cost of the sessions. At $200 a session, she really doesn’t come cheap though I do get some of that money back through a Medicare rebate. Still I really had to make some tough sacrifices this month in order to keep myself afloat financially. Money will always be a huge stressor in my life but I’m gradually learning ways to improve my spending and saving habits. Plus this assessment is really important and will be worth the money to do. http://www.cnspsych.com.au/

On Tuesday night, Mum and I attended a Mindfulness & Meditation workshop held at Balla Balla Community Centre in Cranbourne East. There were about 40 people who attended and it was great to see the community really get behind it. The facilitator Fiona talked about what mindfulness and meditation are and some specific research studies that show how implementing M&M into our daily lives can create such a positive change. This includes reducing stress and anxiety levels, switching defective genes off (epigenetics), rewiring parts of the brain (neuroplasticity), prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancers and forming better, healthier habits.

Fiona then guided us all through a 10 minute meditation, focusing on the breath, sensations and feelings in the body, any internal and external sounds and thoughts going through out mind. The idea behind meditation is to have a non-judgemental approach to it. So it’s okay that your mind is overloaded with thoughts or that you have to shift around in order to be in a more comfortable position or that you can only do it for a few minutes. It’s about the intention behind it and being kind to yourself. There’s no right or wrong way of doing it. http://www.ballaballa.com.au/event/...

On Wednesday morning, I had my Strength Training session with Luke Davey at Breakaway Fitness in Berwick. Sitting on the bench waiting for Luke, my annoying anxious thoughts were trying desperately to break through and ruin my day (Why isn’t anyone talking to me, paying attention to me or even acknowledging me?). So then I decided to use my waiting time productively instead of getting caught up in my thoughts. I did some gentle yoga stretches as I was still feeling sore and tight in my lower back and hips. And it certainly helped to take my mind off things.

WARM-UP...I started my session by rolling out my lower back and quad muscles before doing some scorpion stretches and 3 rounds of 10 single arm kettle bell lifts. I felt like I was getting better with it too and I focused my attention on keeping my lifting arm straight whilst using the other arm for balance. The pain was beginning to flare up a little in my lower back but no where near as bad as last time. I also did some stretches into my hips using the aerobic stepper. It was quite challenging keeping my other leg straight but I got there.

DEVELOPMENT...Today I was working on my deadlifts, doing 5 rounds of 5 reps with the last round being maximum reps. Initially, I was getting myself easily distracted by what the other trainers and clients were doing in our space and also getting frustrated because my technique and form felt really off. I was deadlifting 75kg and it felt harder than usual.

Thankfully after my first round, I was able to turn that self-talk around...”Come on Michael, you can do this. Just take your time with it. Be patient. Be consistent. Pace yourself. Take a couple of seconds to readjust if you have to. And remember to breathe!” And that’s all I really needed. It just takes a shift in mindset and focus. I wasn’t going to get myself upset or beat myself up because it wasn’t my best performance. In fact, I felt better about it after each round.

And smashing out 20 reps in the last round was beyond what I expected. After my 15th rep, I was starting to struggle heaps but Luke knew that I could do more and so I kept pushing for it. I’m more than what I think I’m capable of always. I surprise myself all the time. And thankfully a few of the trainers did start saying hi to me which made me feel a lot better about myself. Thank you Joel, Sheena, Kane, Brendan and Lachy.

WORKOUT...Today’s workout was a 500m sprint on the rowing machine in the fastest time possible. I got myself a little confused during my first round as I was expecting the numbers to increase not decrease on the display. But after that, I gave it 110% effort. The challenge for me was the consistency and after the 250m mark, the fatigue quickly set in. Still I gave it everything I got, even during the last round which was my slowest overall. My best time was 2 minutes and 4 seconds. https://www.facebook.com/breakawayfitnesstraining/

This Thursday was R U OK? Day! There are significant benefits to asking that question. It shifts the attention away from yourself and your own problems. It shows that you care about somebody else and how they're really feeling inside. And it's a great ice breaker. For somebody who has suffered with mental illness for a past 13 years, this day and cause is extremely important to me. Make sure you look out for one another. Stay strong. Stay positive. Ask R U OK? and you could change somebody else's life for the better. https://www.ruok.org.au/how-to-ask

On Thursday night, I had my Water Workout class at YMCA Casey RACE in Cranbourne East. It was a much smaller class than usual tonight but that meant we had plenty of room to move around the pool. The class was instructed by Mary again who I remember from last time. We did our usual series of exercises including jogging, ski slopes, tuck jumps, pendulum, rock n’ roll and donkey kicks.

