pessimisticpleasure

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Unpopular The Walking Dead Opinion… I’m Really Excited for the Team Family Conflict (If They Do It Properly)

One thing The Walking Dead is criticised for (correctly) is having a very formulaic format – group gets ‘safe’ place, villain appears, conflict, villain is vanquished but so is ‘safe’ place, group finds new place, and repeat. And honestly, it’s always been varied enough that I haven’t minded too much but it’s now at a point where that cannot be sustained for another cycle, at least not immediately.

I love the idea of splitting the group, not of having one ‘villain’ side but just having a very believable conflict in the group. And I do for now at least think people are misreading the scene with Maggie… As much as I like Negan, Maggie has more enough reason to kill him – he’s not only robbed her of a husband but robbed her child of a father, the man tortured Daryl and Jesus… Well he’s just kind of there but if it gets him more screen time I’m on board. I really disagree that the scene showed them as villains, they just seemed like people who needed a plan and were in a desperate situation totally understandably. I don’t think the writers expect us to buy her as a villain or the others because people won’t just switch away from their favourite characters like that. Equally, Rick and Michonne who loved Carl and want to honour him in his death have a good reason to keep Negan alive, plus they make it clear that they want him to be an example of their more civilised way of life which is also valid but doing that doesn’t make them the good guys. I think the writers expect us to empathise a little with both sides – most people will like people on either side of the conflict already and instead of giving us a new villain to root against, I hope that’s going to make people think and for once be straddling the fence a little rather than rushing to a side.

Inter group conflict has been largely missing from The Walking Dead but it’s realistic – people have different ideas and values and no matter how much they love each other at some point those will come to a head. I don’t want to see beloved Team Family locked in a two season long conflict (mostly because it would be dull) nor do I want it to culminate in some huge battle and have them kill each other but if they keep it political, a battle of words and strategic manoeuvres rather than violence I think it could be extremely compelling and easily fill the first half of the next season if they wanted it to.

Yes, it will be a lot different than what we’ve seen before but if they do it right it could be such compelling viewing, mostly because it gives way to some excellent character moments which have been so lacking in the last two seasons. Maggie and Daryl will be at the forefront of something really interesting and they’ve been so side-lined this whole season totally wrongly and neither have been given truly compelling character driven moments for ages.

I really don’t understand why people are already so against this, I was overjoyed when I saw Maggie leading her meeting and was so excited by all the possibilities it opened up in the next season - as long as they do it right, and for once I actually have faith that they will, I can’t wait to see it play out in season nine.

#the walking dead #the walking dead season 9 #the walking death wrath #the walking dead season 8 #the walking dead spoilers #rick grimes #negan #daryl dixon #michonne #maggie rhee #maggie greene #team family

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A Series of Unfortunate Events Season Two Review

(Spoilers for season 2 of ASOUE and possible references to future books and events which may be covered).

The way some people feel about Harry Potter is the way I feel about A Series of Unfortunate Events - more than anything else that series defined my childhood. I actually appreciate now that when I first read it I was way too young to fully enjoy the elements of the story or really understand the more complex parts of it (I read The Bad Beginning aged 7) but I still loved it and it sparked a deeply held enjoyment of the mystery genre that I still have now I’m an adult. I gave all my beautiful (although admittedly waterlogged as at some point I’d dropped multiple books in the bath) hardcovers away when I was about 14 thinking I probably wouldn’t want them as an adult and here I am, turning 21 this month still loving this incredible series and so delighted by the second season of the Netflix adaptation, desperate to read the books again (I think I’m going to buy them in monthly instalments and no, I’m not settling for the new covers or paperback, go hardback or go home).

Anyway, this was a great season of the show and it was exciting to fully move on from material which had already been covered in the ASOUE film back in the day and for me personally this season contained my favourite book (The Ersatz Elevator) as well as my second and third favourites (The Hostile Hospital and The Carnivorous Carnival) so I was really excited to see what it would be like. I do agree that the formula of books 1-7 can get a little wearing (especially during The Vile Village which is very dry material for an adaptation although what the show created and enhanced in it worked brilliantly) but the different settings and different supporting casts help to keep it interesting.

I was both nervous and anxious (and excited) about the biggest introduction this season - Esmé Squalor. While most young girls who read this series of books would have dreamt of being Violet, I dreamt of being the city’s sixth most important financial advisor, fashionista, and excellent villain Esmé. I love Lucy Punch and I felt like her comedy would fit the role really well but, as with any favourite character being adapted, I was still apprehensive about how the series would capture her. I had no reason to be as Esmé was perfect from her first second on screen. Her costumes were absolutely incredible (special mention to the knife shoes and ‘I <3 Freaks’ sash) her lines and mannerisms were beautifully in character, everything regarding Esmé was done spectacularly and I’m so relieved, for me she brings the show up to an even higher level than it already was.

One of the things I enjoyed most about this season was the early introduction of Jacques Snicket (who can fireman carry me out of a freezer dressed like a Top Gun extra any time) and Olivia Caliban (the cutest, most pretentious librarian ever). Their doomed romance sucked me in so badly (HE PROMISED HE’D SEE HER AGAIN) - let’s just take a moment to appreciate this woman getting in a car with no clue what’s going on one minute and climbing a building with a plunger because a suave guy in a leather jacket told her to the next and collectively say ‘yup, that seems about right’. I’m so angry that the show made me love Jacques so much despite what I knew was inevitable, how dare they? I’m also angry that they made me love Olivia but more angry at myself because I forgot what happened to her right until I saw her dressed as Madame Lulu and thought ‘well shit’. I think because the books were 100% from the Baudelaire's point of view sometimes those side characters got a little lost and it was easy to shrug them off and not mind too much when they were inevitably offed and I think it’s clever to give them more of an onscreen presence to force their demises to carry meaning.

This season captures the feel of the books very well again - I was excited to see sets like 667 Dark Avenue and Heimlich Hospital fully realised and looking so close to what I imagined while I was reading the books. Certain scenes played out exactly like I had imagined too such as the Council of Elders in The Vile Village, the dinner at cafe Salmonella, and Esmé chasing the Baudelaires in the library of records in The Hostile Hospital - that last one was a favourite scene of mine from the books and watching it gave me chills as to how perfectly it was recreated.

I really enjoy the extra elements of the world that the series is adding in - Jacquelyn (which still feels like a weird choice for a name given how similar it is to another VFD member but whatever) feels a little filler for me and it seems like there’s a slight struggle to find where she fits even though I always enjoy her on screen but I unapologetically love Larry Your Waiter, and the extra screen time for characters like Jacques, Olivia, and even Gustav (they should have found a way not to kill him off because damn I would have enjoyed getting to see more of him) fills in a lot of blanks. I understand why book loyalists won’t always like them but especially at the beginning of this season they’re still working from the smaller books and honestly in some of them there just isn’t two hours of material - without the additions The Vile Village would have been unwatchable, sending poems might work in a book but it doesn’t exactly make for thrilling on-screen action - why doesn’t Isadora just send all the poems at the same time, does she need to think of rhymes? And don’t say ‘she was worried they’d be intercepted’ because a) she could have sent multiple ones to make sure they got there, b) count Olaf is dumb and wouldn’t have understood, and c) with her initial plan had any of them been intercepted anyway they might not have figured out the code. Also, how do the poems fall off the birds again? It’s also worth remembering that despite its frequent nods to adult readers (and abundance of innuendo this season), this is a series designed for children and as an adult there are still aspects of the books which baffle me and so having a more defined world and new characters to bring things together more makes sense on a practical level.

At times this season I felt the shift away from comedy which is also present in the books - while it’s still fun and undoubtedly enjoyable to watch there’s also some really dark moments - Lemony and Jacques whistling sombrely in the car, Olivia’s death, the Baudelaires leaving a guardian who genuinely wanted to take care of them - which I would imagine will only become more prevalent in the final season. 

Final thoughts...

Stand-out main character: While there weren’t any characters I didn’t enjoy and despite adoring Esmé and Jacques, this season, I’m actually giving this to Klaus, my least favourite of the Baudelaires when I read the book who now speaks to me deeply from his place of emotional exhaustion and ‘I can’t with this shit’ attitude, big mood.

Stand-out side character: Made a separate category so I can give this tied to Larry Your Waiter who I also connect with on a spiritual level and the henchperson of indeterminate gender who I was thrilled survived the hospital and had yet more wonderful and unique philosophical perspectives to bless us all with this season.

Worst character: Tied, the two living Quagmires, not sorry. They work as a device to move the story along but I found them boring reading the books and their translation into this series hasn’t improved them - on a show of exciting characters they just miss the mark completely and I feel the audience is never really given enough reason to care about them.

Stand-out location:  Caligari Carnival, it was the perfect blend of dirty, creepy, disturbingly colourful, just an all round excellent portrayal of what was clearly envisioned in the books.

Worst location: Prufrock Preparatory School, not that it wasn’t wonderfully crafted, it just reminded me too much of my school and the failing education system. Side note - a dead horse is a great mascot and that was a really clever chant.

