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burst-of-iridescent · 2 months

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atla live action thoughts: season one review

first things first: anyone who says the Movie That Does Not Exist is better than the live action is straight-up lying. the shymalan film fails on the criteria of even being a decent movie, let alone an adaptation. the netflix series, for all its problems, is at least an enjoyable watch with great effects, music and (mostly) appropriate casting. there's absolutely nothing to compare here - the netflix version clears easily.

now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's delve into the series, starting with the positives.

the good:

visuals and cinematography. they really did a great job of making it feel like a fantasy universe you wanted to be in & i love how vibrant the saturation and colour grading was. it made the world feel so much more dynamic and alive instead of the same flat, boring dullness that so many movies and shows have these days. sometimes i didn't even mind that i was being fed obvious exposition because at least they were giving me something pretty to look at lmao

effects and action. the bending was surprisingly good for the most part, and they did a good job of making the elements feel unique through the stunt choreography and the actors' movements. i'm immensely thankful they didn't try to skimp on budget by merely cutting away from fight scenes or showing us as little as possible. almost all the action sequences were fast-paced and engaging, and i was never bored watching them

acting. the main four were all great, but gordon cormier and dallas liu have to be the standouts for me. gordon brings such an earnest, innocent sweetness to aang that you can't help but like him, and dallas plays all of zuko's facets perfectly: the angst, the explosive anger, the bratty snark, and especially the deep-rooted pain that characterizes so many of zuko's actions in book 1. the range he has, especially when flashing from younger to older zuko, was insane. special shoutout to maria zhang and sebastian amoruso as suki and jet respectively, because they killed it

music. leaves from the vine instrumental had me tearbending and i love how they kept the iconic avatar theme while making it a little darker for this iteration of the story. in general, the soundtrack felt very true to the animation while still being a fresh spin on it

zuko and iroh's relationship and expanding on zuko's crew. i think the fandom universally agrees that lu ten's funeral and zuko's crew being the 41st division were the best changes in the series, so i'm not going to talk about it further other than to say that these scenes show me what the show can be, and that's why i'm not giving up on it

the bad:

characterization. almost all the main characters are missing the little nuances that made them so great in the original, but the greatest casualty is katara. i hate that they took away so much of her rage, and gave many of her traits and struggles to sokka. i don't think this is a problem solely with the writing though, because certain lines do feel like things animated katara would say, but the directing and line delivery don't have the same punch that made her so fierce in the original. this is an easily fixed issue though, so i hope they take the criticism and let my girl be angry and fuck shit up next season

exposition. this was primarily a problem in depicting aang's personality and the relationship between the gaang, because a) why are you TELLING me that aang is mischievous and fun-loving instead of just showing me and b) the gaang do NOT feel like close friends, mostly because they spend so much time apart in every episode that they have little screentime to actually bond and develop intimacy.

lack of focus on the intricacies of bending. for a show whose tagline is "master your element" the characters spend very little time actually... mastering their element. zuko is never shown to struggle with firebending (which is going to have ramifications when it comes to developing his relationship with azula), and neither aang nor katara ever learn waterbending from a master throughout the the entire show. i'm pretty sure aang never willingly waterbends ONCE in the entire eight episodes, discounting the avatar state and koizilla. bending isn't just cool martial arts, it's closely linked to the philosophies and spirituality of each nation, and i wish that had been explored more.

pacing. they really needed to do a better job of conveying that time passed between episodes because an 8-episode season is just going to FEEL shorter than a 20-episode one. the original animation felt as though they'd truly been on a long journey before arriving at the north, but here it feels like the entire show happened in the span of a fortnight or so because each episode seemed to pick up right after the previous. they needed to have more downtime within episodes instead of just rushing from plot beat to plot beat because it made everything feel a lot more rushed. give the characters and story time to breathe.

final rating: 7/10.

overall, i would describe the live action as a better version of the percy jackson movies - not an accurate or perfect adaptation, but a decent story that's very fun to watch. but what really makes me root for this show to get a season 2 is that it has a lot of potential and more importantly, a lot of heart. it's evident that the people who worked on it do genuinely love and respect the original series, and it shows onscreen.

regardless of anything else, this show created opportunities for so many asian and indigenous actors, writers and creators to tell the kinds of stories and play the kinds of roles they don't usually get, and that's something worth supporting. if they take the criticism from this season and improve, i believe they really do have something special on their hands which - although it might not be the original we all know and love - could still be a story to be proud of.

#atla live action

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dvlwablu · 5 months

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onmyoji related media you can watch (that has english subs)

Behold, my Onmyoji film/TV collection for curious people who've already seen the anime!

The Yin-Yang Master (2001) and it's 2003 sequel The real OGs, the one most people know from Yuzuru Hanyu's SEIMEI free skate routine. Featuring Nomura Mansai as Seimei and Hideaki Itou as Hiromasa, these movies were my introduction to the Onmyoji series as a whole. The soundtrack is a banger, the practical effects are great and you get to see Hiroyuki Sanada ham it up in the first movie! I would say that the first movie is a lot stronger, but the second movie makes up for it by being A Lot Gayer. It even has an English dub! It's easily found on Certain streaming websites or on DVD.

晴雅集 - Qing Ya Ji, aka The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity A Chinese adaptation that REALLY puts its own spin on things; Qingming and Boya are Seimei and Hiromasa respectively, but it's not easy to tell if you aren't already aware of the source material! It's a different take that I love regardless, with beautiful visuals, incredible costuming and impressive sets. It also made me cry like a baby at one point, which is always a plus. It's on Netflix and it also has an English dub.

Onmyoji - Takiyashahime (2020) A TV Asahi drama special that adapts the two-part Takiyashahime novels. It's not 1-1 of course, but it does follow the main plot points well enough (it also adapts Tsuyuko's story as a bonus!) It's got that "yeah this was done on a TV drama budget and not a movie one" look when it comes to the effects, but that doesn't stop it from being enjoyable. You really get a glimpse at novel Seimei and Hiromasa's dynamic in this (they include one of my favourite hirosei exchanges in this and it's SO GOOD) as well as proper Nasty Old Man Ashiya Doman!!! You can watch it on Certain streaming sites.

There also exists a 2015 TV Asahi drama series, but I haven't been able to find it. An earlier 2001 NHK drama series exists as well, but it isn't subbed in English. It is, at the very least, entirely on YouTube! 10 episodes, 45 minutes each. It's a little...weird, I won't lie (they try to make Hiromasa and Mitsumushi a thing which is. Why) but some of the stories are genuinely heartwrenching, which was a surprise to me when I watched it!

