Month: December 2016

Travelers Season 1 Episode 2: Protocol 6 Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

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This episode opens seconds before the pilot ended, just as Mclaren is being taken over by a traveler. Marcy injects him below the left ear with a coms device. She’s already injected the rest of the team. McLaren is impressed that Trevor found the time to build coms as an after school project. Traveler Trevor is a hard worker, unlike original flavor Trevor. The police arrive in response to original McLaren’s call for backup. The lead officer is a traveler who hands off a package to Mclaren, and tells him to “Go save the world!” Carly lets the police know her police officer baby daddy is locked on the roof.

Meanwhile, the military is forcibly removing antimatter from a lab in the city. They’re taking it to an undisclosed location outside of town for undisclosed purposes. Their containment unit begins to fail, which means the antimatter will explode. An explosion this close to the city will destroy it. This is what happened in the travelers timeline. Their first mission is to seize and contain the antimatter, then hand it off safely to another team.

McLaren and Carly are on stake out duty, watching for the convoy with the antimatter. We learn that they are a couple, who are very much in love, but in this time McLaren has been married for 11 years and Carly has a baby. Both will have to keep playing those roles for the time being. Cue the relationship angst.

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The Man in the High Castle: Speculation for Season 3 (That Will Obviously Turn Out to Be Wrong)

~ Metacrone ~ 3 Comments

Here are our predictions for season 3 and beyond of The Man in the High Castle. (Or, probably more accurately, our hopes and dreams.) This is what we would do if we were writing the show:

Childan and Ed will be running their antiques business in the Neutral Zone, which will obviously also be a front for some less legitimate side business, and for the new and improved Resistance as well, once Juliana finds them.

Childan and Ed will be having an affair, both finally having admitted they’re either bi or gay. It’s clear Ed’s been in love with Frank since childhood, but he thinks Frank’s dead, so it’s time to move on. They may have him try to act on his crush on Juliana, but I think he knows she’s out of his league, and she’s emotionally unavailable anyway. Statistically, this show needs some queer characters. I’m going with the idea that same sex relations are forbidden in the Empire and the Reich, so no one is out, but things are looser in the Neutral Zone.

Abendsen will help Juliana and Trudy find Ed and Childan. Juliana will be in mourning for everything she’s lost. Tagomi may make his way to her at some point in this reality to make sure she is okay. She and Trudy might set off to find their parents and get them to the Neutral Zone. Eventually Trudy, Sarah, and Arnold will run the Western Resistance.

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The Man in the High Castle Season 2 Episodes 9 & 10 Recap: Detonation and Fallout

~ Metacrone ~ 4 Comments

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We start episode 10, Fallout, with the only cold open of the season, maybe of the entire series so far. It’s December 11th, 1945. Smith and Helen arrive at a small cottage outside of Washington, DC. Helen is very pregnant with Thomas, who she says is kicking up a storm. As they’re settling in, an atomic bomb goes off in the distance, seen behind them through the cottage’s picture window. They realize the Nazis have bombed Washington. As we know from watching the series so far, this is the event that caused the Americans to surrender to the Nazis.

This little scene is one of my favorite things they’ve done so far. It’s so brief, but it tells us so much, and reminds us of so much. And it’s shot gorgeously. We start out watching the couple from inside the cottage with the camera at a slight distance, framing the room as if it were a family portrait or a painting. There’s even a Christmas song playing in the background. Everything is perfect for them, despite the war. The room is dark, and the sky is graying outside the window as the sun sets. They are in the dark about what is about to happen. Change is coming. John turns on the lights, and they discuss his work at the Pentagon and the baby, with Helen telling Smith that she thinks it’s a boy. They are working to keep their situation happy and normal, despite the war. As they’re talking, a loud rumbling starts, along with a flash of light. For a split second, you think it could be thunder and lightning, but the flashes and crashes continue. Helen and Smith turn toward the window, holding hands. They, and we, realize something is very wrong, but they are in this together. The camera pulls closer and closer to them, then finally between them, up to the window, where we finally see the red sky and mushroom cloud from the atomic bomb in the distance. This is the event that will eventually come between them. This is the episode where that comes to fruition. They walk toward the window, and the camera pulls around in front of them. Now the camera is outside the window, looking in. We’re in the Looking Glass world now, no longer the world that made sense just 5 minutes ago. We see the mushroom cloud reflected in the window while we see Smith and Helen at an angle and shadowed, through the window. Everything in their world and their futures is now off balance, askew, dark.

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Travelers: New Sci Fi Series from Netflix: Pilot Recap/Review

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

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Fair  warning: Stargate SG-1 was a big deal in our house while my kids were growing up. We watched every single one of its 214 episodes, both made-for-TV movies, and the spin-off series Stargate Atlantis. I am predisposed to like anything Brad Wright does. Travelers was created by Brad Wright.

And I really do like the pilot of Travelers, even without knowing Brad Wright was involved. Pilots are tricky things. They often feel forced, since they have to cram character introductions, world building, and a plot line that hooks viewers enough to make them want more, into their 42 minute time frame. Travelers manages to avoid making the viewer feel like piles of exposition are being thrown at us all at once. The action and the characters keep moving, and we find out enough about each character and their lives by being shown their environment and the people around them, not just told. I feel like I understand the basic premise of the story, but there’s still so much I don’t know, which is where you want to be after a pilot.

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Rest in Peace, George Michael

~ Metacrone

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Singer-songwriter George Michael “passed away peacefully at home” on Sunday at the age of 53, according to his publicist. His manager told the Associated Press that the suspected cause of death was heart failure.

