#one sketch from every episode challenge

[sasanka-27]

one sketch from every spn episode 💫12/327 faith

#you know i had to #dean winchester #spn fanart #dean winchester fanart #my art #sasanka27 art #spn #spn 1x12 #digital sketch #one sketch from every episode challenge

[starryluminary]

♪ Dirty Little Secret - The All-American Rejects

Do you remember when I said a while ago that a playlist with 6 songs didn’t sit well with me, so I had a way to add more? This is that way. I’ve put too much though into this universe where every kiss is Noco, so I’m making sketch pages for the comics respective episode, starting with Greeces Pieces!

No one even kisses in this episode, but the reveal plot point was WAY too important and WAY too interesting to ignore. The reveal comic will come eventually, but for now here’s the rest of the episode!!

For funsies here’s my notes about this portion, directly copy pasted from my notes app:

* Noah death glares Tyler, threatening him into silence. Alejandro notices.

* When Heather and Alejandro bicker before landing, Noah shoots Cody a look, saying “they’re crazy” with his eyes. Cody giggles back at him. Sierra notices.

* She questions him about it, not knowing Noah and Cody were friends. Cody awkwardly reaffirms yeah they’re just friends!! Sierra accepts this answer despite Cody stumbling through it. Oopsies I ended up changing this one. I’ll explain why later.

* Noah competes in the one on one turned 3v3 duel, Owen using him as a weapon. Well intentioned, of course. They end up winning, and they share the two medals Owen won in the original.

* Noah ends up flying across the arena, landing on Cody by accident. They pause for two seconds maximum, and stutter and stumble standing up. Alejandro notices and starts putting the pieces together of what might of happened.

* (By the end of the episode he’s positive he knows, so he’s not really shocked when Tyler actually says it.)

* The song of the episode is sung by Courtney and Duncan, about what don’t ask me. Courtney wins that challenge for the Amazons.

* Heather and Alejandro still compete in the hurdles challenge and Heather still wins, leading to the tiebreaker.

If anything is confusing or unclear, please feel free to ask about it! You wanna ask me about it soooo bad actually

#the link on the song is for the aforementioned playlist! #ONLY posting this now because of the brainrot and because the prior context before the actual comic I think would be a nice thing to provide #do you know how many times I watched this episode to make this and draft the real comic?? too many #but I love this episode so it’s ok #I’ve spoken enough so I’ll leave it at this: I’m SO exited to draw the reveal you have no idea #total drama #Starry makes art #world tour but noco are the only ones kissing #total drama world tour #total drama noah #td noah #total drama cody #td cody #cody anderson #noco #total drama noco #td noco #total drama tyler #td tyler #total drama alejandro #td alejandro #total drama sierra #td sierra #total drama owen #td owen #total drama duncan #td duncan #total drama courtney #also do not mention the stains on the Sierra Cody drawings. there’s marker on the other side of that page #‘I’ll keep you my dirty little secret/don’t tell anyone or you’ll be just another regret’ and then…

[seishiroses]

The creators have spoken in interviews about drawing Nagi being a real challenge considering how little they can show on his face. And I think this is one of the panels that perfectly captures how they have been able to rise to that challenge, especially as Nagi's motivations and football experience mature over the course of the story.

Something about this panel stops my heart every time and I can never pinpoint what it is because on the outside it's just a sketch of someone standing on the side in a rear view, while his teammates celebrate. Maybe it is the quietly powerful stance, and the way his left fist is clenched behind him. Maybe it is the hint of self-satisfaction in his body language and how you can tell that he's won just from looking at him from behind. Maybe it is because he's standing straight and holding himself up to his full height instead of the usual slouching we have become used to. Maybe it is in how he owns the panel despite other people being in the frame. Maybe it is from how the posture is just enough to convey his self-assuredness in this moment, because anything more would be too much.

I mean all of this is definitely a lesson on how to inject power into a panel with a single image that doesn't even show the character's face. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it and the assignment was simply to make him look hot from the back (not complaining).

It hits even harder if you compare this to the way Nagi is drawn in the matches that follow, where he flounders and fails to score, having lost his motivation.

I didn't think so in the early chapters but Blue Lock since the U-20 arc and Episode Nagi since the beginning have been giving us absolutely stunning artwork my eyes are blessed every week.

#nagi seishiro #blue lock #manga panel #manshine city #bllk #nagi #he looks so good without even trying #nomura sensei's art is chefs kiss fr

[themattress]

The Top 5 Carmen Sandiego Adaptations

And by adaptations, I strictly mean mediums in which you as a player serve no function, you are only here to observe. Therefore not the computer games, nor the board games, nor the choose-your-own-adventure style books. Just the shows, chapter books, and comic books.

Honorable(?) Mention: The DC Comics Series.

This only lasted four issues before being cancelled, and honestly? I can see why. I like the idea behind this series, which is compositing the various versions of Carmen Sandiego into one (the older games, the newer games, the PBS gameshow...had it continued we may have gotten stuff from the syndicated animated series.) The problem is that there is way too much going on in almost every panel. It's the equivalent of an obnoxious children's show that thinks constant movement and loud noises is the only way to keep its young viewer's attention. Beyond that, the main character Evan and his sidekick Bazooka Mel aren't that interesting or likeable, and Carmen herself barely shows up or does anything. It was a nice try, but it failed.

5: Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?

This PBS gameshow was the successor to Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, lasting for two seasons and a total of 115 episodes across 1996 and 1997. For comparisons sake, its predecessor lasted for five seasons across five years, with a total of 295 episodes. And that kind of says it all. I like things about this show - having people play historical figures and interact with the contestants is fun, the villains, also depicted by real-life actors, are a good balance of wacky and intimidating especially with the creepy effects around them and their willingness to attack the contestants directly, and much like its predecessor the final solo challenge is always exciting to watch. The problem is that it just doesn't feel like Carmen Sandiego. ACME is suddenly this hard sci-fi oriented group feeling more like the Federation from Star Trek than a detective agency, Carmen is a cackling supervillain out to make people miserable rather than a classy master thief, and while Lynne Thigpin's Chief is as delightful as ever, she and Kevin Shinick just lack the chemistry she had with Greg Lee....heck, Shinick himself is a major step down from Lee in just about every way. I think he was funnier in the Robot Chicken sketch about the show than he ever was on the show itself! I feel as though if this show was its own thing, totally removed from Carmen Sandiego, it would work better.

4: Carmen Sandiego

The recent Netflix series has a wonderful two-part pilot, "Becoming Carmen Sandiego", that shows exactly how this incarnation is going to differ from previous ones - namely with Carmen being an anti-hero going against V.I.L.E with the help of "Player" rather than the leader of V.I.L.E who "Player" is trying to catch - and with a lot of interesting possibilities on the horizon, particularly with its somewhat darker tone and reinventions of characters from several separate past continuities. And it's all downhill from there! OK, that's a bit harsh, but as I've noted recently the show really did squander its potential more and more with each passing season, culminating in a finale that made it crushingly clear that the developers did just seek to keep Carmen an anti-hero the whole way rather than go through the villain origin story that was logically being set up. It never felt like it truly knew what it wanted to be, and almost every character and plotline ended up suffering as a result. It's got great visual style and superb voice-acting, and I appreciate the attention it brought back to the otherwise dead property, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone as a first experience with Carmen Sandiego.