#netflix onmyoji #qing ya ji #onmyoji 2001 #the yin yang master: dream of eternity #when i say Certain streaming sites i mean kissasian lol #have fun!!#i might make a separate manga post but the truth is a lot of it just isn't accessible in other languages unfortunately

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savethegrishaverse · 29 days

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Here is the Transcript to the Questions Answered by Eric Heisserer!

Recently, we were very fortunate that Shadow and Bone showrunner Eric Heisserer agreed to answer some fan questions! Below is the transcript of the screenshots that have been previously shared—not an entirely new interview. The transcript in this format should be much more accessible and convenient, particularly for anyone using a screen reader.

To make it easier to read through Eric’s responses, we’ve nested his answers below coordinating questions.

Okay, taking these one at a time -- because some of these will have very long answers, and I may have to return at later intervals to answer them: (note: questions will be in bold)

"I'd like to know if there's a way to liberate the pre-written scripts if Netflix doesn't plan on using them" - Asked by Christian Thalmann, the creator of the Fjerdan language.

"There is a way to liberate the Crows scripts from Netflix, yes, and in fact that would be part of the buyout for another streamer when acquiring the rights to Leigh's novels. It would be a package deal."

"In my view, "The Crows" have the potential to revitalize the Grishaverse. Unlike "Shadow And Bone," this new show could rely less on elaborate visual effects and offer a fresh narrative angle. Heist-themed shows are currently in high demand, adding to its appeal. Am I mistaken in thinking that our focus should primarily be on "The Crows"? The likelihood of "Shadow And Bone" returning seems slim, but l've always believed that "The Crows" had a greater chance of success." - asked by fellow fan Joleen

The focus on the Crows is helpful in two ways -- first, those scripts are written, which lets us get a running start at production, and second, just from casual analysis of book sales, it's far more popular worldwide than other Grishaverse titles. So it will be a bigger draw for viewers.

The trap though is the cost. It's more grounded than S&B, sure, but the Ice Court is a unique location that either requires a really costly set build, or set extensions and VFX work to make it look authentic, which means nearly every shot of the heist once our crew gets there could be a VFX shot.

My guess is the budget would be on par with S2 of S&B.

"If/when the spinoff is back (finger crossed) was there anything he had planned that would completely surprised, for good reasons obviously, the audience. And we should hold our breath for that twist/turn?" - asked by fellow fan Rti

Yes, there is a surprise or two in the Crows spinoff season, but overall it's as close to the novel as we could make it. And Leigh's novel is such an amazing story with natural cliffhangers that work as episode "out" moments, etc. I think the biggest move we made was to feature every single Crow's backstory to go with their episode. So that was fun/sad/exciting.

"What was the difficulties you mentioned about filming Season 2 in that Reddit comment? Don't want to sound negative but what went wrong?!" - asked by fellow fan Mitra

S2 kept throwing challenges at us, and it started long before we got to production. Like months earlier, when we learned the location we used for the Little Palace in S1 was closed to us due to the pandemic. So right there we lost out on a ton of S&S scenes, because it wouldn't be a match. But we also had written a compelling side arc for Ivan and Fedyor in S2, these two Grisha trapped on either side of the civil war. Each of them played a big role in the story, but Simon (Ivan) had a feature film that overlapped with our schedule and couldn't move, which meant we lost him. So Daegan worked to revise the season keeping Fedyor and leaving Ivan as most likely dead from the end of S1. He was Kirigan's right-hand man for the season. But poor Julian caught COVID just when we were to shoot out most of his scenes, and after trying to make the schedule work, we had to come to the brutal truth that there wasn't a way to keep Fedyor in the story. Our only option was to bring him in at like episode 8, which would've been too little, too late.

COVID continued to be a monster all through production, requiring us to juggle schedules and miss out on days, and it was madness for the cast, who had to pivot with almost no notice whenever someone was ill and quarantined. This isn't unique to our show of course -- it happened with everyone. It's just a challenge.

Beyond that, we had been given the go to write a special standalone story, The Demon in the Wood. This would have been released on its own around Christmas, like a BBC special but for Netflix, and would help bridge seasons 1 and 2 by showing a little of what Kirigan was doing before we see him in 52, and also provide more character context, etc. Christina Strain wrote that and did great work adapting Leigh's short story. But it never went the distance.

There was a lot more to 52 as well, scenes and side stories and little interactions that were lost due to budget or time restrictions. Again, not unique to our show, but agonizing all the same, since what you get is not what we had written, or in some cases even shot.

I'm incredibly proud of the cast and the team, and Daegan did the heaviest lifting while I was off finishing the Crows writing room. But we had a lot more thrown at us.

"How long was the sizzle reel ready to go but he had to keep it secret?" - Asked by members of the Discord Team

That sizzle reel was put together about four months before the second season dropped.

"I would love to know his perspective on the impact of streaming on storytelling. Would we have had to launch a campaign like this 10-15 years ago for a show like this? What are the main pain points when it comes to streaming models & telling unique, diverse stories?" - asked by fellow fan Acorn_Bri

Streaming is a challenge to serialized storytelling in that it looks at 'content often with a different agenda and uses metrics that can take a creative issue and exacerbate it. Like in broadcast, if viewership and thus ad revenue has slightly declined, the show will need to find a way to make their 22 or 13 episodes on a proportionally smaller budget. What is not done is reduce episode order. But if a streaming series underperforms or doesn't meet expectations, and the streamer doesn't cancel it outright, the go-to budget reduction idea is to reduce episode order for the next season.

When you just have 8 episodes and continue to deal with notes to compress, pace up, or omit for what you'd scripted for a longer season, reducing further to six or four episodes is exhausting.

This happens due to a slide in autonomy from what the showrunner position had been. What the chatter on the picket lines revealed to us is that most showrunners today don't get to see their own show's budget, and thus don't get the freedom to make budgetary decisions that could better protect the story they're telling. More and more, showrunners not at a legacy network aren't the final say or at times even involved in hiring key roles. I don't have any ideas that aren't already in a contract language, I just see how the job on this side has gotten harder and there isn't much of a way for us to make it easier for each other like we could with having writers on set or in post production, because the streaming model has made that impossible.

—

Once again, we would like to give a big thank you to everyone who asked their questions, and an even BIGGER thank you to Eric Heisserer for answering them!

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charaznablespeteevee · 1 month

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Would you share your thoughts on the Gundam you've seen? I added the first one to my list based on your posting about it (mostly the transition Char posting, he sounds like a fascinating character) and am not on Twitter to see your liveposting

Good question!! It seems like you want to know if I'd rec them so I'll answer based on that.

