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whoblewboobear · 8 months

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TVGATE 📺💖

1.) Glee- Ryan Murphy is my enemy and glee is unhinged but it is hands down my FAVORITE show of all time. I started watching it when I was in 8th grade and the chokehold it has on me to this day is unreal. Season one was lighting in a bottle and to follow it up with an even better season after that? Lea Michelle is also my enemy BUT s1 Rachel berry is so fucking funny. Glee is the reason I joined chorus in high school- like the impact glee has on me? Incredible. Just 10/10. I could say more but we will be here all fucking day. And ofc Santana is my favorite character and I hope Naya is resting easy right now 💖

2.) Sucession- This show ate my ass for weeks and the brain rot after I finished it is still going strong. I avoided this show for a minute bc hearing about it through osmosis was enough and the fans put me off. I started about a month or two after the finale dropped. Like fuck rich people and fuck most of these characters but goddamn do I love it. I blew through this show so quick bc the acting??? The dialogue! THE EVERYTHING 🥵👏 you just know that if there’s a party or a dinner or some kind of rich people bullshit event that it will be the most compelling shit you’ve ever seen. Boar on the Floor was so sadistic and evil and FASCINATING. Like- I wanna open these people up and examine them. I was a Kendall girlie during my watch and a Shiv girlie post-show. I will say if you wanna enjoy this show just avoid.. most men’s opinions on it. I’ve heard the most shit takes on this show it’s ridiculous. It definitely lives up to the hype.

3.) Lovesick- Guys 🥺 if you’re gonna watch anything from this list watch this. I watched it when I was on a huge Netflix deep cut kick and WOW. Very lighthearted and funny romcom about a dude that finds out he has chlamydia and goes down the list of his old partners to tell them they need to get checked. All of these characters are so lovely and you just wanna root for them. It only loses points because it’s unfinished. I would’ve loved to see where things go for Dylan and Evie 🤧

4.) The Haunting of Bly Manor- INCREDIBLE. Mike Flannigan puts his whole pussy into into everything he makes. The write is incredible, the mystery is so well thought out. Every loose end is tied up just enough to let the viewer still have room to speculate. Definitely not scary in the way that Hill House is but everything else makes up for that. The cast??? I fucking love Rahul Kohli and I’ve loved that man since iZombie. Victoria Pedretti is the love of my life and the way she plays Dani? The range she has to go from Nell in Hill House to Dani is so sick. I just adore her. And of course T’Nia Miller as Hannah? She’s the clear standout. I need to see her in everything I’m BEGGING. The Hannah episode is truly the best episode of the entire season. This is a tragedy through and through and your heart will break for every single one of these characters. Just a gorgeous piece of television 💖

5.) Euphoria (Season One + Specials)- Again, Sam Levinson is my enemy but goddamn is season one SO GOOD. The aesthetics, the acting, the characters, the cinematography!? When Sam has a passion project and a story in mind he can truly make magic. Also putting Zendaya on your vision board and then actually landing her to be in it is so dope. The Trials and Tribulations of Trying to Pee While Depressed aka S1Ep7 is my favorite episode by FAR. So real, so funny, so compelling. Everyone showed up to set that week to make MAGIC. I don’t make a ton of fanart but euphoria had my ass so hooked that all I wanted to do was draw Rue and I sure as hell did. I was looping All for us for MONTHS. It’s still the #1 song on my Spotify TO THIS DAY. The special episodes during Covid were also so well done. Season 2 is dog shit so it isn’t included in this but rip to Angus Cloud because he was so special and the clear highlight of season 2 as Fez. (I could watch him beat up Nate Jacobs all day 🥳)

A huge honorable mention for the shows A Young Doctor’s Notebook, Chewing Gum, & The Bear (s1) because holy shit 💖. The first 2 are both absurd comedies from my Netflix deep cut era.

AYDNC stars Daniel Radcliffe as this doctor that gets addicted to morphine in the backwoods of 20th century Russia. It’s a dark comedy and a wild ride. I only watched it once and I have no idea if it’s still on Netflix or not but if you have nothing to watch and you want something that’s pretty out there or you’re a fan of Daniel’s comedic acting you’re in for a TREAT.

Chewing Gum stars Michaela Coel as Tracey. So 👏 Fucking 👏 Funny. The writing is incredible and I can’t speak highly enough about the way Michaela drops you into the world for a wild ride. Tracey’s pretty much in the end of that awkward transition period between your teens and adulthood. Just a really hilarious coming of age story that DEFINITELY would’ve benefited from a true final season. If you like Michaela Coel you will like this. She also has a show called I May Destroy You and I can’t wait to sit down and watch it. I’ve heard all good things 💖

The Bear is way newer and s2 didn’t drop that long ago so I won’t go too in-depth about it like everything else but INCREDIBLE SHOW. If you like food and sad white men and just- EVERYTHING about Ayo Edebiri then you’ll love this. Season 2 isn’t my favorite but Season One?? This show makes me miss living in a city. I just 💖💖 I can’t recommend it enough. Jeremy Allen White’s arms are reason alone to watch. I’d let that man [redacted] my [redacted] for hours like he makes me UNWELL he’s so gorgeous.

#tvgate #bb25 #succession #the haunting of bly manor #glee #lovesick #scrotal recall #euphoria #a young doctor's notebook #chewing gum #the Bear

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mysilverylining · 7 years

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The Case for Vivian Stoll Being the Big Bad...

*Disclaimer: I’m a forever Jason Dohring stan, who’s afraid if he goes back up in those fruit trees we’ll never coax him back down again. So when it comes to Chase Graves? There’s a bit of confirmation bias here. I’m pulling for him to survive the next episode, preferably outside of a cell or a freezer. I can’t believe I spent almost 3 days rewatching and writing this up. I like to tell myself I’m being Veronica Mars, but I’m probably closer to Bo John.

Personally, I LOVE Vivian Stoll. There aren’t enough ruthless female villains in fiction, by far. I was really looking forward to what lying liar, RT was planning to do with her this season, and was really disappointed when she was “killed” off.

Her motive?: Zombie Island won’t be ready for another 1.5 years, and she is beyond ready for D-Day. For somebody who could rattle-off the time span between the July 4th retreat and Wally’s murder (21 months and 21 days), I can’t see her sitting around waiting for disaster. She peddles worst-case scenarios, and would want to take the fight to the humans before they had the opportunity to gather in numbers or call in the National Guard. As a secondary motive, I think she was staging a coup with Fillmore Graves, a company she married into.

Point-by-point analysis under the cut.

Helicopter Crash:

We never see Vivian get on the helicopter. Was her body recovered? Burned beyond recognition? Scattered in tiny pieces over the countryside? We’ll never know, because Liv conveniently mutes the television during the news report.

Harrison Graves

Vivian’s beloved “deceased” husband. First scratched and extorted (by Blaine?). He wanted to selflessly leave her so that she wouldn’t have to be celibate, but while he slept, she scratched herself and became a zombie. He found his own source of brains, and a week later, he never returned home again -- implication, killed by Blaine. Vivian vows revenge.

Some Possibilities:

Harrison died at the hands of Blaine or another party. Vivian died in helicopter crash.

Unsatisfying story-telling. You shouldn’t tease a vendetta and then kill off the injured party before they can get answers or revenge.

Harrison died at the hands of Vivian.

Infinitely more interesting. Did Harrison learn of Vivian’s plans to escalate a zombie/human war? Did he have to be silenced? Did he inform his thoroughly-ripped, but absent brother of his suspicions?

Who would make a better scapegoat than a formerly criminally-opportunistic amnesiac? He can’t even defend himself.

Harrison is alive and being held prisoner somewhere.

Vivian’s prisoner?

On Zombie Island?

Harrison is alive and pulling the strings from behind the scenes

My #2 theory, if Vivian turns out to be dead after all. The lack of closure on his death really stands out for me.

Additionally, why does she volunteer the information that Harrison was going to leave her. “He didn’t want her to lead a sexless life” is valid reasoning, but a bit TMI for complete strangers. Had Harrison drawn up divorce papers at some point? Was she trying to get out in front of it in case those papers surfaced?