3: The Carmen Sandiego Mysteries

This series of juvenile chapter books had a total of six installments: two representing World, two representing USA, and two representing Time. And it's a shame that's all we got, because these were pretty damn good! Maya and Ben are likable leads, Carmen is a competent and even somewhat threatening villain while still maintaining her own personal code of ethics, and it does what a good adaptation should in keeping the feel and style of the computer games while also making allowances for the medium shift. I especially like "Take the Mummy and Run", which includes some legit emotional drama and a non-Carmen villain.

2: Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?

Pretty similar to the Carmen Sandiego Mysteries books in that it features a young boy/girl duo of detectives hunting down a similarly characterized Carmen. But this being a syndicated animated TV show rather than a book series, it lasted longer - 40 episodes total, and even got its own spinoff computer game Carmen Sandiego: Junior Detective Edition. There's also more of an action-y feel to it despite the network censors preventing anything overtly violent from happening, siblings Zack and Ivy are even more charismatic protagonists than Ben and Maya, and the great Rita Moreno just is Carmen; her alluring voice probably sticks out in most people's memory when thinking about the character. I do question why an AI Chief was used rather than a human one, as that just feels weird, but thanks to Rodger Bumpass' voicework he gets a lot of laughs so I can let it slide. The one thing that drags this show down is the educational aspect, as it manifests in a lot of ham-fisted monologuing from characters that grinds the pacing of each episode to a halt every time. Guys, you're in a 22-minute TV episode, not Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors! You're kind of pressed for time here! It's the one thing I think the Netflix show actually did better, as while there were still lines here and there serving as educational the series usually focused on showing rather than telling as should be expected of the animation medium. However...this theme song goes way harder than it needs to, so maybe that balances things out. And speaking of stellar theme songs....

1: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

This legendary PBS gameshow simply IS Carmen Sandiego distilled into a compact form easily transmitted via airwaves. It's got the thrill of the chase while learning more about the world down perfectly, it's got the old-school detective vibe and the quirky humor, and it's got a stellar cast of characters - not only is this the first time Carmen herself displayed any real personality, but we've got a truly memorable Rogues Gallery of V.I.L.E operatives serving her. And even if the different kid contestants opposing them each episode do nothing for you, we still have Lynne Thigpen as THE Chief of ACME, Greg Lee as one of the funniest and most energetic gameshow hosts you could ask for, and of course - ROCKAPELLA! It's easy to see why this show endured for as long as it did and while it's still fondly looked upon even now.

#Carmen Sandiego #Opinion #Analysis #Comparison #This has been a PSA

[midnightsilver]

Artists Process Vid, Music Brother Let Me Be Your Shelter . (The art post on its own)

My Process: Migraines are not fun. Mostly I like to ‘trust the process’ and keep painting but this composition had several challenges that would be tricky at the best of times let alone with a marching band doing its best to pulverise my brain. So there are a fewl things I’d do differently if I did this again but I really liked the concept for this one so I thought I’d post the process vid and explain what gave me trouble.

I wanted this to be a dark moody picture lit by key highlights. It’s inspired by Sam in the cage in the Benders episode. But all the shadows and the cage bars obscured the shapes I rely on while drawing. (Things like head sizes, hair flow, jaw lines etc.) My initial sketch without any of the surroundings was fine. But you can see in my vid that once I start painting I move the hands and change the body shapes several times. Half way through I also have to flip my canvas. This was because I had lost sight of the shapes that I was aiming for in Sam’s head and features. So flipping the canvas makes my brain see the image from a new perspective and allowed me to correct some of the problems. (If you want to use this trick with traditional art, try looking at your wip in a mirror or taking a snap with your phone and flipping the photo.) It wasn’t just the shadows that were giving me problems with shaping the correct anatomy here though: Sam is also at a crouched angle and for Dean to be looking at him, Dean needed to be hunched over but looking up and away from the audience. These are both pretty unusual angles to draw from and even though I had an okay layout for the boys in my initial sketch, I lost several key lines as I was painting and so by the end their noses and chins are a little wonky. However I was so zoned in and hyper focused on the minute details that didn’t spot that until I had gone firm on my shadows and lighting and could see what the finished piece would look like. (Top tip: zoom out from your canvas or step back from you sketchbook every 5 or 10 mins to keep an overview of the big picture.) But that aside: I was busy ‘trusting the process’. Often a picture looks odd until all the shading is in the right place and even zooming out you can end up fussing over minor details when a bit more detail to the surrounding image will resolve the issue. So sometimes it best to just keep going. Sometimes not tho 😂 - Art is an art, not a science. In this case my trust was misplaced 🤷🏻‍♂️. By this time though my brain was dribbling out my ears and I didn’t have the will power to start over. Hopefully you can just enjoy the atmosphere and intent of this painting and forgive any anatomy issues. And we can all repeat together: “art doesn’t have to be perfect!” (And we will keep repeating that until we believe it! 👍🏻😁) ( - *Edit added a few hours later: actually it’s really not that bad a pic. No more issues than the rest of my art. Migraines make you cranky and frustrated and overly self critical. So don’t listen to the voices! This time I’m not going to repeat: art doesn’t have to be perfect. Instead I’m going to say: well done self! You made a new thing. Congrats! You rule. 😁)

Happy Arting my friends and have some heartfelt wishes for good health!

#supernatural #spn fanart #MidnightSilver #dean winchester #sam winchester #artists process #process video #digital painting #procreate

[ndostairlyrium]

Some wholesome ask? ✨

7 for everyone, 28 for Ankh and Bonbon, 31 for Kerry, 35 for Ela and 37 for Len! :3

HI ** 💛

Laughing bc I envision something dreadful for all of them

7 - [The Bunch] What is their favourite movie, or a movie they would enjoy?

Elanor: Probably an epic fantasy, or something from the 80s. Labyrinth is the first that comes to mind, but she'd be a hardcore fan of The Lord of the Rings as well. Her favorite character would be Aragorn and she would totally wear a necklace with the one ring unironically.

Kerry: Whatever makes him laugh and have a good time. Airplane or one of The Naked Gun movies would be good candidates. But also a "romantic flick with a twist" would do (catch him crying and fangirling @ Keanu Reeves in The Lake House). Also, Julia Roberts is totally a fave!