The original Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) absolutely I would rec to literally any anime fan. Both because it is a genuinely good anime, but equally because it's like. You know how people say you have to read the Bible to get all the references to the Bible in literature? It's like that. Gundam is one of the Bibles for anime. It's in everything. And you won't realize this until you watch it.

It's also a very good science fiction show just in general. The major characters are all great, the drama is compelling, and while some of the animation has not aged well, the newtype stuff has some super neat effects that are gorgeous to see on a big screen to this day.

It's also super accessible, the full show is available on Crunchyroll or if you don't want to commit watching a 43 episode show the three compilation movies are on Netflix and are a very solid alternative.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985) - they got a big budget upgrade so everything is Bigger and More. More robots, more character drama, more romance, better music, and some bizarre segues into how men are from Mars and women are from Venus. Absolutely worth a watch if you liked the original Gundam because it continues to follow a lot of the original characters.

Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (1986) - technically "skippable" if you consider 0079, Zeta, and Char's Counterattack a trilogy, which it kind of is. ZZ focuses on an almost entirely new cast of characters and the first half of the show is VERY heavy on the comedy before jumping directly into some of the best anime I've ever seen for the second half. The mood whiplash is kind of divisive among fans. Personally I like it and the characters are great. Worth a watch if you like what you've seen so far.

Char's Counterattack (1988) - caps off the gayass Amuro/Char rivalry and is just an amazing movie in general. Gorgeous visuals, and the final 15 minutes or so are a series of emotional gut-punches the likes of which I've rarely experienced in media. Must watch IMO.

War in the Pocket (1989) - six episode OVA featuring entirely new characters. This is a truly fantastic little series that lets you into the lives of a small handful of likeable characters and how their lives are affected by war. It's Gundam so guess how that goes. I liked it a LOT and recommend it. BONUS: This is a GREAT "starter" Gundam. It's short, it's very good, and you don't need to know anything about Gundam going in. There's a few references to prior lore, but they aren't anything major and a newcomer could easily figure it all out from context.

Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (1991) - this is a movie that was originally going to be made into a TV show and it shows, they stuffed far too much into too little time and it suffers for it. So unfortunately this is the first thing on this list I probably wouldn't rec. That said the characters are pretty fun and the ending is very good, so you can do a lot worse if you're bored or a completionist.

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (1993) - this is what I'm watching right now! I'm a little over halfway done with it. This is all new characters and there are some interesting new concepts. For example the first twenty or so episodes were set on Earth so you got some really gorgeous scenery during mobile suit battles that made those scenes really visually distinctive compared to say, a battle in space. That said it's yet to really "pull me in" the way most other Gundam series did. For now I'm still waiting to see if it will do that or not.

Witch From Mercury - I'm assuming everyone knows what this is. It's gay as fuck, what can I say, and it's the entire reason I fell down into this Hell to begin with. 10/10

#ask box

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aquitainequeen · 20 days

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Aside from news on how things possibly stand for a Shadow and Bone/Six Of Crows renewal (basically no news is good news, keep going with the campaign!) there's also a short interview with Eric Heisserer, which sheds some interesting light indeed on the writing and making of Season Two, and it explains a lot of things:

Here are the questions posed for Eric's interview:

"I'd like to know if there's a way to liberate the pre-written scripts if Netflix doesn't plan on using them" - Christian Thalmann (creator of the Fjerdan language)

"In my view, 'The Crows' have the potential to revitalize the Grishaverse. Unlike "Shadow and Bone", this new show could rely less on elaborate visual effects and offer a fresh narrative angle. Heist-themed shows are currently in high demand, adding to its appeal. Am I mistaken in thinking that our focus should primarily be on 'The Crows'? The likelihood of 'Shadow and Bone' returning seems slim, but I've always believed that 'The Crows' had a greater change of success." - Joleen

"If/when the spinoff is back (finger crossed) was there anything he had planned that would completely surprised, for good reasons obviously, the audience? And we should hold our breath for that twist/turn??" - Rti

"What are the difficulties you mentioned about filming S2 in that Reddit comment? Don't want to sound negative, but what went wrong?!" - Mitra

"How long was the sizzle reel ready to go but he had to keep it secret?" - Discord Team

"I would love to know his perspective on the impact of streaming on storytelling. Would we have had to launch a campaign like this 10-15 years ago for a show like this? What are the main points when it comes to streaming models and telling unique, diverse stories?" - Acorn_Bri

Eric's Responses:

1) "There is a way to liberate the Crows scripts from Netflix, yes, and in fact that would be part of the buyout for another streamer when acquiring the rights to Leigh's novels. It would be a package deal."

2) "The focus on the Crows is helpful in two ways -- first, those scripts were written, which lets us get a running start at production, and second, just from casual analysis of book sales, it's far more popular worldwide than other Grishaverse titles. So it will be a bigger draw for viewers. The trap though is the cost. It's more grounded than S&B, sure, but the Ice Court is a unique location that either requires a really costly set build, or set extensions and VFX work to make it look authentic, which means nearly every shot of the heist once our crew gets there could be a VFX shot. My guess is the budget would be on par with S2 of S&B.

3) "Yes, there is a surprise or two in the Crows spinoff season, but overall it's as close to the novel as we could make it. And Leigh's novel is such an amazing story with natural cliffhangers that work as episode "out" moments, etc. I think the biggest move we made was to feature every single Crow's backstory to go with their episode. So that was fun/sad/exciting."

4) S2 kept throwing challenges at us, and it started long before we got to production. Like months earlier, when we learned the location we needed for the Little Palace in S1 was closed to us due to the pandemic. So right there we lost out on a ton of S&S scenes, because it wouldn't be a match. But we also had written a compelling side arc for Ivan and Fedyor in S2, these two Grisha trapped on either side of the civil war. Each of them played a big role in the story, but Simon (Ivan) had a feature film that overlapped with our schedule and couldn't move, which meant we lost him. So Daegan worked to revise the season keeping Fedyor and leaving Ivan like dead from the end of S1. He was Kirigan's right-hand man for the season. But poor Julian caught COVID just when we were to shoot out most of his scenes, and after tyring to ake the schedule work, we had to come to the brutal truth that there wasn't a way to keep Fedyor in the story. Our only option was to bring him in at like episode 8, which would've been too little, too late.

COVID continued to be a monster all through production, requiring us to juggle schedules and miss out on days, and it was madness for the cast, who had to pivot with almost no notice whenever someone was ill and quarantined. This isn't unique to our show of course---it happened with everyone. It's just the challenge.

Beyond that, we had been given the go to write a special standalone story: The Demon in the Wood. This would have been released on its own around Christmas, like a BBC special but for Netflix, and would help bridge seasons 1 and 2 by showing a little of what Kirigan was doing before we seem him in S2, and also provide more character context, etc. Christina Strain wrote that and did great work adapting Leigh's short story. But it never went the distance.

