#I do genuinely believe Ted see's paul as his best friend... It's just Ted himself is a terrible person who would leave him to die regardles | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

readbyred · 3 years

Text

“Pathetic” Ted Spankoffski x Reader

a gender neutral, reverse hurt/comfort fic

warnings: cursing; mild sexual comments; a very tired dyslectic author

Lately, things haven’t been going so well for Ted. Charlotte broke things off for good and it was far from pretty, the atmosphere was crushing to be honest. And so with time he latched onto Paul more and more, using his best friend as a distraction from his own life and failiures. Unfortunately his companion seemed to be a bit distracted and not very eager to spend time, at least less so than usually. Ted pinned the fault on a crush of his, Emma, one of the baristas at a nearby caffee. She was hot and would be great if onyl she didn’t speak, or at least that’s what he told Paul. His friend didn’t seem to agree for some reason. But that’s how it was, in Ted’s opinion. She always got offended for so many small things and tried to make him out to be the bad guy of every confrontation. But it wasn’t Ted’s fault that their uniform shorts were so short and besides one or two comments were just a given considering how good her and her coworkers looked in them. But she always had something to say, a name to call him or even a complaint to make, if her boss was around. But even then it was all fun and games. Until one day it wasn’t.

It all started “innocently” as he considered it. He spotted Paul using the stairs on the opposide side of the building. Some time ago his friend had stopped using the ones by Ted’s office, for one reason or another. And so they made their way together, Ted trying to get some information out of him as to how things with Emma were. Finally after a conversation more painful than pulling teeth Paul announced that he was going to ask Emma out. It was a big step and it surprised Ted but after some teasing he promised not to blow this. So far so good and it wasn’t until they stood in the line, inside the cafe, that it went downhill.

It was meant to be a harmless comment, he knew Emma found them at least a bit funny too, for sure. Nothing bad, he just asked whet else could she do for a tip if she didn’t want to sing. She already looked very annoyed, he never expected her to appreciate his humour and so he nudged Paul saying that he might give her a different tip if she didn’t want his money. That, for reasons unknown to Ted, crossed the line and Emma whipped around to face them frustrated. She turned to Paul to announce that although she liked him around if his friend was going “to come around only to be a gross creep” then they might as well just go to starbucks instead, since she “didn't go to this shitty job to get harassed”

Ted didn’t even get to say that technically, he wasn’t doing anything wrong because Paul who was now done with awkwardly apologizing to his very pissed off crush, dragged him out of the Beanies, furious. They didn’t talk and to be honest Ted started to feel a bit anxious inside, like a child feels when they tip off their parent in public and know what will await them home.

But that was just how he was! A sleazeball, a jerk, a horny bastard at best. He didn’t want to accept that same persona that was now basically his whole self could have gotten him in trouble with his best friend. And he was never a fan of feeling guilty in general so as soon as he realised that Paul wasn’t going to address it he turned to the first person that asked what happened.

It was Bill who questioned the situation first and although he asked Paul what was up the younger man seemed not to be in the mood to talk and so there was Ted, ready to offer his, very objective, point of view. Leaning on the wall of Bill’s cubicle he announced, trying to sound like he didn't care that he obviously did something bad.

“His grumpy barista got pissed for no reason” chuckling nervously he exclaimed glancing over at Paul working on his computer and ignoring him “it’s not my fault she’s so stiff, alright? And there are many more girls than her, it’s her loss, ey?”

No response. Bill seemed to glance at Paul pitifully.

“Oh, come on! You can do better anyways! And as your best friend I-”

“Can you shut up?” Paul didn’t raise his voice but he as well might have, the tone he was using was way worse. He fully turned to face his older coworker, and for a very long time in a while Ted was, in fact quiet. As he spoke however he became more visibly frustrated “Can you finally stop following me around when I don’t want to be followed, trying to insert yourself into EVERY conversation i have and ruining everything with your gross comments? Why can’t you take the hint? We are not friends, you- you’re just this guy, a guy from work that’s just there when no one wants him to and is just too... pathetic for anyone to directly tell him that''

Ted’s face went blank as Paul let out his years worth of frustrations.

Ted often heard those words. “Pathetic” yes, he was familiar with the term more than anyone. It was alongside such titles as “annoying” “sad” “lonely” “disposable” “a nobody” something he heard often. Sometimes from Sylvia who worked on the top floor and had no real fun qualities besides looking hot (in his opinion). Other times from Emma who would be a decent friend if she wasn't so annoyingly ‘horny for Paul’.

Most of the time he said them himself though. It was normal, you know. A truth he accepted without any brooding except for those lonely nights in his apartment where he drank and let his emotions out. But it hurt no less to hear such remarks be thrown at him from someone like Paul. Someone who, despite his flaws seemed to be genuinely liked by people around him and wanted around. But if Paul wasn't his friend did he have anyone else at all? Not only in his job but in general. After all he didn’t have much besides his work life.

In his youth he was a nerdy little kid that quickly bloomed into a bitter, insecure adult, no magical glow up or ‘it gets better after high school” crap. When he got this job sometime after college, still a mess after that happened a few autumns earlier, he thought he found his place.

Even if he never felt very wanted he liked it here a lot. Only now had he realized he might have been the only one to see it as such. Was he just as sad as everyone apparently saw him as?

That moment made him way too conscious of his own existence and choices, it was no longer a matter of convincing himself that it's all in his head now that the truth was out and clear, the words hanging in the heavy air seemingly for the whole world to see.

And to be fair he had no arguments against the claim, because how sad that was to consider his coworkers, coworkers that apparently hated his guts, the closest people he had?

Because sure, Bill was stiff and boring but there was a certain dose of fun in their usual banter. Sylvia always knew all the gossip from the office and wasn’t all that bad at times. Melissa was always fun to hang around and even brought him lunch on a few ocassions. Even the intern that joined merely two months before, (Y/n), was someone he accepted as a friend. Not to mention Paul and Charlotte, two of the closest people he had, both of which didn’t want him around. And from what Paul said no one else did either. He had no reason not to believe it.

It took him only a few seconds to get it together when Paul finished.Ted always had a habit of getting very obviously defensive when his ego was hurt.

“Okay, whatever!” he shrugged angrily “Well, it’s not your problem then! I know when I’m not wanted”

He made his way to his office, away from Paul and Bill and all those people who he considered to be his friends.

The whole day was a bit messy, ever since (Y/n)’s foot stepped into the office they were sent on endless errands by their superior, Mr Davidson. Whatever happened up above in the chain it created one hell of a mess in the documents and so (Y/n) along with Melissa were the busiest they’ve been in a while.

Hence when they finally found time to get some well deserved coffee most of their friends were on their way back to CCRP.

That led to a lot of confusion when after stepping onto their floor they were met with an unusually tense atmosphere. They must have missed something important, they thought.

It wasn’t a long time ago when they joined the team and they never felt like the new person they were and all the efforts at staying purely professional faded with first friendships. And as much as they tried to,they became fond of their coworkers quickly. And so the current mood around them concerned (Y/n).

This wasn’t snooping around, they told themselves approaching Bill to ask what was up. He was a nice man, older than them and equally unskilled in the tech field but overall a very sweet man. If there was something to be concerned about he’d tell them for sure.

The day was almost over, one hour was left until Ted could go home and drink himself to sleep. But for now he just sat in his chair, staring blankly on the screen of his computer displaying a familiar black and orange webpage he was unusually uninterested in, mindlessly squishing his old and used up stress ball. The busiest hours were over and all files seemed to finally be back in place and safe and so he didn’t have much more to keep himself busy with.

He was angry, upset and hurt. Already keeping so many negative emotions inside, those new ones threatened to spill over the edges of the walls he built over the years but so far he managed to keep it together as much as he could.

And that’s when someone knocked on his door.

“What?” he sounded just like he felt, his own voice betraying him greatly. The person on the other side must’ve taken it as an invitation because soon they revealed themselves to be (Y/n). It wasn’t the last person he wanted to see, sure, but it was only because he didn’t want to see any of them equally. Maybe Paul a bit more than the rest “What do you want?”

“I heard what happened and-” they began, watching him carefully. Ted felt even more miserable under their gaze, truly pathetic and judged with his emotions on display. But there was no more space left for him to push them further down and ignore.

“Great, you came here to tell me how much you hate me too, or what?” he scoffed giving them a bitter look “Because I ‘acted like an asshole’?”

“You did from what I know” they responded. It wasn’t something he didn’t expected to hear but he felt even worse hearing it come from (Y/n). They were someone he had his eyes on for some time but never got to try anything. First, because he was with Charlotte and, as much of a jerk as he considered himself to be, he would never forgive himself for being just like Sam. Later when she ended things it was just too painful to jump back into ‘his game’ as he called it. As he always believed, he wasn’t able to fall in love. He did so once in college and never again. It was easier to believe than to face his fear of rejection and not being enough again. Sure, he didn’t exactly love (Y/n) and even if he could do it at all he probably wouldn't, knowing them for two or three months tops. Those sorts of feelings though, weren’t distant at all and their arrival was, at this point, almost inevitable. And so to hear them stand against him, even if rightfully so, hit him in a way he never anticipated. Hence his confused expression when they added “But I came here to check on you, you’ve been locked in here awfully long...”

“I was busy” he barked back quickly returning to his defensive tone. They sometimes asked him things like this one for no apparent reason as to why would they want to know that. He never fully gave in, only sometimes in passing throwing one or two passive-aggressive remarks referring to his situation with Charlotte and such.

“Bullshit” they raised their eyebrows looking down at him. If it wasn’t for the fact he felt anything but up for joking he’d point out how unusual it was to hear them curse. Unamused they added, awaiting his response “Your screen reflects on the glass behind you. So?”

“’So’ you can leave” with Paul’s words still vividly playing in his head he avoided their gaze. The possibility that they thought of him so lowly seeming very overbearing and terrible all of a sudden “I’m fine, alright? So what else you came here for”

“You know acting like this never worked on me, right?” they took the seat opposite to him, still acting very unbothered by his aggressive demeanour, maybe a bit impatient.

