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#i was repeatedly annoyed by him throughout the seasons but he grew on me
jeanmoreaux · 5 years
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i just watched the shameless season final and it left me super emotional! carl’s outburst of self-doubt? heartbreaking. debbie prioritizing carl’s needs? heartbreaking. ian and fiona’s goodbye scene, with ian providing emotional support and reassurance? heartbreaking. fiona’s quiet departure to somewhere closer to the equator? heartbreaking.
#ahhh i am such a mess after watching this adjhjakshkjasd#i have no idea how i’ll get through my week now#sunday’s episode was always a treat for my stressed heart#i’m devastated right now#and this episode’s prison scene made me realize how much i missed ian#i was repeatedly annoyed by him throughout the seasons but he grew on me#i was always really invested in his storylines up until the mess that was gay jesus#but his goodbye with fiona was like a reminder how amazing his character really is#and since cameron was saying in one of his interviews that he thinks ian's storyline for season 10 is really good again#i have hope that we'll get to see this side of ian more in the future#so yeah i am more than happy he'll be back#but man am i going to miss seeing emmy's gorgeous face#still sad she left the show :((#as much as fiona annoyed me she was always a fav#even at her lowest#sooo now that we will have to wait months for new episodes what am i going to do with my life???#probably read more books lmao#((also i just read an interview from back in january by the chicago tribune or smth#in which cameron stated that he would consider coming back to the show to do more ian and mickey stuff#but after his return to the show for season10 was announces he clearly said that he'd love to have ian not being in a relationship for once#so now i am confused??? bc why say such things one minute and then say something completely different the next???#is it bc noel fisher probably won't return and they have to write out mickey again???#idk i am confused))#((i am also confused by emmy's interview that discuss her exit from the show... why am i even reading stuff like that...#noel's interview about the show are always so confusing too!!#what's up with literally everything askjhladlkja))
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Elite S3 reactions (Episode by episode/overall thoughts +SPOILERSSSS)
So I know I post writing stuff but I have *EMOTIONS* about this show and no one to share them with so please ignore this post, if you don’t watch the show/don’t care. Includes spoilers so you’ve been warned.
Ok, I’m going to go episode by episode then do my overall feelings. I’d love to know anyone’s thoughts about the show so feel free to reblog! I just watched the show in 10 hours straight but alot goes on so I might not be able to remember every single conversation in a episode. Multiple characters have a lot going on at once. For reference, I don’t speak Spanish-I watch the show with English subtitles. 
-3x1: Carla
-Pretty solid start, we pick up a couple weeks after we left off. I felt so DUCKING bad for Carla the entire season and I understood why she lied in court about accusing Polo. Malick is introduced-am I the only who doesn’t like people who are persistent in asking other people out? Like my no is a no. Don’t annoy me, this is the kind shit people pull and pressure others into a relationship. It’s not endearing to me. So I automatically didn’t like him. 
-Lu gets kicked out but can someone tell me where she lives throughout the season? I figured she lived with her mom after her dad kicked her out but at the last episode, in the airport, she says both her parents have disowned her? Where has been living? Maybe she saved up money unlike Valerio idk. 
-3x2: Samuel and Guzman
-Samu is trying to get Carla back. I didn’t dislike them as a couple last season but I knew they were using each other, so I didn’t allow myself to get too close to them. But now I ship them. I wanted them together this season. Yeray is introduced-um, I still think he’s irrelevant. I did think for a moment that he was going to hold his money over Carla’s head so she’d stay with him but he didn’t even think for one second that was why Carla was trying to get with him (because her asshole dad pimped her out ugh) . He was only helpful when it came to the contract at the end.
-Deadass, I was going to exit out if Valerio had slept with Rebe’s mom. I thought that entire scene was pretty much sexual assault and it was creepy. He needs to go to rehab lmao.
-Polo trusting Guzman again was a dumb bitch move. So here’s how I feel about Polo. V unfortunately, I love him. He’s one of my fav characters. I know he’s a killer but Idk I think it’s the actor or something because he’s so pretty (the entire cast is beautiful) that I forgive everything he does?? Also I hated Marina by the end of S1 so he did me a favor. What I wanted from Polo was to embrace the fact that he was the villain. Like the times he threatened Lu by taking away the scholarship or (tried) to threaten Samu. Those scenes I was like hell fucking yes, no more wallowing. But noo this boy wanted forgiveness. Dude. You’re cute but you still killed someone, jesus. I would be so ashamed/guilty to be hanging out with the brother of the person I killed. He played himself there big time. The tweets were interesting way of revenge and ofc Caye used that to her advantage. She’s a leech but I thought she used the fact that she had the murder weapon (as leverage for Polo to stay with her) waaay more. 
3x3: Cayetana and Valerio
-Strange couple but eh, better than incest. So in this episode, Samu makes a deal with the worst detective ever (every season, she fails to solve a case lmao) and I don’t blame him. He’d do anything to get Nano back, it’s why he tried to get Polo arrested for an entire season. It’s shitty that he did that to Rebe but I understand why. Before this season, I thought Rebe was irrelevant because she wasn’t really fleshed out but after this season, I grew to like her a lot. It hurt watching her and Samu get close because everytime she said something like ‘you’re the only good thing in my life’ I was like girl, he’s the reason why you’ve lost everything ugh. It was uncomfy and sad to watch. 
-Ander and Omar. I liked them-didn’t like what Ander did last season but he did confess and was forgiven. So Omar’s whole cheating thing came out of left field and it wasn’t! Even! Properly! Confessed! to! Ander!!!! Oof. Ander SUFFERED this season. But I’m glad the writers chose cancer over HIV because there’s so much stigma attached to that disease and the LGBT community and I’m tired of that narrative. 
3x4: Lu
-I’ve always respected the hell out of Lu. Yes, she’s been a bitch for the past 2 seasons but she was always upfront about her actions. She didn’t like you, she let you know. This was her shining season and I loved her Valentine reversal. She looked hot, she really looked out for Nadia/Ander this episode (and the entire season). She could’ve revealed the cheating but she didn’t. I feel like S1 Lu would’ve so she’s come full circle. She said NO to Guzman which was everything. Oh speaking of which, I actually like Guzman. He’s really developed as a character in terms of temper. I like that he wanted to move on from hating Polo. But when he’s with Nadia, he irritates me. 
-I don’t have Muslim parents but I have Muslim cousins. My parents are immigrants. They’re not extreme like Nadia’s but like I feel Guzman goes out of his way to make Nadia’s home life worse. He’s knows her parents are conservative but he’s strides in the store and tells them about how their daughter can’t study. Should Nadia had said something? Yes but how could she? She has responsibilities to her parents. Her 2 other siblings have been kicked out. Nadia claims that her religion is important to her but Guzman repeatedly disrespects it. I couldn’t be with someone like that. It wasn’t cute that he offered to work so Nadia could study-which we saw him do ONCE. It’s overbearing. Also Nadia just forgives him so easily, it’s like dude, do you not care? So I like Guzman-he’s actually a good friend to Ander and formerly, Polo but my god, he’s so disrespectful when it comes to Nadia.
-Also I liked the threesome, not as good as Christian/Polo/Carla but not bad.
3x5: Ander
-Best episode this season, hands down. I loved the opening song and sequence. The scene where Polo’s parents catch him with Valerio and Caye really got my gears thinking-I was like if I were a parent (don’t want kids but ya know, if I did), how would I react to that? I’d like to think that I’d be very accepting of my kid (given they’re not hurting themselves or others) in terms of sexuality, religion, etc. But I was like hmmm, being polyamorous?? Not one I would be prepared for. But if the kid is happy, I guess. That was random but those were my thoughts. 
-Rebe finding out it was Samu who sold them out hurt like a bitch. BUT MY GOD THE BLACKLIGHT REVEAL!! Ugh the best. I had to pause, I was so shook. And Malick and Omar reveal to Nadia. Jesus. I loved her reaction but it was immediately undermined by the next episode when she forgives her brother. Like I get it, they’re siblings. But she should’ve held it against him longer. Omar got 0 consequences for cheating this season-not from Ander or Nadia. Tf.
3x6: Rebeca
-Carla is on drugs. Yikes. Again, her dad was pimping her all season so I get it girl. Also anyone else think the adults are stupid in the show?? All of their parents are business people but one bad financial move, they’re on their asses and almost bankrupt? Happened with Guzman’s dad and now Carla’s. Do they not invest in other things? Idk have a savings account?
-Also Samu and Guzman being friends. Top tier content. Chef’s kiss. Full circle and character development to the max. Ngl I felt a little bit of homoerotic tones there?? Just me?? I would ship them over any other couple if they got to together for just one night. 
-Nadia sharing the scholarship with Lu. Ugh. Everything. Loved that.
-Ander lying to Omar about having an affair. Ew. I know he was trying to push Omar away but like he was the one cheating? So either call him out on that or just break up with no reason. Don’t make yourself look bad dude. Ugh but the both of them sobbing at the end of their breakup...my heart shattered. That was GREAT acting. 
-Polo saving Carla. We all liked that. 
3x7: Nadia and Omar
-FUCK Ander’s mom for expelling them. I went to private school-there’s rules in place for parents who have money so they don’t manipulate the administration. Polo’s moms needed to let their son fight his own battles. Also Ander’s mom calling Guzman to come over to talk to Ander was really strange. She just expelled him. I know he’s Ander’s best friend but idk, she just expelled him. And they don’t even talk about it at Ander’s house. Again, this is the Guzman I like-the loyal/good friend. Loved the convo between him and Ander. 
-I liked Carla’s honesty to Yeryay and that they could possibly be friends. I always knew he idealized her for standing up for him on social media so I’m glad they acknowledged that. 
-Also Lu’s comment to Nadia that she looks like a pistachio was everything. And her ‘People are watching’ line in the previous episode is great too. 
-KEVIN FUCKING MCHALE made a cameo. Hell yes. And ofc, great speech by Nadia and Lu. Polito’s last conversations really did a lot for me to symphatize with his character (He didn’t have to do much because I still liked him despite his murdering). He got his moms to face the fact that they can’t throw money at every problem and that he is a killer. This scene and the beginning scenes of the next episode is what made me at peace with his character. I knew he was going to die but like this is what he needed for some sort of redemption. 
3x8: Polo
-Not the best ending for such a good season. But the first 15 minutes which are the convos and events that led up to Polo’s death was good. I never suspected Lu for a second, I really thought Valerio (Had some decent motive-more than Nadia, less obvious people like Samu and Guzman) had done it. But when I rewatched the trailer, you see that the writers told us it was her all along. Her line about the ELITE gang being family and that she’d protect them was a clue. She had the least interaction with Polo himself throughout the season so I never had time to even suspect her. Really brilliant. 
-Them touching the murder weapon is powerful. This was the only way to end things. I figured by episode 6ish that everyone was working together based on their answers in the flashforwards. And I half laughed because no sane police force would allow the witness/potential suspects to hang out together before interrogation. At least not without police watching them. 
-I do think it’s odd that Samu asked Rebe to ask her mom to get rid of Polo because he literally betrayed her and she talks to him (although mad) despite that. OKayyy. I really thought we were going to get the Samu and Carla get-together but guess not. I feel cheated by that because they clearly wanted each other all along. 
-The endings weren’t the best. I do appreciate that Omar made the right call in the end and I’m glad Ander is in remission. Oof my gripe though was with Nadia and Omar’s parents. So Lu goes to the airport and admits hey my parents disowned me and they’re like of course, we’ll be your family. AND I WAS LIKE ‘WHAT ABOUT OMAR??’ Y’all were so willing to kick him out and they never really made amends. So like I get that Omar’s dad is trying by acknowledge that Ander is Omar’s boyfriend but I mean during Omar’s mom’s dinner, he had no right asking him about his studies. He didn’t move out. Y’all kicked him out. How do you think he’s doing, trying to find a place to sleep? Jesus. Also the mom isn’t all good. Again, if I were a mom, I don’t understand how I could live without knowing if my kid is okay since they’re not living with me. My mom is a single mom-I know there’s no man in the world, not my dad, no one that she would chose me over. If my husband kicked my kids out, no questions, the husband is going to the curb or I’m going with my kids. Idgaf. The mom should’ve stood up. It just made me so angry that they were like poor Lu, no family but they mistreated their own child. 
OKAY so overall thoughts...I thought this was a really good season. I’d say 1st was the best, then this one, and then second (Ngl I don’t remember the 2nd one too much okay). I liked that it was more angsty and more character focused then the whodunnit? part that we’re used to. The entire cast has such strong acting and I’m going to miss whoever isn’t returning for S4. I’m going to miss Polo as well goddamn. 
Best moments of the season: Lu saying/doing ANYTHING-I have feelings, bitch. Her friendship with Nadia and other characters. Carla standing up to her pimp dad. Ander being in remission (his acting was great too). All of episode 5. Kevin McHale cameo. 
Worst moments: Polo asking Guzman if he would ever be forgiven?? And I know he did end up forgiving him but like bro, just because I don’t want to harbor hate for the rest of my life, doesn’t mean I forgive you for killing my sister whatttt. Omar never confessing to Ander about the cheating. Like no consequences and his character was just demolished this season. Still don’t know where Lu lived this entire season lmao. Anything Ander’s mom did to the students ugh.
Overall, I liked this season. It felt more mature for a high school TV show. I’m not super invested into any particular ship so I don’t feel cheated like most people. It takes me a while to get into ships but once I do, I get really invested. The only ship I was really disappointed in not seeing was Carmuel because Carla went through alot this season and Samu clearly wanted to be with her. And that’s all I had to say lmao.
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wowweeharrystyles · 5 years
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mixtapes & memories
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Love Is A Mixtape by Rob Sheffield definitely had its impact on me & inspired me to write this piece. This is one of my favourite playlists, so I decided to write around it. 
Harry x Y/N | 5.2K words
(Italicized bits are flashback memories)
Here’s a link to the playlist, too !!!  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1kPsDksn0oQcF9uOLIioUH?si=nGKLi3FBREyrcR5iAc9UbQ
It’s nights like these you look back on. Nights like these that you’ll remember forever. Nights like these are the ones you hope everyone you love gets to experience with the one they love. 
Dreams - Fleetwood Mac
A giggle bubbles in your throat as Harry presses a kiss to the soft skin under your ear. Harry nonchalantly pulls away as if he wasn’t intending on making a mark on your skin when he sees his car being pulled up by the valet. His arm leaves your waist as he pulls out a few bills to hand to the valet. Verbally thanking the young man, you walk towards the car and see Harry now waiting with the passenger door open for you. Shining him a bright smile you step down into the low riding Ford Capri. Before closing your door Harry helps you move some of the fabric of your skirt into your seat with you as to not close it in the door. He shakes his head with a smile before walking round to get into the driver's side. 
“What’re you shaking your head for?” you ask through a chuckle.