Contracting Zombie-ism:

We only have Vivian’s word for how it went down. A General in Equitorial Kundu (ha!) turned biological weapons on his own people and a dozen Fillmore Graves employees. Two weeks later, later at the annual 4th of July retreat, every single Fillmore Graves employee contracts the virus. Vivian, motherly saint that she is, cures them all with a scratch.

Where else do we hear about biological weapons? Oh yeah, Ravi tells us in ‘Looking for Mr. Goodbrain’ that ‘Aleutian Flu’ is code for biological weapon. And Katty Cake is doing the investigation.

Did things go down at the retreat like Vivian said? Or did she turn a biological weapon on her own employees as an experiment in creating super soldiers? A pre-Max Rager Super-Max? She owns the formula for that, by the way.

Another theory - does she hope to infect Seattle’s humans with the bio-weapon to force a join-us-or-die situation?

Vivian and Chase

Vivian volunteers plenty about her husband and her employees. Just one great, big, happy family, she says. But she never mentions Chase even once.

Right after the news report of the helicopter crash, Major tells us that Chase is taking the reins, and is flying back from Tripoli (via Paris, perhaps?).

Our first glimpse of Chase is at Vivian’s wake, where he has a bit of a temper tantrum, shutting off the music and berating everybody for their revelry.

Is Chase the enemy of fun? Does he have a stick up his existent and totally adorable ass? Only Liv knows the answer to that, but a few episodes later, we see him at Finnegan’s and Coons’ wake, laughing and smiling in the background while Major sings with his crew. What makes this wake different? #NotVivian.

When first introduced to Liv, he sharply cuts her off when she’s attempting to express her condolences for Vivian. But relaxes enough to give her the Dohring-smolder, once she lets the Vivian subject drop. While Vivian seems to have a “Bring it on/Come at me” attitude towards D-Day/Chase seems much more cautious and disciplined about about discovery, doing everything possible to maintain zombie secrecy. He worries exposure will lead to extinction (is he lacking confidence in his army?)

He immediately quizzes Liv on the Tuttle-Reed murders. His language is specific. He wants hard evidence to have the culprits “put away”.

In a later scene, he worries about the safety of the Chaos Killer victims, but he never says a peep about catching Vivian’s killer. Which, I suppose, could be an argument that he’s her killer (revenge for killing his brother?)

Some possibilities

Before his death, did Harrison Graves confide in Chase about concerns with Vivian?

Does Chase suspect Vivian of less-than-pure motives for zombifying the Fillmore Graves employees?

Assuming Vivian is the Big Bad, is Chase the fall guy? Once he’s killed/arrested/neutralized, will she come out of hiding with a sob story about how she tried to stop him from starting a zombie/human war, but he overpowered and imprisoned her?

Tuttle-Reed Murders

We start the season immediately after the Max Rager massacre. Vivian learns that Clive Babineaux, a human with connections, knows about zombies. She has three choices.

Do nothing - Pray that Clive keeps his mouth shut, and doesn’t ruin everything. Walk on eggshells, hoping not to make him suspicious.

Kill him. Make it look like an accident - Too risky when she doesn’t have anybody inside the ME’s office. If caught, she could make some powerful enemies.

Turn him into an ally

We know that Vivian went with option number three. First, she gave Clive/Liv/Major a tour of the campus. Humanized the experience with warm stories of her love for her husband, her employees, her family. She’s caring, nurturing, and has all the PowerPoint slides to put a mind at ease. However, Clive isn’t so easily convinced. After the tour, while still on campus property, he expressed his uneasiness with the secrecy of a private army, “armed to the gills”. He needed an incentive. How sweet was it, the way he peeked through the classroom window to make sure little Wally was getting a proper education.

Of all the zombie families in all the gin joints, it just happens to be the family Clive shares an emotional connection with that wound up dead.

A visibly sad Vivian hears the news about the Tuttle-Reed murders, but was she sad about the murders themselves, or in the necessity of sacrificing Wally and his fam? Liv visits, and in dialogue-less montage, allies Team Z to Fillmore Graves.

Vivian fans the flames in the aftermath, selling the “humans want us dead” tale to her employees.

Zombie Truthers

Where are they getting all of their information?

Assuming Vivian wants this war to begin sooner rather than later, are the Truthers her unwitting ace in the hole?

Did she post the Tuttle-Reed address on the zombie message board?

Did she anonymously give Harley a heads-up about the tracker in his vehicle?

Baracas

Is utterly crucial to Fillmore Graves in a post D-Day world. In 3x1, we learn that the Chaos Killer victims were whisked away from Max Rager to Fillmore Graves, where they’re debriefed and sold a cover story.

Vivian hand-picks Baracas as her mayoral pawn, and will do anything to get him elected.

While Chase Graves is understandably invested in helping Baracas win the mayoral race, the writers go to the trouble to show us they have no past association.

Chase: “Carey, I should probably meet this candidate we’re bankrolling”.

Baracas: (when told Chase wants to meet him: “Who?” Carey Gold: “Only the most important zombie on this planet. Endeavor to impress.”

Did Chase arrange the shooting of Baracas? Possibly. It definitely helped win the election, but I don’t get that impression. The best response for the mastermind would be to let the shooter get away, but Chase fires WAY too many bullets up into that balcony. He’s not trying to miss.

I’m with Peyton when it comes to Roxanne’s murder. Baracas doesn’t want his predilections getting out, but he doesn’t seem to be complicit.

Weckler

We know Vivian put security details on the Chaos Killer’s victims, including her pet politician Baracas. Presumably, security reported back to her about Baracas’ visits to Roxanne the Dominatrix, and the peeping tom who witnessed everything.

It’s two birds with one stone - turn Weckler’s daughter into a zombie, and then blackmail him with her safety. “Keep your mouth shut about Baracas, and while you’re at it, we’re going to need you to steal the memory card evidence.” Oops. You weren’t supposed to murder her.

I’m guessing that the second lawyer’s whispered comment to Weckler had been for him to confess and halt the investigation in exchange for Tatum’s safety.

The prison guard is almost incidental. Anybody could have paid him to kill Weckler, and anybody could have paid the second killer who killed the guard.

Stolen Cure

Why did Vivian learn that Major was human again? She didn’t do anything with the information. In fact, she was dead ten minutes later? So why did the writers go to the trouble of showing us that scene?

Major, right before the crash: “She wants to talk to Ravi about how I was cured when she gets back.”

***Sidenote. Ravi doesn’t share a single scene with Vivian or Chase. I’m predicting this is on purpose, and he’ll do something undercover in the finale.

Assuming Vivian wants to start a human/zombie war, a cure for zombie-ism is her worst nightmare. She can’t have her fighters being captured and cured.

Chase, on the other hand, doesn’t ask about a cure. He seems to assume Major was human all along, and just really fucking lucky.

Aleutian Flu

So Aleutian Flu is code for a bio-weapon, and this particular strain has been traced a specific Paris - Seattle flight. At the time of Katty’s killing, all passengers have been interviewed, with the exception of four first-class passengers.

Old racist woman, who knows nothing.

Sikh father with a baby, who heard a barking dog nearby

Miserable husband, whose wife ended up in coach due to a mixup. To appease her, he traded seats with 17D, Patrice Gold.

???

Between the barking dog and the napkin with Katty’s name written on it, my boy Chase is looking awfully suspicious here.

On the other hand, (1) Liv and Clive have a list of the four passengers, and would both recognize his name if he used it. (2) is he stupid enough to leave evidence connecting him to a murder on his nightstand? (3) is he even more stupid to bring the woman investigating the murder back to his bed, knowing the napkin was there?

Possibilities

If Chase was on the flight, did he also switch seats with another coach passenger?

Or had Katty already interviewed him and cleared him from suspicion.

Is that why he had the napkin with her name on it?

He clearly did not have sex with her. His scene with Major earlier makes it clear that he knows Zombie/Human sex is off limits.

And Catty wasn’t a zombie at her time of death.

But SHE wouldn’t know the danger of sleeping with him, and there was nothing stopping her from shoving a napkin at him with her room number.

