Supernatural, Season 12, Episode 4: American Nightmare

Oooh flashbacks waaay back to eaaaarly Supernatural when we had Azazel and the human psychics – including Sam way back in the day.

Since this is a monster-of-the-week-ish episode it has to relate to some emotional issue the brothers are having. Specifically, Dean, master of not dealing with his emotions, is feeling all abandoned by Mary leaving for some space. While Sam has some sense of emotional maturity and recognises Mary may need a break to absorb the massive changes in her life, Dean is pouting that she doesn’t respond to his text within 10 minutes of him sending it.

This brings us to the case of the week – people dying of apparent stigmata. Dean focuses on a woman who works for the CPS after her boss was the first victim – because the woman is a wiccan so Dean reads “evil witch” in a moment of murderous religious prejudice. But mainly because she works for the CPS and is examining a close knit family and Dean is having huge family issues and is hissing at anything he sees as threatening his idealised idea of family

And the hyper religious family who are home schooling and off the grid aren’t presented as inherently evil form the beginning. They raise some decent points about how modern life had been far from fulfilling for them (though the point of long working hours is a good point it is also accompanied by an all too frequent demonisation for medicine that treats mental health). Dean in his waaah-I-want-a-family mode is totally enamoured of this close knit simple family

Sam, however, is less enthralled by a family who apparently let their eldest daughter die because they opted to pray rather than seek easily available medical care. He has no time for that at all.

They split up, Dean pursuing his witch lead (only to find out his suspect absolutely does not want the job she now has thrust on her and absolutely no-one would. Oh and she gives Dean her number because he’s hot. Ok, I get this is supposed to be a joke and, yes, Dean is hot. But can we at least try to address the fact Dean was completely willing to murder this woman because of her religious faith).

American Horror Story, Season 6. Episode 8: Chapter 8

It looks like I was too hasty last week in assuming Lee, Audrey and Monet were all dead. They are being tortured, especially Lee who is being brutally, cruelly tortured by having strips of her flesh removed for the Polk family to eat

She’s left under the charge of one of the ridiculous Deliverance stereotypes (cannibalism, bestiality, obsession with pigs, incest, oxy and developmentally disabled – this isn’t just Bingo. This is ALL the Bingo). Lee comes perilously close to despair – accepting the oxycontin he offers for the pain despite her initial objection that she’s an addict and can’t risk it. She has given up hope, she no longer sees a chance of her escaping. In this moment she leaves a message for her daughter – she confesses to killing

She works to try and get through to him so he’d help her escape. She appeals to his sense of family including a bombshell moment, when she confesses to killing Mason. Yes, everyone was right – Lee did kill her ex-husband because she couldn’t stand the idea of losing her daughter. Young Polk also gives some family history – including the pig masked serial killer.

She hangs on and manipulates and seduces the Polk guard until he releases one of her hands – and she then kills him to make her own escape. Go Lee. I actually think she will be the survivor now – just because the irony is that her confession is now on tape.

Audrey and Monet also manage an escape. More Polk kids decide they need teeth necklaces for whatever reason, along with rambling away and giving the impression they don’t realise television may be fictional. They try to rip out Monet’s teeth and Monet escapes – but she can’t break the chains holding Audrey. She runs, later pursued by two of the Polks

That leaves Audrey at the mercy of Mama Polk and, despite some brief defiance, Audrey quickly crumples before the teeth pulling old woman.

Until Lee arrives and rescues her – and then Audrey stoves in Mama Polk’s head.

There’s something here – the two Black women thought, resisted – consistently – and escaped (and saved Audrey). Audrey did not, her defiance crumples – in fact crumple and crying. The Black women fight. The White woman delicately collapses. The flip side is that this behaviour can equally be an indicator of how Audrey is considerably more sheltered than Lee and Monet (and this can be a racial trope but is also a racial reality).

Women on From Dusk Till Dawn

When talking about misogyny on From Dusk Till Dawn it feels a lot like going after low hanging fruit. Especially since it’s tempting to spend a lot of time talking about the first season of From Dusk Till Dawn.

After all, the first season involved the ultimate goal of travelling to a strip club, had acres and acres of sexualised naked female flesh. It set up Kate and Santanico as the ultimate Madonna/Whore comparison and had one of the co-protagonists, Richie, be a serial killer who targetted women which we all quickly got over. And we had a guy with a gun strapped to his crotch.

You could probably spent a long time talking about how the first season was not a stellar portrayal of female characters. However, the first season was also very much based on the film which was, if anything, even worse and the writers chose to adhere to it very clearly

I used the word “chose” here deliberately because I won’t pretend they couldn’t have made many more changes than they did and I’m not going to act like the film is holy writ they couldn’t possibly have changed.