Best episodes: The Ersatz Elevator, I’ve been so excited to see it put to screen and it delivered in a big way for me, I loved both what was adapted from the books as well as what was added in.

Worst episodes: The Vile Village, as I said for me it just didn’t translate well from page to screen and the most enjoyable moments were what wasn’t in the book like the saloon lair Olaf finds, the Jacques and Olivia moments and Esmé’s beautiful red bardot top which I really want.

Best adapted scene - The Library of Records chase, absolutely perfect, totally as imagined, Esmé at her best and most evil, also I want those shoes.

Best new scene - The VFD masked ball blew me away, it was great to see old characters and Lemony and Jacques interacting (amazing that Lemony is a pretentious speaker as well as writer) and has made me realise that the thing I want most in this world is a prequel set in VFD before the children were born, I think as long as they didn’t try to give too many answers and kept a similar tone to this set of episodes, comedic yet dark and intriguing, it could work really well.

#a series of unfortunate events #a series of unfortunate events season 2 #vfd #Lemony Snicket #the baudelaires #violet baudelaire #klaus baudelaire #Sunny Baudelaire #Esmé Squalor #esme squalor #jacques snicket #olivia caliban #madame lulu #the austere academy #the ersatz elevator #the vile village #the hostile hospital #the carnivorous carnival #667 dark avenue #prufrock preparatory school #the village of fowl devotees #heimlich hospital #caligari carnival #count olaf #review #a series of unfortunate events spoilers

[pessimisticpleasure]

The Walking Dead - A Few Thoughts On Rick Grimes

I’d like to start this opinion piece by stressing the word OPINION, giving you a spoiler warning for episodes up to and including ‘Still Gotta Mean Something’, and asking you to bear in mind that I love the character of Rick and that I’m writing this out of genuine confusion and sadness about the direction of his character recently.

Contrary to most fans, I’ve quite enjoyed the latest season of the Walking Dead, or parts of it at least (I mean, compared to last season we can’t really complain). There’s been some stand-out episodes and action but the one thing that is bothering me at the moment is some of the character choices that the writers are making. This includes the total sidelining and lack of development for Daryl, killing off Carl right when his character was finally flourishing and, the basis for this post, the hugely questionable actions of Rick which are never addressed in the show.

The first time I felt genuinely uncomfortable with the actions of the main group was back in season six when they killed the Saviours while they slept. At the time I questioned the actions of the so called ‘good’ group because that seemed like a very not good thing to do because, well, it isn’t, but I reminded myself that within the confines of the world they live in which is to be fair, ruthless and cutthroat that maybe it could be reasoned away.

And just as I tried to mentally justify that I have tried to condone Rick’s actions because up until recently I adored his character but towards the end of last season and this whole season  I’ve been really uncomfortable with the ‘good guy’ killing people who really don’t need to be killed. As Rick said himself ‘only one person has to die’ (and then, you know, killed like four people in the next scene). I have so little faith in him now that when he found the baby at the saviour base I was honestly surprised that he didn’t kill it. I think the expectation in any media is that the ‘good’ side kills as few people as possible outside of a designated ‘battle scene’, and perhaps if it was more cleverly written I might commend the show for turning that expectation on its head but the issue is that it isn’t and with Rick especially it seemed without much cause that this was his policy one minute and then suddenly, it wasn’t.

When Carl died I really thought that would be Rick’s turning point for him to think ‘yes, I have been a bit trigger happy of late, let’s maybe only kill people if we have to’. Instead they had Rick lie to Carl as he was dying and carry on the way he was and maybe you could argue grief if he hadn’t been doing that way before Carl died. Weirdly, instead of using his death to re-humanise Rick the writers seem to have put Negan on that path and while I’m enjoying seeing his human side (because he was starting to wear really thin on me) it feels so backwards.

Please don’t misunderstand me - I understand that Negan is bad, I am well aware he is extremely flawed. However viewing it objectively, he is actually better than Rick AT THE MOMENT (because Negan has definitely been evil forever whereas Rick’s fundamental character was not always like this).  It really bothers me that I’m meant to root against a character who actively attempts to kill as few people as possible while supporting Rick and his never ending murder spree of anyone who’s ever seen Negan. One key difference I will admit is that Negan seems to enjoy killing people whereas for Rick it is a genuine means to an end but for me that’s not enough of a distinction to condemn one while supporting the other, the intention is irrelevant when the action and the consequence are the same.

The thing is, I’m never sure if we’re supposed to question this sketchy element of Rick’s character because so few fans actually do. To have him allied with Morgan in his actions last night feels significant because Morgan is a character who is going crazy and having a crisis of conscience, so surely having Rick on the same killing spree is meant to force fans to second guess him? The latest episode is also called ‘Still Gotta Mean Something’ which to me implies that morality and honesty still have their place in the world despite Rick’s actions to the contrary. It also seemed significant that Rick’s most questionable action to date occurred in an episode with Negan at his most vulnerable and human. And yet many fans don’t even blink at what Rick does and I think a large part of that is that the writers are scared to call Rick out on committing horrible acts even when we see them play out on screen in case of fan backlash because, while people usually have other favourites, Rick has always been likeable and a good, sturdy protagonist and flipping this is a risk. They don’t even go so far as to have other characters question him on screen, not even Carl while he was there as the moral compass truly did. They’ve also kind of backed themselves into a corner because without a big event having him flip back seems nonsensical, really using Carl's death would have been perfect.

I see all the time arguments between Rick and Negan fans where the Rick fans defend him by saying ‘well, he’s good’. But I can’t buy that for a lot longer, no he’s not as bad as Negan but that doesn’t make him good, and without starting to back up that claim with evidence the writers are going to have an uphill battle because while some diehards will defend any of his actions to the death, I imagine that more people will begin to question where we draw the line between good and bad because it’s becoming more and more like the only difference is we haven’t spent the last 8 years watching the Saviours and we care about the characters we know rather than the good and bad being separated by different actions, goals, and values like they should be.

I understand that for a lot of people the primary draw of The Walking Dead is the action and having a protagonist who fuels this is what drives the show but from early on, this show set itself apart with the fantastic and rich characters who were a part of this action but also principled and well-developed. Rick was always someone who partook only in what violence had to occur, defending the prison, fighting his way out of Terminus, biting a guys neck out to save his son (I still sometimes fondly remember how badass that scene was) while also seeming to have a moral element - he fought Shane in season two when he displayed the same tendencies towards uninhibited violence that Rick has far surpassed now, kicked Carol out when she murdered their people even though she felt she was justified, and importantly believed in people enough to take them into the group even when they might be a danger, distinguishing himself from past villains he was pitted against.

I’m sad to say that the Rick I loved might be gone - either the writers have really lost their way or this long, confusing path is leading somewhere I don’t want to go. A one-eighty turn seems unlikely at this point but I’ve still got my fingers crossed - c’mon Rick, your son begged you on his deathbed to be how you used to! When they say ‘we’re taking the show back to season 4/5′ they better mean that literally, like everything that happened since was a dream and all the characters get a reset because my heart cannot take this any more.

#The Walking Dead #the walking dead spoilers #rick grimes #rick grimes opinion #opinion #carl grimes #the walking dead season 8 #i love rick but this show is killing me #please stop forcing me to question his morality #i don't have the energy #negan #michonne #is this on purpose #who knows with this show #i hate that i'm still invested and watching it #the walking dead rick

[pessimisticpleasure]

AU where Lemony Snicket adopts the Baudelaire orphans and is also a horse

[pessimisticpleasure]

I’m SURE this has been done before, but...

Hi my name is Esmé Gigi Geniv'eve Squalor and I have a long-standing aversion to housework (that’s how I got my name) and a very in haircut and deep black eyes like the pits of the olives from an aqueous martini and a lot of people tell me I dress like Lady Gaga (AN: if u don’t know who she is get da hell out of here!). I’m not related to Count Olaf but I wish I was because he’s a major fucking hottie. I’m a financial advisor but I’m bankrupting my husband. I have pale white skin. I’m also an arsonist, and I travel around with my boyfriend kidnapping orphans for their fortunes. I am unbelievably wealthy (in case you couldn’t tell) and I wear mostly couture. I love the Garment District and I buy all my clothes from there. For example, today I was wearing a pinstripe corset with contrasting lace around it and an eye-print miniskirt, purple fishnets and shoes with knives for heels. I was wearing silver lipstick, expensive foundation, bronze eyeliner and gold eyeshadow. I was walking outside Veblen Hall. It was a damp and drizzly November in my soul - a phrase which here means “raining” - so there was no sun, which I was very happy about, because sunny weather is out. A lot of Volunteers stared at me. I put my middle finger up at them.

#poetry #this is the best thing i've ever read

[pessimisticpleasure]

ASOUE as “The Office”gifs

Esme Squalor 

Violet Baudelaire

Mr. Poe 

Lemony Snicket 

Klaus Baudelaire 

Count Olaf 

Duncan Quagmire 

Isadora Quagmire 

Sunny Baudelaire 

Carmelita Spats 

Quigley Quagmire 

Olaf’s Associates throughout the series 

The Baudelaire’s every time Olaf shows up 

#also jacques is any time michael played 'michael scarn'

[pessimisticpleasure]

I was rooting for you All Stars 3! We were all rooting for you!