“Just look beautiful tonight, sometimes can’t believe I get to spend my time with you,” he says as he shuts the door and shifts into drive. 
You groan his name in faked annoyance. You really don’t have anything coherent to respond with but he knows the feelings go both ways. 
There’s a moment of silence while the cd that is in the stereo changes to the next song. You both still quite like the idea of mix tapes and prefer the sound of the 1970 stereo, (only having updated it by adding a CD player rather than an aux cord). Your favourite mixtape being the one in the player now. There’s a wide selection on this disk and in your handwriting, the title “feels like home” is scribble in sharpie on the top of the silvery-gold CD. 
There’s a wide variety of songs on this CD, some of your favourites, some of Harry’s, songs that you grew up listening to, it’s got it all. As you 2 got to know each other in the beginning you both discovered that music played a big part in how you were raised and grew up. 
Just about every single Saturday growing up, you were woken up by your parents blasting their music collection throughout the house. Dad would play Phil Collins or Fleetwood Mac and Mom would blast Paul Simon, Michael Jackson or Donny Osmonds and once in a while Shania Twain’s Greatest Hits. On the morning of your oldest sisters wedding she played “Going To The Chapel” at full volume, on repeat, to wake everyone up. 
Every Saturday, without a doubt, she would go one by one into everyone’s room and dance around and sing to whatever was playing downstairs. It wasn’t always your favourite way to be woken up but looking back on it, you miss it from time to time. 
Sometimes Harry will try to recreate these Saturday mornings - with a fresh cup of coffee in hand - dancing around in his boxers, his latest favourite blasting through the apartment. It only makes his regal flat feel more like home and makes up for the time apart.
Harry’s mother, Anne, had raised Harry with similar music taste. The 2 of you liked to compare first experiences with Fleetwood Mac and stories passed down by both of your parents. Your dad repeatedly recalls taking his baby blue Ford van down to Florida for spring break the year Rumours was released, blasting the album on the hot, packed beaches throughout the coast of Florida. Harry recalls Anne singing along to Landslide and Dreams as they drove around Cheshire. Dreams was the first song he learned all the words to. 
The opening drums of ‘Dreams’ vibrates through the speakers of the car as Harry starts to drive away. He starts to sing along right away. You know he doesn’t realise that he always does this and it makes you smile everytime you hear his smooth voice 
I’ll Be There For You - The Rembrandts
Neither of you can bare to miss the claps at the beginning so when Harry can’t get his hands off the wheel to clap along, you restart the track. Both of you break out in a fit of laughter at the ridiculous habit and continue singing as loud as you can, dance moves included (at least what you could manage while buckled into your seats). Harry’s signature “rain starts to fall” hands always make you roll your eyes before tossing your head back and laugh even more while still trying to sing along. 
Honestly, neither of you have been able to keep track of how many times you’ve rewatched F.R.I.E.N.D.S. on your own, nonetheless together. (It’s a lot and you’ll both just leave it at that.) Harry had suggested that you 2 should start watching it from the beginning together when you two ordered takeout one night in the first month of knowing each other. That night repeated over and over again, neither of you caring to go out on fancy dates so much, only wanting to spend time together. 
You had just finished season 6 the night before Harry had to jet off to Japan or New York or Italy (honestly, you can barely keep track). While facetiming one night while he was gone you caught a glimpse of his tv screen in his hotel room. 
“Harry?” you questioned. 
“Yes, love?” 
“Are you watching FRIENDS without me?”
“Uhhh…” he stutters out, looking back at the TV that was playing without sound. “I can explain!” he rushed out. You faked an annoyed look (even though you were actually kind of annoyed by it). “Listen, babe, love, sweetheart, I was bored and missing you… I thought i’d just watch one episode…” 
“One?!?! Looks like you’ve definitely watched more than one!” 
“I’m sorry, love!”
“Fine, well that means I have to catch up, then. What episode are you on?” 
“Uhm, I think episode 4,” he whispers. 
“4?!?! Harry!!” 
“I’m so sorry!!! Like I said, I was bored and missed you. Always reminds me of you.” 
“Oh come on, be a normal boy and have a wank if you miss me.” 
He shouts your name in surprise. “Oh my god.” His cheeks start to turn a light pink shade. 
“Oh, stop blushing. You’re acting like a child. Be a man, have a wank or call me, don’t watch FRIENDS.” 
After a short moment of silence you both meet eyes and burst into a fit of laughter. 
That specific conversation gets brought up every time Harry has to leave, a little inside joke. Between “I’ll Be There For You” and the next track Harry suggests that you 2 should start rewatching FRIENDS again. 
“That’ll be like the 5th time,” you comment. “Think this time you’ll be able to make it through the entire show without watching an episode without me?” 
“I can’t make any promises,” he confirms with a giggle. 
Still Crazy After All These Years - Paul Simon
There’s a handful of Paul Simon on this mixtape. You have your mother to thank for that. After dinner each night your mom would put on a Paul Simon album while you did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen as a family. To this day you’ll opt for Paul Simon’s Greatest Hits while you clean yours and Harry’s home. He knows this music makes you feel like you’re back home with your family and can nick away at the homesick feeling you get once in a while. There’s something about the classics - “Still Crazy After All These Years”, “Diamonds on the Soles of Your Shoes” “Kodachrome” - that make your heart light and bring a smile to your face. 
During one trying week, Harry had used the Greatest Hits Album to settle you down. Work had been awful, one thing after the other, day after day, nothing went right and you were at the end of your limits. To add to the that Harry had been traveling back and forth for the better part of 3 weeks. A text from your parents asking how you were and when you would be visiting next had been the last straw. 
Harry came home mid day on a Saturday and on his way into the house he dropped his belongings in a trail from the front door to the bedroom. That morning, you had decided to try to turn your mood around, knowing Harry would be home soon, you went out to a yoga class and picked up groceries to make Harry’s favourite meal. When you got home after him, you proceeded to trip over each of his belongings on the way to the kitchen. You were cursing loud enough that it woke him up. He came downstairs in a pair of workout shorts and a messy head of hair. 
“Baby!” He exclaims when he sees you putting away the food. When he tries to give you a hug and kiss you shrug him off. 
“You left everything all over. I tripped on every single fucking bag on my way in. I get that your tired and traveling sucks but at least fucking put it all in one spot.”
“Woah, I’m sorry,” he says, taken aback. Nothing from their conversations earlier this week or even this morning had lead him onto the mood you’re in now. 
“Don’t even,” you say with a bit of a bite to it. 
“Hey, what’s going on?” He asks with equal bite. You whisper a ‘nothing’ and continue what you’re doing. “It’s not nothing if you’re this upset” 
“Just leave me alone, Harry.” 
“I haven’t seen you in days!!! I’m not just leaving you alone. I fucking missed you and I have no idea why you’re acting like this.” 
“It’s not my fault that you haven’t seen me. I’ve been here this entire time. Not all of us get to jet off to be an international rockstar and do no wrong. I got ripped apart this week at work. Everything I did was wrong, I fucked up, you don’t know what that’s like.” you take a deep breath, tears building in your eyes. “and now my parents are nagging me about coming home to visit and I can’t take any more time off work cause I’ve used it all to come see you on tour.” When you wipe the tears from your eyes you see the look on Harry’s face and your heart drops into your stomach. You’ve never spoken to him like this and you never meant for anything to come out like this. “I’m sorry,” you yell even though you don’t mean to, “I just miss home and I’ve been so lonely without you here and I don’t know, it all just came out.” He doesn’t respond and now you’re embarrassed and beyond upset about all of it. You whisper an apology as you turn and leave the kitchen.
Everything hurt as you fell to the bed. You groan a little in annoyance when you immediately smell Harry’s cologne on the bed, fresher than it’s been in weeks. Tears fell to the pillow for what felt like ages. You didn’t know what you wanted to happen next. Did you want him to come find you and try to say something to make everything better somehow? Were you hoping you would muster up the courage to put yourself back together and go downstairs begging for him to forgive you? You really had no idea. It was a while later when you could start making out sounds from the 1st floor. It wasn’t until the music got louder that you paid more attention. 
One room of speakers at a time (he can be such a cheeky fucker sometimes) the music eventually reached your bedroom where you were still laying face down on the bed. ‘Still Crazy After All These Years’ echoed through the entire house now. While wiping your face with a cool cloth as you realised what he was doing. You quietly made your way back down the stairs and peaked into the kitchen where Harry was busy cutting up some veggies on the large island. When you come into view, Harry puts down the knife and wipes his hands off on the cloth that is hanging off his shoulders. 
“I’m sorry, Harry. I really didn’t mean what I said. It all came out wrong.” 
“Shhhh,” Harry shushes you as he brings you in for a hug. “You’re right, I don’t know what it’s like at your job and I haven’t even bothered to ask.” He says after pulling back to look you in the eyes. “Being homesick doesn’t help when you’re stressed, either. And it really doesn’t help when I’m gone either.” 
“I’m still sorry. I should’ve never said any of that. I yelled at you. You just got home. I’m so sorry.” Harry kisses your forehead. “I’m so sorry. I can’t even believe what I said.”
“Its okay, baby. I accept your apology. We’re good, okay?” You nod and he kisses your forehead again. “Thought some Paul Simon might calm you down.” you nod again, a small smile playing on your lips. “And I’ve looked at the calendar, no need to take work off, we’ll go back home to visit your parents in a few weeks. Leave Friday Night come back Monday morning. I wouldn’t mind some time away from work and the city either.”
Paul Smon continues to play and you give Harry a big hug, burying your head into his chest. You really can’t believe how you got so lucky. You spend the rest of the night making dinner together, dancing around and singing to the Greatest Hits Album that’s playing through the entire house. Later that night Harry brings a bottle of wine and 2 glasses to the living room where the 2 of you sit on the ground in a pile of blankets and pillows and you share every single detail of what happened at work. 
When you’re back at your childhood home a few weeks later, you and Harry are in the kitchen with your parents, Paul Simon playing and cleaning up after dinner. 
The start of the memory may not be the best you and Harry but it ends on a good one and there are plenty more that outshine it. Paul Simon can fix a lot you figure. Makes you feel like you’re home wherever you are. 
Don’t Wait - Mapei
“Can we get fries and milkshakes?” you ask with a bright smile on your face, lashes fluttering in attempt to persuade him. You know he won’t say no, regardless. You both know that once one of you mentions fries and milkshakes that it’ll be a long night of driving around town, city lights casting the perfect backdrop. 
About 8 months into your relationship you had called Harry randomly one night. You had just seen him hours ago at lunch but he had a night full of meetings about whatever project he was working on currently and you both knew it was going to be a long night so you had retired back to your place for the night. You were surprised when he answered, the background on his end also surprisingly quiet. 
“I’m craving fries and a milkshake,” you had stated, receiving a chuckle from Harry on the other line. 
“I’ll pick you up in 15 minutes.”
“What?” you said unbelieving. 
“Just got home, getting out of this dang suit. I’ll be there in 15.” You were silent on your end. “You want fries and a milkshake, yeah?” you hum a yes. “Okay great. I’m in love with you and I want to see you. We’re getting fries and milkshakes.” You huff in disbelief. Even if you did have some sort of response you don’t know if you could get it out (still a common occurrence to this day).“Love, still there?” 
“Uh yeah,” you say through an obvious smile.
“Great. Leaving now.” 
When you get into Harry’s car he greets you with a kiss and then a toothy grin, dimples on full display. He looks cozy and relaxed in his threadbare tshirt and yellow adidas track pants, you can’t see his feet but you know, without a doubt, he’s wearing his white vans. 
Once you’ve got your fries and milkshakes, one vanilla and one chocolate so you can share, Harry picks up his phone and presses play on a new song. You hadn’t heard the song before, but as it progresses it adds to your already light, happy mood. With the cool breeze flowing through your hair with the windows down as Harry takes you both on a drive you can’t help but lean over and place a quick kiss on his cheek. His eyes wrinkle on the outside corners. 
“Fry?” he asks just like how he asks ‘kiss?’ time and time again. His voice is just loud enough to hear over the music, and you quickly oblige his request as if he were to reach for a fry himself his free hand that isn’t attached to the steering wheel would have to leave it’s warm, comforting spot on your thigh. 
As Harry pulls away from the drive-thru, a bag of fresh fries in your lap and 2 milkshakes in the cupholders, you skip through a few tracks before you find “Don’t Wait” by Mapei. The intro of the track instantly makes Harry smile and he reaches to turn up the volume. When you turn to feed him a fry you giggle at the sight of his huge smile, gums on show and eyes crinkled at the side. 
A friend indeed, come build me up
Come shed your light, it makes me shine
You get the message, don't you ever forget it
Let's laugh and cry until we die
If it wasn't for you I'd be alone
If it wasn't for you I'd be on my own
Some things never change. 
 Make You Feel My Love - Adele
You’re thankful for the frozen milkshake and you allow it to cool you down as the hot LA breeze blows through your hair. You still don’t know your way around LA very well but you recognize the direction Harry is taking. There’s a small lookout point on the hills where you know you’ll end up in the next 10 minutes. 
Taking the milkshakes and bag a fries with you, you both step out of the car after Harry has parked in the perfect spot at said lookout point. You’re the only 2 out here, it’s probably passed midnight by now. He’s left the car on enough just to keep the mixtape playing. 
“Sometimes I wish we could’ve grown up together,” you say out of the blue while flipping through your old yearbook. You’re trying to find an old group photo with your High School group of friends. With a friends wedding coming up you’re trying to find all the best photos for part of her gift. 
“What makes you say that?” Harry asks from the couch above you. “We get to grow old together instead.” 
“It’s just, looking through all these old photos, I can’t help but wonder what it would have been like to have experienced High School together. Imagine football games on Friday nights, or going to the christmas dance!” you exclaim. “Oh! I bet you would have been really creative with asking me to the Prom.” When you notice the confused look on his face you remember that 1. British schools were much different and 2. He didn’t do the whole high school experience regardless of the country. “Well I guess you don’t ever have those thoughts cause you never experienced those things in the first place.” You laugh to yourself. “I still wonder what it would have been like.” 
“I think 17 year old me would have been scared shitless to ask you to prom, nonetheless to pick you up that night and have your dad answer the door.” 
“Oh my dad loves you and you know that.” 
“Hah, he didn’t right away! Imagine if he met me when I was a teenager! I would not be sitting here right now.” 
“You’ve got a point, I guess.” You go back to flipping through the yearbook in front of you, once in a while showing Harry a photo. 
“I’m gonna go grab a glass of water, need anything?” You shake your head no and thank him before he leaves the room. 
When Harry comes back to the living room he’s without a glass of water but has gained a black suit jacket on top of his t shirt and sweatpants. You look at him, confused. 