Ankh: Now, this you won't expect, but in the modern days AU I've written in my brain she's a huge fan of Ducktales. Like, she knows the lines and every episode by heart. She's obsessed with the old and the new series, but also with the Disney ducks in general, so much that she has a lot of first editions and multiple sketches signed by Don Rosa scattered around her house. Magica De Spell is her favorite villain, hands down. Movie wise, I'd say it's either Fantasia or Robin Hood. She's not a Disney adult even if she loves their brand of animation, but these are the movies she enjoys the most. "The snake speaks!! Lmao"

Len: Army of Darkness and Planet Terror are her favorite movies of all time. She's a sucker for a grotesque slasher with some comedy in it, she knows her tropes and when a movie has "horror" and "Bruce Campbell" in the mix she's sold instantly. The less quality FX the better!

28 - [Ankh & Bonbon] What would they do if their favorite pet suddenly fell asleep on their lap?

Oh, Bonbon is a gentleman! He would wait until she wakes up and then bark insistently until she fetches him some carrots.

31 - [Hawke] What would make them blush?

He's not one that flusters easily, mind you, but he's very impressionable when it comes to his crushes doing anything. Ask Fenris to point at a rock, he would sing the praises of how valiantly he raised his finger and think about it fondly for a week straight.

35 - [Elanor] What is something they're ashamed of but others find extremely cute?

Copy-pasting the original answer because I still stand by that:

"Her laugh. It's a syncopated one that has small snorts here and there. She usually "corrects" it by using a deeper tone, or she just covers her mouth and laughs silently. Her life is a try not to laugh challenge without rewards. And considering her LI is, in her words, "the funniest person in Thedas" it's a real torture."

37 - [Leonarda] Give them your credit card for five minutes; what would they buy?

A fuckton of grenades for herself, a couple of mods for Garrus, and a Salarian-shaped plushie for Wrex so he can choke it when he's too stressed. She would probably reach the limit in two minutes << also now I have to pay for her monthly Fornax subscription fee

#long post #ask meme #wholesome ask meme #ankh #kerry #elanor cousland #feat. #lenore shepard #aka leonarda #in truth bon is an imovable object she can't do anything until he wakes up << #fenris: *exists*; hawke: 'holy shit do that again'

[bbcphile]

For the WIP title game - I would love to hear about "FDB 5+1"

Also I am 👀 about "DFS and LLH talk (finally)" - I guess it's against the rules to ask about more than one, just wanted you to know lol

(and thank you for tagging me!)

Hi! Thanks for the ask!

The FDB 5+1 fic is a "5 times DFS and FDB failed to share a bed and one time they did" fic that starts from the first night they're supposed to share the guest room and covers the entire show up through the end of the special episode (so I guess it will actually be more like a 5 +1 (+1 special episode HE)).

I was really interested in the ways DFS (as a-Fei) says he doesn't sleep in unfamiliar places and the fact that he'd probably feel particularly hypervigilant in his early Lotus Tower days without access to his qi because of the Asura grass, and how that would interact with him having to share a bed with someone (especially someone who is not used to having to share because of being a rich young master). And having FDB be the POV character makes it almost an outsider POV situation for the opening sections (even though he's one of the two people involved in the bedsharing), because he has no idea what's happening in a-Fei's mind and he's observing a-Fei's interactions with LLH and being very confused about their history, and I'm excited about having him stop being an outsider POV as he learns more about their history and grows closer with DFS. And the premise enables FDB to run through the full emotional gamut (especially during the section where LLH is missing), and I'm looking forward to the writing challenges it will pose. The early sections are outlined in a lot of detail (including having most of the relevant dialogue), but the later bits are just a very rough sketch of what will happen, when it takes place, and the themes/emotional beats I want to hit. I'm planning on playing with it more after I've made more progress on my MLC long fic. :D

And for "LLH and DFS talk (finally)," that's the file name for chapter 9 of my MLC long fic, where LLH is finally conscious and medically stable enough for conversations, and they have to work through some BIG misunderstandings (eg. what the reunion duel meant for each of them, what the wangchuan flower meant to each of them, why the hell LLH was planning on attending the duel if he was mostly dead and a single blow would do him in and how mad DFS is about that, etc.) It's a fun writing challenge, because neither of them has much experience communicating openly (LLH is as allergic to honesty as he used to be to peanuts and DFS doesn't like disclosing information unless he has a fully completed plan), but DFS is mad, hurt, and desperate for LLH to live, and since he's realized that at least trying to explain his side is necessary to LLH's continued survival, he's going to do it even if he hates every minute of it, since he refuses to back down from a challenge, especially if it will help LLH.

#ask meme #about my fic

[mandana-the-service-pup]

We made it :)

I was definitely asking a lot from Mandana with this spontaneous trip but she rose to the challenge and handled it with grace. She had her first bus ride. Her first plane ride. Her first long distance road trip and her first night away from home. I’m not sure she could have done it a year ago but she was ready and she was brilliant.

The bus ride was honestly the hardest part, but that wasn’t her fault. The driver was a bit zealous and it was the worst bus ride I’ve ever had. The handicap area was practically nonexistent so she had to sit in the middle of the isle. I had my arms wrapped around her while Hubbins held on to me to keep us all from falling every 5 seconds. She whined a little bit but not much and as soon as we stepped off the bus she was back to her happy self. As you can see in the video we took outside the airport. I’m not asking for a strict heel. I’m just letting her get comfortable before going in because I know we would be there for a while.

We were at the airport for about two hours. She was very attentive and made some great alerts including this 144 bpm while I was sitting down. I was able to recline for a bit to get my heart rate down before boarding and I’m really grateful for that.

We drew the SD short straw unfortunately. There was an older woman and her husband who had a little black dog. I never heard them claim she was a service dog. On the contrary, they were very open about her “attitude” and “growling” with us and the other passengers but instead of having the pet in a crate they went the service dog route which gave them priority. The woman was more aggressive than the dog tbh and was very loud about her needs to board first bc they’re disabled and her dog “has an attitude”. For some reason she acted surprised to find out I was also disabled and that Mandana is a legitimate service dog (she wasn’t blind so idk how she missed the SD gear) I probably could have asked to have them kicked off the flight before we boarded but I was having a medical episode and was more concerned about keeping the peace for Hubbins and Mandana. The airport personnel were very aware of the situation and did an amazing job observing both dogs behavior. They hovered over both of us for an hour and even introduced us to the flight crew as “the real service dog and the other thing” but the woman was very good about blocking her dog from us so no behaviors that would have prevented her flying were observed.

We were under the impression that there were two bulkhead areas. One in the front and one towards the back so we agreed to take the back one but the airport personnel were misinformed. The bulkheads were right next to each other. There wasn’t another area in the back but I wasn’t about to spend two hours next to this agitated woman. It was a tight squeeze but we’ve spent years preparing for this exact situation so I knew Mandana could handle it. The flight attendant understood our predicament and was very accommodating. We all agreed that Hubbins and I would get a row to ourselves. If there were too many people for that then we would move up to the front and the woman could deal with it or be kicked off. Mandana was a bit sketched out about the take off (I think she would have been fine if she had more space) but she was able to get through it with little to no whining and then settled down and slept for the two hour flight. She watched out the window for our landing without issue and then it was over. The pictures look spacious but when standing she is the length of two seats and takes up the entire area.

