I should probably put something here, I guess? || glyneth @ bird place || betterglyneth @ insta || glyneth @ discord || glyneth@awaymessage.club @ mastodon
i really could write an essay on how shit is that we’ve completely abandoned the monster-of-the-week episode format even when rebooting shows that relied on it to replace them with grimdark edgy plotlines where nothing feels good or accomplished at the end of the day
I have ALWAYS said to people that the reasons shows like Supernatural, Once Upon a Time, and Grimm have deteriorated into being completely awful is because they adopted plots, because the monster of the week gives us new and interesting content to think about every week and it isn’t always one note. All these shows’ first seasons used to have such a good amalgamation of different creatures, different tones, and different perspectives and insights into the characters’ lives and pasts. And it still carried a basic plot, but it was loose enough to ignore for most of the episodes but important enough for us to stay hooked on it and anticipate the resolution. I rewatch like, the first 3 seasons of these shows like they’re visual popcorn. The SECOND that Supernatural got a real plot that took up most of the storytelling for the season I lost interest because the plot became the ONLY tone that we get. We got less and less of the fun and interesting creatures and stories and more of the singular “Oh which bad mythical person is going to cause havoc THIS season?!” Like shows need to be okay with telling one single coherent story that HAS A PLANNED ENDING instead of jumping off a cliff with a hang glider dependent on viewership that will keep going even until all the screws are rusted and the top is littered with holes and won’t stop until they inevitably hit the ground. Stories need to be more like flights taking us and the characters from one destination to another.
TLDR; Leverage is an example that you CAN have all these things: incredible story telling, monster-of-the-week, overarching plot, satifying season ending without cliffhangers.
I’m strong on my Leverage bullshit and I’d apologize but I’m not sorry because IT CAN BE DONE, DAMMIT. IT HAS BEEN DONE. AND IT IS WONDERFUL.
Unlike SPN, Grimm, etc., the “monster” was usually a corporate asshole target, which in 2020 I think we can all agree, counts as a fucking monster. Each episode is relatively self-contained. You don’t necessarily have to watch these episodes in order, though it’s helpful if you do.
The “monster” of the week never gets boring; it always involves the team and helps the team continue to work together and builds their individual character arcs through their interactions with each other as well as their mark.
But, Leverage also had the Big Bad ™ that colored the overarching season plot. There was a theme, a cohesiveness through the stories; this is more evident in Season 3 and 4 especially, but it’s still there.
Season 3, in particular, was a great example. Moreau was the Big Bad, but taking him down was an underpinning, rather than the actual mover for each episode. Each episode, mark-of-the-week, was its own villain, with a satisfying takedown that advanced the overall plot, as well as the individual character stories.
OH. Another thing that Leverage allowed itself to have was an actual ENDING to each season. You literally could watch Leverage through any season and be satisfied that the season ending was, well, satisfying.
This was PLANNED IN to each season of Leverage. The show runners felt strongly about giving fans a satisfying ending instead of dangling cliffhanger bullshittery.
TLDR #2: Get good writers that know what they’re doing, and are fans of their own genre, and it’s amazing what you can do.
the fact that we made it through the Cold War is nothing short of a miracle. I wish we talked about Mutual Assured Destruction more in schools
William Gibson once suggested that the days on which we almost destroyed the world with nuclear weapons should be recognized as international holidays, to raise awareness of how very precarious the situation has been at times.
If you would like to observe such a holiday, October 27th should be Vasili Arkhipov Day. During the Cuban missile crisis he was first officer on Soviet submarine B-59 off the coast of Cuba. When the destroyer USS Beale began to drop depth charges to force them to the surface, his captain decided that WW III must have started, and ordered his men to arm and fire a nuclear torpedo at a group of American ships. Due to a strange circumstance, the captain had to seek Arkhipov’s approval to fire the weapon, because while he was only second in command of the sub, he was in command of the flotilla of which the submarine was a part. Arkhipov, outnumbered three to one, steadfastly refused to give his approval.
Important context: Arkhipov had previously been involved with a nuclear incident aboard another sub, and cited the things he witnessed happening to the crew as one of the reasons he refused to give approval.
We must not despair as long as we are here, we can teach the children about the ancient texts
Okay hold on but we can’t talk about Dragostea Din Tei without talking about Gary Brolsma. Yes, there’s a link above but that doesn’t really explain just how formative a video this was in the relatively early days of the internet.
“The Numa Numa Dance” was posted in December 2004 to Newgrounds.com and was one of the first viral videos.
Estimates on how many times this video has been viewed run somewhere around ¾ of a billion views.
News articles at the time talked about how this video by itself “justified the existence of webcams.” (Though I think the reason for the first webcam was reason enough.)
Let’s go back to the view count, though. If one person wanted to watch the Numa Numa Dance video approximately as many times as it has been watched in the past 19 years, and finish up the watching this year, they would have had to start roughly during the Battle of Piraeus in 403 BCE.
Yeah.
Humanity has, collectively, spent about 2426 years watching Gary Brolsma joyfully dance to Dragostea Din Tei.
The song charted on its own, don’t get me wrong. It’s still something like the 4th best-selling single of all time in France and the most successful Romanian-language pop song of all time. But its memetic longevity? There you can’t skip over “the Numa Numa Dance.” That is the Deep Memetic Magic of long ago.
Remember when Terry played the Joker like a fiddle cause I sure do
Joker status: [ ] Told [ ] Told like a bitch [X] Batman: The Brave And The Told
Terry is literally what bruce would’ve been if his parents didn’t die. Well either that or terry got his sense of humor from his mom.
I love Batman Beyond because it’s basically Spider-Man as Batman with a healthy dosage of cyberpunk.
The best part is this isn’t just Terry fucking with Joker, Terry realized after bats told him “Joker likes to talk” that he likes to talk too. So he decided to answer joker back with something Joker was never expecting. Joker could easily deal with the typical hero “you won’t get away with this” talk or someone being absolutely quiet. But mockery? taking the piss? Telling joker straight up “you ain’t shit?”
He’s riding the bow wave! The boat, moving forward, also pushes quite a bit of water forward. The dolphin is letting the boat push him with the water, to save on the effort of swimming. It’s like birds that fly in a V formation to take advantage of the wings of the bird ahead of them.