I mean, I WOULD!!!

Or is the napkin there for another reason? He jotted the info down while listening to a voice mail? He thinks their luggage got switched? Vivian manipulated it somehow?

Assuming Vivian is the Big Bad, she would know the date of her “death” in advance, and would have time to send Patrice to Paris to await further instructions.

Like “Chase will be on flight xyz at this time. Make sure you’re on the same flight, and release the toxin then.”

Vivian Stoll vs. Chase Graves

Most of this analysis rests on the assumption that Chase remained in Tripolli prior to Vivian’s death. It’s completely possible that he came back to Seattle weeks or months earlier in order to wreck mayhem everywhere.

Where Vivian edges Chase out, is that we’ve been shown her connection to the different entities: the Tuttle-Reed family, Harley John and the tracker in his car, Baracas and the other Chaos Killer victims, the cure, and her admission of infecting all of the FG employees. If Chase shares any of those connections, we haven’t been shown on screen.

Where Chase edges Vivian out, is we’ve been shown a connection to Katty and the Aleutian Flu through the napkin and White Fang. If Vivian shares this connection, we haven’t been shown on screen. And if Chase was in fact on this flight, that negates the idea of him being in Seattle all along.

Potential Accomplices:

Zack Stoll: Share’s a last name with Vivian, but seems genuinely decent. Also, caught in the blast, though it looks as if his upper half makes it out.

Carey Gold: Maybe? A little TOO convenient, especially with Clive learning she’s Patrice’s mother. Has constant access to Chase. Capable of slipping Katty’s napkin in his pockets while he’s naked tanning (thank you Rob Thomas!). At least mildly involved, as Tatum is living in her home, and her daughter was on the flight from Paris. Still, I don’t think she’s the main accomplice. She seems surprised too often, and only owns one everyday dress. Pay your employees better, Chase.

Patrice Gold: Probably capable of conspiring without her mother’s knowledge. Her seat number was written down on Katty’s napkin, and she was obviously the passenger Katty was killed to keep from interviewing. Also, Tatum seems more frightened of Patrice.

Justin: My choice for most likely suspect.

Becomes Major’s Insta-BFF at a time when he needs one the most.

Convinces Major that he’s a great guy, then targets Liv for romance with Major’s blessing.

The cans of Super Max. Liv initiated that request, but from Chase’s reaction to the theft, I’m guessing they were under lock and key.

Not saying Chase wasn’t an asshole to shoot him, just that I feel like there’s something more to the Super Max angle.

Who found the guns in Harley John’s truck? Oh yeah. This guy.

Who worked the Baracas party where a shooter fired the same guns? You guessed it. Justin.

In Conspiracy Weary, Justin lies and tells Liv that Harley John’s compound wasn’t worth checking out. It hadn’t been used in months.

Liv questions this statement aloud once she gets a look at it.

Harley’s been building his underground bunker for all this time.

And the machinery was so loud, even the neighbors could hear it.

Justin conveniently pulls Major out of the party mere moments before the explosion.

Too. Good. To. Be. True. Nobody’s that sweet and pleasant.

#izombie #izombie speculation #izombie spoilers #vivian stoll #chase graves #silvery's playing with the stringboard #instead of doing important things #like eating lunch and dinner #or writing fanfiction

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chicleeblair · 7 years

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theory: if Major loses his memories he will fall for Natalie. Liv will know that he is a different person, and doesn’t interfere because she wants him to be happy. However she will be sad for herself and her grief will be what encourages her to open up to Justin since the rest of her circle will be dealing with their own grief, along with everything else. even if Ravi finds a way to reverse the amnesia, I think they may not give it to Major, because it would be like killing his current personality. I can also see him refusing treatment because he doesn’t want to leave Natalie alone again, but with his memories he knows that he would be drawn to Liv. she wouldnt do it against his will in season one.

more likely they will fall in love again like Major said, but I’d like to see a twist, or to have him try to fake it for a while but not really having the same spark, because they’ve been together since college, meaning they grew up with each other, and as adults meeting for the “first time” may not have the same attraction. The show kind of alluded to that when Major had such a hard time dealing with all of Liv’s different personalities. I know they’ve been set up as endgame, but it would be cool for them to use this as a way to show you don’t have to force a relationship into a should-have-been mold when there are just too many changes for people who love each other to fit together sometimes.

then again they have also set up the fact that people who meet Liv as a zombie come to love her in spite of her quirks and personality shifts. major had to adapt to new liv, but Major without his memories wouldn’t have an adjustment period. if he didnt fall for her, though it would confirm her anxiety about Major’s true feelings for her/or that deep down he was waiting for her to change back, even if he came to love her as a zombie. him dating someone like Natalie would help Liv see that Major is just different now, and he might not have loved College Liv either. (and think about the mixed emotions of the viewers who know that Major definitely had some sort of feelings for Natalie–is it because he changed, or is it residual infection, and in that case why not liv?)

they could even still be MFEO, even endgame, and I’m not saying I want a love triangle, I don’t. I don’t think Liv would be fighting for him, I think she would be learning to truly let go–which would be great character development.

I also think maybe seeing how different major might be will allow her to reframe her view of Blaine, although I still think he might be lying about not having his memories back, though not about losing them. please note this is not an argument for getting them together, I’m not really into Bliv, but I do think she should judge him by his actions post amnesia because based on what we saw of his relationship with his father, Blaine seems to be a very “well if you expect bad behavior, you’ll get it” type and as time goes on I think he will need more people than just Peyton raising their expectations.

The writers on the show are much savvier than they get credit for, and I think Major asking liv to give him a new name is either him being aware that he might be a different person–perhaps he was very different before college and Blaine’s 180 will manifest differently? i’ve always kind of hoped the amnesia would reveal that Major had issues that inspired him to be a social worker, rather than just doing it because he’s aware of his privilege. I think his issues with authority, willingness to resort to violence, and tendency to not ask for help are all signs of a backstory that’s not squeaky clean.

he’s got a dark side that we saw a bit of when he was doing the Lucky U and i think there were character flaws he had to consciously correct–possibly by becoming an athlete? A blank slate would reverse those changes because he doesn’t remember the lessons he learned? or it’s foreshadowing by the writers to say he won’t be the same Major Lilywhite.

tl;dr OR AND New!Major should fall for Ravi and solve any and all love triangle issues.

#izombie #izombie spoilers #izombie speculation #liv moore #major lilywhite #blaine debeers #thinking too much about tv shows #my life is zombies #ravi chakrabarti

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ciceroisthefamilycat · 7 years

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In the wake of that episode, I'm pretty sure that the memory recovery serum would actually work if Major took it. I'm thinking either Blaine lied (so obvious it would be disappointing) or that taking the memory serum before the cure (or in short succession after) might be enough to save the memories, which is why it's a shame they're seemingly not even least trying those options.

#I<3iZombie #iZombie speculation #iZombie spoilers #Mister Major

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hookslovelyswan · 7 years

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So here’s the thing...the fact that the potential existence of zombies was being looked at and discussed by hundreds of people on a website, for what was implied to be quite a length of time, makes me even more suspicious that Fillmore Graves was behind the murder of Wally and his family. That just makes it all the easier to engineer their deaths while seeming to keep their hands clean and claiming ignorance. Think about it. They can post, pretending to be part of the concerned community, while subtly manipulating people into the murders.

#izombie speculation #izombie spoilers #spoilers #izombie #fillmore graves

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virgo-79 · 6 years

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in iZombie season 4

I really need the show to delve into the fact that Blaine is an abuse survivor, and look at the full ramifications of that on his character and the choices he’s made, and his potential for change (which they’ve already scratched the surface of).

I’m hopeful that with Robert Knepper coming on board as a regular, and Angus no doubt ascending to Big Bad status, things will be primed to explore that story. Angus is (most likely) going to be *everyone’s* boogeyman this season, not just Blaine’s, and it makes sense that as the rest of the characters face him and come to know him, Blaine’s history with Angus will come to light.

#izombie #blaine debeers #angus mcdonough #season 4 spoilers and speculation

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hmslusitania · 3 years

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What's your headcanon for each of the main characters' favorite show/thing to watch on TV?

