Author: Metacrone

Lifelong film, television and theater enthusiast. Choose love.

Katie Hill, Bodily Autonomy and the Need for Feminist Mama Bears

~ Metacrone

I put up a new post on my other site, WitchyRamblings.com today. Take a look!

Metacrone's avatarWitchy Ramblings

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The Katie Hill revenge porn saga highlights much that’s wrong with our culture today, especially when juxtaposed against the Trump non-impeachment saga. I’ve watched both unfold with horror, reminded of how truly powerless we average citizens are. Of how powerless women ultimately are.

I don’t have the answers for how to stop revenge porn or Donald Trump and the Republicans. I mean, I do- enforcing the constitution and laws that are already in place would be a good start. So would treating women like the equal, dignified human beings we are. But more energetic, smarter people than me are working very hard on those crises. Sometimes the problems of the patriarchy seem intractable and like they’re only getting worse, no matter how hard we fight.

So today, I’m going to focus on the issue in a more individual way. I was struck by how victimized…

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Netflix’s Daybreak Season 1 Review

~ Metacrone

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Simply put, Daybreak, Netflix’s post apocalyptic Red Dawn meets Ferris Bueller zombie teen comedy series, is a hot mess. Or, as we used to say in the golden heyday of Tumblr of yore, a problematic favorite.

I purposefully stuffed way too many descriptors into the first paragraph and tried way too hard to sound cool and am now being way too obvious about every single thing I’m doing and speaking in the first person while breaking the 4th wall, in order to give you a sense of what might have been charming in Daybreak but is really just tres, tres obnoxious.

Daybreak, the TV show, is based on the comic book of the same name by Brian Ralph and created by Brad Peyton and Aron Eli Coleite. Like the comic, the main character is a self insert first person narrator who just happens to be a North American straight white male. I haven’t read the comic yet, but from what I understand, it’s more contemplative than the series, described in one article as being more like the 2009 Viggo Mortenson film The Road than Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). Or, you could say more like the original, 1979 Mad Max film.

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Stumptown Season 1 Episode 5: Bad Alibis Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

Stumptown S1Ep5 Dex v Miles

This week on Stumptown, almost everyone is trying to please a tough superior. Grey is forced into working for Kane to pay off his debt. Dex has a PI cerification interview with a licensing  official. Tookie’s cooking is reviewed by an influential food critic. Miles tries to convince Cosgrove that his intuition about Grey and Kane is on point.

After all sorts of confusion at the bar, Ansel is taken hostage by one of Kane’s men. Never fear, Dex’s brother is the glue that holds this episode together and he knows just what to do.

Recap

Dex puts on a blazer and button up shirt for her interview with Janet Withers, the PI certification official from DPSST. No one is sure what DPSST stands for. Ansel thinks she looks funny. Dex says she had to buy him the pumpkin poptarts that were on sale this week instead of the blueberry ones that are his favorites, but when she’s licensed she’ll make more money.

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Emergence Season 1 Episode 5: RDZ9021 Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 4 Comments

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In episode 5, Emergence explores the aftermath of the attack on Benny and April. The episode title is a license plate number which belongs to their attacker, but it sounds like it could be Piper’s serial number. Or maybe it’s the hitman’s serial number.

Piper has more visions, which lead to new discoveries about her AI subconscious. Ed’s health deteriorates, putting Piper and Mia at risk. Kindred and Jo face off again, which escalates the determination of each to bring the other one down.

The sometimes deadly combination of family, love and risk is the theme of the week, along with the question of what or who is worth fighting and dying for. Whenever Kindred is involved, the concept of love vs control also comes up. Kindred buys, steals or manufactures love and family, ensuring there’s no risk to himself. He is the symbol of the modern industrial lifestyle and in opposition to Jo’s open family, who put in the hard work of being there for each other through good times and bad.

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Charmed Season 2 Episode 2: Things to Do in Seattle When You’re Dead Recap

~ Metacrone

In Things to Do in Seattle When You’re Dead, the Vera-Vaughn witches and Harry continue to cope with the loss of their powers and the demons’ war on witches. This week, a dream about the demon with Harry’s face leaves Macy troubled, Maggie discovers that everyone in Hilltowne thinks the sisters died in a house fire, and Mel struggles to bring a sense of order back to her life. They all deal with trust issues.

Macy and Harry go on a mission to rescue a witch from the demons. Maggie decides she needs to work on growing up more by taking on more responsibility and facing hard truths. Mel tries to reconstruct spells from the Book of Shadows to start bringing their magic back. They all find some success and a bit of their individual powers shine through in the process.

Recap

It’s night and Macy is wearing a silky, low cut nightgown and robe as she walks toward her bedroom mirror. Harry appears behind her, also wearing a robe. He says her name. She startles and turns, telling him he scared her. He asks if she’s happy to see him.

Macy closes her robe tightly around herself and asks what Harry wants. Sexy as this all is, even in a dream, she’s subconsciously figured out that it’s not the real Harry.

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Charmed Season 2 Episode 1: Safe Space Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 2 Comments

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The CW’s reboot of Charmed reinvents itself again for season 2, thanks to new showrunners Liz Kruger and Craig Shapiro. The Charmed Ones, Macy, Mel and Maggie, along with their Whitelighter, Harry, and their magical house, are whisked off to Seattle to be placed in the witch-ness protection program for their own protection from the latest round of evil that’s declared war on them.