There was a lot more to S2 as well, scenes and side stories and little interactions that were lost due to budget or time restrictions. Again, not unique to our show, but agonizing all the same, since what you get is not what we had written, or in some cases even shot. I'm incredibly proud of the cast and the team, and Daegan did the heaviest lifting while I was off finishing the Crows writing room. But we had a lot more thrown at us."

5) That sizzle reel was put together four months before the second season dropped.

6) Streaming is a challenge to serialized storytelling in that it looks at 'content' often with a different agenda and uses metrics that can take a creative issue and exacerbate it. Like in broadcast, if viewership and thus ad revenue has slightly declined, the show will ned to find a way to make their 22 or 13 episodes on a proportionally smaller budget. What is not done is reduce episode order. But if a streaming series underperforms or doesn't meet expectations, an the streamer doesn't cancel it outright, the go-to budget reduction idea is to reduce episode order for the next season. When you just have 8 episodes and continue to deal with notes to compress, pace up, or omit for what you'd scripted for a longer season, reducing further to six or four episodes is exhausting.

This happens due to a slide in autonomy from what the showrunner position has been. What the chatter on the picket lines revealed to us is that most showrunners today don't get to see their own show's budget, and thus don't get the freedom to make budgetary decisions that could better protect the story they're telling. More and more, showrunners not at a legacy network aren't the final say or at times even involved in hiring key roles. I don't have any ideas that aren't already in contract language, I just see how the job on this side has gotten harder and there isn't much of a way for us to make it easier for each other like we could with having writers on set or in post production, because the streaming model has made that impossible."

#shadow and bone #six of crows #sab #shadow and bone netflix #netflix shadow and bone #Eric Heisserer #I really feel sorry for the writers and creators now #There was so much they wanted to do but couldn't because of EVERYTHING

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astoundingbeyondbelief · 11 months

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Kaiju Week in Review (June 4-10, 2023)

From Toho Kingdom: Noah Oskow has translated Wataru Mimura's original treatment for Godzilla Final Wars. Godzilla, King of the Monsters ~Counterattack of the Xiliens~ is still recognizable as one of the series' wilder outings; it plays like the 50th anniversary film Toho might have made if they hadn't decided to double the budget. The monster roster is much smaller, as is the human cast, which translates into more substantial roles for Miyuki and Namikawa. No hammy Xilien Commander, no Kazama, no mutant/Keizer angle. Varan and Baragon are among the Xiliens' pawns, while Keizer Ghidorah evolves from a standard King Ghidorah instead of Monster X.

youtube

Netflix released a full trailer for Skull Island, and I am... adjusting my expectations accordingly. The list of monsters continues to grow, and it's always neat seeing Kong use improvised weapons, but man, that dialogue. Hopefully this is the worst of it.

Shinji Higuchi Special Effect's Field Notes: Visual Plans and Sketches is a 640-page book compiling pages from the director's sketchbooks, to be released October 3 by PIE International. Unclear how many films will be covered; the press release just specifies Giant God Warrior Appears in Tokyo, Shin Godzilla, and Shin Ultraman. I usually don't include books like these in the column due to the language barrier—but this one's being sold internationally, with the "extensive" Higuchi interview at the end translated into English. Preorders are open.

#kaiju week in review #godzilla final wars #shinji higuchi #skull island #godzilla #kaiju #king kong #Youtube

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dykeinthedark · 5 months

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stranger things should NOT have been a high budget netflix tv show it should have been a grimy 80s movie trilogy shot on film with practical effects OR a quirky rpg made in the 90s with a unique soundtrack and psychadellic visuals that underperforms upon release but garners a cult following nonetheless

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gimletagain · 1 year

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But at the same time, playing along with Netflix’s marketing department gets you way more than an Indianapolis event and an awards program that few people have heard of.

Maybe Netflix thinks the reality show (and working with the Harkles in general) is crap? They might've encouraged her "holier than thou" marketing tactics as a way to distance the company from the upcoming disaster. A way to bury it, yet fulfill their end of the contract so the litigious duo don't sue.

A definite possibility, that they just release it with 0 fanfare and 0 promotion. Let it sink in silence.

However, I think the posturing from her indicates that she WANTS it out for some reason, probably bc it means she gets paid a bit more or to threaten the RF or whatever. Whereas Netflix is quite willing to just muffle it.

Btw, there have been bigger deals that studios have walked away from bc it’s not worth the risk of reputation damage in putting out crap. Batgirl was supposed to come out this year. $90m spent on all the typical marvel things, with special effects, stunts, sets, and acting. And it was completely buried.

from Wiki:

“Rolling Stone, and Reuters wrote that test screening responses were negative, which could have been a factor in WBD's decision;[53][54][55] Collider's sources described the film as "a huge disappointment [that] looked cheap in comparison to other films".[53] Rolling Stone said that WBD determined that spending an additional $7–9 million during post-production in an effort to bring Batgirl to the level of other theatrical DC films, such as Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023), would be fruitless.[54] However, Variety denied that the film's quality factored into the decision,[50] reaffirming, along with The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline Hollywood, that it was part of the studio's larger cost-cutting measures, given the budget increased from an initial $70 million to $90 million, and the desire for DC films to be theatrical blockbusters.[50][42][51] Deadlinenoted that test screenings showed temporary versions of the visual effects, "which tend to temper audience enthusiasm".[56]

A subsequent Variety report indicated that WBD had concluded that writing off Batgirl for a tax break would be the most "financially sound" way of recouping its costs instead of moving the film to a theatrical release with additional investment, selling it to another distributor, or releasing it on HBO Max.[57]”

—

sound familiar? Earlier this summer we also had multiple leaks about how badly their doc screened.

People make a big deal about Netflix “walking away” from the deal but Netflix basically tossed spare change at them. They have an overall deal, which means paying for costs up front with a blank check, up to “$$$ million” or whatever crazy number they cited. But they would only hit that number if they were Shonda, shooting bridgerton with actors and costumes and a team of writers. Yes, Netflix wrote off a year or two of them cosplaying royals in NY, the Netherlands, Uvalde (UGH), the salaries of the crew, her Botox injector, and wherever else … including jets, clothes, her makeup, probably even paying them salaries for existing … but in total what could that possibly be? $5m over 2 years? $10m max? That’s literally change they can write off in taxes to a company like that. And nothing compared to a real production budget that requires actors and commercial directors and costumes and FX.