But, as I mentioned at the end of season one and the beginning of season 2 and 3, the moment when I thought From Dusk Till Dawn really came into its own was when it transcended its source material. This is when we started to see the introduction of meso-American mythology, the introduction of the Lords as an organisation and Santanico presented as so much more than a beautiful woman who bites people. There was history and world building and development and From Dusk Till Dawn could have been a show that impressed me by the huge potential the writers saw in the source material which I could never have imagined (similar to Buffy: because you can’t tell me that the person who watched that awful film and said “we can get a 7 season epic hit from this!” wasn’t selling his soul to someone!)

This was a chance to change things up.

I’m also not even going to focus on season 2 - even though we had a terrible trope of Santanico’s goals and desires being completely subsumed by Richie’s and Seth’s; her revenge being sidelined, she becoming a side-character in what should have been her

I’m even leaving this because Season 3 gives me so much more to focus on

When we reached season 3 I think the best way to describe the depiction of women is “supreme disappointment”.

We began with some very high potential - we have Santanico, of course. La Diosa, the hope and inspiration for so many Culebras. We had Lord Venganza, the last surviving ruler of the Culebras, survivor of their slavery in Xibalba and, by definition, the remaining leader of the Culebra resistance against Amaru. We had Ximana, Venganza’s general, chief follower and leader in her absence.

We needed these characters to counter the fact Kate, the other female character who’d managed to cling to existence to this season, was pretty much absent the whole season. Oh the actress was there, but the character was gone; the character was completely subsumed by Amaru, pretty much utterly helpless throughout.

We also had a return of Freddie’s wife.

I don’t even remember her name and, while I could easily look it up, I’m not going to because “Freddie’s wife” is exactly how this show has depicted her. Her existence is defined entirely by this, her involvement in the story is entirely dependent on this. This is all the show allowed her to be.

And she’s not the only minor female character introduced and utterly wasted this season. For some reason we met Dakota McGraw, vengeance driven daughter of the ex-sheriff Earl McGraw who was murdered by the Geckos. I found her to be a distraction from the main plot and was confused as to why she was actually there - apparently the writers thought the same because after 1 and a bit episode’s involved they dropped her into the plot box. I can’t imagine what anyone in the writer’s room was thinking  - let’s introduce this woman who has dedicated herself to seeking murderous revenge for her dad’s murderer. She finds them, realises the supernatural is going on and then goes home. Never mind revenge. Never mind cannibal magic. Never mind vampires. Never mind anything - she’s just going to go home and… and.. Who the hell knows what she’s going to do because she just decided to walk away from the apocalypse and her revenge to take up white-water rafting or scrapbooking or something.

Aftermath, Season One, Episode Six: Madame Sosostris

I don't know why Aftermath has such a difficult time keeping it's cast on one location.  It's like they feel that splitting the characters up and giving us two different story lines each week makes up for the fact that they still haven't given its audience a reasonable explanation into exactly what is going on. Even the title is misleading because aftermath is what happens after an even of substance.  So far, we have not been informed of some precipitating event which has lead to this situation and we are over 1/3 of the way through the season. 

The episode begins at Sally's funeral.  Karen is almost emotionless as she lights the pyre.  I suppose they decided to go with cremation for effect but it makes less than zero sense given how hot the flames have to be and how long they to burn to cremate a human body.  At any rate, the Copelands feel a tremor but Booner tells them not to worry because apparently, the mountain does this all of the time. 

They all head back to the base, where the Copelands decide now that they are back together, that they should return home. Booner tries to talk them into staying given that he has great man power and supplies but Karen in particular is determined to home and not to take anything from Booner when they leave.  Karen decides to head to Dana's old camp for supplies and Joshua decides to try to track down an academic who wrote about everything which is happening now, so that they can prepare for whatever goes next.

Joshua, Brianna, Devyn, and Jane, leave in one vehicle and Karen, Dana, Matt and Martin in another.  Because Aftermath loves to split their cast up, when they reach the campground, Karen, Dana, Matt and Martin split up.  Karen and Matt immediately start getting together nearby supplies while Dana and Martin head further out.  It's not long before Dana and Martin start talking about having sex, given that it's the end of the world and she will be leaving soon.  Martin questions if this is really what Dana wants, given the age difference between them.  I guess Matt actively seeking consent is supposed to make up for the fact that Dana is essentially a child and at 15, is not old enough to consent to sex with someone that much older than her. They lie down on a pile of hay but its not long before a Jubokko wraps itself around Dana's leg for a little snack.  Fortunately for her, Martin is there to come to the rescue. They don't get time to celebrate because they are quickly surrounded by two female prisoners.  It seems that a group of female convicts have claimed the camp and its supplies for themselves and are not pleased to see Dana and Martin poaching.  This is when the Jubokko appears again and grabs the leg of one of the prison women and drags her under a building.  Dana and Martin seize the break and take off into the woods.  