Okay. Okay so

Athena — we know canonically that at least as of 2.01 her favourite show is Claws and she live tweets it and believes Niecey Nash should be on Mount Rushmore.

Bobby — gets extremely invested in every season of the GBBO, complains about the technicals every time, and then Athena and/or Harry will find him in the kitchen at like. Half two in the morning. Baking whatever it was.

Maddie — is a stated “reader” rather than watcher according to 2.02 but considering she lives with Chimney now I’m sure he’s done is best to curate something he thinks she’d like and I want to say it’s like. Downton Abbey or something else equally Austenian (I don’t know if that’s the right adjective it was autocorrect’s suggestion and we all know how that goes)

Chimney — has watched basically every scripted television show that’s gotten anything like buzz in the past ever. The West Wing? Yes. The Sopranos? Yes. Breaking Bad? Yes. Westworld? Yes. Game of Thrones? Yes. Supernatural? All fifteen seasons, baby. He’s also done the funny ones, your Mike Schur shows, your Office and Parks and Rec and Brooklyn Nine-Nine and the Good Place. His favourite right now currently airing is a tie between the Mandalorian and Ted Lasso.

Hen — doesn’t really strike me as a big TV person? But I feel like she and Karen have Movie Nights with a bottle of wine and a huge bowl of popcorn and it’s every sort of movie from old classics to modern comedies (Karen does a very good “here’s looking at you kid” Bogie impression that Hen does not find charming shut up)

Related but Karen has seen Every Episode of Every Star Trek Ever and this will be relevant later

Buck — much like Maddie (obviously) didn’t grow up with TV as a thing, like they had one in the house but it was in the living room in a cabinet and the only thing it got was the game and the only time they watched was Thanksgiving and the Super Bowl. In his adulthood, Buck is a huge fan of documentaries and docuseries. He’s seen every iteration of Planet Earth and Cosmos and the one docuseries the Radiolab guy did and watches all the space documentaries on all the streaming services and technically this all started before he started spending a bunch of time with an intelligent and curious kiddo but it got way more extensive when he wanted to impress Chris with random knowledge all the time. Also Jeopardy. He watched back episodes of Jeopardy on Netflix all the time and he cried when Alex Trebeck died yes I’m projecting onto a fictional character again

Eddie — my darling Eddie who has a Snake Plissken cosplay on lock? For no reason? Eddie is a closet spec-fic geek. And like yes he’s seen the big culturally significant stuff (Star Trek (he and Karen definitely bonded over that — they drive Hen and Buck a little nuts with discussions of Star Trek lore), GoT, Battlestar Galactica, the Mandalorian (he and Chim talk about it at work and it gets them both right in the dad places), Stranger Things) but I also mean like. Speculative fiction schlock and trash (I do not mean this in a derogatory way as Ive watched all these too). I’m talking like. Heroes. Legend of the Seeker. Timeless. The Witcher. iZombie. Eureka. Warehouse 13. Killjoys. Like Buck shows up at his house and finds him two seasons deep into a Magicians binge because Chris was on a sleepover. Eddie will never ever admit to any of this in public ever.

#yes I know Ryan was in the heroes reboot that’s why its funny #the ghost ship answers questions #anon #9-1-1 #I don’t have a tag for headcanons

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blind-rats · 3 years

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For the fans, it’s never about the “happy endings”. People misunderstood that it seems to get a good storyline, either it has to be happy or dark. It’s not that simple. It’s not Happy Ending vs Dark Ending. It’s about good storytelling and characterization.

For years, fans cared more about the characters. When a writer only focused on the plot, and not the character, then they would usually sacrifice the progression, the development, the investment, the connection, and the fans who actually watched the show FOR the characters since the beginning. Good storytelling is when it elevates the character (good or bad) into something layered.

Season 1:

Aaron was arrested for Lilly’s murder was a good thing; something that should be done. The baddie finally was captured, even got hit by a truck.

Logan wanted to jump off the bridge was a cliffhanger; something that would keep the fans tuned in for the next season.

Lianne took the money was IN character; she wasn’t a good mother and Veronica finally admitted that. For a whole season, V thought that by solving Lilly’s murder, her mom would return, but in the end, it didn’t matter. V accepted that. It sucks, but it was progress for Veronica that she finally let her go, although she lost the money. There was balance for these plots and these characters, that is why season 1 was the best.

Season 2:

Keith missed the flight wasn’t about a happy ending -- it was a set up for the next season because he received a mysterious assignment from Kendall. Again, it kept the fans wanting more.

Season 3:

Logan beat up Gory was a set up for the next season. Like I mentioned before, if the show wasn’t canceled, it would give Logan a darker path or a lighter path in his life. It was supposed to make the fans wanting more; what would happen to Logan? What would happen to him and Veronica? There was a lot of speculation at the time, but it wasn’t supposed to be the ending.

Keith lost the election, according to RT himself, because he helped Veronica. Which was IN character. He helped Veronica, and it ignited another rivalry between him and Jake Kane again. It was supposed to be another set up for the next season, and it wasn’t supposed to be the ending.

The Movie:

There are so many retcons in this movie that fans noticed and many expressed their displeasure because the storytelling of the movie was a bit weak, BUT they are still IN characters. Yes, there are some changes, obviously you can’t have the same characters from a decade ago. Logan was matured, Wallace was matured, Mac was matured, Weevil was matured, even Piz was matured.

Veronica was trying to find herself and decide what kind of person she wanted to be. At the end of the movie, she decided that she wanted to help people. And that is why many fans liked the movie because the character progressed into the next stage. The character didn’t stay stasis.

The movie had so many flaws, especially with cheesy dialogues, unimportant cameos, and frankly not so good plots. But when fans have waited for so long for the conclusion of the series, to have characters finally get their deserved/bittersweet endings, is a good thing.

The Books (The Thousand Dollar Tan Line and Mr. Kiss & Tell):

Maybe because the books were (co)written by Jennifer Graham, a woman, a fan, she knew about the characterization of the characters. Fans immediately noticed the differences between her writing and Rob’s writing; which parts were hers, which parts were RT’s.

Nobody cared nor remember about the professor and the murderer/rapist, but everyone mostly remembered about Haley, Lianne, Aurora, Hunter, Petra, Jade, Norris, Grace, and even The Gutiérrez cousins.

Notice that all of the memorable characters in the books were absent from season 4 because RT didn’t write them in the books and he felt that he didn’t need to explain their absence.

Logan and Weevil had a good relationship, and they both were friendly with each other. That was progress and should be allowed to continue.

Logan and Veronica had stability and a good relationship even when there were some problems. Even when Leo (who was inserted by RT) was there. But it was pretty much good characterization for both of the characters. Something that was missing in season 4.

Season 4:

To those who said that the whole season was great except for the ending, didn’t pay any attention. From the very beginning, fans were being introduced to a lot of new characters that fans didn’t know nor care like it was some sort a new show. They have their own storylines, their own plots, even their own endings. It would be fine if this was a brand new show, but it wasn’t. It was a continuation of the previous installment. The new characters from the books were much more nuanced compare to the new characters in season 4.

The show focused more on the plots instead of the characterizations. They focused more on the special guest stars instead of the regular cast.

The characterization of Veronica was WAY OFF; so different and seems to be regressed to her former self when she was 17 years old. She was rude to everyone including Logan and Wallace. She didn’t know what was going on with Keith. She was nonchalant about filming others having sex. She was using drugs. She was drinking and shooting a gun. She was mocking Wallace and Logan for having stability. She was more interested in having a fling with Leo but she refused to break up with Logan.

Fans would accept Veronica’s regression if there was something happened to her. Why she behave like that? What was the reason? She was having a life she chosen from the movie and the books, and yet she wasn’t happy. Because of what? What kind of trauma that made her regressed? No reason at all? Because normal life is not something that a detective should have? And that’s when the characterization was down the drain. When a character doesn’t have a motivation to do what’s right or what’s wrong, their behavior is considered to be OOC.