All Stars 3 done fucked up drag (again).

I said last year that the formula of contestants eliminating each other simply doesn’t work on Drag Race. Unless you go full on Survivor with reality TV wherein it is established from the beginning that likeable people cannot win on personality alone and manipulation and strategic alliances are what are rewarded in the game you cannot suddenly switch. Drag Race for the most part is a show which rewards hard work, charm, and track record and the reason the fans detest the queens eliminating other queens formula is because after a number of seasons where that was consistent suddenly it isn’t anymore. I’m all for a change but a shows basic premise and rules should show consistency and after the shambles that was the eliminations last year it’s baffling that they would try to stick to it instead of holding their hands up and saying ‘fine, that didn’t work, we hear you’. Once again, a year later, this stupid idea has ruined yet another season.

I’m actually not mad that Trixie won because while I’m not a big fan of hers I definitely saw a fight in her (*cough*which Alaska didn’t have*cough*) and clearly since her season her confidence has skyrocketed. What pisses me off is that Shangela deserved to come second AT LEAST - despite her already prevalent career she works hard, she is incredibly likeable, and she had an excellent record - which by the way is what everyone harped on that they were judging by all season. I really don’t blame Kennedy before anyone comes for me, I view her almost like Roxxxy last season in that it’s not her fault she was there and of course she was going to fight for her place.

The thing that irritates me most is that Rupaul was visibly shocked by their decision indicating that is not what would have happened if he was judging but it’s his fucking show! Surely, theoretically, Rupaul could intervene and say ‘sorry, you’ve negated your decision making powers by making a dumb decision’. In the end, it is Rupaul and the producers of the show who this ‘twist’ is reflecting badly on and Rupaul should be careful because a reality show about drag is a very niche market and if you turn the fans who have been loyal for years off with what they view as consistently poor decisions, it is Rupaul’s career which could take a hit, not the contestants.

I’d like to really stress that I do not blame the queens for voting who they did - it’s a difficult decision to put on people who are understandably bitter that it isn’t them or just wanted to be a contestant not to decide the fates of others and they don’t deserve hate for doing what they were told to do. It’s a bad formula which should have been tanked after it was badly recieved in the last All Stars not taken to an even more polarising extreme.

The decision I’m arguably more annoyed about than the finale was Aja. When she was announced as a contestant, I raised my eyebrows because she had, to my mind, not been away enough time to blossom into what she needed to be. I had her pegged as either a first or second week elimination. Holy fuck, was I wrong, because Aja blew me away, mostly with what felt like a great attitude and really funny confessional pieces (even if she was dressed like a toddler sorry not sorry). When she was first eliminated I kind of understood (although personally I hated Bebe’s outfit and thought she should have been in the bottom but whatever) but it was her not being brought back after slaying the girl band challenge which really annoyed me because she did better than that weeks top two and she would have been a great addition to the final weeks. Surely allowing the girls to bring someone back is even more ridiculous than allowing them to eliminate each other because they’ll either do what DeLa did and bring someone back simply because they feel guilty or they’d bring back someone who they saw as weak competition so they can beat them quickly.

Honestly, even without the elimination drama, this season felt really lacklustre. From when they announced the queens I wasn’t excited by the lineup and without naming names there were a couple I really disliked in the bunch (but they were eliminated second and third so who cares). Also importantly, we just had an All Stars. Time needs to be longer between them so you can ensure the best people get on it and this really felt like the people they would have called if the ones from last year hadn’t been able to make it and that showed in the quality (the politics of why they needed to do another one because of the network has been explained to me but I still think it’s stupid). I think a good way to judge a season can be by the Snatch Game and I can’t remember who anyone played (apart from Trixie, eesh). I also can’t remember any runways, or lip sync songs, or being blown away by anyone in a challenge. Drag Race tends to have the good moments stick out but this season looking back I can only see the bad which really speaks to the overall mediocre quality.

I was also really confused by Bebe’s presence on the show. In theory, having the winner of the ‘lost season’ should have been great and made the other queens kind of step up to meet her level but Bebe to my mind kind of coasted through on being glamorous and not as bad in challenges as other people and somehow achieved a really good track record despite seeming kind of like a filler. I think the fact that she hadn’t watched Drag Race since leaving was a huge disadvantage to her because she was clearly unfamiliar with what the show had grown into and what the fans might want to see from her and I really don’t think she’s succeeded with endearing herself to a whole new generation of fans. I love that people thought she was a mole the whole way through (as if they have the foresight to spearhead a conspiracy like that) and then were just like ‘oh no she was just a bit shit’.

Lastly I feel the need to address DeLa. Her self-elimination was probably the moment of the season I was the most shocked by - and disappointed. She didn’t actually leave a huge impression on me in season 6 mostly because that was such a high quality group that individual merits were sometimes lost (I regularly forget that she won the first challenge that season) but I do remember Maggie Smith (best All Stars performance ever, fight me) and also that Darienne should have gone home before her. However I really liked her this season although I will say occasionally she was in the top to my mind without deserving to be there - the week she self-eliminated I thought she was good but not great and her place really should have been Trixie’s. Would she have won if she stayed? With the judging panel and the fact that track record seemed to matter a lot less than it usually does, who knows, maybe the next season of Buzzfeed Unsolved can investigate for us. Does it negate the winner because she could have - no because it seems on the stupid side of saintly. Does it kind of taint the season that the frontrunner bowed out without finishing? Definitely yes.

All Stars badly needs a break now and attention should be focused back onto the original show to ensure that is of high quality and produces some new stars who could theoretically be on an All Stars in the future. I’ve really enjoyed the past two seasons of the show because a) compared to season seven anything is good and b) because both shocked me with their fourth place queens. Chi Chi and Trinity were amazing and the areas which both of them excelled in shocked me and that sort of outsider snatching the competition is something that All Stars will never be able to deliver because we know the queens so I’m hoping to see that again in season 10 starting next week. I also find it a lot more exciting to get the know fresh queens and see what they can give because they are the ones trying to build a solid fanbase and a really great, worldwide career for themselves whereas All Stars for the most part have that already and it’s about just getting more.

I swear if I’m here next year talking about this again it may actually kill me...

#RuPaul's Drag Race #all stars 3 #rupaul's drag race all stars 3 #drag race #rupaul #trixie mattel #shangela #kennedy davenport #bebe zahara benet #morgan mcmichaels #ben delacreme #aja #milk #thorgy #chi chi devayne #same shit different year

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Black Mirror Season Four Review

I’ve been waiting ages for season four of Black Mirror. It’s a good range of episodes all of which have a distinct and different feel to them from each other and also from what has come before them. This season relies on both bleakness but also uplifting moments which work well in tandem together, although is let down by the constant twists which, while always theoretically good can wear a little thin. I’d also like to praise the diversity of the season - every episode gives at least one really good role to a woman - although I refute the claim they all have female protagonists, USS Callister, Hang the DJ and Black Museum are male and female and all actually feel more geared towards the male as the main protagonist but I digress. There’s also a lot of roles for non-white actors which make the worlds far more believable and is incredibly still something I feel I have to give specific praise for because so few shows manage it.

USS Callister 10/10 - I went into this season of Black Mirror expecting this Star Trek parody to be my least favourite episode but it absolutely blew me away with how good the story was. This is a pretty disturbing look at the implications of virtual reality and technology which can ‘think’ and of how the kind of ‘lonely’ ‘nice’ guy who tends to be the sort committing horrific acts of workplace violence in the real world might respond to advances in technology which allow them to remain undetected as they cause harm but it’s also given an uplifting ending - unusual for Black Mirror but pleasing for me as a viewer. The balance between humour and darkness was well met, the acting was good and so were the characters. Altogether, this was my favourite episode of the new season.

Arkangel 7/10 - Arkangel was not bad by any means, it was a really interesting story which had some really interesting themes regarding parental control and children growing up with technology, I just felt like it could have gone a lot deeper than it did. It ended slightly underwhelmingly, neither hugely positive or negative when I felt like it needed to pick a lane. Also there were too many teenagers in it but I haven’t let that pull the score down. It was also unfortunately framed by two much better episodes in my opinion and as a childless woman in my twenties I don’t relate to either a parent who needs to keep an eye on their child or the child being spied on because my parents really didn’t have the need to do that. It’s a shame because I was really looking forward to the first female-directed episode ever and it really under-delivered.

Crocodile 9/10 - This is a chillingly dark look at desperation which I found genuinely difficult to watch at times. The previous two episodes and their ‘it’s mostly okay’ endings deceived me a little and I was caught a little off guard by just how dark this managed to go towards the end. It’s a quintessentially Black Mirror episode showing humanity at it’s worst and the depths someone might go to for self-preservation when they’re under attack. I’ve seen some negative reviews of this episode and I definitely understand why it won’t be for everyone - it’s unapologetically violent and difficult to watch but for me that’s part of what makes it so good. (Just one side-note question: why is it called Crocodile? Is it about Crocodile tears because that seems kind of like what it might be but also that doesn’t make a huge amount of sense? Anyway, I pondered that for a really long time.)