“Harry, what are you doing?” He doesn’t respond, instead you start to hear music playing through the speakers. Pulling his hand from behind his back he presents you a flower, a rose from the vase in your bedroom. You laugh, still confused, but accept the rose anyways. 
“Would you dance with me?” He asks offering his hand to you. You take it and let him help you up off the floor. 
Harry wraps his arms around your waist, pulling you close to him and you slide your arms around his neck letting your hands dangle at the back. 
“You’re unbelievable,” you say quietly. 
“I know this isn’t anything like your Prom, but a slow dance is a slow dance yeah?” A small smile forms on your lips before you press them to his. You let your fingers play with the curls at his neck. Resting your head on his chest you let him control the dancing, swaying around in circles. He’s humming along to the song and there’s something about Adele that is so quintessentially high school. You close your eyes and let yourself pretend that you’re back in high school. When the song ends you lift your head up and thank him with another kiss. 
Later that night you take back your earlier statement. It’s when you’re sitting at the dining table with a hot meal presented in front of you that Harry made himself that you realise that you would rather be here now how the 2 of you are instead of having grown up together. You agree that growing old together sounds like the best thing in the world.
“Doesn’t matter the time or place, I’ll love you always,” you say, “but I like this time, I like right now.” 
When “Make You Feel My Love” starts to play, Harry sets down his shake and takes yours as well to set down with his on the hood of the car. 
“Can I have this dance?” He asks. It’s almost like he planned the timing. You sway with each other for a moment before you’re both so wrapped up in each others arms and the kisses become deeper that the dancing stops and you just basque in the presence of each other and this moment. The cool wind continues to blow through your hair and it only gives the 2 of you an excuse to pull each other closer to one another. After the song ends and the mixtape continues, Harry wraps his arms around your shoulders, now having his front to your back, he pulls you back with him as he leans against the hood of the car. He rests his lips near your ear, placing kisses along your ear, jaw and neck as you both take in the view in front of you. 
“I like right now,” he whispers your words back to you from months ago. 
I Wanna Get Better - Bleachers
This song had a handful of memories linked to it. Hundreds upon hundreds are with your childhood best friend and one specific one with Harry. Right now, you’re both singing at the top of your lungs without worrying how either of you sound. You were both shivering a little after staying at the lookout for too long. Now you’re trying to warm up a bit and singing along at full volume seems to be helping. 
Harry had come home to a silent house one night, eventually finding you puffy-eyed with tear streaked cheeks curled up on the couch in the dark. Noting your phone thrown across the room, he approached you cautiously. 
“Love?” he almost whispered, not to startle you. “Love, what’s going on?” He questions when he meets your face. Sitting down on the floor in front of you he wipes your cheeks before questioning you again. “Gotta tell me what’s wrong so I can help ya.” 
“Did you see the article?” you stutter out. You know he doesn’t go lurking around the internet so you can’t be angry about him being clueless to why you’re upset. He shakes his head eventually before he slowly grabs his phone. 
The first article that comes up when he searches his name makes him curse under his breath. Someone’s hacked your private social media accounts and photos of you growing up, family information and anything and everything is all over the tabloid sites. You knew this was part of the territory, dating a musician, model, actor, all of it, but this was much worse than some papz photos with Harry out for coffee or post yoga. 
Harry does his best to calm you down, holding you against his chest, apologizing up and down for putting you in situations like these. At some point a little while later, you’ve relaxed and decide make a joke in hopes to make yourself and Harry, a little bit better. 
“It’s a good thing you’re pretty, otherwise it wouldn’t be worth it.” A look of fake offence washes over his face. “Love you,” you add before kissing him lightly. 
“Come on,” Harry says pulling you up off the couch. He turns the house speakers on and presses play on his phone. “I Wanna Get Better” starts blasting through the house and you can’t help but smile. Your best friend and you would always blast this when one of you were having a bad day. It never fails to make you smile and forget whatever was bothering you. This song automatically forces a wide smile across your face and with how swollen your eyes are from crying, you can barely make out the image of Harry dancing around in front of you. The rule is you have to play the song on repeat until you can’t remember what had hurt you in the first place. It’s takes a few rounds of the track and a handful of kisses from Harry to get you to forget why he started playing the song. 
“A little better?” he asks when the 4th play comes to an end. You nod with a smile before pulling him for a kiss. 
“Much better.” 
Though this song is always played during bad times, it’s nice to hear it during happy ones. It reminds you of times with your best friend from home and it reminds you of Harry’s kindness, how he’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe, make you feel loved and be 110% sure that you’re happy. 
Fallingforyou - The 1975 and Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol
You slipped ‘Fallingforyou’ by The 1975 on shuffle when the 2 of you took your first road trip together. Driving from Harry’s place in LA to a getaway in San Francisco for a few days, you had opted to drive instead of fly (more time just the 2 of you). The conversation died down for a moment, both of you engulfed by the epic scenery in front of you. You had control of the music for the most part, Harry making requests once and awhile, but it had been forgotten while the two of you had debated which was the best romcom ever made for the better part of an hour. So when you both agreed that having different favourites was okay, the silence was welcomed, small smiles on both of your faces. That’s when a feeling of absolute contentment washed over you. You knew exactly what song was needed for the moment. 
Your relationship wasn’t that new, but it wasn’t as official as it is now. You hadn’t said ‘I love you’ yet, but you both knew the thought was there (you hoped he’d say it sometime during this trip and if he didn’t you definitely would). 
You always loved this song. You remember hearing it live for the 1st time when you saw The 1975 on a whim during your first year of university. You cried. You couldn’t really help it. Though you’ve never related to the lyrics exactly in the way they’re meant to, they still hit you. Right now, this relationship isn’t one sided, you know that but, I think I’m falling, I’m falling for you, hits you harder than it did when you heard it live. 
Harry’s got his wrist resting on the top of the steering wheel, the other resting in his lap. His curls are a bit unruly from the wind that has been blowing through them, his skin has a soft tan to it.  You can’t help the smile that crosses your face. Harry must see your smile from the corner of his vision because he takes a quick glance at you and returns the grin, crinkles appearing around his eyes. The hand that was resting in his lap searches yours out and you happily accept the gesture. 
On this night, and in this light, 
I think I’m falling, I’m falling for you. 
Tangling your fingers with his, you bring them up to your mouth and press a soft kiss to the back of Harry’s hand. You hold his hand with both of yours in your lap now. The wind blows through your hair and you sing along to the words quietly and it’s not till the end of the song that you realise that Harry had been singing along as well. 
It’s when Harry’s driving you back to your hotel after dinner that night in San Francisco, ‘Chasing Cars’ by Snow Patrol playing quietly in the background, that he says “I love you.” 
‘Fallingforyou’ transitions into ‘Chasing Cars’ and Harry pats the open space between the 2 of you in the front seat. The traffic light in front of you turns red and you take the opportunity to slide from your side of the car to the side of Harry’s torso, his arm wrapping around your shoulder immediately. Rebuckling yourself into the middle seat, he presses a kiss to your hair and whispers “I love you” repeatedly until the light turns green. 
~~~
As the speakers quiet, the track list coming to an end, Harry turns to you and locks eyes before speaking. 
“Should we play it again?” He asks. Without missing a beat you press play on the stereo. Neither of you have any obligations in the morning. A late night of driving would most definitely turn into sleeping in the next morning, then spending the day reading in bed and watching silly romcoms. Driving all night sounded like the best plan in the world. 
Landslide echoes through speakers and the empty roads around you, Harry’s voice quietly singing along. You don’t think you’ll ever get tired of this mixtape.
Let me know what ya think !! feedback & comments are always welcome !  THANK YOU FOR READINGGGG <3 
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tinkdw · 5 years
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hi tink ^_^ was wondering if you think both endgame human!cas and endgame angel!cas are both valid interpretations? im genuinely interested as I can't see the whole human!cas being a thing, and I'm open to learn more if you think that's what is actually going to happen. idk his experience as a human was miserable, i feel like maybe im missing something?? :0 u dont have to answer this if u dont want, as it may cause wank. ty
Hi!
Here’s my “overall” Cas meta from a while ago, nothing’s changed and a few other meta writers added to it so it’s a good view I think as to the whole concept:
https://tinkdw.tumblr.com/post/165781313412/why-do-you-think-cas-should-becomechoose-to-be
It’s a really crappy topic for divisiveness, in my experience the people who have, relatively, as much as possible, objectively analysed the author intent in the show have come to a pretty solid conclusion within the meta community that Human!Cas appears to be endgame based not on his experience as a human but the outcome, his overall arc since season 4 and the Chekhovs gun style flamingly blatant reminders throughout the show such as the repeated asking him if he wouldn’t rather be human, his choosing to be an Angel to go into battle powerful enough to save the people he loves and putting what he wants to one side and his clearly not wanting to be a soldier anymore.
It’s kind of like saying endgame Dean is for him to be emancipated and being able to openly watch Oprah and Disney etc even though on the surface he says he doesn’t like that stuff. Because the pretty obvious sublimation is there.
With Cas the sublimation isn’t quite as clear but it’s really all there. Yes he suffered as a human but he literally came out of it and said he missed it, while previous to being human he was curious and wanted to try human things (eg kissing meg) and afterwards we’ve seen him actively choosing to act more human, smiting less and fist fighting instead, acting more human, I mean the big one for me was when Dean asked him “and you’re okay with that?!” When he told him he got grace back to be able to fight and he just totally brushed it off saying he needed it to fight:
https://tinkdw.tumblr.com/post/171244776157/kanayaks-tinkdw-cas-i-got-my-grace-back-i
He later takes more grace which he had been previously rejecting but only to save Dean and then took his own grace back when again it’s needed for a fight whilst telling us the quote that the craziest thing a man can do is die.
He’s literally saying he’s killing himself / his wants for the greater good.
He needs grace for the fight and to be a good useful soldier and to save his family but does he want it?
Want v Need.
One of the biggest themes of the show.
Cas needs his grace to be useful when times are hard but is that what he wants?
In my opinion the show has repeatedly emphasised that it isn’t. I also think it’s clear he doesn’t want to be a soldier anymore and these things go hand in hand.
Others may use canon to say they think it is. Both interpretations are totally valid as long as they are based on canon and actually analysing the canon in a consistent manner.
The issue I have is certain people cherry picking and projecting their stories into it and claiming it’s an overall Cas’ arc since inception meta. That’s just not how meta writing works.
You can absolutely write that stuff but you can’t claim it’s objective and fully inclusive of canon and logical when it is just picking parts that fit your own desire for the character. Like, I didn’t want Lucifer to be centre stage in s13 but I didn’t just ignore it when it was.
Cherry picking things ie the one time Cas said “I just wanna be an Angel” when he was depressed, distraught at Dean’s death and wanted to stop feeling things as proof it’s what he really wants isn’t what I’d call meta writing of the whole story. That’s like saying Sam really wants to be a hunter and tag along beside his brother in the impala on the road for the rest of his life because he was a depressed, vengeful mess after Jess’ death and said ok let’s go. Is it really what Sam wants for himself and the rest of his life though? No way! That’s been clear too.
Even worse when some people claim to be bullied or triggered by other view points. Someone even screenshotted a few sentences I wrote that if you took away the top and bottom sentence looked like I was making no sense and anti Cas (me anti Cas. Lmao) but in the context obviously made sense and decided to create a wank storm about it because they didn’t like human cas meta and wanted to make me look bad. People need to grow up. This isn’t a meta discussion about interpretation it’s being a dick and being unable to contemplate another interpretation.
It makes a discussion totally impossible which moots the entire point of blogging on tumblr in the first place.
Absolutely all interpretations are valid, it’s just a case of how you pitch your interpretation. If you want to state your interpretation of a character absolutely go for it! I used to be all up for Angel!Cas meta until a few utter assholes decided to be personal and ridiculous about it. Now I don’t touch it with a barge pole. Same as M*gstiel.
But that doesn’t invalidate anyone’s good, thought out, canon analysing endgame Angel!Cas meta.
For example my own interpretation of the siren episode is different to many other meta writers, we can discuss it and have polite and great conversations without getting triggered / defensive because we aim to discuss author intent, our own interpretations and do so in a civil manner. There’s one meta writer in particular I’ve had altercations with in the past over some differences of opinion on speculative things and ways of writing meta but who I get on well with, admire and like talking to because we are adults and literally get over it.
There’s also a few people who unfortunately though I agree meta wise about things on the show have been so nasty irl to myself and others that I’ve cut them off completely.
Interpretations are interpretations until they are canon, I’m lucky that most of mine have become so or are clearly on their way but I can also be wrong ie I thought Asmodeus would be more important to character exposition than he was, life moves on. I also didn’t realise quite what it would mean that he would be a Bucklemming own concept and not really used by anyone else, I thought perhaps he’d be used by others by the wasn’t, now I have that knowledge in my pocket meta on anything that sets up for Bucklemming use is kinda meh don’t bother analysing it much it’s probably not hugely important to the overall story being told by the showrunner, ie Nick.
All interpretations are valid is very true. Eg. I can interpret Cas’ story as a metaphor for a queer kid (and in particular trans) coming from a conservative family and emancipating themselves and someone else can interpret it as an immigrants story.
If the show starts changing this then I will change my meta, because my meta is an analysis of what the show is doing, not what I want. For example I never wanted Dean to be queer representation, I was totally heteronormative and would have been totally cool with him ending up alone or with a woman, it’s the show that made me want something different for him through consistent and repeated canon blatant hints at something else. Same as Cas, I was totally ready in season 4 to just like him as a cool character and for him to bog off back to Heaven after being useful but he was captivating as an ally and it grew from there. For ages I would totally have put to one side the hints at a romantic part of his story and loved for him to become the third brother, it’s the show that made me see more between him and Dean, I never would have imagined that myself, I was a boring heterormative adult more interested in the individual characters’ stories than shipping, I thought shipping was just maritime transferral of goods before I was like wtf and googled Destiel after 10x05 cos I’d finally found a name for what I’d been seeing evolve for 6 years.
Sam goes for Cas’ own individual arc and what he wants. I never had a clue what I wanted from him until the show told me what I should want by repeating something clearly over 10 years. If they suddenly change any part of the story then they change it (and I’ll be annoyed they changed something so entrenched but I’m not going to bitch @ tptb for it or whatever, it’s their choice, they’re the creator and once it’s changed I’ll meta that) but so far it’s been the same, clear story to me for 10 years.
An interpretation is an interpretation but it’s when you start, as I do and some others do, saying you believe this one is the authors intention that you have to be more careful about backing it up with canon and logic and not getting #triggered when someone disagrees.
If you’re going to pitch it as what you believe the author intent is then you have to leave your personal projections at the door and work solely based on the canon, the production, what the author may have said outside of canon etc. It has nothing to do with your own wants for the character or show.
It also means when someone has valid canon supported arguments to the contrary you can have a really interesting discussion and I love that.