Matty, a new character, a white rich sociopath girl, wasn’t Veronica, and yet the fans were expected to treat and view her like she was Veronica.

Marcia, the new chief of police was a wasted character. She wasn’t a foil for Veronica, wasn’t an enemy of anybody, and she spent her time in the precinct only.

The assassins from the Mexican cartel had too many plots and not enough characterization, and frankly, the fans didn’t care about them, especially when the writers sacrificed Wallace and Mac.

The death of Logan wasn’t just the only thing that was considered worse, but the fact that they immediately didn’t see the aftermath. They never showed the emotional impact and didn’t even give the characters and the fans to mourn the character. RT tends to leapfrog a plot, even in iZombie, and put exposition instead.

The death of Logan was wasted, done by the most insignificant villain in the history of the show that didn’t even have a proper characterization and development. But the show promoted him like he was one of the best things ever happened.

Logan’s death wasn’t caused by a heroic moment or something dramatic. It was last minute and immediately swept under the carpet.

Veronica spent her last monologue talking about exposition. it was an ending. It wasn’t something that fans wanted to tune in, unlike the previous seasons, movie, and books.

So the whole notion that every season ended in a dark ending is partly untrue. Plot-wise, it should served their characters. It should elevated them into something better or something darker, but it was interesting nonetheless. Season 4 didn’t have that at all. All the characters were gone, finished. Veronica rode off to the sunset without any kind of satisfying ending, good or bad. Bad, mostly.

This is why Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul and Cobra Kai are praised because of the writings and characterization. We see the progression of the characters of Jimmy to Saul, who is not a good person, but still layered. We see the development of Johnny Lawrence; from a bully to an anti-hero. Or Hawk from a nerd into a bully himself. IT'S THE CHARACTERIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT accompanied by good storytelling. It’s not (just) about happy/sad ending.

It’s also not just about killing off the main character. There’s a reason why fans are still angry with the ending of How I Met Your Mother or LOST. So many people are pissed with the ending of Dexter and Game of Thrones. Don’t forget about The 100, Gilmore Girls, and Arrow. Not because of the dark endings of those shows, or the killing off the main characters. It was because they wasted so many years with the characterization and development just to get subverted endings that the writers seem to pat themselves on the back, ignoring any fans who had been there for the start.

And RT’s betrayal to the fans isn’t just about killing off the main character. It was the way he did it. He was using the fans to revive the show, using the fans’ money to revive it, knowing that he would kill off a popular character, knowing that he would piss loyal fans and the fandom, who had been very supportive with his works and projects, and yet still done it, just because he despised a character he created for so long. Even BBC News knew this trend and called him out. It was the way he exploited the fans that were considered to be a betrayal.

#Veronica Mars #The 100 #Arrow #Rob Thomas #Jason Rothenberg

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electricbluebutterflies · 2 years

Text

Ao3 Fic Meme

Tagged by the lovely @mearcatsreturns, who may regret this.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

156. And considering a Decent number of those are prompt-fic compilations...

2. What is your total AO3 word count?

458,912. Somehow this is both higher and lower than I would’ve expected.

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Oh god. Um. Here’s the whole mess in list form:

The 100 (TV) (61)

Timeless (TV 2016) (24)

Les Misérables - All Media Types (11)

Jessica Jones (TV) (10)

Star Wars - All Media Types (6)

Star Wars Sequel Trilogy (5)

Revolution (TV) (5)

The Gifted (TV 2017) (5)

Pacific Rim (Movies) (5)

The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types (3)

Shadowhunters (TV) (3)

Suicide Squad (Movies 2016 2021) (2)

The Umbrella Academy (TV) (2)

Westworld (TV) (2)

DC Extended Universe (2)

Vikings (TV) (2)

Downton Abbey (1)

The Flash (TV 2014) (1)

Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo (1)

The Old Guard (Movie 2020) (1)

Mad Max Series (Movies) (1)

Les Misérables (2012) (1)

Firefly (TV 2002) (1)

A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin (1)

The Magicians (TV) (1)

Avatar: The Last Airbender (1)

Dune (2021) (1)

Orphan Black (TV) (1)

Teen Wolf (TV) (1)

iZombie (TV) (1)

Shadow and Bone (TV) (1)

There are a handful of cross-tags going on, but... wow I’ve done more than I ever offhand remember having done, and I have FULLY blocked some of those eras from my mind.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Some of these I can explain, some of these I absolutely cannot.

Just Wanna Feel Something (Anything Is Better) - the one and only iZombie fic I ever wrote, I promptly stopped watching that show because I only have so much time in this life and it was not a priority, and... this fic Very Consistently does well despite having been posted in early 2015.

find me in the shallows - first Kabby prompt-comp, of course this one is high.

and i’ll use you as a warning sign - first Garcy prompt-comp, same deal.

curiosity (be the end of me) - aka what happened after, due to circumstances that if I remember right involved familial miscommunication, I saw The Force Awakens in theaters twice in approximately twenty-four hours and proceeded to ship a relative rarepair based on level of pretty and what I believed was a level of plausibility. and then I wrote shower sex for them because why. not.

chocolate means i love you - another part of the above Star Wars era / fever-dream, but this one is not smut.

5. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yes, the emails make me happy and I do respond to... generally everything now, but I haven’t always been the best in the past.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I hate angst, I generally write more fluff / fix-it, but... that said, your hands you’re accounted for was wild t100 season 6 speculation that ended up being FRIGHTFULLY close to what actually went down, and I believe that’s the only time in recent years my writing has gone There content-wise.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Nope. I do occasionally think about it, but... the fandoms I play with, especially more recently, don’t have a lot of overlap as far as other people interested (who are NOT people I love who I’ve dragged into all my shinies), so...

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not recently / not since I was a babybug on ffnet ~13 years ago. And even that I don’t remember. What I do know is that I have mentally blocked the whole Les Mis era because for what I was writing at that time, I was the only person who did NOT get death threats. Fuck that fandom.

9. Do you write smut? If you do, what kind of smut do you write?

Yes. I usually go for sweet / not too graphic because that’s my interest and comfort levels, and there are multiple ships I’ve been writing for a While that I HAVEN’T done smut for, but... sometimes the mood hits, and other times intimacies are a means to a different end for various babes, so...

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I am aware of.

11. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I don’t think so?

12. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I’m skipping this. It changes way too frequently / generally it’s whatever I’m using to deal with my life at a given time. I do have consistent babes that I’ve continued writing for over good lengths of time, cancellations, and my interpretations evolving, but... cannot say just one favorite.

13. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Um... either Harry Potter or Twilight. TRY to guess roughly how old I am and what era I discovered online fandom, lol.

14. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I’m gonna do a top-SEVERAL here because I am me and I have different reasons to love different things, so... in rough chronological order from oldest to newest...:

Don We Now Our Day Of Peril, aka the t100 Christmas pageant AU, and yes it is somehow more of a hot disaster than it sounds and also involved less personal experiences than one would expect from my fic. My writing roots (pre-fanfic) are in disaster comedy and I do not write it enough.

find yourself an oblivious man, aka the fic that brought me back after I almost quit fandom altogether. Maybe not my best writing, but represents a very specific moment in my life, so.

open your eyes (it’s time to leave me) - the entire “same light” ‘verse could get a mention, honestly, but that one lingers as a representation of my emotional state at the time in the best-worst way and I am still amazed I managed to create something that good in that era. (Also, that was about the point in that fandom where I met some fabulous people, and I think y’all latched on after a DIFFERENT fic around the same time but it still deserves mention.)

never listen but i see it with my eyes closed - I am writing longform fic, which I do not successfully do like EVER, for the ship that saved my tail this year, but also not because it has turned into this deep-dive exploration of the headspace of the most conflicted / morally-darkest character I’ve ever written, and I love it and it’s eaten my life.

Not tagging anybody but this is open-ended for anyone who wants to do it.

#ebf tag memes

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sometimesrosy · 5 years

Note

What s your opinion on this “CW President Mark Pedowitz says that in May an announcement should be made that a channel series has been renewed for its final season.” It could be the 100 or it could also be izombie which I thought was gonna get canceled ages ago, I only really watch t100 on the CW so I’m not really sure what hasn’t being renewed yet

I didn’t hear that announcement, but then, I cut off a lot of fandom because I couldn’t stop the negativity, so I’m missing a lot of news, which, it turns out, is okay.

