#or plot twist its nate trans nate real

[powerpolyculeshowdown]

for both u and any other followers that might be interested in leverage, i know that one ask let ppl know the s1 order and that it’s free w ads, but i figured this might also help with propaganda for the ot3 lmao

for seeing if you like the general vibe of the show i suggest The Wedding Job or The Bank Shot Job (both season 1) and the best ot3 episode is the iconic The Rundown Job (season 5) but there are also many individual good episodes for each pair of the ship

the first ep kinda shows its age(it first aired in 2008), but by the second episode they already have their groove on tbh, it also has the best final episode of any show ive ever seen bc they had an ideal ending in mind from the beginning and ended each season as if it might be their last just incase they got cancelled (they did, but then they also made history by winning being the first cancelled show to win a people’s choice awards the next year), and they had just enough time after they got the news to implement their ideal ending

it honestly is the most perfectly made show ive ever seen, the characterization is consistent, there’s no unnecessary contrived plot twist or weird forced drama or overly dramatic miscommunication plotlines (there’s only one sort of miscommunication b plot off the top of my head and it makes sense for the characters and was resolved at the end of the episode, it was also shockingly cute)

two words

COMPETENCY PORN

by that i mean, the leverage team are good at what they do and they know it and do it WELL, anytime something does go off the rails for them its never for lack of skill or ability or dumb mistakes that make no sense for the characters to make, it’s beautiful, they’re beautiful, i love them all,

and every character has rich backstories and character development!!!! and by the end they feel like the same people just more mature, everything is very natural and well written

also, and this is v important to me bc im trans, it’s trans safe! there’s not any trans characters, but the one time there’s a trans joke it’s specifically about one of the guys on the team accidentally using a woman’s pass to get thru security and he gets thru by saying he’s trans and making the security guy panic about being perceived as transphobic, it’s not perfect but it aged surprisingly well tbh

also real talk they’re all queercoded as hell, like the argument could be made for nate that he’s painfully straight which is fair but tbh whatever he and sterling have going on between them is at least a little gay by season 5

anyway go watch leverage and fall in love with the ot3

thank u for the more in depth summary im even more interested now

also i lile that the trans joke is making fun of the idea of being perceived as transphobic and not of actual trans ppl thats smth idk if ive seen in media personally but its great for a show from 2008 fr

#ppspropaganda

[sophsun1]

I know you're totally against a reboot and I think currently they're SUPER overdone, but like a good QaF.... retelling for the 2020s would be fun (for me!)

but just this was not that, his 70 year old mom coming out as a Lesbian after she gets finger banged in the bathroom of a queer Jazz bar by the lesbian partner of her son's best friend who's also the mother of her grandkids? it's like soap opera mad libs!

also like I'm sure the script went through A LOT of re-writes, so at some point it might have been QaF and they wanted to keep Justin/Nate but fully hired a 24 year old to play a 17 year old and they did NOT look like they were in high school nooo nooo NO

also Ryan O'Connell like he already made a FULL 2 season TV show being that SAME character, 20something with CP, a co-dependent disability mom, failure to launch, moving out, "am I unfuckable in gay world as a disabled person?" etc like Special was a good show why would you do it again as a bad subplot of a lesser show?

also also the flashback.... like... how they kept bleeping the deadname, and like Brodie big sin is calling Ruthie that but it's bleeped out just... like... seems so weird? choices just choices, like it's either too upsetting/insensitive to trans viewers to do, or its not, censoring the word (even though you can clearly lip read what name it is) doesn't change the scene? it just makes it weird?

clearly can go on all day about that fucking trainwreck madness

Hey anon!

It was just a hot mess and at times to me I felt like 'are they deliberately taking the piss here is it supposed to be comedic?'

But the thing is I don't want to watch a third retelling of the Brian/Justin story we've been there done that. We got the original vision with Stuart/Nathan and then the US retelling of that and their own canon universe with Gale/Randy. They are both amazing in their own ways we don't need a 2022 one of the same people. Not to mention both the actors and characters of Brodie/Nate had no chemistry and were cringe.