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breakfastroom · 1 year

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Of course Netflix releases the trailer the day I’m too busy to analyze it. But that is my opinion about the trailer:

The things that didn’t appeal me (for now!):

- I’m not an expert, but there is too much saturation in the photography. The colors seem too much artificial;

- The visual effects are low budget ( but actually I don’t complain too much, it’s understandable)

The things I like:

- Visually, the actors are great ( the acting seems ok, but it’s hard to judge from few seconds of trailer);

-Portland Row House is exactly how I imagine it. Perfect

It seems they include some of the daily chores and small habits of the trio (I loved that part in the books so I’m really looking for it in the transposition).

I hope there isn’t too much seriousness, but instead a lot of bickering and comedy!

#lockwood and co #l&co. netflix #lucy carlyle #anthony lockwood #george cubbins

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soulsanitarium · 11 months

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Do you believe?

Happy to find this from the Netflix🙏. Night of the Eagle is a 1962 British horror film directed by Sidney Hayers. The film was retitled Burn, Witch, Burn! for the US release.

Another (Low budget) film Weird Woman (1944) is also loosely based on Fritz Lieber’s 1943 novel called Conjure Wife. Leiber’s novel was first published in 1943, and has become the inspiration for several other films including the British film Night of the Eagle (1962) and the American comedy Witch’s Brew (1980).(Greene 2018, 84.)

🦅”When we first meet the professor (played by Peter Wyngarde), he is intoning the words “I Do Not Believe” as he inscribes them on a blackboard for his students, the objects of his disbelief being the supernatural, witchcraft, superstition, and the psychic, all of which, he says, demonstrate “a morbid desire to escape from reality” which can only exist in an atmosphere of belief. After nailing his colours to the mast in such uncompromising fashion, it is quite clear that Professor Taylor, like his fellow sceptic Dr. John Holden in Night of the Demon, is well on course for a rude awakening. (Exshaw 2007.)”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️I loved this movie in so many ways. First of all it presents many of my❤️ subjects: Elitism - Psychiatry & Realism vs. Primitive Superstition, and there are a lot of questionable gender & culture issues i.e. a lot of things to study🙂Visually stunning!

🕷️Night of the Eagle depicts the use of charms or supernatural powers in an “everyday” environment and juxtaposes it with a rationalist view which is questioned during the progress of events. Freud developed the notion of the ‘unheimlich’ as a source of fear: something uncanny or ‘unhomely’ – the familiar made strange.(Botting 2013.)

“a remarkably effective piece of trickery considering the date of the film and its obviously limited resources. (Exshaw 2007.)”

Sources

Greene, H. 2018.Bell, Book and Camera: A Critical History of Witches in American Film and Television

Botting, J. 2013. Why I love... Night of the Eagle. https://www.bfi.org.uk

Exshaw, J. (2007). Night of the eagle. The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies, (3), 107-108.

Spoiler Alert in Trailer!🚨

youtube

#witch #witchcraft #movies #witches #horror film #cinema #horror #film #psychology #psychoanalysis #great britain #Youtube

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skyriderwednesday · 2 years

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Hi, I just saw you posting about Sandman, and I have noone to talk to about it, so I might as well ask you: what do you think about the choice to make the Endless.... how can I say this... skin-coloured? I remember liking a lot how even though the comic was in colour, the Endless were always purely black and white, I thought it was a very cool way to make them subtly inhuman. What do you think? do you think it could have been done in a TV series? Do you think it would have been a good choice? Do you have theories about why they didn't?

Disclaimer: I haven't read the entire series. I wanted to, because the story and the characters and the universe are really good, but I have a weak stomach and the Corinthian was too much for me. So if it's a change that was made in the comics later, I'm sorry for the wrong opinion.

(Also disclaimer because the world is horrible and I don't want to be suspected of having secondary reasons: I have nothing against Death being Black, Black goths have proven that an all white-and-black aesthetic is not a priviledge of white folks. I just wished they were less flesh coloured.)

Ok, so I am also in the edge zone of "squeamish Sandman fan" so I feel you 100% on that lmao.

I've briefly had discussions with friends more well-read of the comics with regard to the Endless' appearances and the casting, etc., and from a lore standpoint I think it's important to note that the monochrome appearance we see of Death and Dream and the others is basically a visual placeholder -- canonically they look different to everyone who sees them, but this isn't feasible story-wise because it would be confusing for them to change appearance in practically every panel.

Now the VFX degree I haven't been using comes out to discuss the series. Obviously, I don't have insight into the creative processes and decisions being made to adapt the comics for TV, but here's my opinion as someone who understands how this kind of thing works.

Basically, having the Endless be 'human coloured' is going to come down to a time and money issue. No matter what route you take, whether its make-up or visual effects, it's going to be very expensive to paint your main actors black and white in every shot. Doing it practically will require teams of make-up artists and making an actor sit in a chair for hours a day when they could be filming, and that's probably the less expensive option.

Doing it digitally would require rotoscoping every shot featuring the Endless, a process that involves a VFX artist going frame by frame to mask areas they want to change. Done to a professional standard, rotoscoping can take hours just to get to a point where you can start thinking about colour grading. This would increase the series' VFX budget by many times, and that's without taking into account the other effects work that will be going into adapting Sandman.

If you saw the She-Hulk previews, this is why Jen (She-Hulk herself) doesn't really look all that great. Even on an MCU production budget, it's really hard to digitally change an actor's skintone and have them look good, especially when you're working on the incredibly tight deadlines of a TV show (and the budget is a lot lower than if they were making a film to start with). For Sandman, I'm sure the budget is already tighter than would be for an MCU show. Netflix have a lot of money to spend on their productions, but they're not Disney and they're going to have been really cautious with handing out money for this series. Any comics adaptation is expensive, and with Sandman being comparatively less well-known and aimed at adults, they're taking a huge gamble on trying to attract people to this series.

That's my long answer, but to summarise:

The monochrome appearance of the Endless in the comics is a visual stand-in for the fact that canonically everyone who meets them sees them differently.

To do this in the series would be really expensive and time consuming, especially if it was done digitally.

If they had gone with digitally altering the actors' appearances on a TV show's budget and deadlines, they'd probably have turned out looking something like She-Hulk.

Also, if time and money weren't a concern, they had made the Endless monochrome and they looked realistic, can you imagine the response from people on Twitter?

I think it's better overall if they're human coloured honestly.