Hang the DJ 9/10 - I’m interested in what other people thought of this, my impression was that if you liked San Junipero last season you’ll probably enjoy this uplifting love story. It’s really sweet, funny at times and it was a nice breather after the void of darkness which came before it. I really can’t make up my mind on the twist at the end and whether I quite liked it or if it was a bit of a cop out because they couldn’t think of another way to end it. Either way, what came before it was stellar, it served as a nice break from the bleakness and the words ‘998 Rebellions’ were unbearably sweet.

Metalhead 3/10 - Sadly, this was the low point of the season for me. I’ve not previously enjoyed the more gory or horror-esque episodes and this was no different. Mercifully shot in black and white so the gore is not so obvious otherwise this would have been unwatchable for me. There’s a lot of jump scare bits which really put me off and the world of the story is never fully built. It’s high concept packed into only 40 minutes and for me it just didn’t work, the character was never realised and the plot seemed slow. If it had been longer and if they’d tried to build some kind of world (possibly by having two characters together for a little more exposition through dialogue) then it might have worked but instead too much time is focused on gore and shock value and trying to make you care about the main character without ever giving you a reason to.

Black Museum 7/10 - What really made this episode was the end - like the only other anthology episode White Christmas from way back in season two, I had guessed there’d be some twist at the end and for me that was what made this episode good. Even for Black Mirror, the technology detailed in this episode is particularly disturbing, especially the consciousness ending up in a cuddly toy. The three stories are pretty good - the first slightly comical before it takes a dark turn, the second just totally disturbing, and the third quite sad although rushed - but what hugely makes it is the scenes in the museum between Nish and Rolo and a punchy ending which ties everything together. References to previous episodes, both from this season and from others a much longer time ago are also really nice additions.

#black mirror #black mirror season 4 #netflix #review #spoliers #uss callister #arkangel #crocodile #hang the dj #metalhead #black museum

[pessimisticpleasure]

Life Is Strange - Before the Storm // Awake (Spoiler Free Review)

I don’t know how a game managed to make me nostalgic for another game that I literally only played two years ago but somehow, episode one of the prequel to Life is Strange did just that. I think a lot of people were skeptical about the premise, I certainly was - teenage angst without the time travel? That’s literally my life already. However, if Awake is anything to go by, this is actually as good a companion piece to Life is Strange as we could have hoped for. 

Chole actually works wonderfully as a main character. While I was never someone that disliked her in the original game, her motivations and anger are put into even more context. Seeing her without Max and really without a friend is really sad and her loneliness is palpable. Although no, she can’t time travel, I actually like that, in Life is Strange I watched every scene so many times my brain hurt trying to get the best possible outcome. In this, you have to be much more vigilant about your first answer which makes it realistic if slightly frustrating (I chose at one point to flirt with Rachel which I imagined would be cool forgetting Chloe in this is 16 and it was so painful and I screamed ‘REWIND’ at my laptop to no avail). The Chloe ‘power’ of Backtalk is actually really fun and not to brag but I’m really good at it (come through recent teenage angst). Her version of photographing is tagging things with graffiti which is cute because you have more than one option - I was determined to get all of them but managed to miss FOUR which I was furious about, I was sure I’d looked at everything.

I was worried most about how having Rachel Amber as a fully fledged dialogue and all character might ruin her - after all, the murkiness of her relationship with Chloe and the almost angelic idea of having her true character a mystery left up to the individual player to imagine was a big part of her charm and why she had such an impact on the story. Her presence was felt throughout Life is Strange deeply without her needing to be there, and I was worried that her actual character would be wildly different to what I had imagined. Even while I was playing my first thought about her was ‘that’s not the voice I thought she’d have’. However, she works amazingly well so far. Hearing her talk about her hopes and dreams in one scene was particularly poignant and made me feel like this was a brilliant addition to Life is Strange. While yes, her character becomes less mysterious, it makes her inevitable death in the original game much sadder, and the writers have done a good job of keeping her mysterious and enigmatic.

Chloe and Rachel’s relationship doesn’t disappoint at all - it feels pretty much how I expected it to with Chloe caught in a slight whirlwind. I wasn’t expecting it to be so explicitly romantic but I’m delighted that they’ve gone down that route - if there was one disappointing thing about Life is Strange it was that one route was so obviously supposed to be a lesbian story line but they hadn’t committed fully to it and it was left too much up to the player to fill the blanks in. This one feels more committed to having one route dedicated to explicit romance as I mentioned before you can flirt (albeit badly) and it seems like this is going to become more prevalent as the story progresses in the two subsequent episodes. It is a bit odd having Chloe play the awkward, fumbling, second fiddle to a girl she admires and idolises while remembering that she was put on the same pedestal by Max that she puts Rachel on but it feels realistic, everyone you admire has someone else who they in turn admire just as much.

One thing I really do miss is Max. Her nerdy, awkward, adorakble attitude did really endear me to her and I do miss her painful attempts to be cool and her adoration of Chloe. While I’m definitely going for Chloe and Rachel, I do it with the knowledge that Chloe and Max have a place in my heart that they can’t replicate, but the more romantic moments there are trying to do that the better.

The plot possibly leaves something to be desired. I took slightly more than three hours to play the first episode expecting some kind of three episode arc whereas it’s more just about making a friend which is fine but Life is Strange just seemed to have more of a goal and an obvious ending. Also there’s a scene where you can literally play Dungeons and Dragons for ten minutes which I still can’t decide whether was some kind of foreshadowing to something or just a weird, kooky addition. Both, possibly?

All in all from the first episode, this is definitely a game worth playing if you enjoyed Life is Strange, it has the same beautiful aesthetic and soundtrack (both are slightly more punky but hey, it’s Chloe) and the same tone and feeling underneath everything else.

#life is strange #life is strange before the storm #episode one awake #awake #chloe price #max caulfield #rachel amber #arcadia bay #blackwell academy

[pessimisticpleasure]

Drag Race: ‘She Done Already Done Brought It On’ Review

I was going to review every episode of Drag Race Season 9 and then decided that last week was pointless because no-one got eliminated. On the one hand, I appreciate having a week more to get to know the queens before anyone goes home, on the other the decision that would have been made last week was pretty much just carried over. I wasn’t gagged by Gaga either like gurl you were meant to be judging not boasting about how many designers have made dresses for you, smh.

Can we all just take a moment before I go any further to ask what in the ever loving hell was that appearance by Lisa Kudrow? I thought she was going to be a judge or at the very least a mentor, not just casually come by for thirty seconds, drop some catch phrases and go. Like what was the point? Am I missing something there?

For me this challenge wasn’t particularly inspiring; I’m English and cheerleading isn’t really a thing here so it was a bit lost on me whether they were good or not. It did seem like the kind of challenge which could be edited to make anyone seem top or bottom, I really thought Alexis was going to be bottom instead of Charlie because I thought she did a good job and had one of my favourite runways.

The runway theme of White Party was good and inspired some amazing looks from the queens mostly because it was so simple - apart from Kimora who was serving some kind of season three-esque eight looks in one outfit and none of them on theme. I’m big on themes so I can’t cope when someone doesn’t stick to one -especially one so easy! I couldn’t pick a favourite runway between Charlie and Valentina who are both quickly becoming my favourites of the season. I hope Charlie does better than the 7th or 8th place I’m sadly expecting her to come in but she’s not being set up as much more than a middle of the pack queen. I really hopes she makes Snatch Game because her impressions on YouTube are to die for, especially Lana Del Ray.

I also wasn’t that impressed with Cynthia/ Cucu returning who speaks almost entirely in hashtags I’m not going to use and whose Cucu shtick continues to annoy me rather than entertain. I know she left early last season but she won Miss Congeniality and I feel like that kind of completed her story. She didn’t seem like the unfinished business kind of queen that it makes sense to have return (like Shangela). This was a good group without her and I kind of hope she goes out early so she doesn’t take the spot of a more deserving queen.

Valentina was a great winner for the week, her outfit was good and the fact she actually drew my attention through the challenge while everyone else went a bit over my head was definitely a good sign. I love when the girl who gets picked last shows everyone else up - not to mention she’s only been doing drag for ten months! Her style is so refined, she puts some queens to shame for their lack of polish. I hope she doesn’t fall victim to the curse of the Latina queens and get sent home for a poor snatch game. I haven’t decided who I’m rooting for to win quite yet, I think I need another week, but she’s a very strong contender.