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shiroallura · 6 years
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Hello! I love Shallura and your blog so much!! I was happy to find it during Season 6 after that whole love triangle to show proof Allura and Shiro could become endgame. But now I am worried after reading the creators interview for Lance's relationship with Allura on hypable. Not sure if you read it yet , but they both said it would be bad for Allura to treat Lance like a rebound story wise, but their friendship will naturally evolve from here on out. What's your take on that statement?
Just saw the review, here for anyone else who’s interested. So I’m going to dissect it here, best I can. But overall, just as a disclaimer: I’m not worried.
Obviously Lance, we’ve been setting him on this course for a long time. Starting off as very much this guy who would hit on Allura in a very creepy-aggressive way. I think, almost in a way that protects himself, because ultimately once he was rejected, he knew why. He didn’t want to really put himself out there because he felt he never had a chance. Now he’s finally got to a place where his self confidence has reached a place where he thinks he might actually be worthy of love from another person. And I think Allura, she saw things in him, she saw his growth, and she grew to appreciate it. But ultimately, as we know from the show, Lotor kind of came in and threw that all off. ​Allura has just experienced a massive heartbreak at the hands of Lotor, so I think she’s probably not going to immediately rebound to Lance in the way that would do a disservice to both of those characters. But I think we can look forward to seeing them both evolve their friendship naturally, as we’ve seen them grow to respect each other in very different ways than they initially did in the early episodes of the show.
So, as always, Lance’s crush on Allura is about his character, his growth, his feelings. Not Allura’s. And 6x02 makes this plain, in showing her reaction to Lance liking her even after he’s technically saved her life. She moves on with Lotor even though she knows Lance likes her, and shows absolutely no romantic interest towards him at any point. A rebound is still a relationship, one that would do a disservice to both Allura and Lance’s characters. Which, admittedly, does sound a bit shippy. But here’s why I’m worried. Lauren admits that Lance’s initial flirting with her was creepy and aggressive.
And Lauren says friendship. Not relationship, which can encompass friendship or more. Just friendship. Because the important thing to note is that in the first two seasons, Allura and Lance were not friends. Sure they spent time around each other with the group, and cared about each other well enough, but there was nothing defining about them. Every instance another character was given an opportunity to show special care/concern/attention to Allura, it was given to Coran or Shiro in s1 and s2. Lance and Allura’s dynamic was him flirting and her being annoyed with it. That’s it. And given that VLD has shown they can actually follow through on narrative structure, the fact that all of Allura and Lance’s development has happened while Shiro was away is interesting to me, to say the least.
And then, “them grow to respect each other in very different ways,” again, is only true of Lance. The only time Allura has ever disrespected Lance is when she falls into his arms, distressed and disoriented and having been under attack only a tick ago, to her, and he – a stranger who looks Altean but isn’t – flirts with her. She responds appropriately. But still, she always respects him throughout s1 and s2 even though he repeatedly disrespects her. And the only time he disrespects her in later seasons is when he doesn’t trust her judgement, and lets jealousy cloud his.
Lance starts the show liking Allura, and Allura wishes he would stop flirting with her. They’re going to end the show with the natural development of their friendship being, Lance respects and admires Allura but has let go of his romantic feelings for her, and Allura enjoys having him as a friend.
and unrelated, but i want to get it off my chest, because lbr…. allur@nce would not be remotely as popular as it is if “uww teenage allura,” shiro’s absence from the show and the age discourse hitting the same time hadn’t happened. or that, you know, it was allura who liked lance and not the other way around. imagine how people would be vilifying her. imagine if lance was a “precious poor bby who deserves her” because he supports her sometimes wasn’t the fandom fave. i think that says it all, really.
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iluvtv · 6 years
Text
“I Sleep in a Bed but I’m Homeless” and other contradictions in terms
Last month Donald Glover curated a media moment. He hosted Saturday Night Live while his alter ego Childish Gambino simultaneously appeared as the musical guest. All the while (to much social media fanfare) he dropped a music video chock full of divisive commentary on racism in America. In my opinion this wonderfully creative and crucial social commentary rattled the masses far more than I think they should have. I'm startled by the possibility that one could "be here now” and still be surprised that This is America.
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Point being though, that during a spring weekend’s naughtiest hours in 2018 Glover did what he did best — worked. And in doing so his art (as it is wont to do) challenged us. In just a little over and hour this legendary genius gave us everything he has to offer. He made us laugh, taught us something and kept up his now signature cocky air. Reaffirming that while he will provide his brilliance for us to share and learn from it is not exactly for us.
In an incredible New Yorker interview by the fabulous Tad Friend earlier this year Glover explains; “If ‘Atlanta’ was made just for black people, it would be a very different show. But I can’t even begin to tell you how, because blackness is always seen through a lens of whiteness—the lens of what white people can profit from at that moment. That hasn’t changed through slavery and Jim Crow and civil-rights marches and housing laws and ‘We’ll shoot you.’ Whiteness is equally liquid, but you get to decide your narrative.” For the moment, he suggested, white America likes seeing itself through a black lens. “Right now, black is up, and so white America is looking to us to know what’s funny.”
But before we go that deep, early in that SNL episode there was his monologue. Through this caricature of himself Glover pokes fun at the man he presents in this interview. By claiming there is  "nothing he can't do" while failing at everything, subsequently puking into a clarinet and repeatedly bringing up his rejection from SNL  many careers ago, he delivers audiences a humbler version of himself. This is notable because even if the farce is egotistical what he's actually playing is failure. Was this by a cast writer's design to mock his arrogance or did he write every word himself?
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Neither would surprise me. After greedily consuming Atlanta’s first season (Hulu why must you wait so long to give me new FX seasons?) and then studying the media image Glover presents I see he is his own anomaly.
Confident, worried, scared, brave, untouchable and sensitive. Through his thoughtful creativity he has (for the most part) been given permission to be whomever he wants.
We all will agreeably, eagerly (and even gluttonously) accept all of it.
He didn’t always believe this would be possible. When he first pitched Atlanta he was certain this wouldn’t be the case at all but FX surprised him. In the New Yorker interview the producers explain:
“The parts that you’re worried we’re going to think are too weird—lean into those.”
From its onset I suppose Atlanta can be read as sad. A sort of devastating drama on race and poverty and violence. And while this is clearly a trap story there is  an almost inexplicable, deep seeded sense of satire that feels both simultaneously impossible to pinpoint or ignore.
In imagery and experiences (which more often than not trend more towards metaphors than reality) Atlanta challenges me. I just can’t get enough but I also can't help but feel like most of the time I don't totally get it. And this is just the tip of the iceberg in the long series of anomalies which like Glover himself comprise Atlanta. At the end of the day am I just too white, slightly too old (and more to the point un -hip) or was this confusion just the purpose?
FX Chief John Landgraf explains to the New Yorker, “Donald and his collaborators are making an existential comedy about the African-American experience, and they are not translating it for white audiences.”
There is a consistent underlying dichotomy in all of Atlanta's odd stories and part of it I suppose is an assumed understanding between the white coastal viewer and Glover that we are only partially in on the joke.
Presenting this dichotomy, Atlanta begins introducing Earn (Glover) and Van’s (Zazzie Beetz) relationship which while terribly charming is equal parts fleeting.  Seconds into a relaxed and loving scenes their relationship just as quickly turns contentious.
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We watch this pattern repeat again and again.
The pilot episode continues in this vein introducing relationship dynamics before revealing a storyline or history.
We meet Earn’s fed up parents. Friendly enough but annoyed that their adult son is always asking for money, oh and also that he doesn't flush.
Earn: "That wasn't me."
Mom: "That was you. I checked. You better start eating some real food and not all these candies and cookies..."
We are introduced to my favorite character, Darius (Lakeith Stanfield) wearing only an apron while baking cookies. He also has guns and a butcher knife.
We witness the first of many racial power dynamics as Earn takes his cousin Alfred’s (Brian Tyree Henry) tape to a white DJ “buddy”, hoping if he can get Al’s alter ego Paperboi radio time he'll be able to convince his cousin to give him work representing Paperboi. It is here we see some dumb white kid front as though he is "hard" using language he would never use in front of any black man he found intimidating. Because Earn is not intimidating. In the face of this obnoxious DJ Earn is unassuming, friendly and essentially desperate all the while ignoring the terrible behavior of a stereotypical white millennial’s crude attempt to impress his "nigga" while completely refusing to throw Earn a bone by spinning Paperboi's first single. It is noteworthy throughout this season just how child like un-intimidting the character Glover has created for himself is. 
Later when Earn manipulates things in his own favor he asks an older black janitor if this rude white DJ has ever said "nigga" in front of him.
The janitor is stunned by the very thought!
But this is who Earn is. Friend describes it as such: “Atlanta” broke rules that most viewers hadn’t quite realized were rules. In comedies, jokes are underlined by closeups, but Atlanta’s camera stayed aloof, serving not as an exclamation point but as a neutral bystander. The characters didn’t have histrionic reactions to the problem of the week; they just gave up a little more. Earn was an antihero, as is now customary, but, unlike Don Draper or Walter White or Olivia Pope, he wasn’t an expert in anything. He wasn’t a great manager or a great part-time boyfriend or, for that matter, a particularly promising human being. Curiously boyish in shorts and a backpack, he wasn’t even active, the minimal standard for television characters. He didn’t seem to do or want anything. He just watched and flinched and got yelled at to grow up.”
The episode ends with the show's first of many very obvious forays into existential surrealism. The way Atlanta plays with fantasy is very fresh and new and brave and often completely impossible to fully comprehend forcing me to wonder why I only took a handful of philosophy courses in college?
But aren’t those courses just an antidote of the privileged white youth’s confusion?
That and marijuaina.
Again, Friend  addresses this discussing Glover's complete willingness to fail where other black television revolutionaries are wary.
“This sensibility is singular yet recognizable. Just as John Cheever’s epiphanies and apologias were stamped by drink and Paul Bowles’s hallucinatory quietude by hashish, so “Atlanta” ’s vibe is molded by weed. There’s a goofiness to the action, a dreamy awareness that reality is untrustworthy right now, but hold up, try this edible. Recognizing that quality, Lakeith Stanfield told me, “I decided to play Darius as a high version of myself. And now he’s become all the fantastical elements of Atlanta condensed into one person—this gateway to Freakville.”
Half way through the pilot we find Earn on a bus with his sleeping daughter opening up to a well dressed black man in a suit about feeling like a loser. "Am I just there to make things easier for winners?”  he asks.
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The man sits listening patiently on this bus seat, all the while making a Nutella sandwich. "Just a symptom of the way things are," he explains to Earn "actual victor belongs to those who simply do not seek failure."
He forces a bite of his chocolate bus sandwich on Earn and then just as quickly disappears, only the tub of Nutella remains.
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And abruptly the episode closes where it began, realizing the reason why the first scene was so confusing is only because it was actually the end. None of these characters were lying or being intentionally evasive, rather the drama which opened Atlanta had not yet ensued. And while it is still rather unclear, on some level even the whitest and most sheltered kids (those who can comfortably say the N word around very specific audiences) understand this rhetoric just enough and those who grew up in the trap world of Atlanta could probably write their philosophy dissertations on the scene.
As an audience we continue to ride out their drama into episode two. Conveniently, the coinciding moments of Alfred's arrest and his radio debut have vaulted him to instant fame all while housed in the relatively newsless space of jail.
When Darius comes to bail him out even the cops ask if they can pose for selfies with Paperboi. A beautiful moment of social commentary on race, class and most importantly fame.
Meanwhile, not-famous and mostly useless Earn stays stuck in jail which lends itself to one of the saddest satirical series of scenes I have ever seen. Think  Orange Is The New Black but really, really funny or maybe really, really miserable and also just so exactly where any of us (even the more privileged white girls) might end up for a few hours after a really, really bad night.
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Fortunately I never have but I will take Atlanta at it's (sur)real(ist) word.
When Earn is told by the guard he cannot sleep he is baffled.
“Everyone sleeps."
To which he is told, "If you wanted to sleep you should have thought about that before you came to jail."
This dysfunction is further magnified by the token insane guy who apparently gets locked up on a near weekly basis. While his absolutely pathological behavior at first prompts laughs from the rest of the men waiting in lock-down they also  all just sit there and quietly watch as the guards kick his ass and drag him off to solitary.
To the repeat offenders this is normal behavior.
Earn, like myself seems less comfortable with this violence.
Meanwhile, Alfred due to newfound Paperboi fame is suffering his own violent satire.
On a walk through his projects he sees a kid with a toy gun shooting at his friends. They are playing a game of pretend in which the male child is Paperboi.
Alferd observes this. The kid, through clear admiration of his alter ego pretends to shoot down his little girlfriend. She feigns death just as the children's mother comes out to yell at the children, asserting to these small black bodies that they should "just say no to guns"
Overwhelmed, and clearly experiencing a myriad of emotions from the last 24 hours Al approaches the family and argues to the children that "shooting people ain't cool." At first the mother is stand-offish and annoyed at his presence but once he admits he is the very same rapper whom they are make-believing about the mood shifts. Instantaneous hilarity ensues as she is suddenly very interested in this infamous man. Momma comes on hard posing Al with the family for photographs. She is genuine comic relief "now one with my head on yo chest," she says as she snuggles in. And even Al who was out for a walk to escape the fresh madness his single has suddenly created seems calmed -- his comfort level with being viewed as violent has shifted now that it is getting him some pussy.
Likewise, the mother is now completely comfortable with the children playing “guns”, clearly sending the message that fame and more specifically hip-hop fame excuses violence.
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This hypocrisy so clearly mirrors that of the prison guards from earlier and sadly represents America’s reality. If everyone from the single Mothers in the ghetto to the police are down with rappers using guns it must be OK, right? And folks were even remotely shocked by Gambino’s music video which debuted nearly two years later?!
The episode closes when Van finally bails Earn out of jail. It is unsurprising really that it is left on the woman to pull through and protect the men. I find that this aspect of American reality is more often acknowledged in African American and other ethnic popular culture than in white. This is too bad really, as it is a remarkable reality which women are tremendously under-appreciated for. I too have bailed a boyfriend out of jail. I watched him walk out of the police station arms in the air, proud of his day.  He also never came with me to Salinas to collect the title of my car which I lost to the county in the bail process (its a complicated when you are only 21 and haven't owned anything or held a job for longer than 2 years).
Appropriately, the credits run to Bill Withers' "Grandma's Hands," subtly noting the importance of the matriarch through a beautiful song. This also solidifies Atlanta's role as one of the best television soundtracks I (the generally music ignoramous) have ever bothered to notice.