I knew the flight was asking a lot but we decided to do it anyways because we are actually picking up a second car and driving it back home. Our car is going to have to go into the shop for a bit and Mandana outgrew her Ruffland Kennel so we flew in to visit family, snag an XL Ruffland and take back a gifted car. Our circumstances have changed drastically over the last couple months and we became housebound despite my improving health. Now we’re able to go out on adventures again. It is such a privilege. My heart breaks for my fellow spoonies who are struggling with resources without this kind of aid and I couldn’t be more grateful to everyone involved.

Family picked us up and we had another two hours to get to our hometown. Mandana was very grateful for the mattress and pillows and promptly fell asleep. We decided to stay in an Airbnb instead of with family. It’s Mandanas first overnight trip and I wanted to make sure we were all well rested for the 9 hour drive home. We will visit with family for a day and then drive half way back on Friday, stop for a night and arrive home on Saturday so Hubbins has time to recover before going back to work on Monday.

I’m so proud of Mandana. We’ve had a lot holding us back over the past year. We never achieved the training sessions we wanted to that would have prepared us for this kind of travel. Even so she was able to take every thing in stride. Our success was half foundational skills and half trust in our relationship (and a sprinkle of the morbid curiosity that fuels her love for adventure despite uncertainty lol)

#belgian malinois #service dog in training #medical alert service dog #medical alert #heart rate alert #service dog travel #service dog milestone #service dogblr #dogblr

[fawnonthelam]

So of course I’ve been watching “Funny Woman” after PBS picked it up (thanks PBS, the check is in the mail 🤣).

It’s fantastic. Gemma Arterton has left an impression on me that wasn’t there before.

She is fully this character and I’m having a hard time remembering her in other roles she’s done; not because she’s forgettable in other roles but because she’s so fully melted into “Barbara/Sophie Straw” that it’s hard to see her outside of it and know it’s the same person. It’s not just the wig, either but the natural seeming reactions and gestures while in character. It doesn’t look like a performance.

It’s also fully believable that this could have been a real comedy Queen, potentially a real person and I’m betting many initially did a search on the character to see if it was based on an autobiographical account. She’s that convincing.

I have so much to say about this series but the top thing: I’m glad generalized “social change” tropes and caricatures aren’t being lazily used to paint an era. Particularly regarding (*spoilers*!) Barbara/Sophie’s relationship with her mother.

Social movements often start to address some blatantly inhumane injustice but like all societal dynamics, become a new standard of conformity after the novelty of change wears off.

No matter how righteous the intent, humans inevitably fall into power hierarchy and purity battles. It’s the perennial challenge of interpersonal relations, of sharing resource access, spaces and competing for the group’s attention while trying to get along: Every “penguin” struggles to get to the top of the heap.

Even as we witness the refreshing pushback both Sophie and Diane engage in against the inaccurate cultural establishment assessment of their talent and skills, patronizing herding of and feckless lack of loyalty towards talented women and/or non White people in entertainment and journalism in the era, we are still given flickers of unease accompanying new pressures to conform to a new group:

Sophie quietly recoils when a Mother in roommate Marj’s Feminist group declares she abandoned her children in search of identity. Sophie’s body language clearly communicates that she doesn’t agree with the choice. But will she express that?

It’s an honest and important moment and a topic that’s too often not given time in portrayals of social movements from history, even ones viewed as generally virtuous. Too often, the reflex to defend, glorify or even propagandize a movement results in losing the nuance of human imperfections and fears of questioning the orthodoxy of the views that the majority of the movement support.

It can be even harder to find the courage to question ideas and opinions from those who you feel “took you in” and offered cultural shelter after you’d been rejected from the mainstream.

It was very satisfying to see “Funny Woman” acknowledge that: Just because you support the bulk of what a movement is promoting, doesn’t mean you are obligated to support and defend everything that comes out of it and from those who associate themselves with it.

If more things pop up on reflection, I’ll plop them down. For now, I hope we get more, more, more…

(I also want to bring up the inspired design of the big moment, where she confronts her mother.

Wearing soggy pigtails leftover from the episode sketch being recorded, standing behind the gate, with her mother up above in the audience seats, while the inner abandoned child comes rushing back into her face: She looks like a little, lost girl in a playpen or behind a safety gate, looking up at her mother in bewilderment and confusion over her rejection. Well, done.)

#Funny Woman #gemma arterton #tv shows #retro #matthew beard #arsher ali #tom bateman #Leo Bill #Claire-hope ashitay #rupert everett #morwenna banks #alistair petrie #Rosie cavaliero #david threlfall #olivia williams #comedienne

[3rddimension]

The only thing I’m scared of is funerals, interviewing exes and reunions moving to Smosh pit. I want Smosh theater, who memed it, beopardy, reddit, TNTL (which I actually think they should do less often because it’s very hit or miss for me), challenges (this are some of my faves lately). I am not a fan of the characters in the funerals, I would prefer a normal roast. I think they’ve gotten better at it but the characters added a lot of like hypotheticals that didn’t really seem like a roast because they were making up a story. Not a fan of reunions. Not a fan of the exes videos. Not a fan of those where they are like presenting something either. And I have always found their sketches kind of cringey. I love their characters on stuff like Board AF legacy but apart from that I prefer when it’s just them. What I like about Smosh is that every vídeo feels like you’re watching all your favorite YouTubers collab. You know how in TV Shows like modern family the best episodes are the ones where they’re all at the same place interacting with each other? Smosh pit and Smosh games feels like that all the time.

But I also understand people’s frustration because we don’t know how the main channel is going to look like and it is strange to have a channel dedicated to Ian and Anthony and then have two channels for the rest of the cast. It just doesn’t feel like they should be connected? We’ll see how it goes!

Still don't sure that they would move all the main selling video on Smosh main to Smosh pit yet. (Because the sketch will be releasing every 2 weeks and they would have a lot of hole between video) but excited on how they would plan it!

Also not sure if anyone read the whole variety article. Smosh also got new CEO and new EVP replacing Daniels and Joel (🥲). Both of the new position is woman as well! It's COO from Anthony company that will be the new CEO and Zoe actually got promoted to EVP!!!!

[sasanka-27]

Sam Winchester sketch 2/327

#spn fanart #sam winchester #spn #sam winchester fanart #my art #sasanka27 art #spn 1x02 #supernatural fanart #spn s1 #one sketch from every episode challenge

[behind-the-screen-of-bangtan]

D-DAY

Release date: 21 April 2023

Announcement

Announcement notice, pre-order notice

Official page

Promotion Schedule

D-DAY Calendar: April week 1 (eng), week 2 (eng), week 3 (eng), week 4 (eng) May week 1 (eng), week 2 (eng), week 3 (eng), week 4 (eng) June week 1 (eng), week 2 (eng), week 3 (eng), week 4 (eng)

Tracklist

Glitch film

Concept Photo: being, exister (see below)

SUGA | Agust D 'Road to ARMY' (see below)

Weverse live

Special picture: Spotify and Melon (HD), QQMUSIC

Melon page with exclusive pictures

Naver posts:

Something is finally here (eng)

SUGA | Agust D 'D-DAY' activities behind the scenes revealed!