#i hope i explained this well #rotoscoping and colour grading were my least favourite part of learning visual effects and i couldn't wrap my head around it very well #sandman #sandman netflix #talking/responding

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kevinsreviewcatalogue · 1 year

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Review: Eega (2012)

Eega (The Fly) (2012)

Rated UA by the Central Board of Film Certification (rough MPAA equivalent: PG-13)

Score: 4 out of 5

This past Friday, Popcorn Frights gave me my introduction to Tollywood cinema (no, not Bollywood -- same country, different language) in the form of Eega, one of the films that S. S. Rajamouli wrote and directed before RRR made people outside India start taking notice of him. An effects-driven fantasy action-comedy about a man who gets murdered, gets reincarnated as a fly, and sets out to take revenge on the man who killed him, its plot and tone felt reminiscent of the old '90s family comedy Mouse Hunt, only jacked up to a downright insane level courtesy of both some genuine edge to its plot and a truly great villain performance by Sudeepa that managed to cross language barriers. This was a wild movie, and while the first act was pretty weird in how it framed the romance that ultimately becomes a key driving force in the story, once the part with the fly got going I was too busy laughing my socks off and being impressed by some of the visuals that they managed to cook up on a fairly small budget (roughly $6-7 million US). It's on Netflix, so if you wanna see something absolutely wacky that's nonetheless an actual good movie as well, check this one out.

Our protagonist Nani is an ordinary man who's madly in love with his next-door neighbor Bindu, a miniatures artist whose day job is running an NGO that assists local schools, a feeling that she's finally starting to notice and reciprocate. Seeking to raise money for her organization, Bindu reaches out to Sudeep, a sleazy, womanizing local land developer who uses the promise of funding in an attempt to make Bindu his new wife -- and when he notices that Bindu also has eyes for Nani, Sudeep decides to kill the lowly worker in order to get him out of the way. Unfortunately for Sudeep, even death can't stop Nani's love, as he's reincarnated as a fly who fully remembers his past life and sets out to make Sudeep's life a living hell, slowly driving him mad as he starts to believe in the "crazy" idea that a fly has developed a grudge against him.

The first half-hour or so was a mixed bag, less due to the film's technical qualities (it could actually be quite charming, especially with the obligatory musical number) and more due to how it presented Nani's unreciprocated love for Bindu. To put it as nicely as possible, he's depicted as something close to a stalker in his constant attempts to get her attention, to the point that even his roommate calls him out for it, and yet it's presented as just a goofy character quirk even though, in real life, there's a reason why women get uneasy about that sort of behavior. Yes, this movie comes from a different time (2012 was just coming out of a golden age for pickup artistry) and a different country, and the film is self-aware about it and makes Nani the butt of the joke as much as anyone, but it's still kind of off-putting, especially given that it's implied that Bindu really was just playing hard to get and does eventually fall for him by the end of the first act. If I'd written their dynamic, I would've focused more on Bindu being an upwardly-mobile middle-class artist and professional and Nani being a working-class laborer, making it a situation where Bindu clearly has affection for Nani but is afraid of being judged for dating below her status, a dynamic that would've played nicely into Bindu's interactions with the wealthy villain Sudeep who wants to claim her as his trophy wife. Instead, the way it came across felt like an obsessive romantic successfully wearing down the object of his affection because she's decided that the alternative is worse, even if the film did at least have some self-awareness about how Nani was acting.

That said, once Nani dies and comes back, a lot of that fades into the background in favor of a nonstop mix of hilarious comic set pieces and genuinely entertaining action scenes. Rajamouli gives this movie a style and flair you don't normally see in fantasy comedies coming out of Hollywood, with the numerous effects shots especially making up for their low budget with a measure of cartoony stylization that goes well with what's (mostly) a very family-friendly film. Nani has as much lovable character as a fly as he did as a human, arguably moreso given that we're no longer shown his stalker-ish tendencies, while Samantha Ruth Prabhu as Bindu carries the entirety of their relationship as she has to spend most of the movie pretending that the love of her life is now inhabiting the body of a fly, complete with outfitting him with protective goggles to resist bug spray and tiny metal claws to let him scratch at things. Some moments in this movie get wild, from our introduction to Fly!Nani first learning how to be a fly by traveling through a park to him harassing a traffic cop to cause gridlock in an intersection to the bit where Sudeep hires a witch doctor named Tantra to possess two birds to send after the fly. This movie's mix of action and slapstick comedy is bursting with creativity, constantly coming up with new ways to make me laugh myself silly.

While the fly may be the main character, this movie would not have worked nearly as well as it did without the mononymous actor Sudeepa playing the film's main villain, the very similarly named Sudeep (without the "a"). Sudeep is a caricature of a yuppie scumbag, a guy who we're introduced to skeet shooting while hitting on a woman who's later revealed to be another man's wife, such that he makes Nani look like a downright catch in comparison. The torment he receives from the fly over the course of the film may be over-the-top, but he makes it clear throughout that he deserves every bit of it, seeing other people as props and NPCs in his own story and not caring who he hurts. What's more, Sudeepa clearly had a lot of fun playing this guy who's slowly losing his mind as a little fly refuses to leave him be. He felt like a rich douchebag out of an '80s Hollywood comedy who, whether he's the hero or the villain, is above all else the butt of every joke as the movie finds new ways to creatively torture him both physically and mentally, and his ultimate comeuppance at the end was very well-deserved.

(Also, if American blockbusters insist on getting longer and longer, maybe they should imitate the Indian moviegoing tradition of having an intermission. Popcorn Frights didn't actually do the intermission for this and jumped straight into the second half, and frankly, at 2 hours and 14 minutes this one wasn't too long, but still.)

The Bottom Line

Eega was an extremely charming and hilarious movie that had some rough edges early on, but otherwise made a great introduction for yours truly to both S. S. Rajamouli and Indian cinema in general, and earns my recommendation.

#eega #2012 #2012 movies #s.s. rajamouli #nani #sudeepa #samantha ruth prabhu #action #action films #comedy #comedy films #fantasy #fantasy films #indian films #tollywood

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ariiikat · 2 years

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Stranger Things Season 4 Review and Opinions

After sitting on Stranger Things Season 4, I have a LOT of things to say. Both good things and critiques on other aspects.

I will begin by saying that I’ll be trying to give an honest and objective review of the show, cause even if I’m an avid shipper for certain couples, I’m still an animation and film student at heart, and will be focusing on those aspects too. BUT, I also will offer the perspective of an queer person watching the show, and being exposed to the WHOLE fandom and their reactions, as honestly, with all the discourse that is happening, both the LGBTQ+ side and the rest of the fandom are both right and wrong in certain aspects.

Anyways, with that bloody long disclaimer out of the way, here is my long ass review:

Firstly, this is still a GOOD show. Despite how this season made me and other people feel, I would still recommend this show regardless! It still scales way higher than other shows currently airing on Netflix right now, but while it is a fun ride to embark on important to know that it is definitely imperfect. But like I said, despite my criticisms, it is still a good show.