As the audience grows more comfortable with the odd (yet perfect) stylings of Atlanta we venture into episode three armed and ready to address poverty as it pertains to immaturity. In real life Donald Glover and I are the same age but somehow he plays Earn much younger. Pop Culture Happy Hour Pod Cast discussed this episode at length, pointing out that the pathetic date Earn organizes to impress Van is actually just a very young man's attempt at romance. They argue that this scene would likely play out quite differently for the couple ten years later. Then again, Glover himself might come back at this  this theory; pointing out the story he is trying to represent here is "the trap" and the assumption that the only thing which keeps Earn so completely suffocated by an up-selling, self-serving waiter is time is just a white, educated NPR audience being only marginally clear on the concept. I can see both sides to this particular coin while (as a white, educated NPR listener) also continuing to ascertain that Earn's overall behavior reminds me more of my 20 year old sister’s than my clique of 30-somethings (whom I consider millennials only due to some made-up falsehood of a technicality -- we are very clearly The Oregon Trail Generation).
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Anyhow, this frozen-in-time youthfulness (as a means to escape poverty while actually perpetuating it) is already well established in our protagonist and immediately reinforced as the episode itself opens with him ordering a kid's meal at a fast food joint. No dice:
“I Didn’t get title of daytime manager by passing out discounts," the proud black girl behind the counter explains.
He begs for a water cup instead and settles on stealing diet coke from the fountain -- eyeing the hispanic janitor with a daring glance. He walks away in his short shorts in the rain and backpack, emphasizing either his pathetic-ness-- or just child-ness.
And as I so often did 14 years ago in the middle of the day he heads to Alfred's where they smoke blunts and play video games.
OK I didn’t play video games but my productivity level was essentially on par.
And somehow while reliving our own boring youths through this mundane existence of an ordinary day audiences are still terribly entertained.
Darius, our scene stealing, wonderful guru of a roommate irons in his bathrobe, pulling a gun out of a cereal box. "Just so you guy's know there's probably a bullet in here somewhere, “ he warns.
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 A drug selling story arc evolves between Alfred and Darius which in a more mature moment Earn is wary of due in large part to his cousin’s new-found notoriety (but how else are they supposed to make money?)  however, because I am a white girl and the drug story in this episode just gets so fucking dark and also I can only bombard you with so much information I will instead focus in on the terrible date which Earn attempts in hopes to assuage Van's whining about his irresponsible behavior.
No dice
She's wary from the get. Even tries to refuse his invite at first but he begs:
“Can I at least buy you dinner and watch from the other side of the room? I can even get one of those corny ass dudes you like to eat it with you.”
He continues, mocking the guys she likes by mimicking her (always a good strategy when you’re trying to prove you are the preferred choice): “‘I love your energy. Your dreads are in a bun’ “
The two accuse each other of being their own worst black stereotypes.
“I’m in a bed but I’m technically homeless and love it,” she mocks back.
They giggle. Something about their terribly unromantic connection is just so terribly romantic. Or maybe I just really, really like when guys make fun of me?
There's a brief scene involving the gun between Darius and Alfred where Darius solidifies himself as my favorite character, absolutely proving unequivocally that the most simple men are also the wisest. He explains to Alfred that his “assumed perversion of the word daddy stems from his own fear of mortality.” sheer and idiotic genius. An utterly true and hilarious savant.
Meanwhile, the date Earn has finagled is not going according to plan. WIth only $63 in his bank account and promises of a decent happy-hour dashed he is just in a hipster restaurant in a bad neighborhood, springing for a valet, with a date who is luxuriously lapping us each and every ploy from their server to raise their check.
When Earn, trying to lower their overall bill in spite of Van's pricey picks asks for a "Miller High Life in a can," the waitress responds,"ooo we've got a hipster!"
Yes, us educated, white NPR listeners sure as fuck did try to appropriate poverty through the hipster movement, didn’t we?
You can get a $17 trotter hot dog at the bar around the way from my house.
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Likewise, Darius and Alfred's drug deal has also gone all wrong. They have been led to the middle of nowhere only to find a gang of black men with chains, drinking Hennessy and hanging out in front of a luxury camper van chilling around a campfire. Here the woods are a stark juxtaposition from their familiar life in the projects and yet the forrest is surprisingly more menacing. Nothing safe about unfamiliarity -- particularly when guns are in the mix. However, even with a tied up guy crying in the corner there is this unshakable element of satire, ever present yet so difficult to explain or maybe even understand. An impending doom of hilarity is the omnipresent mark of all Atlanta scenes.
But just as the episode grows darker and all of our protagonists’ immaturity increasingly complicates their situations the resourcefulness these young men have learned growing up without means also manages to save them.
At the end of the day nobody wins -- and the best laugh is when the homeless guy working as the restaurant’s (off market) valet runs into the fancy restaurant to warn a random white man in an expensive suit that his car is being towed prompting the two polar-opposite gentlemen to race outside in excited collusion.  This sudden impromptu camaraderie is just a downright hilarious aside.
But in a true test to it’s sitcom roots, Atlanta holds to the rule that come episode four nothing much is really permissible to change so in spite of tremendous havoc nobody really loses. At the end of the day Earn solves the problem of the expensive date by reporting his debit card stolen and Darius and Alfred don't die.
Maybe even the homeless valet got a tip.
In both a sitcom’s writers room and in the trap, everybody's just trying to survive.
The following episode The Streisand Effect continues this exploration of survival. We peer through the lens into  fame and notoriety wondering if success built through any means necessary, driven by the sheer desire to survive can ever really be deemed ethical.
Oddly, the querry reminds me of one tackled by a completely socially unconscious show — the Friend’s episode where Phoebe and Joey argue the existence of  truly selfless good deeds in The one where Phoebe hates PBS.
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The Streisand Effect centers a similar debate through a racially ambiguous asshole internet "celebrity" (aka troll) who causes an all out twitter feud (which Alfred brings to real life).  Meanwhile  an interesting story line between Darius and Earn play out as the two explore what one’s existence means when you are truly just surviving pay check to pay check.
There are other episodes I love more and will focus more energy into analyzing but here are a few of the very best, most stand-out lines:
Old bartender: "Guy was Smoking a swisher with no weed. He gave me the creeps."
Darius: "Chinese people short because of Genghis Kahn, look it up!"              Earn: "In what? The racism book?"
The aforementioned troll (Zan) to Alfred (who is accusing his internet game of being pretty fucked up): "All a gang, we all just hustling"
Alfred: "I have to rap, I'm making the most of a bad situation."                          Zan: "You’re exploiting your situation. All of us are exploiting to make money"(hilarious scene ensues with Zan filming a paid child to spout filthy rhymes and deliver pizzas).
And if you are interested, this moment is discussed in greater depth on Fresh Air where, Brian Tyree Henry explains what this trap means to him.
We close with Earn teaching Darius that poor people don't have time for investments they need to eat today. This is a poignant moment where their friendship is solidified, poverty is explored and human nature vs. exploitation is left undecided.
Personally, I tend to agree with both Alfred and Zan’s views of exploitation though admittedly Alfred’s actions are certainly carried with far more integrity.
If you are particularly dense but have made it all the way to episode five, Nobody Beats the Biebs, you will no longer be able to ignore the absurdist tactics this show is employing to fuck with our perceptions of race, appropriation, stereotypes and popular music culture. 
The episode takes place mainly within a high school gym at a celebrity basketball fundraiser for Atlanta’s Youth. Paperboi has been invited to participate in the charity game and Earn of course attends as “representation”. Noticing a gorgeous successful news anchor there to cover the event, Alfred ditches Earn and sets off to pursue a date (or at the very least an on-air interview). She immediately staves off both advances, letting him know that she knows him as “the guy who shot someone.” He insists that isn't really who he is and invites her to get to know the real him, "I'll let you interview me someplace real fly like Bennihana," he offers to which she retorts that she and her fan base aren't into the “gangster thing”, and blows him off fairly easily as the commotion of "Justin Bieber's" arrival has distracted the masses.
At first I assumed that Justin Bieber was one of the white guys in this entourage but as a feud ensues between Alfred and JB you realize that in the fantastical world Glover has created Bieber is in fact just black. Or at least appears that way to us. After watching the whole episode I can't definitively pinpoint why Glover created this racial fluidity. Was it a point about racial appropriation, common perceptions and stereotypes? Or was he just trying to fuck with his audiences? I can only assume that most of Glover’s surrealist style is designed to achieve all of the above (and more). Anyway, this Bieber who may be just as black in appearance as Paperboi, is definitely not just one in the same. Other than his outward appearance the Bieber Fever is the same douchey, successful, unapologetic and handsome man I assume him to be in real life (admittedly I know zero about Justin). In Glover’s world though he can pee on the floor in front of everyone and the general opinion of him is not even slightly affected. He is the Golden Boy pervious to social optics and to him (much like to the pretty newsgirl) Paperboi is "a nigga who blew  other niggas brains out…” although he adds the operative “cool!" to the end of this statement. As the episode develops Alfred's hatred towards this pop sensation grows and they wage war on the court. Afterward Bieber offers  a press conference full of "sincere" apologies for the fight. All really just a marketing ploy for his new song called "Justice," (a title with more irony than I care to unpack here).
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Meanwhile, Earn and Darius are also confronted by stereotypes and racial profiling. 
Earn encounters a successful music agent who mistakes him for a different black man whom she believes destroyed her career. In an attempt to seek revenge on this man she at first is very kind. She invites Earn into an elite circle of producers it is all very posh and excellent for networking and Earn laps it up, happy to play along with her confusion as long as this woman’s racism serves his needs. The rewards are seemingly high enough that Earn can turn a blind eye, joining a very specific brand of self loathing by embracing  the fact that he is participating in one of the most frustrating and oldest stereotypes out there: "all you people look the same.” It isn't until she accuses him of undercutting her and pledges to ruin him that he tells her he is not in fact Alonzo to which she retorts. "I'm going to make sure you die homeless." He certainly seems to be on this path.
Darius' day is equally bizarre and yet also totally conceivable. His storyline is so unique I can't help but marvel over where the inspiration came from. It seems safe to assume it must be rooted in someone’s real life experience. Perhaps a news story that was mostly overlooked? I digress, he paints a dog (which it seems worth noting that in addition to being quite the homemaker Darius is  a talented artist and his room is full of these supplies). Darius rolls up his painting and goes to the shooting range where he uses his art for target practice. Harmless enough, right? Not quite, a collective panic ensues. A white man calls Darius “psycho for shooting a dog” and tells him he has to leave, to which Darius explains that “a human target is just as specific as shooting a dog.” Which just seems pretty accurate to me. A Mexican guy joins in the bickering, he points out to the white guy that he shoots at Mexican targets. Stating more truth spurs further anger and an uprising is vowed. Darius tries to explain that dogs in his ‘hood are “fucked up (not cuddly pets)” but the range’s manager interrupts the men’s arguing with a shot gun,
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“I told you rules before you got here ain’t gunna let you start no shit” he leads out a very patient Darius.
This scene is so fucked up.  Its rhetoric on arbitrary rules and categories is so important while remaining on brand with the show’s satirical edge. It magnifies the fact that the laws of a black man with a gun are so, so different than that of a white man with a gun takes a very different and slightly less sinister spin on the all too familiar police shooting unarmed black men storyline. We also get a close look at how Darius is observed and judged. A recurring theme of Atlanta is the simultaneous invisibility and hyper-visibility of the impoverished and minorities.
The episode ends with Black Bieber's aforementioned ”sincere" apology, explaining he's been trying to be too cool lately which has lead to hanging with the wrong crowd. He offers his new-found commitment to christ and uses autotune to premier his new song, Justice. In the back of the crowd, frustrated and over it Alfred returns to his day’s start and gives picking up the anchor another go. She returns with the lesson we’ve witnessed all of our protagonists scrambling to learn for the past 30 minutes” “let me give you some advice, play your part. People don’t want Justin to be asshole they want you to be asshole. You’re the rapper. That’s your job”
So, in sum this episode features….
Black man kicked out of shooting range
Black man mistaken for other black man
Black rapper unable to escape media’s perceptions of murderer in spite of being recognized as an “Atlanta Celebrity”.
All the while a rich white musician is able to chameleon himself into an infallible black superstar for a bit of extra street cred.
There is a lot to dissect here, but I’ll let an ethnic studies course can take it from here...
Episode 6, aptly titled Value is the first one to really feature Van's story and give women a voice. I was immediately interested to see if a woman took the reigns in the writer's room on this one because even the tone is so different.It didn’t take much digging to find this from Joshua Alston over at the A.V. Club. 
“Glover started off strong before a single frame was shot by bringing in staff writer Stefani Robinson to assist on the script, the first to give a writing credit to someone whose last name isn’t Glover. It seems like a little thing, but it makes such a huge difference to know that someone with insights about how black women communicate contributed to an episode that mostly consists of black women communicating and miscommunicating.”
It feels easy to  proclaim that the tone employed in Value lacks the humorist sensibilities applied to other episodes but I have to wonder if that’s an oversimplification. Perhaps I just found Van's story so horribly relatable (she seems to have the same dumb (re:bad) luck as myself and the series of unfortunate events which befall her here may just feel less satirical when you’ve felt the hardships yourself? Maybe a black man from the trap in Atlanta wouldn't find other episodes this season as funny as I did? Maybe I'm being sensitive? (Though that doesn't really sound like me to be honest). Or, maybe while very, very good this episode just wasn't meant to punch the gut in the same manner a jokey man-centric 30 minutes does. Maybe Glover isn’t ready to tackle female satire. I'm not sure and it seems like all these assumptions could get me in trouble so in the interest of not putting my foot in my mouth (or pulling a Van) I’ll move on....
This episode centers around the drama which ensues when Van's old friend comes into town. Actually, in this case (as is often true with childhood girlfriends) frenemy is a better term. This gal-pal plays companion to NBA players which subsequently allows her to lead a very posh lifestyle. She is baffled by Van's far more humble life and makes her judgements very clear by stating straight off the bat the following three rather insensitive points:
“Sometimes I wish I had a kid and then I'm like ew, no." (preach sista!)
“Back in the day you would have made fun of yourself for still fucking with Earn.”
and 
“Black women have to be valuable. NBA players fuck with me because I provide a service. I am worth it. I am cultured, intelligent...."
the implications here are thick and seem to cut very deep.
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Anyway, as a passive aggressive fight inevitably ensues Van's girl does eventually bribe her back into frenemy territory, insisting they make up over a joint. They hotbox the bitch’s fancy-ass car and at first seem to be reliving the good old days but as is apt to happen when you hang out with narcissists (particularly in our social media obsessed times) eventually Van finds herself being forced into snapping pic after pic of her social-climbing friend who is dead set on getting that absolute perfect insta-shot. I have zero patience for this behavior. Actually, every girl who has ever made the mistake of forcing me into this game has quickly fallen out of my good graces.