“And why do you even want to know that, huh? I mean really, (Y/n), I know you’re new around here but you really don’t have to kiss ass to-”

“Get over yourself, will you? If you’d like to know I was worried” their frown was gone almost as soon as it appeared as they went one, seemingly letting their words fall from their mouth freely “And yeah! You cross many lines, I’m not surprised Emma was mad, whatever you said to her. But you’re still someone I care about, as a person. And you’re not that bad most of the time, you know?”

“If you really want to have a place to stay over the weekend it wouldn’t hurt to ask more nicely, you know” Ted jumped between acts and masks, desperate to find one strong enough to hide whatever that was that made his expression soften.

“Look, I came here on my own but if you want things to go back to how they were you’ll really need to drop the act” they sighed, gaining a bit more of a serious tone.

“And you tell me that? It was Paul who decided to call me a lonely pathetic asshole” Ted knew well only one of those things actually came from Paul but if there was even the smallest possibility to have someone disagree with what he and others thought of him he’d gladly take it, even if it wouldn’t be honest. But what was more pathetic than fishing for a surely insincere ‘oh no, you’re not!’?

“And he regretted it right after, I spoke to him, really. I’m not going to try to make you shake each other’s hands and apologize, you can do that on your own if you want to. I’m just saying you both screwed up, there isn’t one person to blame”

“Okay, (Y/n)” he sighed “That’s cool of you to try and be moral like that but I don’t need to talk or make up with anyone so you either want to cheer me up my way or you can get back to work”

He let his eyes travel up and down their body freely, assured by their earlier statements and a bit relieved that they didn’t share Paul’s opinion. He looked back up when they stood up, torning to the door. Just before he could mentally curse himself out for ruining it they stopped.

“Tell you what, it’s Friday. I’ll make something up to get out of softball practice and we can go grab a drink” they said grabbing the doorknob “That’s the closest I’ll get to doing it ‘your way’. What do you say?”

“Wait really?” it was rare to see him truly surprised like that but it was the last thing he was expecting to come from them.

“Yeah, I can show you a cool place” they smiled walking out and turning back for the last time “come by my desk in an hour and we’ll be good to go”

The door closed leaving him alone again in a much brighter office.

Ted felt a small smile form on his face, a geniuine one too. Things were awful and he didn’t even want to think about how (Y/n) made him feel or how awkward things were going to be in the office from now on. But even if nothing was alright yet, it seemed that he was getting a bit closer to ‘okay’ and that was more than enough.

tag list:

@stopgettingonmynerves

@joeycupcakerichter

#tgwdlm #tgwdlm x reader #ted spankoffski x reader #tgwdlm ted x reader #i need sleep #tgwdlm ted #x reader

39 notes · View notes

popculturebuffet · 4 years

Text

Nightmare Time Episode 1 Review: The Hatchetfield Ape-Man/Watcher World

I take a look at the first episode of Starkid’s new show Nightmare Time! Starkid, returns for a zoomcast, bringing back the casts of both Hatchefield plays for an anthology series of science fiction double feature picture shows! This week’s tales of terror:

The Hatchefield Ape-Man: A british heiress gets romanced by a shaved bigfoot with the help of everyone’s favorite kooky college professor. Forgotten fiances, murder and described nudity naturally insue.

Watcher World: Bill and Alice return as Bill drags his daughter to a kitschy theme park for a day of family fun, which Alice enjoys and is as respectful about as much as you’d expect. As you’d also expect given Bill’s general luck, things take a turn for the Shining real quick. Spoilers and full review under the cut.

Well this was a nice suprise. With the ongoing pandemic I genuinely did not think Starkid would be back anytime soon. Having just gotten back into them this years after several years of forgetting they existed via the Hatchetfield plays, I was pretty bummed, if understanding. So last week’s announcment of not only this series but a full scripted series from their sister production company the tin bros was a HUGE shot of happy I needed in this troubling times. Still need to watch spies are forver love the soundtrack nto important.

Point is the Lang Brothers and their merry band of actors found a way to continue on via format I didn’t realize existed outside of table reads but is a nice way to do things: The Zoomcast, basically a podcast done live on zoom, with the actors in plainclothes for the most part, with one person, in this case Nick Lang, reading out descriptions of what’s going on. Being a starkid production this also has musical director Matt Bohm playing accompaniment and pretaped if still via the actor’s own camera musical numbers. Overall while i’ts an understandably cheap production, only what costumes the actors have on hand and most props mimed, it WORKS, allowing for way more elaborate set pieces than the stage would allow and is anchored by Lang’s impeccable descriptions and the cast’s amazing as always acting really making the stories pop. So things worked on a technical level despite having the barest of bones to work with. But did it work on a story level? Well yes, but if I ended my reviews with just that i’d have less than the 3 or 4 fans I do have, so without further ado, it’s nightmare time! The Intro:

Now normally in my reviews I don’t talk about the intro because I come in mid way or because I just didn’t think to. This is an exception since

A) I should be doing that anyway or at least when I cover a show’s first episode since intro’s are sometimes one of the most memorable parts of a show

B) It’s a full musical number that’s been stuck in my head since the trailer for this series and has now set up an apartment there. C) This series is a musical, if not to the same degree as the two plays before it, so it’d be weird NOT to talk about it’s signature song.

So with that out of the way the intro.. is fucking impressive. Seriously taking disparate videos with probably as much as the directions “Sing this part of the song and be kind of creepy or alluring or whatever” and making it really flow? Good work, both to the starkids for bringing their a game to it as always and to Nick and Matt really did a good job editing this together, musically and visually to be an abolute jawdrop. And somehow finding utterly stunning stock image animations that none of us realized were stock footage but still fit the tone perfectly. Just great stuff. Some stray notes: Mariah is absolutely stunning in both voice and apperance in this, John Matheson’s bit as paul was great, and Jeff Blim of course got a great bit with his always astounding hair blowing in the breeze with him at full high pitch. Just an utterly great intro, and for Starkid’s first series in over a decade, and really ever but semantics, they really brought it. Good stuff. Onto the actual episode content.

The Hatchetfield Ape-Man: Lucy, a british heiress played by Angela Giarratana, was saved by the legendary “Hatchefield Ape-Man”.. who apparently has a hyphen like spider-men because while sasquatches can do that. Point is she’s come back every year in the hopes of reuniting with her savior but has so far failed. But as Lucy prepares to leave from this year’s failed expedition, an old friend finally gives her what she needs... old friend to us to her she’s just some grey haired lunatic who showed up out of the mist. Which while accurate, dosen’t quite quantify everyone’s favorite playwright/college professor/murderous psychopath/composer.

Yes at long last Professor Hidgens has returned! I honestly didn’t expect the anthology to bring in such a huge fan faviorite so soon. I mean I expected returning characters, mostly because the project allows old faviorites to come back for their own stories or for the stars of the musicals to get a chance at a much happier ending... there’s a lot of potetial there. That and let’s face it “Jane’s a Car” is a pretty dead giveaway it’s going to be about Tom’s dead wife and Tim’s dead mother coming back in horrible mash up of christine and my mother the car. Maybe. I could be wrong. I also doubt many of you know what my mother the car is and to that I say it’s an old sitcom i’m honestly suprised I know exists and know nothing about other than the title and it being about a son’s mom’s ghost possesing his car apparently. Well that and it was the basis for this.

youtube

Point is, while I expected some returns, I wasn’t expecting one this large and this bombastic so soon, but BOY was it welcome. So getting back on track after all that, HIdgens seemingly takes Lucy to meet her ape man, who goes by the name Klonk, played by everyone’s faviorite sexy caveman Joey Richter. Also it’s adorable he and Lauren share a streaming screen. I know practicality and all that but their engagment is genuinely a sweet thing to hear about at a time when the world’s going down the toilet fast. Fun Fact: I pegged the Ape-Man was either going to be Jeff or Joey, leaning towards Jeff, though given my love of Joey I wasn’t disapointed with him, especially with the twist... but I was EXASTIC to learn the answer was basically “Both.. kinda?”. But yeah Lucy soon bonds with the ape man, with HIdgens encouraging her since it’s more than he’s gotten out of Klonk in 11 months of looking after the guy, and this way they can get him to learn enough to decide what he wants for himself.

So a few months, and some romantic bonding between woman and ape-man, pass but a wrench is thrown into Klonk’s wooing and attempt to tell lucy he loves her: Jonathan, Lucy’s just now mentioned fiance and royal dickhead played by Kurt Mega. And credit where it’s do whlie he clearly didn’t have to dress up, he did have a nice 50′s monster movie british person suit he put on. Lucy is now conlficted and what not even though Jonathan is kind of an asshole who just wants to drag her back home. And i’ts not like Lucy didn’t keep in touch: she sent him texts and probably called, so i’ts not like he didn’t know she was here. He’s also a hunter for extra dick points as if he needed them. Naturally when meeting his romantic rival he’s a dick.. but raises some valid questions: While Hidgens claim he shaved Konk due to lesions, there’s no mark of lesisons or the shaving. But his natural dickheadedness shines through and Jonathan talks about shooting Klonk before lucy takes his ring off and throws it and Jonathan goes after her. Annnnd yeah turns out the disposable dickhead fiance for once is RIGHT. In a twist I did not remotley see coming but damn if it wasn’t clever, Klonk.. is Ted from TGWDLM and the plan was to seduce lucy with this con, marry her and then bump her off. It’s a hell of a twist and cleverly hidden since Joey’s such a starkid mainstay, it’s not a huge suprise he was Klonk and thus easily hid the fact he was also Ted. It’s clever stuff and pivots the story nicely.

Ted is naturally a douchey as ever, going along with Hidgen’s plan to have him marry lucy then kill her and take her dough for themselves.. and unsuprisingly, so Hidgens can get Workin Boys off the ground. Granted there are easier ways to do this with the same scooby doo scheme: Just have HIdgens plan working boys casually, have Klonk really love it and being the sweetheart she is LUcy would fiance the thing just to make them both happy. I mean he can still marry her and ted can still have direct acess to her money if they want, it’s just an easier way that dosen’t shine supscion on the caveman who looks exactly like a local douchebag who everyone he’s met would testify against him. I mean would Paul and Bill REALLY be that suprised that Ted did this?