Izombie has already been given its final season. It’s this one, as far as I can recall. This season is final for izombie and crazy ex girlfriend, I believe.

It might be The 100. A lot of us have talked about not wanting The 100 to go on and on, never ending, like Supernatural. There has been a lot of speculation about when The 100 would end. It’s like a novel, not a procedural, so unless they keep starting over with new books, a never ending renewal could be not so good for the story. We’ve talked about wanting it to have “an end,” like Mad Men did. Closing the story out. TELLING a story. And as The 100 is novelistic, it would be for the best, for all of it, if it HAS an ending to give us all closure. If they are referring to The 100, it wouldn’t be a cancellation, really. It would be The End. Those are different.

We thought that season 5 might be the ending. And indeed, they closed out Book 1. But then we’ve also thought that s7 might be the ending, and someone figured out that if they tweak the episode number by two or three, that would give The 100 exactly 100 episodes, which is not only poetic, but also the number of episodes it takes for a show to be syndicated, which means it becomes a bigger money maker for the company and the actors.

I may not want The 100 to end, but I kind of even more want it to end with an ending, rather than just drag on with ever new and elaborate big bads, so I’m okay with season 7, if they are talking about The 100, being the end.

That will actually give us a nice closure to this story that has been unfinished and driving us crazy. We’ll get romantic bellarke in season 6 and an established relationship in season 7, ALONG WITH the end of Clarke’s hero’s journey as she finally gets back to being the good guy again. This time she’ll be able to take season 7 to not only save humanity from destruction, but she and Bellamy will be able to redeem them for their sins that CAUSED the apocalypse in the first place. The pilot had Abby saying that she was making sure humanity DESERVED to survive. And they were unable to even start doing that until just now, with Bellamy in s5. I think book 2 will do that.

Be aware that the people of the Eligius three are the direct descendants of the people who CAUSED THE APOCALYPSE. They are there because of the technology of Becca and the philosophy of Cadogan. Eligius MUST have been the political party that Diyoza fought against, because she was a rebel, like Clarke, fighting against the tyrants who tried to take over her home, and the Eligius imprisoned her with actual mass murderers and psychopaths. So either the Eligius was part of the tyranny or they benefitted from them which is the same thing.

So. Like. If The 100 ends with season 7, it would be an epic ending, because Clarke and Bellamy are the heroes of the story in which humanity is destroyed, struggles to survive, is redeemed and then reborn.

That makes it not just a bunch of kids tossed down onto a poison planet, but an origin story. This is how the world is reborn. Clarke and Bellamy guide it into being.

I don’t want The 100 to end, but I’m having a hard time not getting excited about what I’m seeing. About how all these loose storylines and new clues and call backs to the first apocalypse and healing of old wounds and commitment to being the good guy and living life well, could wrap up into a FANTASTIC and hopeful story. I actually have in my mind a story that could end by season 7, where they actually go back to earth to fix what they have broken, which is the responsibility of people who want to be the good guys, instead of just taking over another planet and using that one up, too. Even husbanding it well, it’s not their planet, and if there ARE aliens on that planet, they need to give it back to them. Because taking it from them would be repeating the mistakes of humanity. And as much as I know I can’t really predict the ending of The 100, I want to see the themes of redemption and rebirth that are a big part of why post apocalyptic stories are so satisfying to me. I don’t believe this show will end dark. I believe this show is taking us through the darkness and ending in the light.

Like, you never want a good novel to end, but the ending is how everything comes together and gives you closure and gives meaning to the suffering and pain and creates something bigger, something hopeful, something transformative.

And I want that.

#the 100 #rumors #finale #treating the 100 like a story instead of a hollywood property means they are giving the story respect #i consider it a win #and it means we'll get an ending that is satisfying and not another cliffhanger

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welcometoteamz · 5 years

Text

I’ve ranted about what I didn’t like in iZombie S4 and what I would do differently, but tbh, I would go back and apply a lil bit in S3 tbh as well.Most of it involves my trash boi Blaine.

I had multiple verses set during the year long hiatus between S2 and S3 where I wrote Blaine’s amnesia as being legitimate. That said, I’ve made my peace with the fact it became a lie. It honestly makes more sense for him to try to turn his life around, but get caught in a lie and fuck it up for himself due to his own insecurities and fear of rejection. I’ll stand firm on that.

Which is why the reveal of having him be the one steal the cure irritates me.It’d honestly would have more tragic if he still tried to behave himself even after his lie was exposed, and it was the hit from Angus that dragged him back into his old life after he got his retribution.The fact he was with Peyton while lying is no doubt problematic and I’m mad at them for getting me on board with that and then pulling the rug out from under me... but in my mind?He was still going to try and start anew even if she chose Ravi. If Ravi hadn’t slept with Katty Kupps, and Pavi sailed in S3, and Blaine continued to be a lounge singer while working at Shady Plots…I think he would have been content.

Which goes into ways he could have gotten out of his lie, which someone as cunning as Blaine should have thought about.Like. Why not get out of the lie, with another lie? Say that Ravi’s memory serum works? That way Major is injected with both at the same time, and no one suspects anything is afoot when his memories came back? Then they do the same thing to all the other zombies when it is possible to mass produce the cure.Blaine gets his fresh start, a new job, and to be happy with Peyton.

Sure, he loses the brain business, but I think he’d give all that up for being actually truly content and happy. Let’s not forget, that was the same episode Angus took his inheritance back. Had that not happened, would that be something Blaine would have done? Knowing that even if he didn’t have the business, he had those millions to fall back on? I think so.Going back to his stealing the cure, though… and why that doesn’t entirely work for me…

Let’s be honest. There was a lot of inconsistency. At the end of episode six Blaine apparently is cooking up blue brain juice, and you may think ok, he is still thinking about the brain business. It may be possible he stole the cures after all.

The very next episode, though. He was in a depressed funk. He had caring about the business when he was in his depressed funk. Candy had to get on him about the orders. When Don E. and Dino show up at Shady Plots to tell him they’re taking his brain supply and customers, he’s visibly angry, but also looks defeated before Dino shoots him. Like he’s just so broken down at that point that he’s just accepted it. Would that guy even have bothered to steal the cures, if he didn’t care about the business?

Hell, if you hadn’t seen the prior episode, would you have thought that Blaine bothered to cook up blue brain juice before going to drunkenly sing at his lounge gig?It’s not until his sense of self preservation kicks in when he’s shot, that he has a sense of what to do with himself. First things first, that’s revenge.

Then he discovers Angus’ plan to team up with Fillmore-Graves (WHICH DOESN’T EVEN COME INTO PLAY AT ALL IN S4 WHEN FUCKFACE RETURNS. NO ONE CALLS HIM OUT ON HATING FILLMORE-GRAVES, REMINDING HIM OF HIS PLAN. HOW AWESOME WOULD IT HAVE BEEN IF THIS WAS EXPOSED TO HIS CHURCH AND THEY TORE HIM APART LIKE THE HYENAS DID SCAR IN THE LION KING) and that’s what reinvigorates him.

Now there are two tangents I could go into here. So I will.

The first is how Blaine’s storyline in the back half of S3 may have suffered due to Andrea Savage leaving the show for her own series, I’m Sorry. It’s possible we would have seen her and Blaine face off if she learned he presumably killed her husband Harrison.Which. Is an issue I have with S4 as well. Chase is Harrison’s brother. He works with Blaine.

Upon meeting him, he would be smart enough and would easily be able to figure out that Blaine was the OG brain supplier and would have been the one to kill his brother.Once he no longer needed Blaine, i.e. was done with his blackmail? He would have put him in the guillotine. I expected this, honestly. I expected Blaine to pull the same card he pulled on Liv in S1. That without him, they have a zombie apocalypse on their hands. There was a brain shortage prior to the outbreak when Blaine approached him in the S3 finale. In S4 it’s even worse than it was then. There’s even a plot about Major tracking down watered down brain tube dealers.