It felt like they tried to edit the lip-sync to look exciting this week even though it wasn’t - I’m pretty sure if that had happened on a week that wasn’t the first elimination they both would have been gone. I was rooting for Kimora at the beginning of the season because I liked her look a lot but she’s fallen rapidly in my estimation and I actually think she was slightly worse at the lip-sync and definitely had the worst runway so she probably should have gone. It’s sad that Jaymes was set up as the first gone, she seemed like a really good person and she obviosuly genuinely cared about her craft and seeing her improve and grow in confidence week by week would have been interesting whereas Kimora seems to care about her ass and not much else and is likely going to go within the next couple of weeks anyway because the judges don’t seem to be on her wavelength at all. I know she does care about drag but she has the attitude I hate of ‘too good to listen to the judges’ which is going to get her kicked off. I hope Jaymes does really well in her post-drag race career, even my icy heart got all emotional with her being unsure of herself on Untucked. Maybe she’ll get to come back next season when she’s worked on live audience performing and her confidence? I’d really like to see her succeed.

#drag race #RuPaul's Drag Race #season 9 #rupaul's drag race season 9 #valentina #jaymes mansfield #charlie hides #kimora blac #rupaul #michelle visage #she done already done brought it on

[pessimisticpleasure]

A Collection of Thoughts on The 100 From Someone Who Just Binged Seasons 1-3 For The First Time...

(Disclaimer, this is written prior to me watching the episodes of season four, don’t yell at me)

About three years ago or whenever the first season of The 100 ended, I tried watching it. My memory was that I’d ‘noped’ at the deformed deer and stopped although on my second watch it turned out I’d actually got about five episodes in and I guess just forgotten to watch the rest? Anyway, I had a head full of spoilers from some of the blogs I follow being big fans (as well Bellarke shippers which meant I was waiting for Bellamy and Clarke to be together before I realised it wasn’t cannon so well done for being so dedicated to your edits that I actually thought it was real) but decided to give it another go anyway and ended up watching the first three seasons in less than two weeks. This is kind of just a collection of thoughts I’ve had (mostly about Kane if I’m honest because Henry Ian Cusick was the reason I started to watch this show in the first place).

No-one is strictly good or evil... Remember when you all probably thought that Kane was evil for the first few episodes? That was me literally less than a week ago and now I’m on the verge of tears every scene he has with Abby (forget all the Clarke ships, Kabby is where my heart lies, I love them more than words) or is a Concerned Parent to any of the kids. Also points for moral compass Clarke turning into The Commander of Death, Jaha being one of the biggest plot twists ever and the entire existence of John Murphy (who’s getting a whole paragraph later). I really like that it’s not a show about good vs bad, it’s a show about doing the best you can, every action and person is a shade of grey.

Literally tho, Kane is amazing... If he isn’t your fave you’re wrong, that’s honestly just a fact. I thought he was going to be another hot villain for me to love (which I wasn’t mad about) and now he’s just a guy trying to do the best he can. And he has a beard now which makes him look even better. Also him and Indra are my BrOTP.

Consequences maketh the show... That’s a proverb, right?Too many times on TV shows somehow everything’s okay at the last minute, and I get that to keep characters alive and tension high, some of that needs to happen. But a lesser show would have found a way for Clarke to miraculously save Finn (so glad that didn’t happen) or, remember when a girl who’d just been stabbed was the only one who could stop the mountain exploding? She would have lived just long enough to save everyone and I was shocked when she didn’t. Even if the main characters do seem a bit death-defying (c’mon, they’re never killing Bellamy or Clarke and if they did it would be a long, meaningful death) it’s good to watch a show where actions actually matter and not everyone is saved all of the time.

BUT they go a bit overboard with the deaths though... Literally why did they kill Lincoln off? It was so random that some Grounders happened to be in the camp when Pike took over and it felt like they just wanted to write him out? Even though it was this big long emotional scene, his death felt really empty because he seemed to have had no screen time for ages doing anything other than talking to Octavia (they should have killed her instead, worst character for sure imo). Killing a character is fine and no matter how attached I am if the death has purpose and meaning, I won’t get mad. Contrast it with Lexa’s death, which despite being part of the horrible Bury Your Gays trope was really meaningful and kind of had to happen for everything else to go on in the season, his was so pointless and apart from a few anguished looks when people found out and Octavia eventually killing Pike it seemed to have very few consequences.

John Murphy is the best character probably ever in anything... I haven’t looked on tumblr for anything because I haven’t watched a few season four episodes but is everyone as gagged by John as I consistently am? He’s such a good example of an anti-hero, I honestly can’t praise the writing enough. It’s a difficult line to toe to have a character who’s openly self-serving and yet somehow still quite likable, someone who’s caused a lot of damage (it’s literally his fault Raven is in constant pain) and who despite that I’m still kind of rooting for, and I think it’s because there’s an element of relatability; we’d all like to envision ourselves doing the right thing like the other characters try to but there’s an element of selfishness within everyone and some of us in that situation would definitely end up like him (tbh me).

Casually gay characters tho... Stories about characters realising and coming to terms with their sexuality are definitely important, but equally important are characters who just happen to be gay and work towards normalising being gay. There’s a tendency for a character to come out and suddenly their sexuality is their whole personality and the only story they have and introducing it in a normalised way is a great way to avoid that. Miller, who Bellamy happens to mention has a boyfriend at one point, and Clarke who’s bisexuality is introduced by her kissing a girl (and also is supported by her mother which is so cute and made me cry), are great examples of this. It’s amazing how few shows actually do this and resort to sexuality as a plot device rather than a casual detail about the character.

I get Bellarke even if I don’t ship it... Bellamy and Clarke are your (I have to stop saying ‘you’ like I’m not a fan now, I feel like a pretender because I could have been watching from the beginning) Carol and Daryl, and as a big Caryl fan I truly hope they end up together. Personally, Clexa was my jam but only because I was living for Clarke being a chill, openly bisexual character and Lexa’s gone now so I’m not going to be mad at all if she ends up with Bellamy. I feel like they’d be stupid not to do it at some point?

Sorry just one more time Kane and Abby... I just need a moment to appreciate how perfect they are together and also how hot Kane suddenly became when he grew that beard. I’m 99% sure the beard was why Abby was suddenly all about him. Gurl same.

(Edie: Guess who just finished what there is to watch of season four and now feels like her life has no meaning -it’s me! This is the quickest I’ve watched a 45 minute/episode show since I was about fourteen and I remember why I stopped...)

#the 100 #clarke griffin #bellarke #bellamy blake #octavia blake #marcus kane #kabby #abby griffin #new fave #random thoughts #john murphy #nathan miller #lexa #commander lexa #clexa #bellamy x clarke #clarke x lexa #henry ian cusick #paige turco #eliza taylor #bob morley #raven reyes

[pessimisticpleasure]

A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Reptile Room, 9/10

Somehow surpassing the first part of the series, The Reptile Room’s two episodes managed to improve my view of Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events even more. 

The almost Monty Python-esque absurd humour of the series is really developed in these two episodes and I’m so in love with it... The ridiculous exchange between Mr Poe and the Bald Headed Henchman has to be one of my favourites when they’re talking about the snakes: ‘Maybe they’re upset about the murder’ ‘Did you say murder?’ ‘I meant accident’ ‘Ah yes, well’. At this point shout out to all the henchmen who have some of the best lines of the series and are absolutely hilarious every time they’re on screen. It’s easy to use them as throwaway scene dressing, and the show gave them all fully rounded personalities. And I love that they’re all trying hard not to root for the children even though they definitely are.

These two episodes really hits home on ‘children should question authority figures if they think they are wrong’. It’s sch a good message in the books that just because you’re considered a child doesn’t mean you’re wrong and just because an authority figure is an adult doesn’t mean they’re right. I think A Series of Unfortunate Events was the first series I read which taught me this and I appreciate that because now as an adult I know I can query them with even more conviction. It’s a really important message, one that the film missed the mark with because the children often came off as whiney and bratty instead of intelligent and reasonable like they are in the books. 

These episodes were a little off perfect marks because of the really odd seeming scene in the labyrinth with Jacquelyn. I really hate the adults helping the children because no that’s not the point! Even if she is a cool receptionist with great lipstick and a harpoon gun (hot receptionist representation, finally, my people) I just don’t really get why she’s there? I don’t see that she’s adding anything having been created for the series, and it seems so out of place when the rest of the plot and characters are sticking so closely to the book. Her and the alive parents which ius bothering me so much, I can’t cope with it. It’s like they want me never to be able to award them 10/10! I realise that with the Netflix series comes to opportunity to explore other characters but they could have easily taken someoneout of the books if they wanted to follow an adult character? Kit Snicket perhaps? Or just, you know, not bothered and toed the line of the books exactly and made a spin-off later if they wanted to do stuff with other characters. Preferably the latter but whatever, it’s in there now. Sidenote, if they are doing a spin-off petition for it to be about young Esmé. Am I the only one who loves her this much? 

I still think anyone who doesn’t like this adaptation is tripping, it’s so incredibly true to the books in most places, tonally it couldn’t get more similar if it tried, humerous and dark at the same time throughout. Lots of people don’t think it’s dark enough but the books are for kids in the end, the darkness is always an undertone (*cough*played up by hipsters*cough*) and the books are funny. I mentioned before, they’re classified as absurdist fiction, this is an absurdist adaptation and it’s great!