Exactly. Then again neither of our “heroes’ Here is very bright, and this scheme only works because Lucy is clearly very sweet, very naive, and very much wants a romantic evening with an ape man after all this time and effort searching, so she wants to believe him. So the fact the best they could come up with is something out of Scooby Doo is unsuprisng but still great. However things take a turn for the

Pretty quick as Hidgens takes disposable british douche fiance hunting.. then kills the guy after freely admiting he’s a fraud in what’s an INCREDIBLY chilling scene. Seriously it’s amazing how Robert takes a character as loveably redicilous, even his evil and murderous plan during TGWDLM was still hilariously rediclous, and makes him UTTERLY TERRIFYING. Even when dropping my fair lady refrences. Amazing stuff. So the next day, after Konk “asks” what an engagment is and what not, we then get Lucy wondering just WHERE jonathan is and we get the second biggest laugh of the night as Hidgens gives us the iconic line of “Oh he left... said something about you being crazy and going back to london and basically to go fuck yourself. “. Naturally Lucy has followup questions and goes to find out while Ted, also naturally, isn’t exactly pleased when he finds out his partner in crime did a murder on someone.

Ted may be a sleazy dickhead.. but even he sees maybe murdering a rich british person who just came here, went basically ONLY to this one location, and whose probably got many people who will misss him, one of whom is their primary target, is kinda dumb. Then again this is a plan that hinges on someone who could easily be identified, as he has or at least probably had an office job and three coworkers who know him, assuming a false identity to marry someone for their money. But again we’re dealing with a guy who thinks working boys is marketable to anyone who isn’t a starkid, and a moron who soon says he does his best thinking while erect. They only got this far because their target REALLY wants to fuck a sasquatch, is sweet but naive and well Ted IS still joey richter, and no longer has the porn stache so there you go. Ted decides to cut Hidgens out of things.. partly because you know, he killed a person, and partly because instead of killing Lucy, Ted realized he honeslty has a LOT to gain by simply marrying her and staying married. He gains a hot rich wife (his word’s not mine, but angie is genuinely beautiful so fair point), a mansion, and while Hidgens points out the obvious, he has to stay Konk.. that’s actually appealing to Ted as he feels better as Konk, not just because he impresses an attractive woman for doing basic stuff, but because he feels better as Konk. This is.. an intresting turn for Ted i genuinely like. It shows that Ted may, as much as he presents with bluster and ego, actually LIKE the kind of shithead he knows he is. I mean looking at his life he has two workmates who calling them friends is a bit of a stretch, and one who he’s having an affair with but seems detemrined to make her doomed marriage to an even bigger asshole work. He really dosen’t have much as ted so it’s easy to see why being Konk is better: He’s a better person as him who actually has someone who cares about him. Naturally Hidgens takes this as well as you’d expect and when Ted/Konk tries proposing he goes with the logical option for taking the fourtune for himself:

Yes really. Hidgens strips naked, and swings his arms around like an orangutan to try and convince Lucy he’s the real hatchetfield apeman. Sadly this dosen’t mean we get a shirtless robert manion as he needs to keep the turtleneck on for later, but the mental image.. I had to pause the video for a good minute to laugh over it. Just everything about it from it somehow being a dumber plan than his scheme this episode, to the orangutan swaying to just.. everything. It’s fucking genius. But Higdens has more than a mighty penis to compete with Ted.. he reveals ted’s phone and Ted ends up revealing himsef by telling Hidgens to go fuck himself. Naturally Lucy is distraught and tries to leave and the professor pulls out his shotgun to threaten her into financing his musical because of course it’s about workin boys. Lucy tries to run, Hidgens tries to shoot.. and ted , doing the first good thing in his entire life, takes the bullet. Lucy gets ted out of there then locks the door behind them, and we get the SCARIEST bit in this segment as Hidgens leans into the camera, simulating the peep hole of the vault door to the ape man inclosure and begs her to let him out. It’s some real Jack Nicholson in the Shining stuff and it’s utterly terrifying, but it’s also an amazing bit of acting. Nice job Rob. So ted bleeds out, as much as Lucy wants to save him he knows he’s not going to make it and prefers to die as Konk, finally happy with himself. And I just realized everyone at Paul’s job is horribly miserable. I mean good god, Paul himself has serious depression issues judging by “Let it Out”, Ted clearly hates himself, Charlotte is in a horrible marriage and Bill just got out of one and has a strained realtionship with his daughter we’ll get into more in a bit. I mean honestly, Mr. Davidson is the only one of them who really dosen’t need therapy.. he just needs to tell his wife he wants her to choke him while he jerks off. For as ungodly hilarious as that line is he’s probably the most well adjusted person there. Go figure.

Naturally being already insane, Hidgens breaks out, still naked mind, and chases after Lucy. Also noticable is apparently some people thought hidgens was manipulated by the blue shit hive mind in TGWDLM. Which.. no. I do love the guy dont’ get me wrong.. but it was very obvious both from the way his musical number was done compared to the rest of the ones in the musical, and his actions that was entirely him, and his playing the music was so he could join, especially since we don’t see the hive mind use any mind manupluation on anyone else. Regular manipulation sure as seen with you tied up my heart and not your seed, manipulating charoltte into freeing her asshole husband so he could infect her and torturing bill for funsies. Just something to get out of the way. Point is he was always crazy we just now have him chasing an innocentish woman with his dong hanging out to prove it. He eventually catches her as Lucy catches herself in one of his bear traps when she hits the woods, because he had those for some reason.. and he has a resonable way out: Just give her the 30,000 dollars he needs for his musical. Thing is she dosen’t have the money.. or hardly any. She spent all of it trying to find the ape man and was marrying jonathan for his money and him for her title. And while it is a bit skeezy, it’s very clear both were using each other and likely knew it, and Lucy still comes out the most moral of our cast here.. granted it’s not a big stretch as hidgens is criminally insane, ted’s a skeeze and Jonathan.. well he’s just a diiiiiiccckkkk. It’s not hard is what i’m saying.. much like hidgen’s dick flopping around in the rain. But yeah he dosen’t take it well, Lucy goes up a tree, which is apparently something Becky did once. But before Lucy can die at the hands of a naked thespian, the REAL Ape-Man shows up and tears Hidgen’s arms off, taking lucy in his own arms afterwords and revealing he remembers her. The two hit it off instantly, it turns out his name is chumby in an excellent gag as that was what Hidgens wanted his fake ape man to be named but Ted froze, and go off into the night together. Awww.. what if a naked ape man played by my boy jeff blim and a british person can’t work who can?

We then close out the segment with a cameo appearance by Jamie Lynn Beatty, who while not part of the cast for this double feature, does get a fun showtune about the ape man. Also fun fact that i found out here on tumblr: That costume is from something Jamie did in HIGH SCHOOL. As in well over a decade ago. Like holy shit, good for her. She looks great in it. But yeah it’s a fun song and a nice way to close it out. Final Thoughts on the Hatchetfield Ape-Man: This was a great way to start things off. This one was more in line with starkids pre-hatchetfield work, a goofy story with some hidden depth inside. And like the guy who didn’t like musicals it was utterly terrifying in spots so yeah good stuff ,utterly hilarous and a great way to bring back some old faviorites while giving us a neat new protaganist. Good stuff.

Watcher World:

Now from a mostly comedy with a horrifying ending to just.. pure unfiltered horror and depression! It’s Watcher World! Bill and Alice are back! And given I love Mariah Rose Faith and Corey Dorris, I was exastic to find this was what the second segment was about.. mostly because I had no idea Starkid had teasers for the episodes on their instagram, or I would’ve known Hidgens was coming. I wouldn’t of known he’d be stark naked for the last third of his story but still, pleasant surprise.

So Bill and Alice are spending the day at Watcher World, a run down amusement park on the edge of town. It’s Alice’s last weekend before College so Bill’s trying to reconnect with her by cramming a good old fashioned family vacation down her throat. Alice is less than enthused, both because she clearly resents her dad in general, and because Deb is throwing a huge rager on the same night. My honest interpretation of that is that Deb fully inteded for her girlfriend to come but Bill sprung this on Alice at the last minute and being pretty oblivious and hating Deb, either didn’t care about taking alice from one last night with her friends and girlfriend or didn’t generally think that through. I mean don’t get me wrong normally i’d side with a parent not wanting their daughter to attend a huge teen rager on their last weekend together.. but it’s also Alice’s last weekend in town for some time, and it’s likely a saturday.. so he has another day, and presumibly had friday before this and while things with his ex wife are tense, fighting for an extra day with her would be understandable and i’ts not like Alice, even if she hates Bill, would really fight him on getting an extra day in the town she didn’t want to leave.

But that’s what I really like about this one that it’s layered. While Alice is slightly more in the right, she’s still shutting her dad out, refusing to let him follow her on instagram (though he does agree with her keeping it private as he dosen’t want Ted perving on her, which tracks, or Ted’s brother doing it which.. wait what?), and being on her phone the whole time to very clearly spite him and rub how much she dosen’t want to be there in her dad’s face. She dosen’t WANT to be at watcher world but instead of trying to talk to her Dad just wants to complain and apparenlty has on all their vacations.. it’s easy to see why Bill is annoyed by his daughter at times and thinks he has to FORCE HER to have fun with him, because otherwise she’d gladly ignore him for their entire weekends together for Deb. She’s so determined to punish her dad for the divorce, that she refuses to see on some level he IS trying, and is just sad about her leaving, and possibly leaving him forever and alone with nothing else in his life but his buddy Paul, whose getting married next week so that’s probably not helping. On the other hand the reason I say Alice is more in the right is that well.. Bill’s a grown ass men. And while, speaking for himself, grown ass men don’t always make the right decisions, and not speaking for myself neither do fathers... Alice’s acting out is understandable coming from an 18 year old whose been through hell over the last year, having her parents divorce being forced to move, loosing her friends. Bill however just kind of uses her age and angst as an excuse to undermine and belittle her feelings. Because he doesn’t like deb for the very stupid reasons of she does pot, instead of assuring her that Deb wouldn’t cheat on Alice with Deb’s former crush Zigg, starkid’s first non binary character in a nice show that Nick Lang wasn’t just covering his ass when he said there’d be more representation in starkid, which in his defense I didn’t doubt him on but it’s still nice he did so at the earliest opportunity and very clearly plans to use Zigg if he can find a nonbinary actor for them.