Chase is a proud man, he wouldn’t have gone back to Blaine automatically… but after the US Government cuts off the brain supply in the finale, Major enlists Blaine to increase his operations.You don’t think that in the middle of the brain shortage crisis, Chase would have bitten the bullet and remembered Blaine’s proposal? Ok, at this point, you’re probably asking yourself. “Mmhm, okay, so maybe that’s a better plot for Blaine… but then who did steal the cures?”

Osborn Oates.

Don’t remember him? Yeah, neither do any of the characters, apparently.He was the guy who was Natalie’s captor. Who apparently had the the influence to bribe Max Rager guards under Vaughn Du Clark’s nose. He was described by Ravi as being like a Bond villain.Natalie warns Major that wherever he goes, he’ll find her, but then… he doesn’t. She travels the world. He doesn’t track her down. Even when she herself would have been vulnerable and amnesiac.He doesn’t even try to track down Major and find out what he knows, or if he was responsible for her escape. We know he is aware of Major. Major and Ravi followed he and his body guard.His body guard even checked Ravi’s morgue ID, and would have known where the cures were kept had he known about the cures.

Which… I think, Natalie might have told him about, in an effort to barter her freedom.Remember when we first met her? She said that since she was paid in brains by Blaine, who had become her pimp after turning her, that she ran through her savings and was broke.Yet… when she returns in S3, she tells Major that she traveled the world and had a place in Italy that she got thanks to her savings earned as sex worker.So… what is the truth?

I don’t want to speculate about a villainous lying Natalie. I actually liked her character, and she was certainly victimized and I don’t want to take away from that at all. Given her desperate situation though, might she have made some choices out of self preservation? Her own best interest?I think there was more to the Natalie situation than we got. I think it suffered because they went from 19 episodes in season 2 back to a 13 episode order. I don’t know if her exit had more to do with propelling Major’s character’s decisions, or if because Natalie’s actress Brooke Lyons had gotten work as a series regular on the show Life Sentence. Maybe a bit of both?

Maybe they did plan to kill her at the end of the arc, but the arc happened sooner than anticipated due to the shortened season? Knowing that they’d be losing her, they couldn’t carry that thread over to S4? So instead they just dropped Osborn Oates, and over the summer Rob Thomas decided to change it to Blaine in S4 because no one would question it?

Sorry Rob, I question it. You said in post S3 interviews that you planned to reveal who stole the cures in the finale, but there was no time so you’d get to it in S4.Really? That’s why? No time? If you had the time, how would it have come into play? The way it did come into play was Blaine seeking out Mama Leone, because Chase was blackmailing him. Are you telling me Chase would have done so in the S3 finale? That you would have seeded Renegade as a plotline even then?

I’m calling bullshit.I think it’s far more likely that your plans fell through, and you needed the time over the hiatus to do a rewrite.Even if Natalie had nothing to do with the cures being stolen, if it was planned to be Blaine all along…

You kill her off, and she doesn’t even get to confront Blaine? They never have a scene together? He’s responsible for her being a zombie, which led to her being kidnapped, and then held hostage.Yet he helped Major find her when he could have pleaded ignorance. He gave him Oates’ address and let him know when he was back in town.

He didn’t have to do that. He could have said that it’s not the address on record, said “I guess Oates is thorough and has someone else handle his pickups” and Major wouldn’t have questioned him.

He could have elected not to tip Major off that he was back in town. To stay out of it. Had he done so? Major wouldn’t have been able to find Natalie and give her the cure when he did.I’m not saying this excuses Blaine of what he did to her at all, or that the two would have been “even” or made peace. Not at all. There is no retribution for what he did to her.It does however, go back to my belief he was legit trying to change.

As for why Chase never mentions or figures out Blaine killed his brother? Why wasn’t that a thing? Why didn’t we get more time to know Chase and see his conflict, rather than having it rushed to him buckling under the pressure of the job?

In hindsight, knowing what we do about the actor who played Blaine’s father… I kind of wish Chase had gotten that series regular promotion instead. What did the Angus stuff really add to the season, at the end of the day? Blaine would have taken Major’s deal regardless, whether or not he was in debt. He would have done it just if it meant he wouldn’t be put in prison, and because he’d get a kick out of having Major at his mercy.

Which… he shouldn’t be in debt right now either... because now Angus is dead for real and he should have those millions. Or did he spend those millions, when he came back, to feed his flock? I imagine someone else took over his business, but he still had all his personal accounts.

At the end of the day, all the Brother Love stuff was just a bunch of filler. You know what would have been interesting? If Brother Love used Enzo to reach out to those remaining dissenting Fillmore-Graves employees that Carey Gold told us existed but we never saw in S4. We saw corruption in S4 with Russ Roche, but the only real zombie supremacist within the organization was Enzo himself.

Speaking of which, what happened to Enzo? Did he die along with Angus’ flock? It seemed like they were building to a big finale that was going to be Angus’ church throwing a revolution against Fillmore-Graves, with Liv and her Renegade folks stuck in the middle.By the filming of the last episode, did they just decide they didn’t want to give Angus’ actor any more screentime than it would take to organically write him out? Cause his exit was anticlimactic. I mean, the actor didn’t deserve any more screentime. I wouldn’t want to see him on my screen, but...

It happened in a news report.Thing is though, I don’t know if that was why. I mean, they made Angus a regular, and he only interacted with each series regular save Blaine once. He interacted with Peyton in 3x03, before he was even a regular. His only conscious interaction with Major was when he and his squad checked out the church. He interacted with Liv when she and Levon went there seeing if he could help them get more brains. Another thing which is never touched upon after that episode.His only interaction with Ravi and Clive took place at the same time in the interrogation room

.Yet we had that whole subplot of that kid Tucker who was a zombie hater who became a Brother Love devotee after being kicked out of the Romero’s basement by Blaine? Okay, what happened to that kid? Did he die with the flock as well? We never saw him. We spent all that time with him, and why? Just so he could kill someone and Enzo could let him go, and pass word on to Angus?

…Enzo couldn’t have just approached Angus himself, after attending his sermon? Or did he feel like he needed to prove himself, considering Angus’ distrust of Fillmore-Graves? Ok, but then...

Again, Angus himself wanted to partner up with them in S3. Inconsistent. Yes, you could say he changed his mind after seeing their regime and how Chase led them. That he lost his mind in the well, which he did.…but in hindsight… given what they did with him, and the fact he was played by a man accused of multiple accounts of sexual assault?

I wish we hadn’t seen him come back at all. He should have been left in the well to turn into a Romero. Blaine should have just not fed him. All that extra screentime, we could have gotten Blaine vs Chase (in the wake of Vivian) with Liv caught in the middle and just trying to help people. Instead we got… a mess…

In my personal opinion.

#iZombie #Blaine DeBeers #Chase Graves #Major Lilywhite #Liv Moore #long post #long post for ts

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mysilverylining · 7 years

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blaxicanbby

replied to your

post

ANY OPINIONS JUDGING LIV FOR BANGING THE BIG BAD...

Okay like, yay he has a dog, but Liv still took time to confirm Justin wasnt sleepiing with anyone else and wanted to be exclusive with her and then cheated on him. Thats a thing that happened nd no matter “how hawt” it was, its still wrong. No excuses. Liv could resist not sleeping with others, yet she somehow “has no will power” with Chase, cause brains?? Yeah, no.

*Rereads original post and scratches head*

Help me out here. Are you debating that Vivian Stoll is still alive? That Chase Graves is a textbook example of a red herring? Or that dogs typically symbolize goodness in fiction?

Because (other than my clear disclaimer that I don’t justify cheating) that was the gist of my post.

#blaxicanbby #izombie #liv moore #chase graves #vivian stoll #izombie spoilers #izombie speculation

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ciceroisthefamilycat · 7 years

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Spec for this ep: the memory restoration serum does work and Liv is about to be especially affected by this brain.