#a series of unfortunate events #a series of unfortunate events netflix #asoue #asoue netflix #netflix #netflix original #baudelaire children #baudelaire orphans #violet baudelaire #klaus baudelaire #sunny baudelaire #count olaf #mr poe #esmé squalor #vfd #lemony snicket #review #spoilers

[pessimisticpleasure]

A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Bad Beginning 8/10

For the last year and a half I’ve been unbelievably excited about the Netflix adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events. For the last week I’ve been terrified that it wouldn’t live up to my expectations. I’m incredibly pleased to say that, at least in the first two episodes, it has.

Critically, the reviews have been outstanding with most understanding the pantomime, absurdist tone of the series. Some criticism comes from viewers but most of the critique I’ve seen is from people who very clearly have not read (or if they have they haven’t paid attention to) the books. ‘They’re overacting!’ Yes, it’s an incredibly over the top series, it’s about three kids who get chased by a villain who wears ridiculous disguises, it’s literally classed as absurdist fiction? ‘It’s just a replica of the film!’ No, no it really isn’t the only parts that are similar is dialogue lifted from the book. ‘Count Olaf sings too much!’ His whole persona is supposed to be over the top and ridiculous? People forget that the books were for kids and despite a dark undertone which is absolutely present on the show, on the surface it’s more comedic, especially for the first few books which is what this is portraying. 

Personally, I don’t think this would be all that enjoyable to watch if you are an adult and you haven’t read the books, there are so many nuances included as a nod to people that have and so much depth which isn’t initially accessible if this is your first introduction to the series. As a series for kids it would likely work better but the audience is very clear - if you read the books and want an adaptation that is almost word for word, similar in style and tone, this is for you.

I loved that even within the first two episodes this show was relentless about referencing the books, stuff that comes so much later too like the sugar bowl being given a nod, it’s like a reassurance to book readers that they’re on the right track and everything we expect later is coming.

I wasn’t sold on the aesthetic of the show watching the trailer, I had in my head the very steampunk aesthetic of the film (mentally until now I’ve found it really hard to separate the two). Actually, after the first two episodes, I really like the brightness and colour, it separates it from the film as well as giving it another dimension of eeriness. All I can compare it to is Stepford Wives, the idea that visually everything is perfect with something incredibly sinister behind the scenes.

Casting so far seems well thought and good - I really like the children in the series so far - Violet is less resigned to the mother role of the children and seems equally matched to Klaus for intelligence giving the whole thing a less sexist feel. The read-on-screen Sunny dialogue is perfectly sarcastic and hilarious. Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf was frankly a stroke of genius, the broadway theatrical tone of his performance is perfect and he really delivers the dark moments amongst the comedy well. Patrick Warburton as Lemony Snicket is aptly melancholy  (a word which here means sad but also kind of hot) and I’m glad he’s not weirdly the only English character this time. It’s a shame they didn’t go for a few more books this series, I’m so eager to see Esmé Squalor aka life goals come to life (I know she’s evil but she’s Amy Dunne evil, she does it with flair and if you hate them you’re wrong because they’re fabulous).

The only part I dislike currently is the parents and other ‘good’ adult characters. I can see the differentiation being interesting but I can’t understand why they’ve done it - a main lesson from the books is the idea of children looking after themselves in a world where adults are self-interested and blind to things they can see. The appearance of the very alive parents who are definitely supposed to be dead really ruins that theme. There’s a chance for a bit too much of a happy ending - though I’ll appreciate the cruel nature if the parents never make it back to their children. I’d prefer if they weren’t in it at all but I suppose we can’t change that now.

The Bad Beginning was actually a very good beginning which set the show up nicely, two episodes in and I’m already sold and eager to watch the next ones. I’m really looking forward to episodes 7 and 8 so I can see a book adapted which never has been before

#a series of unfortunate events #a series of unfortunate events netflix #netflix #netflix original #asoue #asoue netflix #spoilers #review #baudelaire children #baudelaire orphans #violet baudelaire #klaus baudelaire #sunny baudelaire #the bad beginning #the bad beginning review #lemony snicket #count olaf #esmé squalor

[pessimisticpleasure]

Sherlock, The Lying Detective, 10/10

Fair warning, this review will contain major spoilers as well as likely be fairly incoherent because I am still so blown away and this is my way of processing. Apologies.

How did the quality of Sherlock suddenly skyrocket? I thought for sure last week was a nail in the coffin and this week I was simply blown away by how much better the episode was. I’d been dreading it in the lead up, not wanting to watch one of my favourite shows be chipped away at any more but watching it everything seemed to click. Everything was just right in this episode, there were twists abound, the dialogue was so improved from last week, even Mary’s, and it seemed like new Sherlock I could really get behind, action with the crime solving and great characters we’ve loved since series one. 

I’m not going to do good and bad because I think I’d struggle to find anything about this episode I disliked and I’m enjoying this rare spurt of positivity, so instead I think I’ll just explore some of the elements that I liked

TWISTS - I love twists in a show as much as I love a key change at the end of a song. I like having my expectations subverted. and my perception of events challenged and Sherlock definitely delivered on that tonight. A clever show should be able to surprise the audience and this definitely did. I was, for want of any better terms, snatched bald when the therapist was actually most of the women we’ve seen this season, it was oddly creepy and so perfectly done and being fairly ignorant I hadn’t even noticed some of them looked similar. I may never trust the show again but it was probably worth it for the gag. of the reveal. I actually did call the ‘the other Holmes sibling is a girl’ way back when the first mention happened (I made up a whole character, in my head her name was Euphemia which is a weird coincidence considering her actual name is also Greek and starts with the letter ‘E’ but I digress), weirdly a lot of people wrote it off as a male sibling for whatever reason (my sister said it was because of ‘Sherringford’ but people started this thrid brother thing way back last series, didn’t they? Also I didn’t clock that was a name I assumed it was a place because I though A) it seemed like a silly name and b) it seemed unlikely to have two kids whose names began with ‘Sh’ in the same house). I did not however see her showing up within the last ten minutes of episode two being some crazy gun-wielding shapeshifter (okay I know she didn’t shapeshift but I swear they all looked really different!) It was so good, I’m not over how good it was in the slightest.

THE CASE - I was on the edge of my seat watching the case unfold this week. A serial killer is just more compelling than someone smashing some statues of a terrible former prime minister. I thought who had actually come to Sherlock’s flat was going to be the Big Question next week and I’m really glad they didn’t do it that way. I was also convinced that the father had killed Faith and employed a decoy which, while interesting, would not have had the same impact on a viewer. It’s good to watch Sherlock being fooled, he is human after all and a drug fuelled brain really isn’t going to work well at solving cases and I like that this episode was realistic about that.

MRS HUDSON - Please can we all take a moment to appreciate what a gift Mrs Hudosn is to all us all? I swear most of her lines in this episode needed a mic drop at the end. Also she drives an amazing sports car, called Mycroft a reptile and her lipstick was on point.  She’s slaying the game! I’d like to see her get a nice toyboy at some point to complete her all round awesomeness, just to be casually ushering out some Chris Hemsworth look-alike when John arrives one morning.

MARY - Last week I said I was glad Mary was gone because she seemed to be the root of the problems in the show, and I maintain that, alive Mary is an issue. Dead Mary who still whips her boys into shape from beyond the grave and is the sarcastic voice of reason however is an entity I am 500% behind. Dead characters if they return to shows are usually given the cheesiest dialogue and irritatingly forced emotional moments but Mary was spot on, and her presence really captured what they did well this episode. 

EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER - Watching people fake grieving is physically painful for me, I hate how over the top it goes because most of the time, somebody dying doesn’t elicit huge bursts of sobbing from people and throwing things, I would say grief is a more quiet anger and sadness which lies dormant until prompted to explode in outbursts which are never as dramatic or frequent as they are so often displayed in Hollywood. Tonight, Sherlock and John were both realistic in their grief, John’s especially was incredibly compelling, and yes, I know having the dead wife come back and talk to her husband from beyond the grave is incredibly cliched, but even the way that was portrayed felt nuanced, true to the show, and genuinely heartfelt rather than something trying to provoke emotion from the viewer. Kudos for that Steven Moffat (maybe he’s just a better writer than Mark Gatiss and he should just stick to being Mycroft? He wrote a terrible poem for the Guardian last week about how he hadn’t ruined Sherlock, I know I’m getting off track again but it really was awful...)

A DARK EPISODE - Sherlock is a pretty dark show because in the end, Sherlock is a very dark man. This is a man who consistently interacts with murderers, is a self-confessed sociopath, and who has deep rooted substance abuse problems. That’s not really happy stuff, and Sherlock works best when the comedic moments are interspersed with genuinely dark tones throughout the episodes that are true to that more honest side of Sherlock. Last week with the voice over and the ominous sharks and the assassin rubbish it was trying to hard to achieve this same dark tone. This episode went about it effortlessly and achieved it in a far better way. 