Moving on, there were good and eh things that occurred in the show, but why don’t we focus on the positives firstly:

Positives:

The CGI

The CGI was amazing this season! You can definitely tell where Netflix saved all their budget for (which honestly missed some great shows because of it). For a TV show, it’s so great for it to be treated as if it were a big movie. The world of the Upside Down was filled with such hauntingly empty imagery, it’s the most we’ve seen of the ENTIRE town and it suits it. I also wanted to give spot light to the Jamie Campbell Bower, as contrary to popular belief, Vecna’s costume is not CGI (except for the moving parts) but was a whole damn project by the makeup artists! Kudos to them for instead of relying on visual effects, they went the route to giving Vecna an actual costume or what some may call ‘practical effect’s. This actually made Vecna feel alive and not computer generated in comparison to the world.

The cinematography

This also connects to CGI, because both the CGI and cinematography worked so well together! I noticed there was a lot of continuous shots, that just made watching scenes so much more interesting! First ones that come to mind is when Robin is complaining about their love lives to Steve in the video store, and the camera just continuously moves with them to ensure it ends of a perfect shot! Or when Dustin jumped over the counter at Family Video and instead of cutting, the camera pans with Dustin. And I even haven’t mentioned the parallels! One iconic one was when both of the Hawkin’s groups were biking in both the real Hawkins and the Upside Down. I had absolute chills! Also when El was prepping to go under water again, it mimicked the scene of her taking her socks off in the first season… and also Eleven using that Coke bottle in attempts to connect to Max… Heartbreaking but such a good parallel to the last time she was in that room 🥺

Beginning half of Max’s arc/chapter 4

Oh my, how they tackled Max’s arc in the beginning was great! Because it tied so well with the villain’s tactic to kill others in this season. This is why episode 4 was absolutely amazing! Because it was a culmination of Chekhov’s gun from the beginning of the season, and it further progressed her character arc and the plot of the actual story. This is obviously the episode that wowed everyone because it was almost a perfect episode! However… how they handle the rest of her arc… that is to be said later.

The monster

Contrary to what other people have been discussing online, I actually like the idea they brought for El realising that Brenner is the ‘monster’. Some people didn’t like how it kinda ended up being ‘papa issues’ with both Eleven and One, however I think this is a good example of how some big catastrophic events begin and are catalysed from small and almost insignificant things when you look at the big picture (not saying that Brenner’s treatment of the kids is insignificant, but it sometimes feels that way when you have been watching every side and seeing the bigger picture). Because when it really goes down to it, if Brenner didn’t treat One like a lab rat, this would’ve been a totally different outcome. So yes, I believe that El saying Brenner is the monster is absolutely true! Because they were just kids when Brenner intervened locked them away.

HOWEVER, I loved the turn when One mentions that even if they were abused by Brenner, that in the end, El has to understand that she was essentially the person who did transform him into this Vecna thing. And then I think it comes to the point where hopefully season 5 takes it the route where El realises that focusing on ‘who to blame’ or ‘who is the monster’ wouldn’t solve her problems, but it’s what she decides to do about it…

Vecna’s character

Honestly great villain for this season! Most of the villains were either the Russians, the lab people and the monsters. However Vecna definitely feels like the big villain we’ve been waiting for. Idea wise, killing people through their worst fears is one of the most chilling things to think about. Because when I imagine it happen to me, there is no way I will survive cause I have a HUGE chip on my shoulder. Also, Vecna’s backstory I think works well, with how it lead up to episode 7 and that reveal with Nancy, especially since she was the one who so trying to crack the case so it actually makes sense she’s the one that went into Vecna’s trance.

OKAY!! With all my positive out of the way! Here are all the critiques you’ve been waiting for :3

For this section, I am actually going to tackle it a bit more differently than the positives. Even if I still had a blast watching the show, something felt wrong or off. And not in terms of the horror aspect, but just how things are shifting in terms of the story of the show. Therefore, I am going to tackle the story into 4 different parts:

Locations - Themes - Characters - Relationships

Story - Locations

I’ll be frank here, there were just TOO many locations this season. The reason why season 1 is always highly regarded is because it generally stayed in Hawkins, creating a world for the show. And yes, it IS possible for multiple locations to be focused on, however all of that at the same time? Having 3 main ones (almost 4 as the Lieutenant was a side plot as well and he went literally everywhere) made it quite confusing and almost exhausting. Like I said, it IS possible, but the way this season handled it’s themes is why the locations don’t ‘flow’ together well…

Story - Themes

So in every movie or show or story that has ever existed, there are always themes that would run throughout. In Stranger Things Season 4, there was a emphasis on:

Mental health (Max’s Storyline)

El’s identity

Perseverance (?)

A good show would be able to easily intertwine these themes with the storyline, and a good example was the first half of Max’s storyline as I mentioned earlier. However, most of these themes either were paired to a ‘meh’ storyline or didn’t get fulfilled in the end properly.

Max’s storyline was all related to mental health, especially PTSD as it is implied she is experiencing it due to having Billy killed in front of her very eyes, and also depression from her change of behaviour from last season. And the show paired it perfectly to the storyline as Vecna got his victims through trauma. Episode 4 was especially good because it showed that despite it all, she was able to keep a hold on what was ‘here’ with her and pushed away from Vecna’s hold, or bring able to process and handle her trauma. I am no expert in the mental health field, but I know a lot of people related to her struggles because that is what they are going through in their lives, sans the Vecna holding death above their heads… which sometimes another unfortunate thing that does to them in reality… ANYWAYS, this hopeful process she was going through got absolutely gutted in the end where she instead ends up braindead. And while yes this is absolutely a gripping cliffhanger to end story wise, theme wise it is unfortunate that people who saw themselves in Max became faced with someone whom they relate to, not being able to survive. This theme was executed poorly, as in this day and age any creator should be aware of the impacts that any mental health implications within stories, and how this is portrayed to the audience.