BANGTAN BOMBs:

SUGA's POV Naver Posting

'Haegeum' Challenge Video Shoots Sketch

Spotify Hero Film (Behind the Scenes)

SUGA’s Instagram post: D-2, D-DAY

SUGA is the fifth member to have a solo release in Chapter 2. This album also concludes Agust D’s career after Agust D and D-2.

The army film club account posted a Twitter thread showing several parallels between the whole Agust D trilogy and the movie Scarface (1983) by Brian de Palma.

Tracklist

D-Day

Lyrics

Doolsetbangtan’s translation

해금 (Haegeum)

Lyrics

Doolsetbangtan’s translation

An haegeum is a traditional string instrument. it can also mean “to lift a ban” in some cases

The beat is similar to the one in the video SUGA 의 Maschine mk2 review (src). It was also used in “The Last” in the first Agust D mixtape

HUH?! (feat. j-hope)

Lyrics

Doolsetbangtan’s translation

AMYGDALA

Lyrics

Doolsetbangtan’s translation

SDL

Lyrics

Doolsetbangtan’s translation

사람 Pt.2 (feat. 아이유)

Lyrics

Doolsetbangtan’s translation

극야 (Polar Night)

Lyrics

Doolsetbangtan’s translation

Interlude: Dawn

SUGA explained in his Weverse live that he used a part of the track for “Snooze” and reversed it to obtain this interlude

Snooze (feat. Ryuchi Sakamoto, 김우성 of The Rose)

Lyrics

Doolsetbangtan’s translation

Life Goes On

Lyrics

Doolsetbangtan’s translation

“Life Goes On” is also the title of BE’s main track

The description of each track is available in Korean here.

“사람 Pt.2 (feat. 아이유)”

Release date: 7 April 2023

Poster

DJ Syub radio show form (eng translation)

DJ Syub's kkul FM is back

SUGA’s Instagram post: lyrics (eng translation), album cover, on the set

Official Photo on Melon (archive)

MV Photo Sketch

Episode of the MV Shoot Sketch

This song is the second collaboration between SUGA/Agust D and IU, after “eight(에잇) (Prod.&Feat. SUGA of BTS)” released in May 2020.

The MV was filmed at South Cape (cr. btsmap1). They used one of the cliff houses for the part in the home and the music library for the part in the studio. During this first part, you can notice decorative fake books and a Danish springy-toy called Hoptimist (src). Thanks to Instagram stories from Nam Hyunwoo and the brand Entre d’eux, we know some of their products were in the bathroom: the nkumba flos or the verte grez hand wash as well as the bitter vitae hand cream.

The black dog appearing in the MV is Nam Hyunwoo’s, the director of photography who’s been working on pretty much every BTS MVs and CFs. Nam himself did a cameo in “The Astronaut” MV.

A Danish ARMY also caught sight of an Hoptimist, a little springy-toy designed by Danish designer Gustav Ehrenreich in 1968 (src).

Glitch Film

Release date: 14 April 2023

The film starts with a calendar from 2016, moving from January to August, passing July twice. The first Agust D mixtape was released on the 16 August, 2016.

The following part mixes extracts of the previous videos so “Agust D” MV, “give it to me” MV and “Daechwita” MV. There are also new elements that seems to relate to D-DAY, including a recorder, birds, dollar bills, and an eye. The video also connects the three human shapes to an MV:

rectangle shape: “Agust D” MV

spiky shape: “Daechwita” MV

particle shape: “give it to me” MV

Concept Photo

Release date: 17-18 April 2023

Being

Exister

Outfits and accessories: tropical shirt identified by BangtanStyling

In the Being concept photo, SUGA stands in front of a fake police station, the APC (Asia Pacific Police Union).

@Lmyjj noticed that these pictures fits with the shapes seen previsouly, notably on the promotion schedule and on the main poster for the documentary SUGA: Road to D-DAY.

“해금”

Release date: 20 April 2023

Teaser

Jacket Shoot Photo Sketch

Episode of MV & Jacket Shoot Sketch

Dance practice

Outfits and accessories: tweets from BangtanStyling, Tailorable’s Instagram post about the custom suit

The MV was filmed in Bangkok, notably in a place known as the thieves' market (src). The street scenes were filmed here (src), the hideout of criminal Agust D was here and the tangerine scene happened in a nearby street.

The team also used popular filming locations, namely this deserted building (src) already seen in Jeff Satur’s “Dum Dum” MV and in the Hidden messages video teasing Kinneporsche, as well as the sports complex Nightingale Rama Inthra Club (src) famous for being a shooting location of F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers. Director Lumpens shared his storyboard for the video on Instagram. MU:E did too (#1, #2, #3).

The dragon on SUGA's jacket is a symbol of royalty in Korea (src). It could a nod to "Daechwita" MV. Be it in the MV or in the choreography, SUGA is accompanied by 6 extra, reminding of the 6 other members of BTS.

Nam Hyunwoo, director of photography for all BTS MVs and some CFs, makes a cameo as a policeman in the background.

chloë and army film club noticed parallels between the MV and the movie Oldboy.

“AMYGDALA”

Release date: 25 April 2023

MV & Jacket Shoot Photo Sketch

Episode of the MV & Jacket Shoot Sketch

SUGA’s Instagram post

Outfits and accessories: tweets from BangtanStyling

Thanks to the Episode, we know the video features the book The Logo Design Idea Book by Gail Andersen and Steven Heller, the issue 39 of Magazine B titled “Breville”, and the frontpage of two international editions of The New York Times, the one from the 17th of May 2022 and the other from the 16th of May 2022.

 As for the filming location, it was at the basketball court of the Juam-dong Sports Park and in a street nearby.

@btswingsjm7 noticed that one of the shirt Agust D wears is from Ludovic de Saint Sernin’s collection, about the duality between one’s self image and the public preconceptions..

During the scene in front of the 202 flat, we can see custom-made flyers with phone numbers that mix the digits of SUGA’s birthday (9th March, 1993). The flyers on the door advertise delivery for Korean chicken, food and Hit Shopping products, with special promotions for Chuseok (Hit Shopping could be a nod to Big Hit). The flyer on the whole is for internet contracts and the one below is for a washing service. Concerning the little stickers they’re all locksmiths’ name and phone number.