Ultimately, the mess that ensues for Van because she casually decided to hit a joint a few times with her disaster of an old friend is totally comparable to multiple series of my own disasters. Fortunately for both myself and Van (we’re similarly industrious and independent young women) we do manage to pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and move on. But, for a minute suspend your disbelief that I too could create this sort of disaster and let's discuss Van's mess:
She awakens the next morning to a cell phone reminder that today is “drug test day.” This of course prompts an insane rampage as she attempts to figure out where to get “clean urine.” When both Old Friend and Alfred fail her she realizes she has a whole garbage pail full of her baby's diapers. A true renaissance woman Van creates a complicated process to extract the pee and tapes a condom full of her daughter's urine to her own thigh. In a flowy dress she heads off to school (making it clear for the first time that she is an educator of some sort).
The storyline then takes a quick veer from the very normal baby-pee-condom situation prompted by a basketball “prostitute” to a  fellow teacher who approaches Van. This woman is beyond frustrated with one of her student’s. A  brief aside ensues regarding a black child who has come to school in white face to fuck with his teacher (who is so mad she begs Van to help her deal with him so she "doesn't get arrested for beating his ass,”). It is a sharp return to the previous episode’s discussion of cultural appropriation, reminding viewers how inescapable race wars are for Glover.
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Van declines to help her friend, she is on a mission after all. But of course, things don’t quite go as planned. A bit of physical comic relief ensues when she can't untie the condom of pee. She tries to rip things apart with her teeth which of course results in pee spraying everywhere (except of course in the cup for urine sample).
Desperate Van just admits to the principal that she smoked weed.
This is definitely something I would do.
When you’re honest no-one can fault you, right?!
Wrong.
Dissapointed, the principal explains that the county can’t afford quarterly drug tests anyway so after the initial one required for hire the samples aren’t actually sent anywhere.
Of course.
She levels with Van, “everyone smokes weed. The system isn’t made for these kids to succeed and you gotta shake it off somehow. I get it. But unfortunately you’ve admitted your drug use to a government employee and now I have to fire you. To cover my own ass as well as the schools’”
She gives Van a hug and one weeks notice.
Defeated Van, an inexperienced druggie tries to get more weed from Alfred who tells her she's “sloppy as fuck.” Which after the day she has had is just truth.
The episode closes with the same kid still in white face smirking now in Van’s class.
Again, somehow the female battle of race and class explored in this episode feels more sad to me than the male saga we’ve seen play out thus far
The closing shot of the sinister child in white face and my own history is undoubtedly playing into my interpretation. I will admit here that I have two equally stupid stories of being fired for absolutely absurd things that make zero sense. Once for rolling a blunt by request for my boss. A swisher of marijuiana which I didn't smoke and only procured because he asked.  Another time a 28 year old woman claimed I was sexually harassing her. In neither case was I truly guilty and yet somehow believed that an overcompensated apology could fix things with the higher-ups. At the end of the day though everyone is just interested in covering their own asses. Again, this probably could be presented far more satirically and at times I am able to give these stories a bitingly funny spin — but not with the regularity one might assume.I suppose what I’m getting at is I know what it's like to essentially be so inexperienced with getting in trouble that you can't tell when to just shut your goddamn mouth. I also think that this assumed guilt is such a female burden. It is a subsequent and frequently overlooked side effect of the ancient historical annals of sexism. Perhaps if we can learn anything from “mansplaining” it is to always just take the position that everyone else just doesn’t get it. But then also just keep our mouths shut.
Episode 7, B.A.N has got to be the most hilarious, perfect, wonderful episode of Glover's premier season (and pretty much of all television of all time). I feel fairly confident saying its everyone's favorite. B.A.N which stands for Black American Network is (simply put) a fictional television episode called Montague; a black spin on a Donahue-esque late night “news” show featuring Alfred as one of it’s guests. The "fake news" premise on this show delves into the complexities of identity in our touchy PC culture and is in its own right more than enough to ensure side gripping hilarity. However, it is the commercials interspersed throughout this episode that really cinch the deal.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The subject of the Montague episode, “how accepted sexuality is affecting black American Youth and Culture” features a panel made up exclusively of Paperboi and the head of “Trans Issues.”  Ummmm..... really? I’m already laughing
Alfred is being called out by Montague and asked to explain a comment he made on twitter, quoted by our host as such: “y’all N words said I was weird for not wanting to F word Kaitlyn Jenner."
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He is asked if this makes him transphobic? Alfred is complacent, admitting that while he gets what they're saying she (Jenner) just isn't "important to me".
The white trans expert explains Paperboi is coming from a culture of exclusion and power; the black community has issues with power and masculinity more than transphobia. She calls him out on the layer of fluidity in his raps to which he uses the same line he used in response to the challenges posed earlier by the racially ambiguous internet celebrity, Van: "I'm just trying to get paid." The ultimate premise of this show is, after all, escaping the trap life.
Cut to commercial break.
And here is the gold:
Commercial 1: Black guy in a bodega being up-charged for a can of Arizona Iced Tea. The tagline: Arizona: price is on the can.
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Commercial 2: A masquerade party filled with fancy black people drinking Mickey's forty ounce bottles out of champagne flutes. Tagline? Mickey’s: You're drinking it wrong.
Yes! This appeals to all my senses. I remember when I was 19 and 40 ounces, Conan O’brien, Swisher Sweets, 7-11 sandwiches and a bit of homework were evening staples.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming:
A Montague correspondent is reporting on scene regarding a “trans-racial” black teenager (I kid you not) who self-identifies as, yes, a 35 year old white man. Ummm..... I hope you’re laughing now too.
As a black teenage boy he had always wondered why he wasn't getting the respect he deserved, "then it hit me,” he tells the reporter, “I'm 35 and I'm white."
Obviously.
We cut to scenes of our trans-racial teenage adult pretending the projects are the suburbs of Colorado.
He explains his Mom just  doesn't get it. Cut to her explaining, "I'd love to wake up and say I'm Rhianna but I 'aint"
Which as a white woman I’m going on brand with the appropriation I mentioned earlier and I just have to say: “preach sista!” If I get to come back as anyone in my next life I sure as fuck hope its Rhianna. Sometimes I ask myself what would Rhi Rhi do? and then I remember to just do me.
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But I digress, our teen’s response to his mother’s dismissal is to explain that they don't "realize race is just a made up thing" and he doesn't believe in labels. Unwilling to accept this “reality” he is presently working on getting (yes) racial transition surgery while also stopping trying to convince others he's not "us". Ummm....
Rather than argue he tries to show his community he is not one of them by doing incredibly stand-up white male things like turning black guys into the cops.
This episode came out years before the recent onslaught of social media documenting black people having cops called on them  for doing very questionable things like sleeping in their own dorms but I still challenge you not to be laughing hysterically by this point.
As great as this storyline is though, who can complain when it's time to return to commercials?
First up a commercial break for Swisher Sweets (looks like I too was a trans-racial teenager). In the commercial all the actors are emptying the guts of their swishers to enjoy in between filming sets. Duh.
Quickly though, I want to admit that I am not doing this insanely perfect 30 minutes of remarkability justice —please watch! In the meantime though I return to Montague’s panel….
Paperboi admits to the audience he is afraid of being persecuted by the audience and does not feel comfortable speaking his mind. Our female white expert accuses him of being unable to have intelligent dialogue without spewing profanity (proving his point, of course). Montague continues by asking Al if he hates trans people because of his lack of a father.
If your head is spinning and you’re feeling ready to throw down you aren’t alone but Alfred handles the insanity with unbelievable levels of eloquence. He explains, ”It is hard for me to care about this because no one cares about me as a black man. Kaitlyn Jenner is just doing what white men have done since the dawn of time which is whatever the hell they want. Why should I care?"
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He goes on to question where the tolerance is for him?
And yes, this is the crux of it.
It is far easier to speak out against intolerance when you are privileged.
The white expert agrees with his point but as is talk show nature Montague  keeps egging for the drama.
All getting a little too real? No worries, we have a commercial to lighten the emotions.
Or is it just more sad truth?
First up we have a commercial reminiscent of the 1-800-psychic infomercials of my youth. A perfect example of selling an ideal to the impoverished rather than a reality, and media assumingThe poor are an easy target as they are so desperate for a solution out of poverty they can easily be taken advantage of. Sadly, gullible.
Or maybe it is me that’s sad and I just don't believe in magic-- perhaps my cynicism is the problem?
A man (I believe the same guy from the bus in episode one) is offering us “the answers we deserve.” He goes on to talk about chakras and crystals and the power to make his customers rich.
"Call now and you get a free juice and Nutella sandwich" he proclaims.
And now I'm even more in love with this episode.
Cut to a Dodge Charger commercial concerning divorce settlements which is too complex to describe but also totally accurate and finally the episode’s piece de resistance -- a fully animated Coco Cruncherz commercial with a “black Trix bunny" being beaten up by a cop because he is trying to steal the kid's sugary morning treat (which is of course just for kids). As the kids plead with the cop to stop he argues that age old tag line Coco Cruncherz is for kids -- harking again back to my youth and Saturday morning cartoon days when the innocent commercials with a rabbit stealing breakfast was not nearly as menacing (or realistic).
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And just like that with a seemingly sweet cartoon we have jumped the line from dangerously sinister satire to downright sadness. Nobody wants to see a cartoon cop beat the shit out of  a black cartoon  bunny especially in front of a bunch of cartoon kids.
And yet its still so funny and important.
Close commercials and we circle back to our black teen dressed like a white man. Alfred can't stop laughing at him "You look like Fellon Degeneres!"
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But don’t feel sorry for this misunderstood teen to soon. When the trans expert welcomes him, the kid uses his new platform to spew his own stereotypes, explaining that marriage is meant for a man and woman and men can't turn into women. So while he believes in racial fluidity he is totally close-minded to gender fluidity.
Obviously.
This episode and how it speaks to acceptance of other cultures is fantastic but the commercials and the garbage peddled to lower classes and minorities specifically is crucial. If I was an American Studies High School teacher I think I could develop an entire semester’s worth of curriculum on these 20 minutes.
Episode eight, The Club features our motley crew at a club and clearly miserable about it. As a woman whose personal anthem is George Thorogood and the Destroyers I Drink Alone I couldn't possibly find this more relatable. The only reason why Alfred, Earn and Darius are even at the club in the first place is because Paperboi is being paid for the appearance.
Since I’ve already managed to drone on for close to 10,000 words and supplied an overwhelming amount of both series and personal anecdotes, for this episode briefing I’ll do my best to just take a moment or two for a quick review of a few standout moments and trust that you, dear reader, now have obtained a certain level of Sylvie’s Mind Mastery to elaborate on the now all too predictable consensus:  this episode is just as fabulously funny, sad, complicated and littered with omnipresent issues of social status as the next.
And now in side-splitting surrealist summation:
Earn on the dance floor with subtitles for his thoughts: "somebody smells like Wendy's Double Stack.
Darius showing the crew instagrams of a famous guy in the ‘hood who has a very fancy invisible car. Noteworthy: I thought Darius was just gullible at first but I clearly underestimated Glover’s dedication to metaphor. If you’re still confused by media’s dark comedy, magical realism, social commentaries on race (a new and now thanks in large part to Glover a very dominant genre) don't worry so am I.
Earn gets drunk enough to feel powerful and demand the money owed from the owner for Alfred's appearance and subsequently vomits all over him (sounds about right).
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Darius has trouble getting through security after he steps out momentarily to blaze. Rather than put up too much of a fight he goes home to eat cereal and play video games (I'm pretty sure we will get married in season 3). 
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Alfred and Earn go to beat up the club owner for trying to rip them off (by now vomit free). After the boys finally obtain what they are rightfully owed they leave the club, at last drunk enough to be  in a decent mood. While laughing and talking about getting food  they are startled by gun fire. People start to run but most of the crowd is maimed anyway as a man seated seemingly on nothing floats by (in an invisible car, clearly) and mows down the crowd.
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This is so complex -- Donald Glover has completely lost me and yet I am obsessively curious. What does this mean? What does it say about our culture? Did he just think it was funny? Does the invisibility represent the utter bullshit of an expensive car? It must somehow tie back to status and violence but what is he saying exactly? I’m wary to even venture a guess.
Either way, The boys escape to Waffle House for a post mortem with Darius. The men are still drunk and laughing, moods still surprisingly upbeat though if you know anything about Southern Culture the very fact that this restaurant is still serving speaks volumes of the gravity (or lack thereof) of the violent incident. Things shift toward somber though as the local news streams through in the back ground. A story reporting the incident clearly lays suspected blame  on Paperboi. 
"Fuck the club," says Alfred.
Indeed.
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Last year Juneteenth was finally brought into the average modern white person's rhetoric through a "holiday special" for the masses from the very funny (and carefully cultivated to expand mainstream America's mind) Blackish.
Atlanta's take on the holiday is of course slightly more subversive. Certainly due to its non-network and later time slot it is more carefree and able to cater less  to the masses. Nonetheless, I am certain that Atlanta’s episode managed to bring a bit of awareness even if the show -- unlike Blackish -- made zero attempts to educate the ignorant on what Juneteenth is exactly.  It doesn’t matter though, because well... Wikipedia... Glover is smart to assume that his audience is woke enough to use their pricey smartphones to look up whatever they don't already know. Maybe I should learn to employ a similar tactic.
Anyway, on Juneteenth Earn leisurely wakes and bakes in some random girls' bed. When his alarm goes off he is rushed into reality, panics and dashes out. Cut to him and Van in the car where she is very unimpressed that he is stoned which plays out in a passive aggressive fight over the automatic windows in her car. Although we don't know where they are going or why, it is made quite clear that this is an important outing for Van, and that Earn is complicity playing along basically because they have a child together.
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They arrive at a fancy house, with a fancy valet and a fancy black woman named Monique answers the door. "happy Juneteenth," she proclaims and then proceeds to humble brag her home "we have so many bathrooms!”
Her white husband Craig makes a grand entrance also proclaiming "happy freedom day."
This is already a very strange party.
Earn retreats for drinks which he orders from a very condescending bartender in an African print bow tie.
"Emancipation Eggnog?" asks Earn "It's June!"
To which the Bartender replies "nigga do I have to explain alliteration to you?!"
Earn takes his beverage and wanders through the looming home finding the white husband, Craig’s office does nothing to alleviate the strangeness. The room is full of black art which Craig painted based on one of his favorite Malcolm X quotes. He explains to Earn that black musical artists are a product for white American consumption and appropriation. He pours them some Hennessy and is baffled that Earn hasn't been to Africa and also does not know where exactly he is from.
Just a side note all this has inspired my own bit of spinoff commercial satire: We all know by now that gene testing companies can provide a great deal of knowledge for White Europeans but usually lack the same insight into an African person’s roots and thusly all their televised advertising features a white person drinking whiskey in the Irish pub of their forefathers or celebrating an ancestors Viking victory. I think it’s high time someone (Preferably Glover and not me because I’m clearly far busier) wrote a commercial with a black person talking about the slave ship he learned his great great grandmother was shackle on etc etc.