But yeah instead of assuring his daughter, Bill is just like “well sometimes relationships don’t work out” which while true is clearly his self serving way of trying to get Alice to break up with someone he dosen’t like. INstead of supporting her in her dreams of writing plays, one of which was good enough to get her a scholarship, he tries to act like she has no plans for her future and get her to be a doctor for more security, even though having a secure job has done.. no one at his office including him favors. I mean again, the most stable and happy person at the office is the guy in charge, and even he can’t tell his wife he wants her to choke him out at night. He wants her to choke him, he wants her to choke him while he jerks off, he wants her to choookeeee himmm while heeeee jerrrkssss offfff.

While part of this seems to be that Deb plans to be a starving artist who can mooch off her parents in a pinch, Alice GENUINELY seems to have a full plan for her life. I do get his worrying about her future.. but she’s a smart kid. A bit of a brat but she knows what she wants clealry and clearly has talent. He’s just projecting his own fears on her. He also refuses to accept any responsibility in the divorce.. his hating his ex wife IS valid, as she took his daughter away, uprooted her life a year before graduation and spends gobs of money on impressive outings, the latter two seemingly just to spite him when honestly, it’d of made more sense for Alice to stay with Bill for the year before she graduates and been better for her. However, Bill still doesn’t take responsibly that he too is shoving fun down her throat to try and win her over, hates her girlfriend and refuses to treat her with any respect, and really DOSEN’T know Alice all that well. As we learn during their fun day she has anxiety, and he never knew about it. And the divorce isn’t really an excuse when he had years before that. It’s the real problem of their relationship: Bill feels ENTITLED to a good father daughter relationship, but isn’t working at it and blames his ex wife or Alice for it instead of himself. While Alice isn’t an innocent as i’ve made clear, putting up walls and not telling dad things, given bill ignores her when she DOES try to tell him about her life, it’s easy to see she’s just given up. If he won’t listen why bother. Which yeah i’ve found myself there with my own dad from time to time. Bill’s not a bad person, he genuinely loves Alice, as he says “to the moon and back”, but it’s very clear from this outing he still loves the little girl who loved him unconditionally and not the complicated and mopey adult sh’es become, and dosen’t WANT to adapt to that and fears once she leaves for college she’ll avoid him for good, which isn’t unfounded. It’s a good, complex rich dynamic. Naturally with.. all this I covered up front instead of sprinkling it throughout, the day doesn’t go great, with Alice utterly miserable most of the time, and ending up in a goofy novelty t-shirt due to a log ride. She also has an unsettling encounter with park mascot Blinky, our newest adorable abomination, who not only shows up the moment she does something bad on camera but also stares at her ass, which.. Paul you mind coming back for a second?

Thank you. They end up at the Watch Party, a cheesy kids show musical because Bill apparently equates this with his daughter loving musicals. I mean granted cheesy kids stage shows can be rad just listen to this.

youtube

But I get Alice’s annoyance here. Thus we get the return of the sniggles, who apparently serve whatever eldrich deity is around this week and our first song of this segment, The Blinky Song. Which is catchy as hell as well as hilariously dark (”I’m so hungry”), and uses the stock footage well, as I could buy a cheap theme park ran by an eldtirch eye goblin using stock footage. But yeah it establishes Blinky as always watching and kinda fucked up. Also the sniggles are now clearly the smurgs with Angie’s now being named Sniglette, Jeff being papa Sniggle and James being Snigglotts. However Sniglette considers leaving with another song with a long string of words. Then, things get.. dark as the rest of the sniggles don’t want her to leave and try and mob her, and then Papa Sniggle accidently wings her with a mallet and apparenlty injures the actual performer, before everyone’s ushered out and the usher pretends nothing happened. Good mind screw horror stuff.

Alice and Bill then bicker a bit with my above point being made as Alice TRIES to get Bill to accept some respoinablity but he refuses and blames her mom. It’s now time for the Tear-Jerker, the reason they came. Bill’s buddy Paul says someone died. They also find three other people waiting in line and when one goes to the bathroom the other two start making out which.. yeah, dosen’t help Alice’s worry Deb’s going to cheat on her. So she takes the first single rider pass she can, with Bill worming his way in as to not let her get away. The two naturally end up fighting on the Tear-Jerker before it stops up high, and ends up stalled, with the gloriously returning Nerdy Kid played by Joey from Black Friday being as helpful as usual. Seriously bless them for bringing him back. Man in a Hurry also showed up again, bless him too. Alice picks this time to reveal her fear of heights and anxiety, and an approaching storm isn’t helping. So Bill.. steps up. He helps ease Alice down taking her phone for her, if loosing it due tot he rain and helping her stay calm. It’s a REALLY nice portrayal of an anxiety attack, with Mariah herself apparently having them and thus portraying it really well. As someone who has them myself it really hits home and Bills calm attempts to help her are really heartwarming, getting her to describe her musical for him and the two bonding. It’s genuinely sweet. But.. it can’t last, as Alice freaks out about her phone and Bill for once is in the right, as .. he was you know.. trying to save his daughter having a panic attack, and really stepped up given he was obnovious she had anxiety in the first place, and managed it well. He then gives the utterly heart stomping line “I love you to the moon and back, but sometime’s it’s really hard to like you. “

Just damn. So Alice runs off and both find their way to the fairway. Bill tries winning a doll for Alice, getting into a test of strength where he fails repedatly and is constantly mocked by the barker, played by James Tolbert who also played Blinky..

That should be Tolbert’s twitter handle. Anyway point is, Bill keeps trying even as he wracks up 400 dollars in credit card debt, for a 49.95 doll, before eventually the barker and hte crowd’s jeers get to be too much and he does smack it hard, thinking of all of his pent up rage towards alice.. just as the bell at the top takes the shape of alice’s head and explodes. Bill is naturally horrified by this by the barker assures he loves him.. and that he should totally hobble his daughter misery style to make her not leave him and use the mallet for it. Meanwhile Alice is at the shooting Gallery not wanting the blinky doll she wins, just blowing off steam when she runs into an old crone played by Lauren Lopez. But this Crone has her phone... which suspiciously has a ton of instagram photos of Deb and Zigg making out while sharing a toke. Granted Deb COULD’VE cheated, but given Alice is insecure, and her phone was given back to her by a witch working for an eye goblin.. yeah maybe just maybe Deb was loyal, and if she wasn’t wouldn’t be dumb enough to put it on instagram. But given Alice is already worked up it’s easy enough for her to beliive that her relationships in danger and if she gets there in time she can stop it and oh look her gun is now a real gun and can help her get the keys. So yeah it’s time for a creepy as hell Shining-esque showdown, but if both sides were possesed instead of one. It’s.. a CHILLING as hell scene, not helped by Alice wielding a gun again as both fight. I was gripped the entire time and don’t have much to say utter than HOLY SHIT THIS WAS AS TERRIFYING AS IT WAS RIVITING.

But a crowd gathers as the fight continues.. all with purple eyes which ave been seen on and off, watchers with a thousand eyes.. and with Blinky, now revealed NOT to be a costume probably, above them all. We also get one hell of a line. “This is an amusement park but not for YOUR amusement.”

So yeah I love this sequence.. and Blinky as a villain. While it’s vague if he and Blinky are the same entity.. I’m going with not. It’s not a stretch that like Cthulu, Wiggly has brothers in the black and white, with their own motives, methods and ability to get into our world. Unlike Wiggly.. Blinky’s already here and has no real ambition other than to find people to mentally tear apart and set loose on one another for his own amusement. He doesn’t have grand plans of burning the world.. he just wants to be entertained. It’s an interesting and chilling motive and I hope we see him again eventually. I also believe those at the park are trapped there bound after their own day there and trapped doing whatever Wiggly needs. Except maybe squeaky voiced teen. He probably just complains about cleaning up so much blood. But yeah Blinky is very happy as the fight escalates into the hall of mirrors and Alice looses her gun.. with Bill now poised to strike down his daughter as the mirror reflects the various workers at the park, all encouraging him to kill her... it’s utterly terrifying as Bill’s eyes take on a purple tint.. and we get a POWERFUL use of the score and the “why does it hurt to love you’ bit from TGWDLM.. as Bill sees himself and what he’s about to do, sees his daughter understandably having a panic attack.. and calms her, his eyes returning and the two reconciling. Of course Blinky isn’t happy about this “sappy bullshit” and brings htem into his domain, charging at them. But kinda missing that giving a pissed off teenager a rifle she knows how to use when you have a giant target for a face isn’t a good idea and she shoots him, with him bleeding a flood of purple goo that sends them out. While I doubt Winky’s dead, he is done with them. Our story concludes on a sweeet note as the two find their car, and they finally make as tep forward, Bill having seen almost too late how selfish and controlling he was being and accepting his daughter on her phone.. and Alice realizing her need to open up and after checking Instagram, likely finding out those photo’s weren’t real, she throws her phone in the back.. but not before accepting her dad’s request, letting him in. Sure the road ahead is rough.. but the two have made a good first step towards repairing things and loving one another again in a healthy manner. and all it took was bill nearly murdering her and allice shooting an eye goblin int he face and getting covered in his blood. Cue the credits, a beautiful song called “One Thousand Eyes” with Jeff Blim fucking nailing it. A great way to send off this bit. Final Thoughts: This was the best one of the two. While Ape Man is really good too, this one took the darker tone of black friday, but with a tighter narrative. By focusing on a smaller cast, the darker elements really played better and the conclusion felt more satisfying.. though it helped that BOTH of these tails ended without everyone dying, and while I doubt EVERY story will have a happy ending, it makes things more interesting knowing that the heroes can get a happy ending this time around instead of an apocalypse.