This reinvention takes the show fully into the Buffy the Vampire Slayer realm of supernatural fantasy fighters. The witches may have a secret lair in one corner of the coworkspace basement, but you just know there’s a hellmouth in another corner and most of the other tenants of the building are also supernaturals on the run. The everyday, normal aspects of the characters’ lives are relegated to the edges of the show, while their roles as supernatural superheroes who are saving the world from evils large and small become the center of their lives.

With the Elders gone and evil running rampant, it makes sense for the Charmed Ones to put their magical duties first, but I hope they’re able to go back to their schooling and chosen careers eventually. And that they develop personal lives, though I doubt that will take long on a CW show.

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The Man in the High Castle Season 1 Episode 4: Revelations Recap

~ Metacrone

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Things take a major turn in episode 4 of The Man on the High Castle, as Frank seeks out illegal bullets for his gun and Ed desperately tries to stop Frank from following the suicidal path he’s on. Juliana and Joe continue to battle the Marshal and also confront Lem. Tagomi and Wegener attempt to complete their plan during the crown prince’s speech. Obergruppenführer Smith and Captain Connolly continue their search for the traitor who leaked Smith’s location, but lose their best potential source of information.

Recap

The episode opens moments after the end of episode 3, with The Marshal following Juliana into her hiding place. They play hide and seek until Joe catches up with the Marshal and knocks him out using a blunt object. With the Marshal unconscious on the floor, Joe and Juliana run back outside.

Joe’s truck is gone, so they find another storefront to hide in. The Marshal follows them outside within another minute. The guy who helped him earlier tells him they drove out of town in Joe’s truck. After the Marshal leaves town to follow them, the guy tells Joe and Juliana where he moved Joe’s truck and where they can find Lem.

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Black Spot (Zone Blanche) Season 1 Episode 1: Stranger Comes to Town Recap

~ Metacrone

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Zone Blanche/Black Spot is a French/Belgian 2 season series, with 8 episodes per season, that’s available on Netflix. The show takes place in the mysterious, isolated village of Villefranche, which is set so deep in the primeval forest that the entire village and its surroundings have no cell phone reception- the black spot, or zone blanche, of the title. People tend to die in the forest, giving Villefranche a high murder rate, but the forest is a living presence which occasionally gives someone back. The villagers are closely connected to each other and to the forest.

Main character Major Laurène Weiss, the chief of police for the village, is one of the survivors who came back from the forest as a young woman. Many years later, she remains haunted by the experience. In present day Villefranche, another young woman, Marion Steiner, the daughter of mayor and business owner Bertrand Steiner, has been missing for months. Laurène spends her spare time in the forest searching for Marion, who was close friends with her own teenage daughter, Cora. Laurène bristles when an outsider, prosecutor Franck Siriani, is sent to investigate the high crime rate in the small village.

Recap

We are introduced to Villefranche using the the 1964 song Mr Lonely by Bobby Vinton. Visuals include the mountainous forest, ravens, fog, and an emergency phone at the village boundary line.

You’ve been warned, Mr Siriani. Enter at your own risk.

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Stumptown Season 1 Episode 4: Family Ties Recap

~ Metacrone

Stumptown S1Ep4 Dex & Grey

The Ghosts of Halloween Past come back to haunt the residents of Stumptown in episode 4, as shady PI Artie banks and corrupt businessman/ex husband Randall Tapper resurface for a second round with Dex and Candace. Miles and Grey’s nightmares materialize in the form of escaped mobster Wallace Kane. Sue Lynn Blackbird and Lieutenant Cosgrove are drawn into the fray as they each work toward damage control.

Recap

Picking up not long after the end of episode 3, this episode finds Dex taking a baseball bat to Artie’s beloved vintage Mustang in retaliation for double crossing her and Candace. In addition, Tapper has hired Artie to act as his watchdog to make sure that Dex and Candace don’t find and use any new evidence to take him down. Dex declares war on Tapper, Artie and the Mustang.

I’d feel sorry for the innocent Mustang, but it’s probably been complicit in a number of crimes over the course of its long life of being driven as a midlife crisis and status symbol car. It’s about time it paid for some of them. I’m sure it’s got a good health plan.

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Emergence Season 1 Episode 4: No Outlet Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 3 Comments

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In episode 4 of Emergence, Jo spends the hour trying to solve a dilemma that many parents have faced- is my child the normal amount or evil, or do I need to do something about this spawn of Satan? She mulls over Piper’s true nature with the help of a newly assigned social worker, Lily Salgado, Auger Industries head Richard Kindred and, separately, his former employee Emily; Benny and a hacker friend of Benny’s named April; police officer and right hand man Chris, and her family. By the end of the episode, she’s made a decision, and Piper truly becomes part of the family with the support of Mia, Alex and Ed. But Kindred isn’t ready to give up his ownership claim and Benny and April pay a price.

Recap

Episode 4 begins late at night, with Piper laying in bed, facing the window. Jo has placed a nannycam in the dollhouse, and is watching the feed in the kitchen. From her perspective, it looks like Piper is asleep.

The camera is easy to spot in the dollhouse. It’s not cleverly hidden in a Teddy bear, like a normal nannycam, so Piper knows it’s there.

Jo gets a text from Benny telling her that Emily is packing her things and getting ready to leave town. Before Jo can text back, Piper appears and asks for a glass of water.

This show and the CBS show Evil both love to use their little girls to make references to the original Exorcist film/book.

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