VILLAIN - Villains make heroes, and Sherlock episodes without a compelling villain often fall flat. The writers probably should have kept Moriarty around a while longer, but in his absence, Toby Jones was great in this episode. They’ve tried going creepy with the villains before with Magnussen last series but he never seemed to quite get off the ground, somehow managing to be both too obvious and too subtle at different points. Toby Jones struck a great note with his portrayal of Culverton Smith which was likeable at times, disturbing at others, and always really genuinely brilliantly acted and with the introduction of Euros it looks like we’re hopefully going to have a similarly compelling villain next episode. Also congratulations for making literally everybody in the world think Smith would be the main villain this series, we were all fooled (well I was). I think I might be too trusting to watch this show...

IRENE ADLER - John knows she’s alive. She texts Sherlock. He sometimes texts her back. Her ringtone is still amazing. She was mentioned and I’m just so happy. I know it means nothing and she won’t come back in the next episode no matter how much that would make my life and the three year wait worth it even more but please if that happens oh my god, I will actually cry.

FINAL THOUGHTS... All round incredible, completely turned my opinion of this new series round. If they were going to do action they should have started out with this, because honestly it just makes last week look even worse in comparison. Please don’t let this be where this series of Sherlock peaks. I would love nothing more than to have to come back next week and lower the rating of this episode because the next one’s somehow managed to blow it out of the water completely. Don’t let the standard slip, this is what I need in my life!

#sherlock #spoilers #sherlock spoilers #the lying detective #sherlock holmes #sherlock bbc #bbc sherlock #john watson #mary watson #steven moffat #mark gatiss #toby jones #benedict cumberbatch #martin freeman #amanda abbington #mrs hudson #sherlock series 4 #sherlock series four #sherlock season 4 #sherlock season four #sherlock season four episode two #review

[pessimisticpleasure]

Sherlock, The Six Thatchers 5/10 - A Comprehensive Review

While The Six Thatchers had its merits, I couldn’t help but be reminded of what Sherlock used to be in contrast to what it is now. There’s a difference between a show changing and developing over time and one which completely veers off course and from this episode, Sherlock seems to have done the latter. For a show which only consists of three episodes per season which doesn’t manage to even produce a season per year, it feels disheartening as a viewer to start off the short season with something which feels so different in style and tone to traditional Sherlock, less the fun mystery and more like an action film, complete with explosions, assassins, and cheesy dialogue, all pertaining to a show I probably wouldn’t have started watching if the first season had been like this.

THE GOOD

GOODBYE MARY - I was a big Mary fan in the last season but in this whole episode she irritated the hell out of me. I was pretty sure her death was coming because it happens in the books, but I thought she was going to die giving birth. Being objective, Mary was one of the root problems with the show right now, her overarching story was dull and removed the show from the fun detective drama it used to be that I liked and turned it into this semi-James Bond pantomime which I don’t enjoy as much. Bad mother points to Mary for deciding to leap in from of a bullet when she had a young child.

MYCROFT - Holla at Mark Gatiss for writing himself one of the biggest parts this episode, I think I’d do the same. Mycroft is one of the only things about this show that has genuinely improved from season to season, mostly because instead of completely changing his character they’ve just built on it. Also, he hates Margaret Thatcher so points. With him however comes a bit of nostalgia for the season one and two era Sherlock episodes which I just really miss.

JOHN - I’m not usually a John fan (which I know is akin to blasphemy) but his story this episode was interesting. The seed of bitterness towards Sherlock and Mary were sown early, initially played for laughs (John: haha Sherlock prefers the far more skilled sidekick, but seriously take me next time) then growing a little with his relationship with Cute Scottish Bus Girl (although was anyone else skeptical that he was texting her the whole time? The texts he was sending in bed sounded a lot more familiar than someone he happened to meet on a bus) then culminating in Mary dying. His grief seemed born of self-resentment and pushing it onto Sherlock seemed realistic and will hopefully lead to some interesting scenes between the two of them.

THE BAD

THE CASE - Uninteresting, slow, and unlikely - it just happens to involve Mary’s past life and just happens to involve two of the government officials we’ve seen on screen? Suspension of disbelief is one thing but this was on another level. 

VOICEOVERS - Fuck voiceovers. Especially fuck annoying ones about proverbs that are connected to the story in the most minimal way possible.

MARY’S DIALOGUE - Was it just me or was every thing Mary said this episode the cheesiest thing ever? It got to the point where I couldn’t tell if it was the line or the delivery that was bothering me and decided at the end of the episode it was probably both.

MARY RUNNING OFF - Firstly, bad mother points again to Mary for running away from her tiny adorable child which seemed very unrealistic ‘I want to protect them’ okay but you’re an assassin and if that guy tracks your family down it would probably be better if you and your skillset were with them. Just my opinion. But seriously, making Mary go to a million places (I’ll come to how irritating these montage scenes were in a minute) just to be convinced in two seconds to go home was ridiculous. You may as well not have bothered. I thought they’d gone to the desert to miraculously bump into Irene Adler (which I would not have complained about no matter how unlikely) but the reality was much less interesting. 

MONTAGE SCENES - Why were there about five bursts of one minute segments where infinite amounts of time passed and they went through about six scenes? It was weird and unnecessary. 

SECONDARY CHARACTERS - There are a lot of shows where I outright prefer secondary characters to the primary ones. While Sherlock isn’t one, I’m really attached to them and enjoy their time on screen. Molly, Mrs Hudson, and Lestrade all seemed really sidelined this episode, which seems to be a problem stemming from the move away from being the true detective drama it began as. This show only has three episodes in a season, I don’t want episodes that they’re barely in because there aren’t enough.

FINAL THOUGHTS...

I miss old Sherlock. I sound like one of those people who gets annoyed when bands don’t release identical sounding songs but I do. It was cute and fun and this is too dark and too much like an action film I wouldn’t bother watching. Considering we’re forced to wait years between seasons and this might be the last ever, I’m disappointed with how it began and I really hope it picks up.

#spoilers #hella spoilers #sherlock #sherlock spoilers #review #sherlock review #the six thatchers #sherlock holmes #mycroft holmes #john watson #mary watson #mrs hudson #molly hooper #greg lestrade #some negativity #sherlock season 4 #sherlock series 4 #sherlock season four #sherlock series four

[pessimisticpleasure]

The Walking Dead Ratings Drop - Exploring Season Seven

I never thought it would get to the point where it felt painful to sit down every week to watch my favourite show because I knew something else was going to get ruined every episode and then season seven happened and here we are!

(This review is going to be critical and negative so be warned, also as I am English even though it’s aired I am writing this before watching the finale so I’ll edit after I do for accuracy). There are a number of reasons The Walking Dead has gone so far astray, some of them have been building for seasons and others are more recent but the combination has left us with the most disappointing half-season probably ever. 

The Walking Dead is a character led show, if they aren’t done correctly and placed in the right episodes then unfortunately the show comes apart. Previosuly interesting characters like Michonne and Daryl have become intensely boring to watch because their stories seem to take much too long to progress and the characters don’t seem to have developed at all recently. This possibly comes out of a genuine worry from the writers as these characters are so beloved by the audience that they're scared of the backlash that might come from changing them but in a show like this progression is natural and if they don’t start moving things along soon then ratings are going to keep dropping.

Another character based reason the show has started to do so badly is how bloated it now is with characters. Within one season, four new groups have been introduced to the audience which seems less like a rich and engaging world and more like panic to try and follow the comics closely. You know the thing soap operas do when they have too many characters and suddenly a building collapses or there’s a huge fire? They kind of need to do that right now. They also don't focus enough time on the really good new characters - like Jesus (two episodes and a brief scene in and on top of a van was not enough, no) and Ezekiel and focus on the mediocre ones like Dwight and Sherry (stop telling me Dwight is important in the comics, he killed Denise and I hate him and he’s just another annoying broody guy and we have so many of them already).

Let's play a game called ‘which episode is Carol, the only well-written character of the show in’? Let’s also play ‘which episode is led by a tertiary character that people like but don’t really want to see an hour of’? The introduction of so many characters means really good ones are shoved aside and it’s to nobody's benefit - Maggie’s story this season should have been at the forefront, a pregnant woman having just lost her husband but standing up to fight is a compelling story and one we all expected to see. Instead we had Daryl brooding in a cell in episode three then Rick moping around  in episode four and Maggie didn’t even get a whole episode to herself because there was that stupid sub-plot in episode five with Carl and Enid’s boring romance! How have writers who have managed to guess the whims of their audience for so long failed to realise that relegating well liked and well-written characters to one or two episodes is probably not going to earn them any popularity?

Let;s also mention here the fact the writers have made so many episodes single plot. Episodes one, two, three, four, and six all just focused on people in one area and while multiple plots have happened in them, the secondary one is usually dull (like Rosita and Spencer driving around in episode four) and it gives the episode an isolated feeling which was something that worked great when they did it for the first time in season four, after the prison fell the characters were supposed to be isolated and it was clever for the format to reflect it. Now it just feels like they couldn’t be bothered to write multiple interesting stories for one episode, sometimes they can’t even be bothered to write one. I’m still lamenting that I spent two hours of my life watching episodes three and six neither of which moved the plot along at all or was even in my opinion passably interesting.