Overall Thoughts: This double feature was great, I’ll be getting a ticket to the next one if I can afford it, and if not i’ll see it presumably in December or next year when it comes on YouTube. Really excellent stuff. So this was a first for me but if you’d like to see more starkid stuff from me, let me know in the comments or my askbox, commission me to review one of the musicals via dm, and if you liked how I did this review follow this blog for weekly ducktales and loud house coverage, and amphibia coverage when that returns, among more fun reviews. And until next time.. don’t blink. Play us out Jeff.

youtube

I really hope this is the ending theme for the series.

#nightmare time #hatchetfield #the hatchetfield ape man #watcher world #ted #professor henry hidgens #Bill Woodward #Alice Woodward #Lucy Stockworth #halloween #halloween havoc #paul matthews #jeff blim #team starkid #starkid

16 notes · View notes

ungodlyobsessions · 4 years

Text

Black Friday thoughts!

I saw Black Friday last night and HOO BOY LEMME TELL YA THAT SHOW IS A HOOT, SO STRAP IN FOR A LONG POST

⚠️ THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BLACK FRIDAY THE MUSICAL ⚠️

In-show thoughts:

We got to see Jeff as Tom Houston! Sad to know it was because Dylan was out sick, but it was a special experience nonetheless

Robert fucking dies yet again :(

Uhhhh holy shit Jon can BELT, I could hear him over everyone despite them all having a mic

Kim literally got right in my face and stared me in the eyes, it was fantastic

I thought I was gonna get kicked by Robert and James (though, I wouldn't have minded one bit lol)

Nick Lang was also at the show, possibly noting? He was really sweet and it was nice to see him again

ANGELA IS A BEAST AND HER VOICE IS FUCKING AWESOME, I hope to see her in future Starkid shows!

Kendall was so incredible! Her voice is so beautiful and it's so cool to see someone so young be such a great performer

Curt came dangerously close to running into my feet/legs during portions of the show

Most of the actors ended up getting around 5 or more inches away from me at times

The choreography in this show is honestly on another level, like the formations and little dance solos were just perfection! Hats off to James Tolbert man

The fight choreo in this show is also insane, like it was genuinely worrying watching some of the brawling that was going on lol

There was a moment in the show where our fave dancers (Lauren, Robert, and now James!) got to have their own little time in the spotlight

Jaime is super funny as Sherman Young

There were several leitmotifs and callbacks to stuff from TGWDLM!

There was this really cool set design moment where President Goodman is talking to Wiggly! So basically, the top level of the set has garland on it that fans downwards; Robert held up two large lamps above it to represent eyes, and coupled with the garland it forms the little green bastard's face. Some of the girls were under the garland, shaking it when Wiggly was talking

Curt is like...batshit crazy at some points in this show when he's a mallgoer

Joey is very creepy in this show,, he had an apple throughout the first act that he took one bite out of then handed to a random audience member, not to mention the fact that one of his costumes is all-denim

Lauren is a GORGEOUS villain, like I love Linda Monroe so much, but she is also very good at remaining comedic in the role

I overheard that unfortunately, due to Lauren being sick, she had to cut her solo titled "Adore Me"

PAULKINS PAULKINS PAULKINS!!!!! Also I love the fact that according to Paul they are "very intimate" but not close enough for Emma to label themselves as boyfriend and girlfriend lol

Tom was a very raw and wonderful character, and I actually hope this isn't the last we see of him

It was so refreshing seeing Jeff in a more serious role, and he is honestly such a legend for stepping up so suddenly in addition to his existing roles and writing all of the incredible songs

Getting some insight on how the death of Emma's sister, Jane, affected Emma and the Houstons was really interesting, and with the release of the filmed version I'm hoping there will be more to discover about it that I missed

Kim has such an angelic voice! She sounded beautiful during her duet with Jeff

Corey was killing it, he was so entertaining and captivating during his songs, he's a king

General McNamara reappears! I was so happy to see that man again :,) too bad he fucking dies though!!!

Hot Chocolate Boy, Charlotte, Ted, and Bill all reappear in the end number, and lemme tell you I was ECSTATIC, I missed them all so much

Also, Ted was holding Charlotte's shoulders at the end....👀

Curt was dressed as a guy in a hoodie that was holding lil' Peanut the Hatchetfield Squirrel!

Lex and Hannah's sibling relationship was so touching

Lex's solo, "Black Friday," was stunning, and I'll definitely be learning it once the soundtrack is released

I honestly hate the way Ethan dresses himself lmao, but he's really sweet to Hannah and is a pretty supportive boyfriend

In one of the numbers, I believe titled "Wiggle" or something similar, there's a lot of very good suggestive hip swiveling going on

JEFF BLIM SAID FUCK CAPITALISM

I'm begging for a full-length version of Santa Claus Goes to High School (well not really, Black Friday is enough of a blessing, but the thought is glorious)

Teenage Kris Kringle is actually Robert's best role, don't @ me 😤 Professor Hidgens? Don't know her

The number that I believe is titled "What Do You Say?" is so fucking funny but also awkward and adorable

Jon Matteson as Gary, a lawyer, was super entertaining

I wasn't expecting a cult plot, but you know, I'm not surprised

Out-of-show thoughts:

We sat in the front row, house left

Curt and Kim both said hi to people, but they left quickly and didn't stagedoor due to sickness

Lauren, Corey, James, and Joey all did not stagedoor or even appear afterwards, given their sickness

I showed the members I'd met at Homecoming (Jon, Jeff, and Jaime) the pictures from the day I saw them, and they all said they remembered me! Jon and Jeff both commented that they looked younger in the picture, and Jeff pointed out his makeup lol

I asked Jaime if Mariah ever saw my Greenpeace costume, and she said she showed her a picture of me in it!

I got stickers, the Black Friday pin, a Wiggly doll, and some unused prop stickers that were meant to go on the bags in the show

I talked to Robert a little more after stagedoor and told him I'd watched some of Fanshaw and Crudnut to hear his voice acting, and he said "Oh my God, that's a deep cut haha" but was ultimately grateful for the extra support for his work

There were these two girls in the front with us that were dressed as Alice and Deb as a couple's costume, they were so cute and so sweet

I got to chat with Matt Dahan, and he was talking about how good the music in the show is and how talented he thinks all of his friends are :,)

When Jon came out, people were going "Paul's a-comin'," so the Alice and Deb girls and I all brought up "Steve's a-comin'," and Matt went "Oh God, you guys know about 'Steve's a-comin''??" lmao

The show confirms that Black Friday isn't really a continuation or prequel to TGWDLM, but rather an alternate dimension/timeline

At the end of the show, during bows, the cast gestured to Jeff in the middle, and we all gave him a roaring standing ovation that nearly brought him to tears

During the show, you could tell which of the cast members were sick because they were coughing onstage (though they were definitely being as discreet as possible) and it's just unbelievable how passionate and dedicated these people are.

I'm so honored to have experienced this! I'm eagerly awaiting the YouTube release and soundtrack, and I'm so ready to see what Starkid will do next 🌟

151 notes · View notes

jackie-talks-about-starkid · 3 years

Text

The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals (Rewatch #11, 11/20/2020)

YouTube publish date: December 23, 2018

Number of views on date of rewatch: 4, 394, 741

Original Performance Run: October 11 - November 4, 2018 at the Matrix Theater in Los Angeles

Ticket price: General Admission - $37, Priority - $69 Digital Ticket: $15 Rush Ticket via TodayTix: $18

Director: Nick Lang

Music and Lyrics: Jeff Blim

Book: Matt Lang and Nick Lang

Cast album price and availability: $9.99 on iTunes Release date: December 23, 2018

Parody or original: original content, slightly inspired by Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Funding: $127,792 by 3,419 backers via Kickstarter (x) Original Goal: $60,000

Main cast and characters

Paul - John Matteson

Emma - Lauren Lopez

Ted - Joey Richter

Charlotte - Jamie Lyn Beatty

Bill - Corey Dorris

Professor Hidgens - Robert Manion

Sam/General McNamara - Jeff Blim

Alice/Greenpeace Girl - Mariah Rose Faith

Musical numbers

Act I

“The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals” Characters: Ensemble “ La Dee Dah Dah Day” Characters: Ensemble “What Do You Want, Paul?” Characters: Mr. Davidson and Paul “Cup of Roasted Coffee” Characters: Nora, Zoey, and Emma “Cup of Poisoned Coffee” Characters: Nora, Zoey, Hot Chocolate Boy, and Ensemble “Show Me Your Hands” Characters: Sam, Police Woman, Police Man “You Tied Up My Heart” Characters: Sam and Charlotte “Join Us (And Die)” Characters: Charlotte and Sam

Act II

“Not Your Seed” Characters: Alice and friends “Show Stoppin’ Number” Characters: Professor Hidgens “America Is Great Again” Characters: General McNamara and Ensemble “Let Him Come” Characters: Ensemble “Let It Out” Characters: Paul and Ensemble “Inevitable” Characters: Paul, Ensemble, and Emma

Notable Notes:

The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals won 12 2019 BroadwayWorld Los Angeles Awards (x)

Best Musical - Local

Choreography - Local: James Tolbert

Costume Design - Local: June Saito

Director of a Musical - Local: Nick Lang

Featured Actor in a Musical - Local: Robert Manion (Joey Richter and Corey Dorris were the other two nominees in this category)

Featured Actress in a Musical - Local: Jaime Lyn Beatty (Mariah Rose Faith was also nominated)

Leading Actor in a Musical - Local: Jon Matteson

Leading Actress in a Musical - Local: Lauren Lopez

Lighting Design - Local: Sarah Petty

Musical Director - Local: Matt Dahan

Scenic Design - Local: Corey Lubowich

Sound Design - Local: Ilana Elroi and Brian Rosenthal

Cultural Context: 2018

The #MeToo movement originated by Tarana Burke gains international popularity on social media

The revival of Queer Eye premiers on Netflix

Beyoncé headlines Coachella (#Beychella), becoming the first black woman to do so for the music festival

Megan Markle marries Prince Harry

Avengers: Infinity War opens in theaters on April 27th

Content Analysis:

The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals has the most original concept of a musical I can think of for any piece of musical theatre, on Broadway or off. It is a musical that is focused on Paul, a guy who, believe it or not, doesn't like musicals, but due to a mysterious zombie-like infection brought to his town, Hatchetfield, finds himself stuck in an apocalyptic scenario in which anyone can be infected by a hive-mind that forces anyone it infects to behave as if they were in a musical. Because of this, the only people who actually perform musical numbers in the show are those around Paul who are infected with this musical disease, which makes each musical performance all the more dramatic, as well as allows for the acting of the main characters to be much more at the center of attention than they would normally be if the characters were expected to sing out their feelings as if the audience were watching them develop through the lens of a traditional musical.