Again contrary to popular belief, I think it was important that El faced her trauma in the show. It felt like a natural progression as it ended up with El thinking she was a monster due to her own powers and memories of the past. I do also think it was important that she had to be separated from the group because this was something she needed to do on her own terms. And I think it was going well, up until that Mileven moment. Like okay, I have nothing against the ship, ship what you want, but I feel like her final push to face Vecna being from Mike saying “I love you” didn’t tie up the loose thread of Eleven’s identity crisis. The whole theme with this storyline was of El’s issues of fitting in. She felt she was a weirdo and monster because of how different she is from how she was raised and her abilities. What she should have learnt at the end of her arc this season was that she is not a monster because she is different, but instead of trying to blame herself or others, it’s what you do about yourself which is important. I felt like that would have been MUCH stronger if she realised that instead of Mike calling out to her. ALSO absolutely MISSED opportunity but this could have been a total bonding moment between El and Will because they both thought they were a monster, mistake, and didn’t fit in their school. I honestly wanted more sibling moments since if you think about it, El’s never had actual sibling relationships that weren’t toxic or held in a lab. I feel like those family bonds should’ve been more focused on than relationships…

Lastly perseverance. This is all related to Hopper and Joyce and how they both did not give up or lose hope. And honestly it was done well, just the storyline was kinda meh. And the reason I think that is because it was so far removed from the main story in Hawkins, it didn’t really feel part of the whole season. Even that last effort to connect to defeating Vecna didn’t feel it worked because the adults had literally NO communication with the kids, it felt a little too unreal. It was because of this whole storyline in Russia, I felt myself just waiting for the Hawkins crew to return to the screen.

Story - Characters

I’ll be short and sweet since I already did get into depth with quite a few characters, but I think there is TOO MANY CHARACTERS.

This season, a lot of characters (especially in the California group) felt unused or unnecessary.

The only reason it worked in season 3 was because they were generally in the same area, or were able to regroup back to Hawkins area for the big fight. Here they were all SO apart that any other character interactions between the other groups were down right impossible. It is possible to handle multiple characters, however with all the different locations and the unfortunate storylines that followed other characters made it hard to handle each character perfectly. I think the best group was obviously the Hawkins team, as they were people who have never interacted much until this season or had a shift in dynamics! Such as Nancy and Robin, Steve and Robin (but no romantic undertones this time), Lucas and Erica (they had more heartwarming moments this season), Max without the buffer of El this time. For the other groups, either they were relying more on the storyline (Russia group) or any relationship dynamics that entered/tackled the group (California group).

Also… Eddie 🥺 Personally his arc should’ve been handled more well, because it kinda went from 50 to 100 real fast. They were just missing a few more moments that would’ve adequately built up to the moment of his sacrifice. Also his friendship with Dustin was SO wholesome, but I do feel like it should’ve had more growth since there weren’t many scenes where they vibe or play like they did before the battle. I will say, it sucks that Eddie, who is CODED TO BE GAY (please if you know anything about the hanky code and connotations of freak back then, not to mention Eddie’s lines in the shows), dies at the end. As much as I hate the bury your gays trope, I felt like this was meant to be written as a tragedy. Like I hate how he’s dead but oddly enough, as a queer woman I’m not too fussed about it because his whole story wasn’t about how gay he was, but to no longer run away. But still the Duffers better be careful cause a lot of people in this community have already seen so much death of queer characters in shows full of heteronomativity, and they are brushing the line with how he was coded gay and not really confirmed.

Story - Relationships

Ohohohoho well this is a whammy. I love romance a lot but yikes, there is a REASON why people suddenly started shipping gay ships.

Firstly, lets get out of the way our unproblematic Jopper and Lumax. They both were absolutely adorable, cute, wholesome and valid. Especially Lucas and Max because them mending their broken relationship literally stole my heart, and then smashed it at the end of the season.

But oh god the whole STANCY, JANCY discourse and love triangle… I am literally getting SO tired of it at this point. I would have been fine if Nancy just stayed with Johnathan and somehow made it work, but them having this whole ‘will they, won’t they’ thing with Steve WHILE she is still in a relationship didn’t sit right with me. Ever since season 1 Nancy has been tied to a relationship, and honestly I’d just rather have her single at this point. She has shown again and again that she is strong and independent, however the Duffers keep falling back to her having relationship troubles once again. Hell it’s the whole reason I became an avid Ronance shipper because I was getting exhausted by this love triangle (also why a lot of the queer community fell back into shipping gay ships while watching this show because we were all TIRED). And yes, I totally see why people ship Stancy, but I felt like it literally came out of no where and I feel like it will always have that underlying tone related to Barb’s death, regardless of how much they’ve grown. They work so well together, that I’d rather Steve become best friends with Nancy instead, then honestly I feel like that would show a whole lot more growth than what they did this season. And if this friendship even became romantic, then I literally would have no problem cause it would’ve have made sense at that point.

Oh speaking of relationships, the whole Mike, El and Will situation. I felt like El was being a bit TOO reliant on Mike this season, and honestly that might be a product of El losing Hopper so she stuck to the next closest person she had. And Mike felt more toxic/asshole this season? I kept getting those vibes so not sure if that’s a good thing… But god, that whole Will scene! I damn related so much! And personally, I think in the context of the 80s (and I know a lot of my queer mutuals might disagree) it makes sense why Will wouldn’t come out to Mike, or explicitly say it to Johnathan. It’s scary times, and you kinda would only get it if you were queer in an unsafe place (which I am too familiar with). Many people wanted to him to say the word ‘gay’ but I actually think if he ever would say it, Will would tell his brother, not Mike.

BUT I totally get the issue that was literally only Will’s purpose in this season! To push Mike and El back together! It is super frustrating that he just got tied down to that role, I’d wish more of his own arc was connected to feeling out of place in conversations, hearing people shout slurs in passing, hell even newspaper articles! The fact that’s all he really did this season made me disappointed, because Will is more than a ‘cheerleader’ for Mileven, I just wished he was given more time to actually reflect and realise.

And okay, YES, to address the elephant, I do ship Ronance and Steddie, but I was absolutely aware it was never going to happen. But I will mention that Vicky moment in the end… didn’t really feel great. Because she was a literal mirror of Robin. I feel like they should have either written Vicky to be more distinct and different from Robin (like literally their cadence was so similar) or Robin should’ve met another woman that was one of the helpers at the shelter. That way it’s a little of an upside from the revelation of Vicky’s boyfriend in the weapons shop. ALSO, if they did want to sell me on the whole Vicky thing, she should’ve have popped up in more places, such as the Library, or in Family Video. Because it feels like a last minute shove in for Robin’s love life.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Definitely not perfect, but it’s still a great show to watch regardless. While I still got annoyed by the criticisms above, I got invested despite that because they are trying to tell a horror story filled with characters I love anyways. And while it’s great to talk about what you like or didn’t like about a show, it is necessary to understand that having a good time is what’s important too! This show is meant to entertain, and I think it delivered in that front! PSA for everyone though, if someone enjoyed the show, don’t harass or attack them for not hating it like you do. As far as I know, this show hasn’t hit any controversial topics to the point of concern, so please don’t use your opinions as a way to attack others.

So hope you all will be waiting with me (anxiously or excitedly) for the final season whenever that comes out.

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