Be original! Be unique! They had the template there they had more poc/trans characters/disabled characters and diversity but then totally failed on the execution.

None of these characters were likeable or made me feel for them because any moment of sensitivity or care was immediately followed up by some insane plot twist. Brodie's argument where he used the dead name felt so forced and was never even addressed fully afterwards because suddenly he was in love with Ruthie so yk let's just skip over that. The ending in the rain with the kiss was a choice it was both offensive and cliché.

Julian as a character was one of the better ones and it was refreshing to see him as a disabled character navigating his love life and place in the community but of course was then muddied with crazy soap opera love twists.

Brodie being involved in 1435 storylines at once where his mother/brother/best friend and her partner were all involved in some group swapping sex partners plot was just fucking bonkers.

I never cared about these characters because the show chose quantity instead of quality and never fleshed out one plot properly. The uk/us cast made me love the characters, hate them, empathise with them because they felt relatable and like real people the reboot were just like a joke. Not to mention the standard of actors were just higher in previous versions.

Like you say there's so many things that were wrong with the show we'd be here forever talking about it. But yk saving grace it's been cancelled so no fear of a part two 😌

#britin #queer as folk #im just asking for some originality #i will happily forget this version

[evanthefunky]

On a different Euphoria note, im gonna talk about each of the characters real quick bc I have Thoughts. [Disclaimer: i watched s1e1-5 last night, thats the info I have. Plus a handful of out-of-context (for me) spoilers of s1/2 stuff.]

(Under the cut bc I dont wanna bore or bother anyone w my rambles)

Rue- babygirl. I wanna hold her. But I also know that if I went to East Highland, I probably wouldn't be friends with her. For, yanno, the drug reasons. My brother would probably know her tho. But this isn't irl this is my thoughts so like. Zendaya.... is fucking.... incredible. And like. The shifting of addiction from a substance to a person? Yeah, that shit hits. The fixation on something is, I believe, a universal human experience. These vary in length and intensity, but we all know what its like to have a passion for something that obscures everything else. [Ooooh that's a good note for Nate. Put a pin in that thought, Ida] But that combined with the drugs and also trying to navigate how you feel about someone? Yeah!!!!! Yeah. That shit HITS!!! and when its queer? *drops*

Because like. Yeah. Exactly. And Zendaya and Hunter perform that so fucking well. Rue heaps shit onto her plate (or shit is heaped on for her- no one can really tell the difference, let's be real) and so when she meets Jules and literally her life begins to change because of this stranger, this new girl, who doesn't know Rue- who doesn't have a pre-decided notion or idea or opinion on this girl. Ugh. Its so good. And Jules is just. Such a great character and like. Consistent?

I may or may not be in love with Jules. (Thats bs bc I am in fact in love with her but Anyway...) Shes so fucking cute and pretty and also just like. Me????? In certain ways. I think I'd get along with Jules- even if its just a surface level friendship. Shes strong and kind and just. Like. So.... such a beautiful soul kinda person. She does make some... choices I would not make. But I understand she has a reason to do those things. I dont understand the reason and honestly I'm not sure if I really care. I just care that shes safe and that she knows she's loved. And her ability to navigate all of Rue's stuff- and clarifying a boundary!?!?!? Hell yeah!! I just. I think she's neat. I have hope for her and her story.

Nate... ok. So. Jacob Elordi is. Hot. But from the fucking beginning, Nate is shown to be an asshole. And honestly, im incredibly thankful for that. Because if he was shown from the beginning as someone who would be kind or honest or just like plain Sweet, I know I would like him as a character, hoping for moments for that to shine. But no, no. Its so easy for me to be like "damn, this motherfucker is the worst piece of shit. Thank god."