#I<3iZombie #iZombie speculation

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rillacuthbert · 7 years

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Arrow S5 Ratings: The Viewership Apocalypse

My level of obsessive compulsive nerd is that I continue to work on my Arrow ratings math project despite that fact that I only “meh watched” six episodes this season. I should be working on my dissertation or my revise and resubmit pile in my spare time but this remains way more fun. Plus after my Season 4 Model worked so well I had to see if I could duplicate it for Season 5.

Being right remains my heroin. #CapricornProblems

Arrow Season Five: The Beginning of the End

First, let’s review the Arrow S5 average ratings & demo + adjusted ratings & demo change since S4 season.

Everyone knows that Arrow ratings AND CW ratings have declined sharply this season overall (http://www.vulture.com/2017/05/2016-2017-tv-season-in-five-really-depressing-charts.html). This article and the CW chart in here are helpful to center the conversation but I have critiques. First, no fair comparison of ratings decline over last season can include Supergirl. Comparing ratings from CBS to CW is not Apples to Oranges it is Apples to Volkswagens. Thus I removed Supergirl from my chart. Second, for change over time comparisons the number of viewers is mathematically preferable to the demo.

Math Segway: the demo is already a fraction so comparing percentages of fractions can lead to over/under predictability (Type One and Type Two Error) especially when your base fraction is an especially low number….like the demo from most CW shows.

The 2016-2017 CW ratings decline season average (thus far since some shows are still wrapping) is -14.7 with The Vampire Diaries and -17.6 without The Vampire Diaries.

The overall network decline of live viewers is steep. The shows hit the hardest are the limited run shows and the mid-season replacement shows (The 100, Reign, iZombie, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and Arrow. On the average, CW shows that started in the Fall only had a -13.6% decline in viewership over last season while the mid-season replacement shows declined -22%. While CW shows that had limited run seasons declined -18.7 while full run season shows declined -14.2.

Arrow & Crazy Ex-GF are CW’s only show returning for next season that are not within one standard deviation of that -13.6% Fall average. And Crazy Ex-GF is already a limited run show. Arrow is the CW’s only full run show to have their ratings fall this hard. Arrow’s steep rating decline is far closer to the decline for limited run shows. That ain’t good. At all!

The benchmark I have used for Arrow’s season performances is the % viewership decline or growth (the rate of change) for each season compared to the average of the last two long run CW drama (Supernatural & Vampire Diaries) at the same point in their run. This chart shows you how much of the audience they lost from the prior season.

Arrow viewership was on par or better at the same point in Seasons 2 & 3. For Season 4, Supernatural & Vampire Diaries averaged a 0% decline and Arrow was about -10% off that average of the viewership decline. For Season 5, Supernatural & Vampire Diaries averaged a -15.9% decline. If Arrow had followed that trend they would have averaged about 2.09M viewers for Season 5. Instead Arrow’s 1.75M viewer average was a -29.7% decline from Season 4 and an almost -14% off that anticipated average. The Arrow decline are getting substantially more noted than prior CW shows at the same point in their run. The Season 6 average decline for Supernatural & Vampire Diaries was -23.5%. If, and it is a big if, Arrow follows that pattern they can expect to hit somewhere in the range of 1.34M viewers next season.

I got into a Twitter spat this past week with a stan who insists this decline is a-okay and the CW totally expected it because the overall trend in declining live viewing. And yes! Fewer people are watching live now. But the DVR, iTunes, Netflix, the CW ap, and illegal downloads were not ALL invented this season. The Arrow S5 ratings decline is above and beyond this season’s network average and the anticipated decline of prior CW S5 shows. The Thursday night move to 9PM BEHIND a show that is entering a 13th season with a lower average rating and a lower average demo is a panic move. Moving the air date/time is a network shakeup. It is not as serious a network shakeup as reducing the episode order or rotating out showrunners but the writing on the wall seems pretty clear here.

I’m not trying to use math to tell you why people DO or DON’T watch or gage the quality of Arrow Season 5. That’s not how math works. I’m here to tell you that viewers tuned out in mass. And it did not go unnoticed by the CW brass.

Season Four to Season Five Viewer Analysis: The Purge

Since S5 of Arrow had such a notable decline in viewership I was curious if I could parse out where the trigger point for viewer departure occurred. In my academic field (higher education) we have a concept called “summer melt” which is the number of high school graduates who report they plan to go to college next year but don’t actually enroll in the fall. For a host of reasons, these students “melt” before enrolling in college. I was curious if I could parse out S5 Arrow’s viewership declines, so I started looking for “summer melt.”

I averaged the final 6 episodes of Seasons 3 and Season 4 and compared it to an average of the first 6 episodes of Season 4 and Season 5, respectively to calculate Arrow’s summer melt. Comparatively, Season 4 lost -9.7% of the audience from S3 and only 1.1% of that viewership loss was from “summer melt.” The bulk of viewers who stopped watching Arrow from S3 to S4 did so DURING Season 4.

The hiatus before S5 Arrow lost 14.4% of viewers. That is 310K viewers who stopped watching Arrow before S5 even started. Their viewership loss will be attributed in the S5 -29.7% viewership loss but they did not even return for S5, so truly their departure should be attributed to S4. In fact, those 310K “summer melt” viewers represent an estimated 45% of ALL lost Arrow S5 viewers with 55% of viewership loss coming during S5.

From that beginning of S4 (first six episode average) and the end of S5 (last six episode average) Arrow lost about one million viewers. I made this chart to demonstrate which point those one million viewers left the show.

Again, there is no trying to parse quality or tell you what about Season 4 or Season 5 drove viewers away here. That is for viewers, critics, and the CW to speculate over. Math can’t help you there.

Arrow S5 Predictor Model: Worked Again!

I noted this in the Fall (http://rillacuthbert.tumblr.com/post/151450182766/arrow-s5-ratings-models) but to recap, I built two S5 models to test which is preferred for aggregate rate of change ratings prediction. The 5x01 rating was entered in to the models to generate the predictions for the subsequent episodes and season average for both models. The Oliver Model is based on ratings rate of change for S1-S4 and The Felicity Model is based on the ratings rate of change for S1-S4 to episode 7 and then S3-S4 from episode 8-23. The hypothesis being tested here is if the in season, post-crossover ratings bounce is sustainable and predictable.

The final result is that The Oliver Model is statistically significant predictor of Arrow S5 ratings and The Felicity Model is not. The takeaways?

The value of the post-crossover ratings bounce has limited impact on the season average rating thus The Oliver model is superior to The Felicity Model

That for two consecutive seasons a statistical model correctly predicted Arrow’s average rating

That suggest my original hypothesis about Arrow viewing remains true: Within a single season, viewership rises and falls across a predictable trend based on prior viewership in part because TV watching is cyclical and seasonal based on the counterfactual of what else is airing.

You can see this in the table below that shows the highest and lowest Arrow ratings by episode number average. I did separate averages one for the full five seasons and one for S3-S5 (again to measure crossover impact). I bolded the episodes that appear in both average.

The highest rated Arrow episodes each season tend to be the premiere and the episodes around the crossover. The lowest rated Arrow episodes each season are the episodes in the final third of the season. If you plot the episode averages for the full five seasons and for S5-S3 you can see clear viewership patterns emerge.

This again suggest that viewership is cyclical over the course of the season and rarely driven by the plot of an individual episode. Beyond the crossover, almost never can you say a plot point increased or decreased Arrows ratings. These viewership trends are predictable and observable. Viewers are far less likely to watch episodes 19 or 22 live across every season regardless of what plot or storyline is in that episode.

IF SOMEONE TELLS YOU THAT A SHIP OR A GUEST STAR OR A COMIC BOOK CHARACTER OR THE TIDES OF THE MOON ARE WHY AN EPISODE DID OR DID NOT GET A GOOD RATING THEY ARE MAKING SHIT UP.

They will continue to do so. And it will continue to annoy the piss out of me.

I have another ratings post on the back burner about applying the Arrow ratings model to other CW shows and networks, what I found out, and what it means for modeling Arrow Season 6 but that is for another day.

#arrow #arrow ratings #arrow season 5 #ratings math #tv ratings #does my ratings predictor model work #hell yes #make with the coins cw

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