Negan gets a whole paragraph to himself because he is a complicated problem to untangle. I actually really like Negan apart from the wives thing which is too incredibly creepy to think about. The problem is that so do the writers and they’ve gone a bit overboard. Maybe they’ve realised that all the other characters are kind of dull at the moment or that he’s pretty much the only thing capable of moving the story forwards? Whatever the reason, his presence has been unbelievably overboard - his whole shtick is that he’s this overlord and yet he’s just happily popping along to visit his subjects every few episodes? If they want a terrifying evil for evils sake villain Negan was a great start but they’ve ruined it by having him too present in the show. Having him compared to other characters just highlights how dull a lot of them are and how fun he is so if the writers want me to hate him they’re doing a bad job. I’m firmly #TeamNegan when the inevitable fighting starts.

 And finally, speaking of fighting, doesn’t this whole arc feel completely redundant anyway? We know eventually the ‘good’ guys will defeat evil Negan, they’re probably going to kill him off to make it different from the comics and give fans what they want (although does anyone really want Negan dead?) so the stakes seem kind of forced and pointless. Sure, someone’s going to die before it happens (Spencer), probably actually in the episode I haven’t watched yet (called that) but they’re going to be fine. Rick, Daryl and Michonne aren’t going to die (annoying because at the moment they’re some of the worst characters) and it’ll be rinse and repeat again next season. Frankly the whole format of group is happy, group meets bad guy, sad times, happy again is wearing extremely thin and the writers and producers of this show need to have a serious shake-up before they lose all semblance of a fan base. As we all know, you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain.

#the walking dead #twd #negativity #i'm warning you #the walking dead season 7 #spoilers #but not for the mid season finale #so some inaccuracy #forgive me #rick grimes #daryl dixon #Carol Peletier #maggie greene #maggie rhee #glenn rhee #negan #Alexandria Safe Zone #the saviors #the sanctuary #paul rovia #jesus #king ezekiel #shiva #the kingdom #Michonne

[pessimisticpleasure]

A collection of thoughts about Drag Race All Stars after the finale...

This season was underwhelmingly predictable...

Predictability does not a good season make. If that’s not a proverb already it should be. The point of reality TV is that, while not always of the best quality, it at least keeps you guessing week by week as to who might win. There has to be some element of surprise there or it just doesn’t work as a format. This was the opposite, no matter how much you liked the challenges and gagged over Alyssa and Tatianna, and whether or not you like/ liked/ never liked Alaska, it was predictable that she won. There was never really a significant chance that it was going to be anybody else. It might as well have been written into her contract. (It probably was.) It was a shame because the challenges were great and the drama was frustratingly brilliant and it was annoying there was something so predictable looming over it all. 

The tops and bottoms this season seemed really random...

What the fuck was with putting Ginger in the bottom week 3? She was the second funniest in that challenge. Roxxxy did big eyes and not much else and Alaska completely flubbed the words to her lipsync. Conversely what the fuck was with Detox being in the top? She wasn’t the worst but her part didn’t make me laugh and her runway was some silver paint and tape. Other notable examples include: Katya in the bottom for Shequels when her and Detox probably should have won, Phi Phi in the top that week, Tatianna in the bottom for Fish Tank, Alaska in the top that week, and Alyssa in the bottom for makeovers. I get that part of it is taste and I’m not always going to agree with the judges but it just seemed a really flummoxing collection of choices. They seemed to have been very poor at gauging what the audience were going to respond well to which is something that Drag Race usually does really well. The odd choices contributed to the eliminations which vexed us so much - Ru you can look as surprised as you like, you put Alyssa in the bottom, it’s your fault as much as Detox’s that she’s going home.

Season 5 heaviness turned out as badly as I expected...

Why did anyone think it was a good idea to bundle Rolaskatox back together? Most people didn’t like them as a group the first time around, let alone this time. While Detox gave some good runways there are a ton of Queens I would have preferred, same with Coco Montrese and Roxxxy. The only two the fans really responded to and wanted to win were Alyssa and Alaska (at least at first). There was no reason for them to try and emulate that season by reuniting the top six minus Jinkx, it weakened All Stars because we just saw Queens interacting with people that we saw them with a few years ago and it put good Queens from other seasons at a disadvantage. They didn’t have the friendship angle so they got less screen time.

As did letting Queens vote each other off...

This was a ticking time bomb and anyone that thought this might have been a good idea was proved wrong when Roxxxy was saved for the third time. Actually they were probably proved wrong when she was saved the first time and we had to let Tatianna go only one episode after ‘Same Parts’. They were always going to pick friendships and it didn’t make it compelling viewing, it made it annoying. There is a reason reality TV follows the format of audience votes or judges vote. Getting contestants to pick, whether they’ve been on the show before or not just feels unfair. They’re in the drama; they are completely unable to be objective about the decisions.

Lipsync for your legacy didn’t really work...

I really missed the lipsyncing for your life aspect which gives what I would argue are far more emotional performances. There’s only so much a person can connect with imaginary money, far easier to connect with is the prospect of going home and slaying a performance to stay in the game. There were no truly iconic lipsyncs this season, I can’t even remember one song that was performed and coming off a season which had a lipsync on rollerskates and Chi Chi Devayne’s rendition of ‘And I Am Telling You’ it felt really lackluster.

Katya winning would have meant a lot more...

Put aside who deserved it (Katya did) and take a moment to look at objectively what her winning could have meant. We live in an age where a huge number of young people have mental illness - not to mention how that number rockets in young gay people - and someone who admits that their anxiety has crippled their life and ruined their chances before and who managed not only to do incredibly well in this competition but to win it would have been hugely boosting to them. Katya’s emotional speech was that of a true winner, someone who deserved it for overcoming a lot of shit rather than something overly rehersed and affected. Seeing her conquer that final hurdle and winning despite everything would have been amazing - not to mention that that’s the kind of thing people who watch reality TV like. Nobody roots for the girl who had the tantrum because she didn’t do well, we root for the lovable Russian hooker who overcomes her personal demon. Fucking Brenda. It just seems like it could have meant a lot for someone like that to win and be shown truly beating their anxiety, and perhaps that should have been considered. Know your audience, producers.

The producers have a lot to reflect on after this season...

Speaking of the producers... I hope if they take anything away from this season, it’s mind your editing. I’m not talking about Phi Phi coming off like a bitch, that was just her attitude and the things she said. I’m talking about Alaska. You can’t portray someone as the darling of the show for the first few episodes, leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else, getting next to no criticism and then suddenly decide they’re the villain and then expect the majority of fans to still be rooting for her to win. 

So does Ru...

In the end, this is Ru’s show. Ru should possibly be more mindful of that. When she didn’t intervene in the eliminations -which let’s not kid ourselves, she absolutely could have done, she came across as annoyingly ambivalent. In the end, whether they’re serious or not, because of eliminations and the winner, people have sworn off the show now. That makes no difference to Alaska, it’s RuPaul’s Drag Race, not Alaska’s. Bad publicity can really damage a show like this, especially one so niche. It only has to have a bad next season for the repuation to seriously decline and that’s really sad because it’s a very important show, introducing a misunderstood sub-culture to the world and normalising it immensely. For her sake I hope she’s picked some damn good Queens for Season 9 (can Shangela come back?)

So do the Queens...

It’s not RuPaul’s Best Friend race. Your tantrum is not cute. Be graceful when you lose. Be graceful when you win. Everybody is there for the same reason. You are not the only one who wants to win. Winning is not more important than coming across as a decent person. Editing is not to blame for your rant or tantrum. 

So do the fans...

No matter how much you dislike a Queen, death threats are never acceptable or okay. Voicing your opinion shouldn’t come at the expense of someone feeling safe or comfortable online. There is enough hate to the gay community from outside without people hating from within. Be frustrated, voice your opinion in an overly long blog post, knock on your neighbours doors and explain why your opinion of that one Queen is changed forever, but don’t send hate for something that cannot be changed. Don’t assign blame where it doesn’t really lie. Remember this is a TV show which you are going to enjoy when you watch it again. Remember all of the contestants have great careers and they are going to be okay even if they didn’t win. Focus on the great moments of this season which were numerous - Alyssa as Annie Oakley is my personal favourite. Everything will seem different when you watch it all again - those eliminations will seem less difficult, that tantrum will come across as passion, and Ru letting less deserving Queens go home will seem like sticking to the rules that were set. 

And remember:

I have a carburetor outside that I just have to do some work on. 

#rupaul's drag race #rupaulsdragraceallstars2 #rpdras2 #rpdr all stars #rpdr spoilers #opinions #katya zamolodchikova #katya #team katya #alaska thunderfvck 5000 #alaska #some alaska hate #but i''ve tried really hard not to be hateful #there's too much of that #detox #roxxxy andrews #tatianna #alyssa edwards #alyssa #coco montrese #adore delano #is not mentioned #but hey she was there for a while #ginger minj #phi phi #phi phi o'hara #barely mentioned #slightly cunty remark part way through #spilling the tea #i have a lot of feelings