But beyond that, hes fucking fascinating. Maybe hes supposed to be a commentary (to a degree) on, like, what happens when young boys discover porn. Maybe hes just a fucking manipulative psychopath. Because like honestly. The whole "Tyler" thing... what did Jules ever do to you, except like, kinda make a fool of you at McKay's party? Like??????? Dude? Unless he knows about Jules and his dad???? But like? Baby its not your business and your dad already spoke with Jules and Jules already said that she wouldn't tell anyone? Like oh my God you're crazy. It is a little funny, though, to think about what he was thinking when we saw him smile at his phone when he was texting Jules. Was it because he genuinely was touched by the sweet interactions, or was he getting off on the manipulation and lying? And like. Did he imagine the night "Tyler" meeting Jules to go differently? Or was it all along a plot to just. Threaten to blackmail Jules? And also? Nate, you also received and sent nudes? So like. She literally could ruin your life much more than you could ruin hers. Altho the system would be unfortunately biased against her because she's trans so maybe hes putting all his chips on that???

But yeah. Hes fascinating. Hes insane. Hes hot in a twisted way that I enjoy watching but im also relieved that if he gets any shit thrown at him, I hope it sticks, because he deserves it.

The first time I laughed out loud to this show, though, was when we see Nate kill a man in a hypothetical kidnapping of Maddy. And then we cut to Nate facing Maddy on some sidewalk and he tells her "I would do anything for you." I think he may even say he would kill for her. And she just goes, "oh my god, you're literally the sweetest guy ever." Like!!! Ok I know its a moment for the audience to see how fucked up he is but like babe. Honey. Hes. He literally would. Without hesitation or thought. Fuck, he even beat someone up because you really did piss him off! Like!!!!!!! Danger danger danger!!! And of course the aaaaudience knows this and not Maddy herself but. Its just. Ridiculous.

Speaking of Maddy... wow. Man. Ouch. Oof. She is. So wrapped up in Nate. She made her entire confidence in him. Just like he wanted her to. Or maybe he didn't even plan that and maybe she didn't see anything he was doing. But it was not lost on me that she was wearing the Sharon Tate coat when they were watching the abuse survivor video. And the line of Rue's narration, "what made her really feel sick was that she knew... no matter what Nate did, she would always love him." (Or something like that.) And that's the thing. She thinks or she planned to have him wrapped around her finger, when instead he just pulled her deeper and deeper in to his .... mess. Shes an asshole and a victim. She also does not help her case in being an asshole to others for other reasons. But yeah uh. Wow.

Kat!!!!!! Ok listen. I think. She is powerful, but she thinks she's more powerful than she actually is. I... I mean, ok, at the rawness of it all, im terrified for her. I'm terrified for her because of the choices she's made. But this probably rounds up to my final point-

Sex is not the end-all-be-all and these are teenagers whose hormones are fucking complicated. Like, ok, duh. But like. Wow. Maybe its because of the way I was raised, maybe its because of my own internal struggles of trying to figure shit out about myself. But like. Damn. The synopsis of the show being "high schoolers trying to do Life while facing drugs, sex, and violence" (or Whatever) is so. Wow. Yep, that hits it on the nose. These kids, in this corner of the world, in this high school are so tied up in each other and just like. Wow. Its so. Like. I can see why the show is called a drama, but at the same time, I just find it a comedy. Becaus these are ultimately kids doing the worst fucked up shit that I can't comprehend. And thats entertainment, I guess. I think my line in my previous euphoria post really is my summarization of how I feel about the show-

I'm at peace with finding this show ridiculous because its not me facing this shitty consequences. Its an easy to analyze show, easy to watch in a sense that, yeah man, thats what happens, what did you fucking expect?

Thats an incredibly apathetic and probably wild view on fictional teenagers tearing each other apart in the most .... brutally non-physical ways.

[Idk where to put my thoughts on Fez, Cassie, Lex, and Ashtray bc this kinda became an essay with transition sentences at the end of the paragraphs. Anyway. We'll see.]

#euphoria hbo max #euphoria hbo #euphoria

[brightbeautifulthings]

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

"'You know what would be a brilliant twist now? If everything turned out to be just a guy in a mask.'"