SUGA | Agust D TOUR D-DAY

Announcement (additional dates)

Get Ready for the Day

Get Ready for D-DAY

Official Trailer

Official Merch

TOUR DIARY in: NY (eng), Chicago (eng), LA (eng), Oakland (eng), Jakarta (eng), Japan (eng), Bangkok (eng) Singapore (eng), Seoul (eng)

[EPISODE] SUGA | Agust D TOUR 'D-DAY' in the USA

[EPISODE] SUGA | Agust D TOUR 'D-DAY' in Asia

[SUGA VLOG] D-DAY TOUR in: Chicago, Jakarta, Phuket

Stage Photo Sketch

SUGA’s Instagram post: playing guitar, tour, Chicago, Chicago 2, LA, Oakland, Jakarta, #2, Japan, Bangkok, Singapore, #2, Seoul, #2, thanks

MAX’s tweet about his appearance on May 11 at the Kia Forum

Halsey’s Instagram post about her appearance on May 14 at the Kia Forum

NME: “Suga live in New York: a show-stopping statement of artistic intent at the BTS rapper’s debut solo tour”

Weverse Magazine: SUGA | Agust D ‘D-DAY’ world tour report

MAX, Halsey, and PSY made guest appearances for some dates. They respectively sang “Burn It”, “SUGA’s interlude”, and “That That” (src).

THE FINAL: poster

An encore concert on August in Seoul was announced at the end of the tour, through a meme-like poster (a style they used several times for comebacks live show).

This time, it’s the members who made guest appearances. Jung Kook came to sing “Burn It” and “Seven”, Jimin performed “Tony Montana” and “Like Crazy”, and RM did “이상하지 않은가 (Strange)” as well as an unreleased song he was working on.

THE MOVIE

Official tweets

Announcement

Main Trailer (English, Korean)

IMAX Trailer (English, Korean)

Ticket Announcement

'SUGA: Road to D-DAY'

Mood Teaser

Poster teaser

Official Trailer

Official Photo 1

Main Poster

Official Trailer 2

Highlight

'People Pt.2 (feat. IU)' Live Clip (60")

'People' Live Clip (90")

'해금 (Haegeum)' Live Clip (full ver.)

'대취타' Live Clip (full ver.)

Starnews: “BTS SUGA on fire... 'SUGA: Road to D-DAY' live still released”

Youtube playlist on Disney+ Korea

Steve Aoki’s tweet with pictures

This documentary follows SUGA during a road trip in the United States, while he was creating the album.

Concerning the main poster, you can notice seven song titles written, probably the ones that will be performed live in the documentary:

“People” and “Daechwita” are from D-2 while all the other tracks are from D-Day.

Press releases, interviews, and promotion

[IU's Palette🎨] IU X SUGA Palette (With SUGA) Ep.19

Billboard: “BTS’ Suga Returns as Agust D to Tackle Loneliness, Humanity & Being Acknowledged”

Weverse magazine: “From Agust D with love”

Apple Music Radio: Episode 1

"D-DAY" album introduction

슈취타 EP.9 RM with Agust D

Rolling Stone: “‘I Poured My Soul Into This Album:’ How Suga Let Go of the Past and Stepped Into His Future”

NME: “Suga of BTS: “You have to find what makes you happy, what brings you joy””

NME: “Agust D – ‘D-DAY’ review: lessons and liberation reign on final part of BTS rapper’s trilogy”

CINE 21: “Interview in commemoration of the release of the last album of Agust D’s trilogy <D-DAY>”

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Standoff with BTS' SUGA & Agust D, SUGA Gets Ready for His Tonight Show Solo Debut, Imposter Challenge with SUGA, SUGA Spills on His Album D-DAY and Attempts to Play the Haegeum, tweets

Los Angeles Times: “BTS’ Suga on going solo, his love of hip-hop and the band’s future: ‘We’re real brothers, period’“

The Atlantic: “Suga of BTS’s World Tour Is Pop Subversion at Its Finest”

SUGA’s All Night Nippon Gold (interview translation)

K-pop ON! Track: “BTS’ SUGA Drops His Official Solo Album, D-Day” (archive of the video)

#SUGA #D-DAY #Agust D #해금 #AMYGDALA #사람 Pt.2 (feat. 아이유)

[moboxcritique]

Idk how mobox is still not aware that he's not gonna finish any of his stories no matter what he thinks. It's clearly obvious, and im surprised he still keeps doing them. It's like he's mentally challenging himself every time ( not trying to be rude or anything, just wanted to state my thoughts )

The only story he's ever finished was They Shouldn't Know, and that was only because he worked on the sketches a year before its release, in 2019 or 2018

Though with Breath Of Hope, it's been 3 years since its release in 2020 and it's STILL not complete!

With FON, it was an overly ambitious work with only a small team of people working on it, of course it wouldn't be finished in a short amount of time... But when your project is in development for 6 YEARS and you still don't have at least a small demo for the public to test out, that should be a problem, and from the gameplay screenshots that was shown it looked like there was one (#RELEASETHEFONDEMO)

Edit: The person who was mainly responsible for making the game of FON was someone referred to as Mako (Makotayanderefnaf on tumblr) who's account is practically gone. If anyone can find them, please let us know!

Even with Open Mind, we still don't have the voice cast yet, or even an episode teaser video, and it's been a YEAR after Mobox said that the script was complete and he needed voices for it. There was a voice cast showcase video for Nights At Freddy's, make one for Open Mind, at least show there's SOME effort going forward into this work, Mob, aside from random comics that you'll never finish, and random drawings

#mod cagney #anonymous #ask #asks #anon ask #anon #fon #fpt #open mind #fnaf affinity au

[next-lvl]

Finally forcing myself to talk about the elephant in the room.

Wakfu, the fandom, my and Ake’s ocs, everything that didn’t happen around this February, when I did a month-long countdown, hyping up something big that then never came to be.

I worked on this enormous (20 or so characters, 6k+ pixels resolution - larger than I’d ever drawn) tribute, directly nodding towards the famous Wakfu poster by Xa, but with my and Ake’s babies.

I started around December, remade the base sketch several times, this kind of a group pic’s way outside my comfort zone so I had to put extra effort in. Around the end of January I started doing the lines, remade them two times (and probably will again), the pressure of the deadline + my own style not quite matching the old vibes anymore turned this into quite a challenge, but I was willing to brace through it, for the love of these characters and the fandom itself, place I’ve spent 10+ years in.

It was February, the countdown pics already trickled in one after another. I didn’t have the luxury of being fresh and able to draw every day, I’m in a perpetual fight with insomnia on top of other mental and physical issues, so I’d jump at the opportunity to draw every few days or so. I work in bursts. I also had this growing distraction of another passion fighting for my art energy, you know, those catboys and long elves. Balancing everything was nightmarish, but I WAS managing.

Until the very end of February, when, instead of the 10th Wakfu anniversary, there was war.

I live in Russia, regrettably and unfortunately. Won’t go into details, those who need it already have read my posts from back then, in short my livelihood got under a major, although not quite physical, threat overnight. Companies started cutting their services en masse, Paypal included - I’m a self-employed artist fully depending on it to survive - there was so much to deal with, for me alone, not backed up by anyone irl, panicking, jumping from one hastily made plan to another.. It was living hell. Running a bit ahead: it still is.