Michael rose to fame as half of the pop duo Wham! in the 1980s, with the giant hits Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, Careless Whisper, and Last Christmas. He had many more hits as a solo artist, such as Faith, Freedom 90, and I Want Your Sex. Billboard ranks him as the 40th most successful artist to ever live, and the Radio Academy named him the most played artist on British radio during the period from 1984–2004. He sold more than 100 million records worldwide over the course of his career, won 2 Grammys, 3 American Music Awards, and numerous other awards and honors.

Video after the cut.

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The Man in the High Castle Season 2 Episode 8 Loose Lips: Recap

~ Metacrone

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There were indeed a lot of loose lips this episode, affecting every plot line the show has going. Most importantly, Joe’s father’s agenda was finally revealed, Hitler died, and the Reichsminister was named Acting Chancellor. I knew Sebastian RochĂ© hadn’t given up his evil ways just because he was being nice to Joe.

Joe has finally decided to stay in Germany and work with his father. The Reichsminister was picked by Hitler to be Acting FĂĽrher if Hitler became incapacitated, even though he is “just an engineer” (ha!), and, in a classic play, he now wants Joe to leave for his own safety. This, of course, makes Joe want to stay even more. He’ll be in place as our point of view character to see what happens in the government’s inner circles now that Hitler is dead, and to lead the fight against his father once he realizes how evil his father is.

Juliana continues to grow closer to Helen and Lucy. From them she learns that Dr Adler was cremated against his wife’s wishes (3 guesses which high-ranking Nazi probably made that secret call). Lucy tells her that Hitler is in serious condition, but Helen stops the gossiping immediately. Helen runs a tight ship. Thomas is packed and ready to go on his trip when Juliana arrives at the house, but Helen quickly shoos him upstairs. She doesn’t want Juliana having enough contact with Thomas for her to figure anything out. Later, Smith tells Helen that events are moving too quickly and the trip is in jeopardy.

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NBC ReAiring Hairspray Live! Tonight 12/26/16 at 8 PM ET

~ Metacrone

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NBC will reshow Hairspray Live! TONIGHT, Monday, December 26th at 8:00 PM ET. If you missed the original live airing on December 7th, this is your second chance to watch it on the big screen or record it on your DVR. The official Youtube and NBC streams have been taken down, probably because they’ve released the DVD, so don’t miss this opportunity!

 

A Brief History of Romantic StuckyNat Part 3: The Ultron Era

~ Metacrone ~ 4 Comments
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Part 1   Part 2   Part 4   Part 5

This is the third part of a five part series on romantic StuckyNat. It is my headcanon of the potential feelings of Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, and Natasha Romanoff in the MCU, if the three were in love with each other. This part of the series covers the time from the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, through Avengers: The Age of Ultron, to just before the beginning of Captain America: Civil War. It is canon-compliant.
Once Bucky had found and destroyed all of the active Hydra bases he remembered, he went into hiding for real. He knew Steve was looking for him, and that Natasha was keeping tabs on him, because he was keeping tabs on both of them, too. While he’d recovered many of his memories, they were still patchy. The holes in Bucky’s memory further complicated the work of figuring out what they meant and what he wanted to do about them. On top of that, he was still the Winter Soldier. As long as he could be activated, it wasn’t safe for Bucky to be around the people he loved. He became a ghost again, disappearing in plain sight, moving to a new, out of the way city every few months. He kept his head down, and himself away from anything that would attract attention.

Sense8: A Christmas Special Recap: The Cluster Celebrates Together in Their Own Special Way

~ Metacrone

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We start off this return with the cluster in the water, together in spirit, communing (not quite sexually) and enjoying each others’ presence. There’s an awesome version of Feeling Good playing that I need to find immediately. Everything is momentarily perfect, if you don’t look too closely.

 

If you do look closely, you might notice that Riley is preparing a dose of heroin for Will, who doesn’t look so great. Wolfgang is drinking alone, without Felix by his side. Sun is also alone, in an isolation cell in prison. The ghost of Angelica haunts the group, even during good times. Life is still complicated within the cluster, but they still offer each other safety and comfort within the midst of it all.

The show teases us with a coy reveal of the new Capheus, now played by Toby Onwumere, who is replacing Aml Ameen. They kept him backlit while talking about how much everything has changed and how different he looks for a few minutes before the reveal. Toby is cute but HUGE compared to Aml. Capheus must have had the Captain America supersoldier serum over the hiatus since he’s grown about a foot taller and in shoulder width. But, are they trying to hide his height? He walks hunched, with his knees bent, like he’s pretending to be the height of the original actor. Just own the change! He’s Van Damme! He can do anything!

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Bearly Dressed: Photo of Bear Embracing Woman Illustrates Misogyny in Photography

~ Metamaiden

Today I came across this picture, by Olga Barantseva, as I was scrolling through my Facebook feed.

It’s a beautiful, captivating picture. For a moment, all I saw was how great it was to show a woman and a bear being friends, the bear protecting her rather than being shown as aggressive and dangerous. The bear is in the classic position that, in this type of photo, a man would usually be in. The bear is standing over and behind the woman, its arm around her protectively. The photo looks like the cover of a romance novel, the woman seductively in a state of semi-undress and the man holding her in his arms, except here the man is a bear. I love the idea of showing humans and animals interacting as equals.

Then I realized that the bear and the woman are not equals in this photo.

Yes, they are positioned exactly the way a man and woman would typically be position in a photo like this, but that doesn’t mean they are equals. Rather, it means that the woman is in some way submissive.

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