Anyhow, Craig employs a specific style of appropriation (seemingly bred from his own white insecurity and guilt rather than ignorance or hate) to black shame the unassuming young man he has invited to drink in his home.
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Earn retreats, whispering to Van that the party feels "very eyes wide shut." (Which I myself hadn't yet noticed but once brought to the periphery realize  could not be more accurate). Frustrated that Earn hasn't embraced her thing she asks him to “just once pretend that they aren't who they are so he doesn't blow this opportunity” for her.
He responds by bringing on what I’d like to classify as his very best "douche" (I know , I know, this is not the PC term) in order to impress the "very cultural" uptight, wealthy black people this party is full of.
Van seems to be binge drinking which, as is apt to happen eventually leads to a retreat for a bit of an overwhelmed bathroom cry.
Afterward she winds up outside with Monique who finally starts to reveal actual elements of her own humanity. "You don't think I know how crazy my husband is? Treating black people like a hobby?" And there it is — the thing I have been grappling with as I’ve attempted to blog this season of Atlanta over the course of a three-plus month period. At the end of the day it is safe to assume that the best I can really do is just repeat their story and really I have no shot at successful analyzation. Craig’s overwhelming analyzation is enough.
Van asks Monique if she wishes she had someone to confide in to which Monique responds with this equally telling quote. "It is redundant to be both black and sorry in the world."
With nowhere else to go they return to the party to find Craig performing a poetry slam on Jim Crow in front of his black guests’ and this is when shit hits the fan....
The party’s crew of valets find Earn and attempt to give him their sister's underwear to pass on to Paperboi (I can't even begin to understand why a brother would agree to this for his sister and I refuse to believe my ignorance is cultural). The gesture may be gross but it is relevant to this story's evolution because they have outed Earn as Paperboi’s “manager.” Monique's husband increases the awkwardness by bringing up the shooting. Oddly if memory serves this is the first time since episode two that the series opening incident has been directly referenced. Or maybe it isn't weird at all, maybe the whole point of this surreal show is nothing can be taken seriously enough to carry over to the next episode. Isn’t that the rule of thumb for sitcoms anyhow? Needless to say for the time being the fact that Earn is somebody and not the nobody Monique had assumed seems to make her quite uncomfortable to which Earn responds with spite. Fed up by a full day of clear hypocrisy he proclaims the very real observation that “this is all wack, its not real life and they are all dumb.”
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Van rather emotionless attempts to drag her partner away, making it clear she knew  this all along.
“Stop stunning on me about culture,” Earn shouts. “I’m not going to go back to Africa to discover my roots cuz I’m fucking broke. Stop being so black-able!”
We cut to Earn driving home. He promises Van (with eyes closed next to him)  to call Monique in the morning to apologize.
Van opens her eyes demands he pull over and when he does she climbs on top of her man and starts banging him right there in the drivers' seat. In spite of it all they are young, have a baby and I think most importantly she is more attracted to his authenticity than the party's grandeur and faux behavior. The screen zooms out on the lovers in the middle of nowhere with the haunting lyrics of Chain Gang from Sam Cook and nothing seems so well earned and genuine than the freedom these two young black humans have to express their complicated love outdoors in Atlanta in June. Or maybe I'm just being romantic. So far as I know no one is actually  allowed to have sex in their cars outside of their own garage.
The season finale like many episodes starts with Earn waking up in someone else’s home. While this is a recurring start I somehow missed the trend until now. Perhaps that is attributable to the fact that our finale stresses the relevance of Earn’s homelessness. In this scene he is uncomfortably situated in a bean bag chair and being chastised for fucking up whomever's house he has crashed at.
“Where's my jacket?" Earn manages to ask a few times but the homeowner is too distracted with the destruction Earn has caused. So Earn leaves and calls Alfred who also has no idea where the jacket is. This is clearly a bummer for Earn but great news on my end. The missing clothing means we have some 20 odd minutes  ahead to enjoy Earn retracing the steps of a wasted night. This is a plot premise I have adored ever since Ashton Kutcher spoke to my very sensible 17-year-old- stoner- humor in Dude Where's My Car. I haven't watched the film in years and I know it gets a bad rap but I'd be hard pressed to believe that it doesn't stand the test of time. Since this is Atlanta though the surrealism is even more omnipresent than similar story arcs. 
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As Earn travels through his home-town (True to its name Atlanta has remained one of the most crucial characters throughout the season) he notices that everyone is dressed as cows. He asks a stranger why the costumes "Free chicken sandwich day nigga,” he’s told
Duh.
So Earn gets his sandwich and in true Dude form heads to the strip club to see if his jacket might be there. Maybe Glover was also a fan of this fine film— we are the same age after all.
A wonderfully awkward and funny scene ensues where Earn tries to describe one stripper who might have his jacket to another stripper.
Largely unsuccessful (how does one describe one generic stripper to another?) the girl is more preoccupied anyhow, her focus being on getting herself cast in a Paperboi video.
Defeated, he defers to last night’s snapchat stories to recall where he went next. Had this technology existed 15 years ago maybe the Dudes also could have found their cars in 27 minutes.
Frustrated by his snaps, Earn instead goes to chastise Alfred for his inappropriate "stories" but Al explains social media is important work. "Rappers make money on appearances" to which Earn reaffirms it is a bad idea.
Darius chimes in "That's black people's number one problem, they don't know how to have fun."
"I don't think that's our number one problem," Earn says to which I laugh out loud. 
And then I laugh again just reading my notes on this episode. And then again during editing. I am proud of Earn for this comment. For the most part he tends to be slower than his buddies when it comes to off the cuff quips.
In a stalemate, Earn defers to ridesharing apps. And even though I'm pretty sure Uber does not actually work this way Alfred is able to call last night's car to try to locate Earn's jacket. Yes, this affirms it, late 90's technology or the lack there of is the only thing that made Dude realistic (to which of course I  understand it still wasn't at all but... y'know....).
Alfred agrees to pay the 50 dollars the Uber driver demands for the chore but is annoyed that he is back to bailing out his cousin. They sit in the car stoned and discuss Jamaican food in a relatable way that will make any stoner smile.
Then something big finally happens for Alfred. Something that could carry over to season 2 or slide into another dream like fantasy never to be mentioned again (both viable options given the strikingly realistic and terribly fantastical world Atlanta has created). Earn gets a call from a famous rapper, Senator K, requesting Paperboi open for his upcoming tour
But before they can get too excited Alfred says "something here is off" and tries to bail. Just then an undercover van pulls the group over.
The group of black men are then patted down for seemingly no reason and asked if they are tring to purchase illegal things from the driver.
Just a jacket they claim.
A small chase scene ensues and the Uber driver is shot down.
And now there is a dead man wearing Earn's jacket.
Earn looks devastated he tells the cops he left something “in there. Can they check the pockets?”
No dice.
So Alfred tries to cheer him up, gives him a roll of cash -- his 5% on the tour deal, affirms that Earn finally “did good.”
But Earn just awkwardly walks away, defaulting to his defeated little kid look in his short shorts and his backpack. He Stops briefly to dump a rock out of his shoe and then goes to Van's and cooks a family dinner. It is a brief sweet moment, interrupted by a friend stopping by to drop off Earn's key. "I've been looking for this all day." he tells him. The proverbial “car” has been retrieved.
Finally at ease Earn and Van retreat to the couch where he gives her the roll of cash. He really does want to support her. There is another sweet moment as the two lie on the couch laughing at how bad of a drug dealer he would be and she asks him to stay but again like a kid he and his back pack leave.
There is something sweet and promising here. A rarity in this funny but often self-defeating show.
Rather than use his friends and family Earn steps out— finally on his own for the night.
He goes to a storage unit and opens it with the key he spent the day looking for. We finally see that Earn is not entirely without a home. This lonely unit with a couch is what he has and clearly why he is consistently waking in other people's spaces. He takes off his shoe, and we realize he wasn't dumping a rock at all but using his sneaker as a bank. No matter, weather shaking out a pebble or stocking cash taking his shoe off in the street earlier must have been Earn’s first sense of relief this season.
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amplesalty · 3 years
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Christmas 2020: Day 4 - Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical (2020)
On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
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four red rocking horses!
So I probably touched upon this last year whilst inadvertently looking at a bunch of musicals, but it seems the US networks have a thing for churning out at least 1 big special a year around the holidays. I watched A Christmas Story Live last year but they’ve had things like Hairspray, Grease and Peter Pan before. Christopher Walken as Hook? Sold! They seem to share out the responsibility every year so I don’t know what agreement they have going on. This year it was apparently NBC’s turn and they bring us The Grinch. Well, how could I not watch this?
This show actually has some history to it, dating back to the mid 90’s before making it to Broadway in the mid 00’s so it’s not some random thing they slapped together or one of those quirky adaptations of a popular franchise that comes and goes quickly like Spider-Man. Apparently around the late 00’s the US tour had the bad guy from LazyTown in the title role so that sounds like it would have been fun. Going by how over the top he is in that show and the way that the Grinch is played in this performance, it kinda matches.
Which isn’t exactly how I was expecting the Grinch to be characterised. It doesn’t really strike me as the kind of thing that you can adapt to a musical given how surly the Grinch is, I suppose you did get a bit of singing from the inhabitants of Whoville though. In my head I’m imagining the Grinch being the one character who doesn’t involve himself in all this singing and dancing throughout, but becoming increasingly annoyed at all the theatrics going on around him. Kinda like Santa in Rudolph where he’s just rolling his eyes at having to sit through that stupid Elf song.
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Which does happen to some small degree, chiefly through Max who is played by the amusingly named Booboo Stewart. That’s just a nickname though, which is good because I feel you’d have to be a pretty irresponsible parent to name your kid Booboo. I wasn’t sure if it was some heritage thing beucase he looks a bit Native American. Actually, what he looks like is Vanessa Hudgens. I must have spent a good wondering they had this one guy playing an older version of Max who serves as the narrator, but then have a woman play the younger version. I did find the humans playing dogs thing a bit off putting at first but I kinda grew to like Max, he’s just so happy and has this naive optimism about trying to win the Grinch round into being more positive too.
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But going back to the Grinch’s characterisation, he always seems a little too into the idea of this whole musical thing. I could buy it if he joined in at the end of the show when he’s being redeemed but it’s just really strange to see him singing and dancing in the first place. Plus there’s a few moments where he breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience at home and one part where he does repeated curtain calls like he’s some over the top diva seeking the adulation of his adoring public. I kinda got a little bit of a Jack Skellington vibe in the performance, but that made sense from Jack because he was so bored with Halloween and readily embraced Christmas because it was so different. Maybe that’s whats happening with the Grinch, only it’s something deeply repressed and waiting to come out. The costume and makeup isn’t too bad, certainly prefer it over the Jim Carey live action version.
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Which goes the same and then some for the Whos, much less disturbing than the 2000 version with their odd noses and buck teeth. These guys have a much more vibrant and colourful look compared to the older ones though, lots of pinks and purples. The movie seemed much more muted but made it up for it with the faces and wacky hairstyles. At this point though I think I just have an aversion to seeing the Whos in live action.
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Continuing with the aesthetics, the sets are something I’m a bit unsure on. They certainly are very crude but I guess they were going with something in keeping with the original illustrations of the Dr Suess book. Plus this is more in line with an actual stage show with everything taking place on one changing set rather than the more extravagant locations seen in something like A Christmas Story Live last year. Everything just feels a lot more low budget in comparison, I guess I’m just used to seeing a jump in quality when these adaptations come TV/cinema, like in Christmas Story or The Producers.
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The lighting is really good at times though, makes things very moody when the Grinch is looking down on Whoville from atop his mountain, or very dramatic as he rides his Max driven sleigh into town.
As for the show itself...eh. It’s pretty much entirely done through song and they’re all pretty forgettable. It’s either Grinch songs talking about how much of a loner he is or how he hates Christmas, or the Whos singing how much they love Christmas or other overly sweet claptrap. And much like in some of the musicals I was looking at last year, they lean heavily on the reprisal. Like, one of the first songs you hear is “I Hate Christmas Eve” from the Grinch which extrapolates from the lines in the original “The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season! Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason.” and the thoughts that perhaps his shoes are too tight. But then the next scene cuts to the Whos where Cindy Lou asks her mum what the deal is with the Grinch, only to get the song near enough repeatedly entirely. They do it again later on with “You’re a mean one, Mr Grinch” too, but that’s still better than that horrible rap version from the 2018 movie.
I don’t know if I’m just picking really bad examples here or what but I’ve not been getting on with these musicals. I know the reprisal is probably a big part of them but it just feels kinda lazy and especially so here given how quickly the songs repeat. This is an odd example sure but my musical knowledge isn’t exactly widespread, but in the South Park movie, you have the Mountain Town reprisal at the end but the original rendition comes right at the start so it serves as closure and bring things full circle. Plus it has different characters performing it and changes the lyrics to reflect how those characters and the story has developed throughout the movie. That soundtrack doesn’t really rely on the reprisal either and has a lot of bangers, Up There being...well, up there. Except they changed it on the CD release and whoever does the performance on that really phones it in. Outside of the Mountain Town at the end, I guess the only other repetition you get is that medley during La Resistance where Blame Canada comes back for a line or two.
I’m not sure where this would rank amongst the different Grinch versions, I feel like I’d have to watch 2000 again to see if it or this were dead last. Having pointed fingers at the characterisation of the Grinch, those odd moments in breaking character did bring some amusement so I probably would have enjoyed it more if they did push things further and made him more campy or push the sardonicism to all the musical numbers. They do tease it on occasion, like when Cindy Lou finds him stuffing their tree up the chimney and starts to sing, to which he says ‘Oh no, it’s a ballad.’ As it is, just stick with the KARLOFF short or the 2018 movie.
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recentnews18-blog · 6 years
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New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/alan-yang-is-keeping-it-weird-with-his-new-amazon-series-forever/
Alan Yang Is Keeping It Weird with His New Amazon Series Forever
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Alan Yang on the set of Forever with Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen.
By Colleen Hayes, courtesy Amazon Prime Video
If you were to picture a successful screenwriter and director’s house in the Hollywood Hills, you’d probably imagine something like Alan Yang’s place. Perched in a cul-de-sac at the top of a steep winding street, the mid-century modern home hovers above the city, a wall of windows framing a glimmering view. When I arrive to meet the co-creator of Master of None and the forthcoming Amazon series Forever on a warm July evening, a cluster of people dressed like gaudy refugees from a 1980s Sunset Strip hair-metal band stand outside a house a few doors down from his place, planning their party route for the night and living out their L.A. dream.