Since I’m talking about this big picture that hasn’t quite gone anywhere, I’ll try to retain my focus on it. Somehow the accumulated stress from the challenge itself, plus the emotional devastation from war and how it affected my already miserable life, devastation from failing what felt like the most important deadline, something the 10 years and the month-long hype countdown led up to, resulted in me completely crumbling and being unable to continue working on this. For months.

It’s May. Almost June. Real life shit’s still bad, in fact I’m going through another horrible episode, the war caused ripples that still reach and mess up my life in the most physical way. I talked about it recently on my personal twitter if you wanna know details.

And yet, to an outside observer it looks like I’m super productive, I’ve been doodling away on my new FFXIV blog. This’s already quite an essay, I won’t hide it under the cut since it’s THAT important to me, but I can’t well explain the workings of my tired brain, stressed and pushed past the limits. I’ve fixated on this new obsession for good because it’s my only escape since the beginning of the year. My life and my sanity are hanging on one fraying thread, and that thread’s wolgraha that I’ve been drawing to comfort myself nearly every day.

They’re my will to live and love, externalized. This’s how I’m coping.

If I isolate from everything bad in my life, then, bizarrely, it’s the happiest I’ve been in almost a decade. I feel alive, in love on behalf of my new oc, I work on his story, processing his feelings does wonderful things to me. It still does nothing to improve my real life, yet, I’m content with living in my head like this for a while if it means surviving.

What about Wakfu art, ocs and the picture itself? I’m not giving up. I WILL finish it, just don’t know when. The deadline’s failed, the stress and guilt associated with that are a lot. Sorry. Everything’s too much for me alone nowadays. My state’s disastrous, in nearly constant fight or flight mode at one hand, reaching for the comfort of my current obsession and being utterly fullfilled by it, on the other hand.

I’m still standing. I made the wolgraha obsession my everything, I’ve even found decent success and a cozy niche in the new fandom during this year, I wake up, check my platforms and there’s something sweet about my dorks, something that keeps me going. It’ll stay this way for a while. They’re my only strength currently, but I’m lucky to have them at all. Some of my fellow russian artist friends have it much worse nowadays. I’m holding on.

This isn’t the end: of my real life, of my Wakfu life, of everything. I’ll keep going. Just need time to sort this mess out. Thanks for reading and sticking with me.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

This was the second very strong Long-Running Panel Show Friday in a row (Feb 10, 2023); this week was maybe even better than last week.

The News Quiz: Mark Steel was on top form, and that’s really all it takes to make a News Quiz episode great. He was on earlier in the season and he was good, but a little subdued that night. While last night, he was everything that’s great about his usual self. All over every issue, shouty and furious but so good at conveying a constant awareness of the pointlessness of the anger. Which is both harrowing and very funny.

Mark Steel alone makes an episode great, but this one had more than that. That may be Catherine Bohart’s best ever News Quiz episodes; I’ve found her a bit quiet on there before, but last night she had lots to say and it was all good. I think it was because she clicked so well with Camilla Long; those two kept building on each other’s points and bringing out the best in each other. They all did, really. Last week’s episode was made funnier by its total dearth of chemistry, and while I enjoyed that in the specific situation, this week had a nice feeling of being the opposite of that. They all gelled well together, particularly Catherine Bohart with Camilla Long and Andy Zaltzman with Mark Steel (as always).

The Last Leg: I watched this one right after hearing The News Quiz, and I have to say, the TV show doesn’t come out great in that comparison. Going straight from The News Quiz pointing out all the flaws in the government’s publicity stunts, to The Last Leg kind of playing into it. They’re not pro-Tory or anything, obviously. They’re still a broadly leftie topical show. But it feels more like they’re making the jokes that the people they’re joking about are hoping they’ll make.

However, I have to remind myself sometimes that The Last Leg isn’t supposed to be The News Quiz, or The Mash Report, or anything like that. It’s an entertainment show that talks a bit about current events. If I expect that and judge it on those merits, this was a thoroughly entertaining episodes. I’ll just say… when I was watching all their old episodes a couple of years ago now, I didn’t have to remind myself of that so often. It’s only in recent seasons that I’ve had more cause to say “Well, I can’t really blame them for not going harder on this, they’re just here for the comedy.” As a general rule I hate the expression “losing their edge”, as it incentivizes “edginess” for its own sake and that leads to everything from hate speech disguised as comedy to annoying prank videos, but it is an expression that’s coming to mind a bit right now. The fact is that I lost any respect I ever had for this show’s satirical cred when they did the horribly reverential post-queen death episode, so my expectations are different now.

Having said that, this episode succeeded well if I expect it to just be a light entertainment show by three entertaining comedians. I found the AI portion really cool, and was legitimately surprised and interested when they revealed which one was the AI-written joke. Adam Hills played that part well, too. I also though Dara was excellent in this one. He sort of seemed like he just misses TV stuff with Mock the Week gone, though I was probably imagining that because he wouldn’t even normally be back on Mock the Week until the fall. But he was having fun out there, doing an unnecessary amount of acting in the Pointless sketch, challenging Adam during the live show in a part where Adam clearly did not expect to be challenged, just doing whatever he felt like.

QI: I found it interesting that this episode had three guests who are known for doing a lot of feminist material (plus Sandi Toksvig, who is the Queen of Feminism), but it wasn’t an episode about a feminism-related subject. So they just talked about trains and stuff, but all four of them kept having feminism-related facts about the trains. And Alan Davies, as usual in episodes like this, was good about just sitting in the middle of the feminism and saying “Yep, cool, do your thing.”

I think what really made this episode were all the guests’ chemistry with Sandi and each other. Sara Pascoe is always really good with her. Sara Pascoe is always good on QI anyway – there are some old Stephen Fry-era episodes when she absolutely stole the show by being young and excited to be there and so eager to show off how much she knew. But I think she’s even better with Sandi Toskvig, because there’s this clear undercurrent of her being aware that she’s in the presence of the Queen of Feminism, and wanting to impress the queen with her knowledge, and Sandi benevolently lets her do so.

It's also just always a good running joke that they manage to upset Bridget Christie with a picture every time she’s on. Every time. She was fun too.

WILTY: Obviously, this episode was a big one, as far as WILTY episode go. The return of Bob Mortimer and the eagerly anticipated debut of Munya Chawawa. I’d been looking forward to Munya getting on there so I could hear his stories, but what I didn’t expect was how much he’d steal the show even when he wasn’t telling stories. And it’s fucking impressive to steal the show in a Bob Mortimer episode. Munya’s confidence really came into play, with him jumping in to talk much more often then most people do in their first episode on there, and I found it funny every time. I think it set the tone early on when Lee Mack accidentally stole Munya’s Very Superstitious joke, and then Munya spent the rest of the episode trying to get those in before Lee could take them. That Munya/Lee dynamic reminds me a little of what it’s like when James Acaster’s on, like that one time when James made a pun and Lee shook his hand and said no one else appreciates that type of humour enough.