The strong book and emphasis on the characterization of the small main ensemble highlights the incredibly strong performances by the actors. The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals is an interesting work in StarKid's repertoire in that the characters represented onstage are the most 'normal' characters the audience has seen in a StarKid universe. By now, the Starkid audience is used to seeing either parodies of well-known works, such as Harry Potter or the DC comic universe, inventive imaginings of other universes or periods of time, such as Starship or Firebringer. Yet, this production emphasizes the kind of characters and settings one sees in everyday life rather than the characters one sees in a sci-fi novel or fantasy world. The characters are played to represent a specific type of character often seen in media, and specifically mimic horror movie tropes with a comedic twist. For example, Professor Hidgens represents the off-kilter scholarly type, Paul is the everyday man dragged into the evil schemes of an unknown being's plot, Emma is the relatable final girl, etc. Yet, these character types and what they represent mirror the kind of everyday people we see in reality. Sure, they are written and played with comedic intent but their lives and place in the plot are human enough that the audience does not need to make the make-believe leap of connecting with non-human or glorified human characters-these people ARE human. Emma is an intelligent woman whose adventurous life turned into one full of grief for her sister and finds herself stuck in a terrible job in the hometown she tried so hard to get away from. Paul is a simple man playing the reluctant hero, but whose heart and genuine care for the people he is close to reminds us of the best of humanity when our society is constantly filled with examples of our worst behaviors. Bill just wants a relationship with the daughter he's drifting away from, Charlotte just wants her husband to love her, and Ted is there because, let's be honest here, we all know a Ted.

The characters also happen to be played by actors the audience would not expect to play that specific character type. For example, Joey Richter is known for playing lovable, funny, and relatable characters in StarKid's works, yet in The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals, he plays the most morally repugnant yet incredibly hilarious characters in the show and he plays that part so well and so convincingly that it's hard to believe he's actually playing against his type. Jaime Lyn Beatty, like other StarKid works, performs a strong, comedic character type as she always does, yet her performance as Charlotte has the most dynamic internal life of any character the StarKid audience has seen her play.

The most notable performance comes from Jon Matteson who plays Paul. His role as the protagonist, who is onstage nearly the entire, time holds the piece and the universe of the story together so perfectly. His dry delivery and incredible comedic timing work so well for the character that it feels as though you can go up to Matteson right after the finale and expect to talk to Paul himself because he embodies the role so well. Matteson’s performance feels so natural and honest that it's heartbreaking, even for the most fanatic musical theatre nerd, to watch him realize that he's fallen victim to the Apotheosis and turns into the thing he hates the most-a musical theatre character.

A horror-comedy musical is a hard thing to pull off, especially on a budget that was almost entirely crowdfunded, and even harder to execute successfully, which is why the only few commercial horror-musical comedy staples I can think of at the moment art Little Shop of Horrors, Sweeney Todd, and to a certain extent, Heathers. Yet the consistent hard work that goes into creating a StarKid musical and the unique environment that process produces makes anything seem possible and destined for success. The level of creativity going into this production company and the work they create as a team is something that just cannot be done with traditional musical theatre as seen on Broadway because of such large overhead and emphasis on creating a profit rather than creating art. There have been and will continue to be many different creative teams making unique musicals for the general public, but taking into account global accessibility for all demographics and concept originally, The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals proves StarKid continues to take the lead and doesn’t need the exclusion of any demographic in order to do so.

P.S. Happy Black Friday! Don’t forget to get in line to buy your Wiggly dolls ;)

#@TeamStarkid #the guy who didn't like musicals #tgwdlm #hatchetfield theatrical universe #hatchetfield universe #htu #team starkid #starkid productions #starkid #starkid musicals #musical theatre #theatre #musicals

6 notes · View notes

inevitable-for-us · 4 years

Text

Our Second Chance - Chapter 1

Paul wakes up to another ordinary day in Hatchetfield, much to his surprise.��

Slice of life/mystery fic focusing mainly on Paul and Emma but including the entirety of Hatchetfield in its scope as the duo try to unravel how an alien apocalypse can be undone. Special thanks to my wonderful beta readers Sophia, Alyssa and Meg!

Singing. Dancing. Sitting up in bed, heart pounding. Paul looks around with still bleary eyes and is almost surprised to see his bedroom. Blinking a couple of times, he shakes himself. Where else would he be? But the dream - it must have been a dream - he was having hangs in the back of his mind, pulling him into almost-memories of music and gunshots and staring down a meteor while fumbling with a grenade, of guts spilling out of sweaters and the dead eyes of his best friend. He grabs his phone from the nightstand and checks the time. It’s about fifteen minutes before his alarm goes off on the day the world ends.

No. No. The world isn’t going to end. It was just a dream. Still, he finds himself rushing through his morning routine because he has to get outside as soon as possible. He has to know. He steps out of the house and takes a look around to see people rushing to their destinations, heads down, avoiding any direction but forwards except to escape the much worse fate of direct contact with another human being. Perfect.

As he makes his way to work, he keeps scanning the crowd for a leap or a pirouette or any kind of rhythmic movement, leading his eyes to meet with those of the lady from greenpeace. He quickly averts his gaze and makes to move past her but something stops him. He takes a breath and turns to her.

“Hey.”

“Oh. Hi.” She looks at him and raises one eyebrow, “I don’t suppose you’ve changed your mind about donating?”

Speaking. Like a normal person. The relief almost moves Paul to cheer but is quickly replaced with awkwardness as he realises he needs a reason for approaching her.

“Um. Well, uh actually I was just thinking. About the planet… last night and a thought occurred to me! You know, I uh, I like the planet! And I feel like I don’t really appreciate how nice it is to, um. To live on it and I think it would really be a bummer if that stopped being the case so I guess that… uh… I - I wanna sign up. To Greenpeace. Donate, I mean. Yeah.”

“Really?” She blinks for a couple of moments then looks down, “Wow. Last night you seemed pretty adamant that you didn’t want to - what was it? ‘Line the pockets of some corporate executives’? Something like that.”

There’s an awkward pause before she lifts her head again, “Sorry, that was… I’m just not used to people actually changing their mind about something.” A smile spreads across her face as she continues, “It’s nice to see that some people still do. Here, take this clipboard and this pen, if you just put your phone number here, then…”

Paul’s attention drifts to the form as he takes it from her, simply basking in the sound of the words as she explains what he’ll have to fill out. Paperwork has always soothed him, and the normalcy of the moment doubles the effect for him after such a strange start to the day. Once he’s filled out all the fields in the neat lettering he prides himself on, he passes the pen and form back. Glancing up, he catches her expression. She’s beaming, a mixture of surprise and genuine joy shining so brightly Paul can’t help but smile back, unsure of what to do or say. Just as he’d managed to banish it from his mind, an errant memory from his dream comes back to him:

I’ve never been happy…

“I should get going.” He barely hears the woman’s thank you as he resumes his walk to work, his focus on himself this time. It’s true that he’s always felt a disconnect between himself and his own feelings. How do people know when they’re happy? He knows he felt something yesterday when he learned Emma’s name… hadn’t he? Had he felt happy then? He thinks about Emma, picturing her smile as she gave him a thumbs up, remembers her ranting about her coworkers, the way she casually flipped the towel over her shoulder, and a warm feeling spreads through his chest, making his heart actually flutter. He always thought that was just a cliche. Hey, maybe the nasty blue shit from his dreams actually made him more receptive to his emotions? If his made up musical zombies actually showed up, he’d have to remember to thank them.

He steps into the office with high spirits, spotting Charlotte as she stirs sugar into the coffee pot. She’s wearing the same cat sweater he remembers from… He almost says something, but is interrupted by the door, turning to see Bill walking in. Seeing him alive somehow makes Paul want to cry, and hug him and grin and apologise for everything all at the same time. He settles for shooting him a friendly smile.

“Hey Bill! How was Mamma Mia? I bet Alice loved it.”

Bill stares back, shaking his head slightly.

“I don’t know how it was, Paul. Would you believe it, we got there and the whole theatre was destroyed by a goddang METEOR!”

Paul feels himself go numb.

Bill reaches out, puts a hand on his shoulder, asks if he’s okay. The warmth from his hand does nothing to melt the ice in his veins, however.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

“Paul?”

“Okay! Yeah, I’m… I’m okay. I’m fine. I-” he cuts himself off with a chuckle, trying to feign normalcy. Judging from Bill’s face, he’s failing. He quickly turns away instead and sees Charlotte, occupied with pouring herself a cup of coffee.

“Charlotte! How’s your morning been? Seen anything, I don’t know, weird?”

“Huh? Oh! Um… no, I haven’t noticed anything…” She trails off, looking away to think, before turning back to Paul and shaking her head slightly, “Not that I can think of.”

“I’ve noticed something weird!”

Paul hadn’t even seen Ted come in. He’s clearly enjoying the attention of his dramatic entrance as he takes a large swig from his coffee cup, swilling it around his mouth a couple of times before finally swallowing, smacking his lips and sighing in an exaggeratedly satisfied manner.