Year Read: 2018

Rating: 3/5

Context: Is there a person alive who didn't love Scooby Doo at some point in their lives? Not surprisingly, it was a major part of my childhood, and I tend not to let go of the things I really love. I still watch Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island when I'm sick (and, in hindsight, that may have been the beginnings of the zombie love...). I would have picked up Meddling Kids for its title alone, but there's also that stunning cover. Trigger warning: suicide, mental illness, hallucinations, death, transphobia, homophobia, racism, sexism, ableism.

About: When they were kids, Andy, Kerri, Nate, Peter, and their Weimaraner formed the Blyton Summer Detective Club. Every year, they joined forces to solve mysteries and uncover bad guys in masks, but their last case broke up the club and left them more traumatized than any of them are willing to admit. They're plagued by nightmares, mental illnesses, and Peter's tragic suicide. When the masked man finally makes parole, Andy confronts him and learns what she's always feared: something else was going on in the Deboen mansion that night. She urges the club to get back together and return to Blyton for one final mystery, but the monsters might be real this time.

Thoughts: There's so much potential in this story and equal amounts of expectation, so it was almost bound to go wrong. Within pages, it was clear that the writing style wasn't going to work for me. I can blue-pencil straightforwardly bad narration from my awareness after a while, but Cantero's is the kind that won't let me ignore it. It's constantly breaking the fourth wall and changing up the style for no apparent reason. Metafiction can be used to great effect, but I'm not sure what's to be gained by constantly reminding readers that they're reading a mystery/comedy. It's a cheap trick that does little besides make it difficult to stay invested. The dialogue periodically reverts to script style which, frankly, looks like pure laziness. The jokes are constant, the descriptions weird, and some of the words invented or mashed together into clunky portmanteaux. The prose is preoccupied with its own cleverness at the expense of telling its own story, and the level of attention I have to pay to Cantero's linguistic cartwheels isn't worth the payoff. It was a slog.

Humor as a constant wears on me quickly, or maybe the book just isn't as funny as it thinks it is. There are slapstick scenes where characters break someone out of a mental hospital or fight off hordes of monsters single-handedly that are reminiscent of the cartoons. The action scenes are excessive, at one point devolving into pages of run-on sentences. Feel free to skim because nothing important happens. The words "transphobic", "sexist", "homophobic", "ableist", and "racist" showed up in my margin notes. The jokes aren't as malicious as they are superficial--other than the astonishingly poor trans representation, they blow by as quickly as any other joke in the book, but that doesn't make them acceptable. I can see why some reviewers find Andy's representation as a lesbian troubling; Cantero doesn't seem to have a grasp of when the word "butch" is offensive and when it's empowering, and there are moments where it needed to be handled with more sensitivity. However, Andy and Kerri share a couple of semi-intimate moments that are never at all sexualized, so it has that going for it.

Once you get past all that (assuming you're still with Cantero at this point), the story itself is fairly interesting and moves fast enough. There seems to be plenty of actual science behind the creepy happenings at Sleepy Lake, with plausible monsters and a claustrophobic trip into the mine. The characters are, for the most part, well-drawn and more three-dimensional than their cartoon counterparts. I actually love that the main character, Andy, is a badass lesbian. She's always the one moving the story forward, unraveling plots, and kicking hordes of monster ass. Kerri is a close second as the scientific brain; she always has an answer to everything, and while the descriptions are excessive, I kind of enjoyed that her hair has its own personality. Nate is overshadowed by both of them, which is a nice change from the usual. The mental illness representation is dramatically bad though, as he hallucinates Peter's ghost throughout the novel. Ghost-Peter is a dick, and most of the offensive comments in the novel come from him.

The final confrontation balances between scientifically plausible and utterly ridiculous, with the end wrapped up a little too quickly and neatly for my tastes, but at that point, I was happy to be finished with it. I doubt I'll put myself through one of Cantero's novels again, but if not for the writing, it might have been enjoyable.

#book review #meddling kids #edgar cantero #mystery #thriller #comedy #3/5 #rating: 3/5 #2018 #tw: suicide #tw: mental illness #tw: mental health #tw: hallucinations #tw: death #tw: transphobia #tw: homophobia #tw: racism #tw: sexism #tw: ableism