In terms of guessing, I went 3-1, which I’m pleased with after doing badly last week. I’ve realized I have something of a blind spot when it comes to the reality TV-type celebrities on this show, particularly when they tell lies. Due to my own prejudices, I’m too quick to believe they really would do something as stupid as whatever they’re lying about, and too slow to believe they’d be smart enough to make up such a convincing lie. So I tend to call “truth” on them too quickly, which is what happened in the first round of this episode.

But that was balanced out by the fact that Munya’s story was free points, since he’s told it on Taskmaster before. It was nice to have that fleshed out a bit, adding some light to this mystery of what the fuck he was talking about in that one Taskmaster episode. Also, I guessed Bob’s story correctly because I remember reading that his teeth are fake, which is how the kitchen chair dentistry story can be true.

[90363462]

Why ‘Atlanta’ Is One Of The Greatest Shows In TV History

Donald Glover's masterpiece shirked traditional Black comedy and drama tropes while also breaking virtually every rule of TV show writing.

(L-R) Zazie Beetz, Brian Tyree Henry and Donald Glover speak onstage at the “Atlanta” New York Screening at The Paley Center for Media on August 23, 2016, in New York City. | Source: Neilson Barnard / Getty

The very first scene in the very first episode of Donald Glover‘s Atlanta included what Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks described as “a n***a moment.” In the scene, Alfred Miles aka Paper Boi, played by Brian Tyree Henry, gets into a heated exchange with a Black man who had just broken the side mirror on his car. Aggravated words were had, guns were flashed and Black-on-Black crime seemed imminent as the scene ended with the ominous sound of a gunshot.

Based on the intro to that series premiere, a lot of people thought this was going to be just another Black show about rapper hood dreams and Black people at their lowest.

It turns out the show was that, but also any and everything but that. Atlanta was a Trojan horse that presented itself to the world as a semi-typical Black dramedy, but it ended up being a show that not only shirked traditional Black comedy and drama tropes, but it broke virtually every rule of TV show writing across the board—and still managed to be one of the greatest TV shows of all time, in my not-so-humble opinion.

The series finale of Atlanta aired on Thursday. The episode, titled “It Was All a Dream,” wasn’t your typical series finale. It wasn’t emotional and sentimental the way the finales of shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and A Different World were. It didn’t bring any story arcs to a conclusion. (Including the aforementioned guns hot scene. Seriously, what happened there? Is buddy who broke the mirror OK?) We still don’t know if Earn and Vann moved to Los Angeles with their daughter or if Alfred ever came to terms with his persistent internal conflict that showed all the signs of clinical depression. For the most part, the final episode of Atlanta was just another episode of Atlanta. And that’s all it needed to be because it matches the show’s energy through its run.

Rather than sticking to conventional and linear storytelling, Atlanta‘s episodes were often disjointed from each other. It is a dramatic and bizarre cacophony of randomness, surrealism, dark comedy, dry comedy and Blackity-Black Blackness. It is a show that was allowed to be anything it wanted to be from episode to episode.

Arguably the first episode that made this explicitly evident was episode 7 of season 1, “B.A.N.” In this episode, Paper Boi was a guest on a fake talk show on a fake Black media network that also featured fake Dodge Challenger commercials among other satirical TV ads. All of a sudden, a TV show that, at the very least, stayed in a lane in terms of its genre, became the same show with an added mixture of satire, sketch comedy and direct social commentary.

Then there were episodes like “Teddy Perkins,” the season 2 episode that is the only one to focus squarely on Darius, the character played by LaKeith Stanfield. This episode set the tone for season 3 which aired 4 years after season 2 and took the cast all the way from Georgia’s Blackest city all the way to a tour of Europe.

Actors Lakeith Stanfield (L) and Donald Glover, winners of Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy for ‘Atlanta,’ attend FOX and FX’s 2017 Golden Globe Awards after party at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 8, 2017, in Beverly Hills, California. | Source: Rodin Eckenroth / Getty

And for some viewers, the show had simply gotten too weird. From the “Three Slaps” episode that fictionalized a real-life Black horror story, to the bizarre and cringy 2 Pac death scene in “Sinterklaas is Coming to Town” to the “Tarrare” episode that had us all asking, “OK, what the hell is wrong with Van?”—it became clear to everyone that this show doesn’t GAF about viewer expectations. It’s a show that loved itself so much that it didn’t care how many fans jumped ship because the ride they were being taken on was wavy and random without a clear destination.

While that characteristic didn’t change much in this final season, the cast was brought back to Atlanta, and we even saw a resolve to the often-strained, on-again-off-again relationship between Earn (Glover) and Van (Zazie Beetz). Earn and Van wasn’t your typical “will they/won’t they” sitcom couple. These were two adults who shared a child and cared for each other but struggled to get it together. And because Atlanta departed from most other Black TV comedies in that it wasn’t so hyperfocused on dating and relationships, it wasn’t until season 4’s “Snipe Hunt” episode that Earn and Van finally declared their love for each other and made themselves an official couple. Until then, their relationship journey was a peripheral story arc that was only highlighted in an episode or two per season.

That being said, one piece of criticism I have about the show is that Van—despite being the only character to have a solo episode in every season—never had much character development that took her beyond being the mother of Earn’s child. This isn’t to say that she had no development at all, but her main conflicts in the show were being constantly reduced to “Lottie’s mom,” her struggling with parenthood and Earn’s refusal to commit to her. And she was never really able to veer out of that box. Van’s story arc was always tied to Earn and Lottie.

The character of Earn, on the other hand, went from being a frustratingly irresponsible and selfish character (to the point where I was happy to see him get his a** beat in season 2’s “North of the Border” episode) who was essentially leeching on his cousin’s rap fame, to a successful manager whose status and financial situation seemed to rise alongside Alfred’s.

Speaking of Alfred—Paper Boi had the most interesting arc on the show. He’s my favorite character. He was what many would consider a “hood n****a”—and he was that—but throughout the series, he was a morally conflicted, often sad, sometimes ignorant, sometimes admirable layered character that was allowed to be vulnerable and softened. (This was especially evident in season 2’s “Woods” episode.

Look, I can go on and on explaining all the nuances and innovation that makes Atlanta not just one of the best Black TV shows ever, but one of the best in general, but I’ll just leave you with one final point.

Black creatives need space to be creative in a limitless way. With the help of director Hiro Murai, Gover and his writing team were able to create a Black show where even “hood” characters were allowed to be Black AF, but also quirky, strange and layered. It broke all the rules and challenged its own viewers like no other show has ever done.

If you’ve never seen it, I recommend you give it a try. Just keep an open mind—you’re going to need it.

SEE ALSO:

Is Donald Glover A ‘Black Genius’?

‘Atlanta’ Takes On The Value Of Human Life In Stirring Shooting Scene

5 photos