Paul waits for him to elaborate. Ted turns to look at him with one eyebrow cocked and an insufferable smirk.

“What? What have you noticed?” Paul barely bothers to hide the desperation in his tone but Ted still waits a couple of seconds, scrunching his mouth up to one side and looking away, before thrusting his cup of coffee towards Paul’s chest and turning his head back to face him, expression suddenly serious.

“You. Since when do you care this much about how everyone’s day has been?”

It takes a moment for Paul to process his answer. Once it clicks, he chuckles nervously and looks around for support, only to find Bill and Charlotte both watching him expectantly. Yikes.

“Well, you see… the thing is, I’ve just been having a really weird day, and,” he starts backing up towards the door, “Say! I know what I need! A nice cup of black coffee from Beanies! Do you guys want anything? Bill, how about a nice caramel frappe? Nothing better!”

He bumps into the door and quickly turns to push it open, not waiting for an answer. He hurries down the road, trying to decide whether to worry about the meteor to distract him from his awkwardness or dwell on his awkwardness to distract him from the possibly impending apocalypse. Fortunately, he arrives at Beanies before he actually settles on one. When he sees Emma, he manages an almost genuine smile, which she returns to his delight.

“Hey! I remember you. Paul, right? What’ll it be?”

Paul orders a simple black coffee as he slips a fiver onto the counter and watches her prepare the pot with a softness in her eyes and the slightest upturn of her lips.

She spots the money on the counter and that smile widens, pulling her bottom lip behind her teeth as she looks up at him cheekily.

“I was looking forward to you showing up!”

Looking away to pour his cup, her expression turns pensive. As she hands him his coffee, she almost seems to scoff and shakes her head a little, the smile creeping back onto her face.

“You know, this might sound weird, but I actually had a dream about you last night.”

“Really?” Paul’s eyebrows shoot up and he wonders whether he should mention his own dream after hearing hers. “What was it about?”

“Okay, this is definitely going to sound weird, but, um…” she trails off for a moment, wiping the counter, before looking back up at him wryly. “It was about singing alien zomb-”

She’s cut off by Paul dropping his cup.

#tgwdlm #the guy who didn't like musicals #my fic #our second chance #feedback is appreciated but please be nice #i hope you enjoy!#<3

38 notes · View notes

yourcoffeegal · 5 years

Text

some high school paulkins bc we need more fluff!!

“You can’t just not go to prom because you couldn’t find a date!” Emma says, as they walk home, walking in tandem. “That’s like, burning down a restaurant because they didn’t have the food you like.”

“Bit extreme Em,” he rolls his eyes, trying his best not to actually laugh at what Emma’s said. But like normally, he fails.

“Come on, come with me. I could be your date!” Emma says, and Paul takes a peak at Emma to see that she’s deadly serious. “It’ll be so much fun! I was going to go with Charlotte, but she’s going with Sam now. But we should go together. We can get dressed up and take pictures, maybe spike the drink. I might even have a dance with you.”

“You’re genuinely, properly serious about this aren’t you?” Paul asks, watching Emma nodding her head, grinning innocently.

“How else will I go to your prom?” she asks, before smirking. “You know I always get what I want.”

It’s true, Emma’s got this horrible hold on him that makes him automatically agree to anything. That’s why he’s banned from the cafe down the road from his house. He lifts the history folder he’s been holding, and uses it to hit his head, which Emma takes as the reluctant agreement that it is.

They don’t speak of prom again.

In a weird way, Paul just expects that Emma will change her mind and go to prom with someone else, probably from her own school. That’s how he’s found himself rushing to get a suit that fits him properly, Bill and Ted dragging him around the shops. “You can’t just show up to your prom in just about anything,” Bill tells him, after the fifth suit he’s tried on.

“It doesn’t even matter though,” Paul says, as he twirls to get a proper look in the mirror. “I’m only going because Emma needs a way into our prom.”

“Jesus christ Paul,” Ted groans. “You really are dim, aren’t you?”

“What did I say?” he asks, and turns to see that Bill looks equally as confused.

“You like Emma,” Ted says, clear as rain like it’s not the biggest bombshell he could drop on him moments before he’s supposed to meet Emma. “You’re scared she doesn’t like you back, which is so fucking wrong. But just in case, me and Bill are going to get you into a suit that makes you look so good, Emma won’t be able to keep her hands off you.”

“Ted,” Paul groans, as he ducks back behind the curtain, hoping his friends have missed his blushing cheeks. “You are the worst!”

“I’m not wrong though!”

Annoyingly, he has a point.

Paul goes to Emma’s house to collect her, not before they pose for a million pictures together. Then it’s off to Charlotte’s house, where there’s even more pictures, but it’s fun, and all of their friends are with him. He’s glad that he’s decided to show up.

“Can you believe we’ll all be off to college soon?” Bill asks, as they make their way inside the school doors together.

“That’s why tonight is going to be legendary,” Ted says, grinning from cheek to cheek. He places an arm over Bill and Charlotte’s shoulders.

Emma leans up to fix his tie. “And as your date, I can promise you that you’ll have the best night ever.”

Paul just hopes Emma never noticed the shiver that went down his spine, from the feeling of having her so close.

So far its been a night to remember - they had successfully spiked the punch, took lots more photos, danced until their feet were sore and reminisced about the good old days.

That’s what leads him outside for some fresh air, the thought that his friends will all be separating from each other makes the room spin a little and he’s not sure if he can take it. He’s alone for maybe five minutes before Emma walks outside. She smiles the second she spots Paul. A slow, wandering kind of smile.

“Hey you,” says Emma, coming to stand beside him.

“Hi,” he returns. “Why aren’t you inside with the rest?”

“Because you’re here.”

Their shoulders brush in the cold wind, and they stand in silence for a few moments. It’s nice, especially since this whole evening has been so loud, and so crazy. “I didn’t get into college,” she says, breaking the silence between them. “I’m saving up to go travelling. I’ve been working in Beanies all summer, so I’m going to stay there for a while.”

“I don’t even know what I’m going to do,” he admits, as he leans against the banister in front of them. “I’m the only one who’s staying in Hatchetfield, and I’m only doing it for my parents. I just feel like there’s a whole world out there waiting for me, but I’m always stuck here.”

“At least you’re stuck here with me,” Emma chuckles. “You get that business degree of yours, and you can come with me.”

He likes the idea of that. He doesn’t say it aloud though, because he doesn’t want to sound like a lovesick fool.

“Thanks for making me go to prom,” he says, eventually, his eyes wandering around the empty school lot in front of them. “I didn’t really want to go, but here I am, having fun.”

“Best date ever, right?” Emma smirks, and Paul rolls his eyes in response, which makes her laugh. They’re quiet for a moment - it’s the kind of quiet you feel more than you hear. The kind of quiet that thrums with anticipation, of an unspoken but mutually acknowledged something. There’s a smile still playing at the edge of Emma’s mouth, and Paul doesn’t think he’s seen anything more beautiful.

“Best date ever,” he repeats, the words floating in the space between them, hinting to the something that’s always seemed to follow them.

He turns to face Emma, when she starts to lean in, crashing their lips together. It’s everything. Their lips slide together like they’re a perfect fit, and Emma leans up on her tiptoes, to curl her fingers in Paul’s hair, tilting his head closer and drawing him in with every brush.

Two drunken teens walk out, and wolf whistle as they notice Paul and Emma kissing. They pull apart, breaking from the trance as they start to laugh. Paul’s stomach erupts with butterflies when he turns to see Emma’s grin. He doesn’t think he’s seen her look so happy, and he’s sure he’s a mirror image of that too. He hooks an arm around Emma’s neck, pulling her in for another kiss. Or two.

The future isn’t as scary anymore, not when he knows that he’ll have Emma beside him, struggling along too. But instead of thinking of the future, he decides to think about the now.

He grabs Emma’s hand, pulling her inside again, and they join their friends again.

Life, Paul thinks, really can’t get any better than this.

#paulkins #paul matthews #emma perkins #tgwdlm #mywriting

96 notes · View notes

themtmshow · 7 years

Note

What are some of your favorite MTM episodes and why?

Thank you for the question! I’m sorry it took me so long to reply; I wanted to give you a decent answer but I haven’t had much free time this week. I was goingto give you a top 10 list and, after much deliberation, I ended up with a top15 list instead; I couldn’t narrow it down any further. And if anyone wants to reblog this with their own favourite episodes, or send me an ask about it, that would be very welcome.

I’m posting this under a cut because it got very long (sorry about that).

1x02 – Today I Am a Ma’am

This episode features the first of many disastrous Mary parties, and personally, I don’t think they got any better than this. “Allow me to introduce myself:I’m another person in the room” is one of my favourite lines of the wholeseries. And I love the part where Rhoda dumps food all over her lap and Marylooks over in horror. That is absolutely the kind of thing I would do at a party, if it didn’t violate every social rule in existence. (Also, Ilove any time Rhoda is in a scene with her real-life husband at the time, DickSchaal, aka Howard Arnell.)

2x21 – Where There’s Smoke, There’s Rhoda

This is the one where there’s a fire in Rhoda’s apartment, so she moves in with Mary for a few days. I thinkthis is one of my favourite Mary/Rhoda episodes, because it puts them inconflict with each other while still managing to reinforce how strong andbeautiful their friendship is. They end up fighting because they’re just sodifferent, not because they intentionally want to hurt eachother. They have each other’s best interests at heart the entire time. And theend where Rhoda agrees to go stay with Phyllis is fantastic. I love the look onPhyllis’ face that just screams “HELP ME.”