Yang’s own Hollywood fantasy seems to involve hard work, high-powered meetings, and flights between New York, Taiwan, and Los Angeles as he plots ever more ambitious idiosyncratic projects. Earlier that day, he’d met with executives to discuss Tigertail, the multi-generational Asian-American feature film starring John Cho, inspired by his own family saga, which he is writing and directing for Netflix. He is also in the early stages of producing Little America, an anthology series about immigrants for Apple, which will be written by Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon.
Right now, though, there’s Forever, the uncanny dramedy Yang co-created with Matt Hubbard that drops on Amazon Prime on September 14. Starring Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen, Forever takes the idea of marital commitment to wild, existential extremes.
Yang got his big TV break when Michael Schur and Greg Daniels hired him for the writing staff of Parks and Recreation. He had met Schur—virtually—through a baseball blog called Fire Joe Morgan that both men obsessively contributed to. (“It was legitimately crazy,” Yang said. “We would write 15,000-word screeds for no money!”)
After absorbing the show’s sweet vibe and character-based humor for six seasons, Yang and Parks and Rec pal Aziz Ansari decided to create their own series, Master of None, based on their friendship and “the fact that we like to eat food together”—which is, Yang hastens to add, “not the worst way to start a working relationship.” They wrote a pilot and sold it to Netflix, whose scripted slate was still in its infancy. But when Parks and Rec got picked up for a final season, they put their own project on hold, giving them time to think about creating something more original with Master of None.
At one point, Yang said he and Ansari were holed up in New York, trying to write, and feeling increasingly frustrated. “I told him, ‘My dad grew up basically in a tiny village in Taiwan. He had a pet chicken and he had to kill it because he didn’t have enough food to eat. So whatever happens, it’s all gravy because here we are in a hotel room talking about that television show we get to make.’” Ansari exclaimed, “That is way more interesting than any of the stuff that happens to us!” The duo decided to “make episodes about other people’s points of views,” including one threaded with flashbacks to the immigrant experiences of Ramesh and Peter, the dads of Ansari and Yang’s fictional alter-egos, who share some of their stories over dinner at a restaurant.
Yang is telling me this over dinner at Majordomo, David Chang’s buzzy, senses-overloading Korean fusion palace on the outskirts of downtown L.A. The chef (who has his own TV show, Ugly Delicious) is a friend of Yang’s, something immediately clear from the way they enthusiastically bro-hug, and accentuated throughout the night, as a string of amazing but unordered dishes arrives at our table—special treatment that starts to feel like a delicious stamina test.“You’re ready, you’re ready!” Yang coaxes me encouragingly at one point, as the waiter whisks away several half-eaten plates, filling the cleared space with a glistening serving of pork belly.
Food played a huge part in Master of None, as did the hyphenated-consciousness of Asian-Americans. At the 2016 Emmys, accepting the prize for outstanding-series comedy writing along with Ansari, Yang noted, “There are 17 million Asian-Americans in this country, and there are 17 million Italian-Americans. They have The Godfather, Goodfellas, The Sopranos . . . we got [Sixteen Candles character] Long Duk Dong. We’ve got a long way to go.”
Yang seems to be doing his part to fill that chasm. He describes Little America as, “like Black Mirror, but instead of being super-dark sci-fi stories, it is immigrant stories,” while his family saga, Tigertail, jumps between current day New York and Taiwan in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. “Even three years ago, I wouldn’t have thought it was possible,” he said of writing and directing the latter. “But now, I think, generally, things are changing—not only for me, but for everybody.” It doesn’t hurt that the movie now follows in the wake of Crazy Rich Asians, which domestically grossed $34 million in the first five days of its release.
“I’m excited to try to make a movie where there are three-dimensional, smart, funny, interesting, hopefully compelling characters, who happen to be Asian,” Yang continued. “My favorite stuff, no matter what the genre, is character-driven stories [and] specific details that animate that character’s point of view. So their background matters sometimes, and what they look like matters, and where they came from matters.”
Yang came from Riverside, California, the child of immigrant parents. A self-described “tiny Asian kid in big glasses,” he said he avoided getting bullied by being one of the fastest runners on the playground. He showed me an Instagram post from Bobby Hundreds, a streetwear designer and former schoolmate, who wrote that Yang “was the kid my parents were constantly comparing me to. ‘Why can’t you be more like Alan?!’ He was the smartest kid by a mile, never got into trouble, and got accepted to Harvard. But the annoying part was that he was actually really COOL. Like, he played in a band and stuff. So, I couldn’t even hate on stupid Alan Yang.”
At Harvard, Yang studied biology because his parents had instilled in him the idea that science and math were a safe zone for people of color. “When things are subjective, that’s when things get taken away from you,” he said. “If you are an immigrant and you write an essay, a teacher who may not have the same perspective as you might dock your grade,” whereas, “if you get all the answers right on the math test, you got them right, they can’t take that away from you.” Yet Yang gravitated toward the arts—playing around Boston in a group called Model Kit, dating a girl in a band, and writing for the Harvard Lampoon. He says with a grin, “I wanted to hang out with smart people and creative people.”
Pursuing that path led ultimately to his current life, where he gets to collaborate on projects with people like Nanjiani and Gordon, and invent a black version of Friends for Jay-Z’s “Moonlight” video. The experience surrounding the making of the extended video—which stars Issa Rae, Lakeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Jerrod Carmichael, and Tessa Thompson—felt like “a dream,” said Yang. “Like I was sleepwalking.”
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Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph in a scene from Forever.
Colleen Hayes
And then there’s Forever, his new Amazon show starring Armisen and Rudolph, a dramedy so unusual in tone and structure that it presents considerable problems for a journalist faced with trying to describe it without spoilers. It is a story about a suburban neighborhood, an ordinary couple, marital malaise, and also . . . it’s not.
“Alan was talking about a lot of the creative freedoms he had enjoyed making Master of None,” Rudolph recalled by phone of their first meeting to discuss a possible collaboration.
“I was most interested in having them play more grounded characters, and play more naturalistic scenes,” Yang said. “That’s my taste generally. I know that they’re such skilled sketch performers but I just felt like they could do sort of gentler, quieter stuff.” He tapped his friend and former Parks and Rec cohort Hubbard to partner with him. The duo, said Rudolph, “had such a great take on the life of a relationship,” and developed roles that would allow her and Armisen to stretch beyond the kind of broad characters they inhabited on S.N.L.
In Forever, Armisen and Rudolph play June and Oscar, a long-married couple in suburban Riverside, Yang’s hometown. They adore each other, but there is always the sneaking sensation, as Yang put it, of, “Is that all there is?” The answer in Forever is a surprising mix of yes and no, as the series repeatedly pulls the narrative rug out from under its characters and its viewers. Among the disruptive elements in the series is Catherine Keener as a rebellious, charismatic neighbor who inflames June’s sense of frustration and longing.
“There’s some crazy shit that happens,” Yang said, emitting a laugh that actually sounds like a distinct ha-ha-ha. He emphasized that he wanted to unravel the traditional half-hour comedy series structure and to keep “the isolation and the loneliness of domesticity . . . somewhat tethered to the reality that people go through, to still be relatable.” After apologizing for name-checking so many “pretentious-ass films that people will hate me for mentioning,” Yang cited David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Tim Burton, and Krzysztof Kieślowski as some of the directors that inspired elements of Forever.
“He definitely goes there with his references,” Rudolph said affectionately. “Sometimes I just say, ‘Yeah!’ because I don’t know what Eastern Bloc filmmaker he is talking about!”
As for the future, Yang said he doesn’t know if there will be a third season of Master of None, but it’s not impossible. (“Aziz and I are always talking,” he wrote via e-mail.) And Yang is leaving the door open for another season of Forever, if this series about married life and existential turmoil can find its audience. He knows that it is “a weird show”—and a slow-building one that goes against Amazon’s current mission of creating noisy, Game of Thrones-scale hits.
But then with so many networks and platforms competing for attention, it’s actually the perfect time “to make something that is interesting and bold and new and audacious,” Yang argued. “In this environment, why make a show that seems like every other show?”
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Joy PressJoy Press is a T.V. Correspondent for Vanity Fair. Her book, Stealing the Show: How Women Are Revolutionizing Television, was released in February.
Source: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/09/alan-yang-discusses-his-new-amazon-series-forever-and-possible-plans-for-master-of-none-season-three
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Ars readers likely recognize a few of these faces on the poster for The Toys That Made Us.
Netflix
Volk-Weiss and his team went straight to the source, as you can see these original notes from Kenner on their famed Star Wars toy line…
Early X-Wing sketch from Kenner!
Early everyone sketches from Kenner, too!
Naturally, the popularity of space toys encouraged a few corporate marketing spin-offs…
Creator Volk-Weiss has a soft spot for Star Trek, having directed a 50th anniversary documentary for The History Channel. The series has teased Trek toys will be coming into focus in the spring…
Brian Volk-Weiss has seen his share of documentaries. Heck, he’s even made a few, including a two-hour documentary going where no one has gone before (specifically, the History Channel’s 50 Years of Star Trek). But when the longtime TV producer first approached Netflix with an idea near and dear to his heart, it didn’t exactly cut through the clutter.
Previously, the only work Volk-Weiss had done for the streaming company were comedy specials centered on everyone from Jim Gaffigan to Tiffany Haddish. But he’d been sitting on a pitch about an even older passion—his 30+ years of collecting toys.
“For a long time, I kept annoying [Netflix] about what they kept calling, ‘Brian’s Toy Show,’” he tells Ars. “Eventually, I was lucky enough to get someone to listen and take me seriously.”
If the History Channel connection didn’t give it away, Volk-Weiss loves a good backstory. “Brian’s Toy Show” started from a few Internet deep dives when he came away dissatisfied with the lack of origin story information on iconic toys from Barbie to He-Man. But Netflix—contrary to the hands-off reputation the “network” has gained with its high-profile originals—gave Volk-Weiss a bit of honest feedback. That feedback ended up saving “Brian’s Toy Show” and eventually shaping it into the delightful, recently released docu-series The Toys That Made Us.
“They said, ‘We trust that you’re a nerd about toys, but if you make a show only for people like you, you’re going to have 30 people watching it,’” Volk-Weiss recalls. “‘We don’t greenlight shows for 30 people.’”
So, instead of a serious historical project Ken Burns could love, Volk-Weiss embraced what he knew: comedy. And now that I have finally caught up on the four episodes that debuted this winter, I can declare that this tweak frankly makes the whole thing.
Enlarge / Brian Volk-Weiss (right) presents with Craig Ferguson ahead of their History Channel project.
A doc for those raised on Saturday morning cartoons
To be clear, The Toys That Made Us has no shortage of information. Volk-Weiss and his team get practically every designer and exec you could ask for on camera, despite dealing with major brands like Hasbro, Kenner, and Mattel. The first four episodes cover Barbie, He-Man, and G.I. Joe, while George Lucas ends up being the only “so-and-so declined to appear” slide throughout. Even if that disappointed Volk-Weiss, he’s quick to note how rare his access was and how interesting all the minds behind these toys turned out to be.
“Listen, sitting there meeting the dude who sculpted the original Tie-Fighter model was way more exciting ahead of time than it was to meet the woman who figured out what Barbie’s hands would look like,” Volk-Weiss says regarding access (and revealing Star Wars as his preferred brand of toy obsession). “But after I understood what Barbie was, I’m now more interested in Barbie than many things—but nothing will ever dethrone Star Wars.’
With that trove of information, however, Volk-Weiss leaves room for his documentary to have a sense of humor. The He-Man episode does not shy away from how many of the side characters—like villain Stinkor or hero Ram Man—seem like split-second ideas and naming decisions. A G.I. Joe creator’s insistence on his toy being “an action figure, not a doll” gets turned into a running soundbite joke throughout that hour. And almost unthinkable ideas in retrospect—from the Heinz Burger Blaster to the puberty-themed Growing Up Skipper—get proper acknowledgment and roasting. You’ll chuckle regardless of fandom, but even diehards of a certain toy line seem to walk away with new revelations.
“The biggest surprise for me—because the truth was the exact opposite of what I spent my life believing, and it felt like 98 percent of people my age felt the same way—we all grew up thinking George Lucas made 99 cents out of every dollar from the toys,” Volk-Weiss says. “And I remember reading the transcripts from the field producers and hearing George Lucas only got 2.5 percent. I said, ‘No, no, that’s wrong. That’s not true, you misheard him. That’s wrong.’”
(#NoSpoilers, but let’s say Lucas didn’t make as lucrative of a deal as Star Wars fans assumed. This discovery definitely made Internet headlines for the documentary.)
Where else do you turn for life lessons? Television inspired by toys, duh.
The Toys That Made Us also (inadvertently, it turns out) does a smart thing and borrows its format from the TV spinoffs associated with the very toys being analyzed. Each episode includes an animated title sequence with a Saturday morning cartoons-ish jingle near the start. All the toys have genuine moments of conflict involved—He-Man execs trying to sell what’s essentially marketing research by promising comics or TV on the spot; Barbie’s on-point leadership being ruthless and fast-tracking concepts to market to usurp things like Jem or Bratz; etc.—throughout the middle. And all the episodes end with those signature life lessons-ish post-scripts you’d see on G.I. Joe or He-Man. This is when The Toys That Made Us encapsulates a given toy’s lasting impact in the face of any do-or-die moments overcome.
“Actually, I learned the importance of a good ending from early Jackie Chan movies,” Volk-Weiss admits, citing how Chan would play funny outtakes over his films’ credits. “Even if you sat there for an hour and a half kinda bored, you watch these brilliant outtakes and leave the theater laughing and smiling about how great the movie was.”
(To drive home this storytelling philosophy: Volk-Weiss says hundreds and hundreds of hours went into each episode, but he knows he spent at least 11 hours in the editing bay on just the last five minutes of the Barbie episode, for instance.)
The Toys That Made Us docu-series has four more episodes in the works focusing on Hello Kitty, Transformers, LEGO, and Star Trek. They’ll be available on Netflix sometime in the first half of 2018 (Volk-Weiss was still in production and didn’t have a firm release date to share when speaking with Ars).
While no second season has been announced yet, Volk-Weiss is confident he has oodles of additional material if Netflix wants to move forward. He says the reaction has been extremely positive from both collectors and non-collectors, and plenty of fans have been reaching out to him about plenty of other toys—Hot Wheels, Power Rangers, WWF figures.
“If I’m ever found dead in a ditch at some con, ask the president of the My Little Pony fan club for an alibi,” he jokes. But if things do move forward, there’s a clear first episode for any hypothetical season two.
“Turtles [as in Teenage Mutant Ninja], without a doubt, is what people asked about the most,” Volk-Weiss says. “People were repeatedly asking me, ‘Why would you do a Star Trek episode and not a Turtles? I’m pretty sure if I was watching the show I’d be wondering that, but I did Star Trek because I love Star Trek. I didn’t know if I’d get more episodes, and I wanted to do Star Trek.”
Listing image by Netflix / The Toys That Made Us
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