We also swam up and down the pool using the underwater dumbbells as a flotation device. I feel like my confidence when it comes to swimming is gradually increasing every time I do one of these classes. It just takes practice and consistent strong kicks in the water. I’m no longer sinking as much either which is always a good sign. Maybe one day I’ll consider doing some adult swimming lessons to further improve my technique. https://www.goodlifehealthclubs.com.au/...

On Friday morning, I had my second Strength Training session with Luke Davey at Breakaway Fitness in Berwick. After reading a chapter on dealing with the main causes of low self-confidence from The Confidence Gap by Dr. Russ Harris, I decided to put his advice into practice. This session seemed to be more mentally challenging than usual. I’m still learning to let go of things such as the perception that people are ignoring me or deliberately leaving me out socially, getting easily distracted by what’s happening around me and getting frustrated when I can’t perform a particular movement. It’s all a work-in-progress.

I’m still searching for a sense of belonging at UFT PLAYgrounds. I’m determined to make a difference, get involved, participate, matter and feel important. The fact that I’m shy and introverted is irrelevant. I feel like a lot of people do like me there. Sometimes it’s hard of get their attention but it’s fine. It doesn’t mean they don’t like me. They’re probably just busy training clients or in the middle of a conversation. Regardless, I deserve to be a part of the UFT Playgrounds family.

WARM-UP...This morning’s warmup was a bit more intense than usual. After my Y-T-I stretches on the bench, I had to do 3 rounds of the following: 100 skips, 10 squats, 10 pushups and 10 situps. I was doing pretty well until I got to the situps. I was beginning to get really hard on myself as I couldn’t keep my feet planted to the ground. But I reminded myself “It’s not like every trainer, coach and client is closing in around me and telling me how shit my performance is. I’m trying hard here and I’m doing the best I can.”

And eventually I did improve. All I needed was Luke to stand on my shoes in order to be able to do the situps and have enough momentum to keep swinging myself up. The fatigue was also starting to take its toll but I got there in the end.

DEVELOPMENT...Today I worked on doing bench press, doing 5 rounds of 3 reps at 42.5kg with the last round being maximum reps. Again, I was finding this mentally challenging. I kept colliding into the racking and my bar path was all over the shop. But eventually, I managed to re-focus on the task at hand with the help of Luke (Be strong, think strong!).

Even in the face of a seemingly impossible goal (beating 6 reps in the last round), I summoned all of my mental strength and energy to push myself through it. “You’ve got this Michael. Don’t give up. Stay focused. Take deep breaths.” I genuinely did more than I thought I could do, smashing 8 reps. Now that is a remarkable achievement to be proud of.

WORKOUT...Today’s workout involved a 7 minute AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible), doing the following exercises: 20 Russian twists, 15 butterfly situps, 20 mountain climbers and 15 hollow rocks. It seemed pretty full on especially with that tough mixture of cardio and core strength but I was up for it. The Russian twists and the hollow rocks were the hardest of the lot. The pain was a difficult distraction but I kept fighting it thanks to Luke’s constant motivation. I completed 2.5 rounds plus 13 butterfly situps. https://www.facebook.com/breakawayfitnesstraining/

“So I'll speak my truth though my voice shakes. Try to summon the strength to look fear in the face. But I'm kicking and screaming 'cause it won't be easy to break all the patterns. If I'm not evolving, I'm just another robot taking up oxygen.” Katy Perry - Bigger Than Me (2017)

“So, just take those punches on the chin, yeah. Don't fight the changes in the wind, no, no 'cause you'll find your way home, oh. If you find a way to let go, just let go. Don't try and reinvent your wheel, 'cause you're too original. Baby, just stay classic. Ain't broke, ain't broke, don't fix it. Your highs, your lows, just ride it.” Katy Perry - Pendulum (2017)

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