3x06 – Rhoda the Beautiful

This, of course, is the episode where Rhoda won the Ms. Hempel Beauty Contest. I have alot of feelings about this episode. I really don’t like the implication that Rhoda wasn’t beautiful when she was fat, and that she only became beautiful after she lost weight. For one thing, Rhoda was neverall that fat, and for another thing, she was never not gorgeous. Also, weighthas absolutely nothing to do with beauty anyway. But I do think the episode madeit clear that the important thing wasn’t Rhoda’s weight at all. Her problem was that she didn’t feel good about the way shelooked. And even winning a beauty contest doesn’t solve that problem for her. Onanother show, that might have been the end of it, but for Rhoda, even that external validation isn’t enough to make her feel confident. Only after admitting her victory to Mary and receiving her support is Rhoda able to take some pride in her appearance.I love this episode because it doesn’t dismiss Rhoda’s self-image issues asunimportant. Instead, it gives them the emotional weight they deserve. Rhoda’s not sillyfor feeling bad about the way she looks. She’s not shallow for caring about herappearance. And she’s not vain for taking pride winning a beautycontest. The writing (and Valerie Harper’s Emmy-winning performance) reallyemphasize how hard it was for Rhoda to feel good about herself, and how braveshe is for gaining that confidence. I adore the scene where Rhoda tells Marythat she won. She looks down instead of meeting Mary’s eyes. Her voice shakes.She’s clearly terrified. And Mary’s reaction is so wonderful. Rhoda neededMary’s support here, and she absolutely got it. Although this episode dealtwith some really important subject matter, and it was definitely inspiring and poignant, it was ultimately a story about one woman earning some well-deserved confidence, and her best friend who helped her get to that point.

3x16 – Lou’s Place

This is theepisode where Lou tries to be the happy, welcoming bartender, but he can’t keepit up, so he ends up individually terrorizing his patrons. I always laughwatching him try to angrily force everyone to have a good time. “What thehell’s wrong with you, anyway? You just sit there like a bunch of clods… Nowthis is the Happy Hour.” I’m laughing out loud just thinking about it. I thinkit’s one of the funniest scenes in the whole show. And I cannot imagine how EdAsner kept a straight face through the whole scene. Or anyone else, for thatmatter. I also love the scene where Ted tries to arm-wrestle Lou while posing for the photographer. And Murray giving Ted change for $500 in nickels was a great ending.

4x17 – Cottage for Sale

This is the one where Lou almost sells his house but Mary changes his mind at the last minute. It’s just a nice, quiet episode that I’ve seen a million times and it always makesme smile. We see Lou give Mary a lot of helpful (and not-so-helpful) advice andguidance over the course of the series. I like this episode because it’s one ofthe times where Lou depends on Mary to be the voice of reason and help him realize that in some cases, his emotions are more important than logic. And I like thescene where Lou makes Mary breakfast: a scrambled omelet, with green pepper,green onion, and… beer. He’s just so pleased with himself for it. Phyllis is also very good in this episode, in her typical nails-on-a-chalkboard sort of way.

4x20 – Better Late… That’s a Pun… Than Never

“Wee Willie Williams was the oldest living citizen in Minneapolis. There were other citizens in Minneapolis who are older; however, they happen to be dead.” Although the Wee Willie obituary scene is already enough tomake this episode legendary, this is also one of my favourite Mary and Lou episodes. I likethe part when Lou says that he missed Mary more than anyone else did, because that’s not the kind of thing he admits very often. Apart from that, I think it’s very sweet that Rhoda gave up a Robert Redford/Paul Newman movie to write obituaries with Mary until 4 in the morning. That’s quite a favour, even considering what happened as a result. And I would really love to know which character went into Lou’s office overnight and broke all his pencil points. (It was probably Murray.)

4x21 – Ted Baxter Meets Walter Cronkite

I love mostof the Teddy Awards episodes, and this is one of my favourites. This was a goodepisode for Ted. I love the look on his face when he realizes that he won. Forall his confidence before, he seems genuinely surprised, which suggests that much of his trademark overconfidence is actually fake. Ted had so few victories in the show, and his acceptance speech makes mesad for him almost as much as it makes me laugh. And his meeting with WalterCronkite was pure genius. (I wonder if Ted ever gave him his pipe back?)

5x01 – Will Mary Richards Go to Jail?

I really admire Mary in this episode. She’s scared of going to jail, andshe even cries about it, but she does the right thing anyway, without really considering any other alternative. She’s not flawless, butshe’s brave and principled, which is something I love about her. This is alsoanother really good Mary and Lou episode. Lou’s ethics are such a fundamentalpart of his character, and he demonstrates many times over the course of theseries that he’s very rarely willing to back down on things he cares about. Butin this episode, he tells Mary that he doesn’t believe in the freedom of thepress - going against everything he believes in as a newsman - because he can’t handle her being in jail. That demonstrates just how much he cares about Mary,even more than the ensuing hug. And I always laugh when Sue Ann tells Mary, “Dear, when you get out, if you get out, I’ll beright there to help you find your way back into decent society.” (I’m curious as to howSue Ann got all those tin prison cups on such short notice. Does she just have themlying around in her studio at all times? Was she doing a special on prisonfood? Does she collect them? We’ll never know.)

5x19 – The Shame of the Cities

This is theepisode where Lou and Mary make a documentary on a politician that Lou thought was shady but who turned out to be incredibly boring. The “Thank you, Mr. Mugger” scene at the end is one of myfavourite scenes in the show. Mary Tyler Moore was so damn talented. I alsoreally like Charlene, and I like the part where she casually tells Mary thatshe dated Frank Sinatra and Mary can’t get over it. And I lovethe scene where the news team has a meeting in Lou’s office to work on the documentary and Ted listens in until Lou shuts the door on him (at which point you hear his offscreen cry of anguish).

5x23 – Ted Baxter’s Famous Broadcasters School

This is the one where Ted is tricked by a con man and he has to run a broadcasting school with just his colleagues for support. I don’tknow exactly why this episode is so funny to me, but I really enjoy it. I lovethat everyone pulls together, however reluctantly, to help solve Ted’s problem.And I like Ted’s school song: “We have no gym and we have no pool, but we haveheart at Ted Baxter’s Famous Broadcaster’s School!” Short, but catchy. I also love how Mary completely loses her patience by the end of it. (“Who IS this person? What are we DOING here?!”) Although, having watched “GetSmart,” I find it very confusing that Mary is on a date with Siegfried.

6x09 – Ted’s Wedding

I don’t knowwhy they didn’t call it “Ted and Georgette’s Wedding,” but anyway, this was a veryfunny episode. Ted and Georgette were adorable, of course. Sue Ann was brilliant as thefrilly, flower-toting task manager who magically had everything together at thedrop of a hat. And the tennis-playing priest was perfect. (“Bride on mybackhand, groom on my forehand!”) The wedding is sweet but still hilarious, andalthough this is a significant episode with two of the main characters getting married, it fits very neatly into theshow.

6x18 – Once I Had a Secret Love

I actuallyfeel weird about this episode because of the Lou/Sue Ann storyline. I find it disturbingthat Lou was made to feel guilty for having a drunk one-night stand. And Ithink that if Lou had been a woman and Sue Ann had been a man, that storylinemight have played differently. But asidefrom that, this is a really emotionally heavy episode because of the Mary/Louconflict. It’s the first time we’ve ever seen Lou be really devastated bysomething Mary did. And I think it’s interesting that he just shuts down,instead of yelling or being sarcastic like he normally would after being hurt. It shows a side of him thatwe don’t normally get to see, and I have a lot of feelings about it. I also have a lot of feelings about the Mary andLou resolution scene, which is very sweet. And Ted is wonderful in thisepisode. “Mary, why are you weeping? Into a sock!” That part always makes melaugh. This was the episode that made me realize how much the show show relied on Ted to keep the show funny while they did heavy episodeslike this one. (I think the episode where Murray falls in love with Mary is another example.)

6x22 – A Reliable Source

This is the episode where Mary quits her job after Lou insists on running a potentially incriminating story on her Congressman friend. The scenenear the end where Lou helps Mary type her resignation letter is another one of myfavourite scenes. I like any time Mary call Lou by his first name, because sheso rarely does. And although I think that Mary was wrong about wanting to keepthe story about the Congressman off the air, I admire her for sticking to herword anyway. I also think it’s sweet how Murray and Ted really try to supportMary in her fight against Lou, even though there isn’t much they can do. And it amuses me that Ted so readily assumes his friends are trying toget him a raise when they’re really talking about totally irrelevant things. “Thegood Lord has blessed me with many friends… And not a damn one of them’s gotany pull around here!”

7x10 – Murray Can’t Lose

There are afew episodes during season 7 where you can tell that the writers and the castknew it was going to be their last season, and they just went all out with thesentiment. This is one of those episodes. There are a lot of good scenes inthis one, such as Mary singing in Lou’s office, Ted using Lou as aventriloquism dummy, and Georgette’s excellent dance sequence. But my favouritepart is the end scene where Murray gives his acceptance speech to all hisfriends, even though he didn’t win. I think what Murray says to Mary is lovely: “You do theimpossible every day. You make people forget how beautiful you look becausethey’re too busy realizing how beautiful you are.” It’s a perfect summary ofthe way Murray feels about Mary, and it’s also such a good way to describe her. And I love that Murray finallyadmits to Ted that he does actually like him. (Of course, Tedhad to ruin the moment.)

7x11 – Mary’s Insomnia

Apart fromthe highly inaccurate depiction of insomnia, I adore this episode. It wasdirected by James Burrows, who is one of the most legendary directors of alltime (he also did Cheers). Maybethat’s the reason why there is so much excellent physical comedy in thisepisode. Aside from that, and aside from this being such a nice Mary/Louepisode, I like that Ted actually got to get back at Murray for his years ofinsulting him. I also love the scene where everyone shows up in Mary’s bathroomwhile she’s taking a bath, and only Murray has the good sense to be embarrassedabout it. And Lou accidentally lapsing into “Up the Lazy River” while attempting to sing a lullaby is another one of my favourites.

I could absolutely go on and list another 15 episodes, and probably another 15 after that, but I think it’s in everyone’s best interest if I stop here. Thanks again for the question! And like I said above, people should feel free to reblog and add your own favourite episodes. I’d love to hear what everyone thinks.

#anonymous #asks #the mary tyler moore show

8 notes · View notes