Joshua decides to leave Brianna, Devyn and Jane behind and heads into the university hoping to find the work of Gloria Douglas.  When he runs into Gloria, the first thing he's forced to do is give an apology.  It seems that before what ever happened starting happening, Gloria had written about this and Joshua and a group of his peers went out of their way to discredit her.  Gloria seems oddly stinted but is listening.  Joshua continues to speak and Gloria attacks.  Joshua manages to escape the swing of Gloria's axe and tries to get distance between the two of them but once cornered, Jane magically shows up in time to kill Gloria.  Gloria dissolves and ends up looking like a puddle of grease on the ground. Joshua explains that this couldn't be Gloria and must have been a shapeshifter.  They head off in search of the real Gloria firm in the belief that the real Gloria must be somewhere close by.

Born Yesterday by Tatter Jack

Schae is a fantasy author heading to Scotland to do some research for her next book

When she’s attacked by a wolf. Which shouldn’t be possible since there are no wolves in Scotland.

She manages to find safety – and the compelling grey eyes of Darak Banakar, who inspires all kinds of feelings in her

Including her long lost memories.

In many ways I should hate this book because front and central of the story is Schae and Darek who meet each other and fall in vast love/lust (well there is some amnesia removed memories that may explain it but still). There’s little attempt to get to know each other before the waves of lust and sopping wet underwear come in. Yet the way it is written is almost a parody of itself – the humour is always there and manages to take the eye roll out of a lot of it. It seems almost self aware of how ridiculous it is to describe this woman who has to carry spare underwear everywhere because of the gushing fluid Darek invokes every time she sees him. They manage to be fun and they manage to be fun together despite this extremely troped romance – a romance that has her desperately trust him even though she thinks he’s a lethal serial killer; in part due to her own tragic past and lack of self worth, which is more than a little fraught with exploited female vulnerability

The flashbacks and past stories are also really epic and well told. So much so that I want to read this story. While I only have limited interest in Darek and Schae, I am definitely here for the story of Darek and Sonas, sell swords and heroes? Those I’m interested in. There story is epic. The story of what happened to Darek, why they are trapped in this cycle – that is also epic

And it’s all so confusing that it’s rather hidden in a very odd writing style. Not least of which because this book is written in the second person from Schae’s point of view with lots of “you” referring to Darek. It’s an odd choice

The problem is that this story is told in such a complicated, convoluted manner, through a whole range of flashbacks. Flashbacks that are so utterly disconnected from the rest of the book it feels like a completely different novel.

The main plot line has the protagonist an author called Schae with amnesia who can’t remember her life before she was an adult who comes to Scotland to research a book. There she meets Darek and they fall in love. He’s clearly supernatural of some kind but it looks like a very conventional Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance

From Dusk Till Dawn, Season 3, Episode 10: Dark Side of the Sun

It’s time for the season finale and the epic fight scene as we follow our heroes to take down the newly resurrected and re-embodied Amaru

Well, some of our heroes

Because for various odd and dubious stylistic choices various members of the gang are completely taken out of the action

Freddie and his family go running, end up in a hospital and hide in an office because random hospital staff become murderous presumably due to Amaru-ness. They add nothing to this episode

Carlos decides that because of some stuff that happened in the labyrinth in confusing season 2, he can’t actually do anything this battle so is going to wander around being cryptic

Richie runs to hell, is promptly captured, has many confusing conversations with Carlos and meets up with both Jaguar warrior guy and Aiden Turner (who still isn’t dead) so they can all… do a whole lot of nothing.

So what about Santanico – la diosa? Yeah don’t get excited. After Carlos pushes her to accept the accolade she manages to pose dramatically so a lot of mind controlled culebras can break out of Amaru’s conditioning. Yay she’s actually doing something! And she confirms that Amaru did kill the woman she loved – yes overtly confirmed bisexuality after the love interest is already long long dead

Have three stars!

She and her loyal followers (who less resemble “liberated” so much as “newly enslaved”) find Amaru. They die in seconds so it’s time for an epic confrontation between Amaru and Santanico, a massive, awesome fight scene of great powers and skill reminding us that Santanico is… wait, it’s over already? And Santanico lost? Really? What she just stands there because woo-woo? That’s it?

And lo, Santanico joins most of the rest of the cast in not being even slightly relevant or effective. If the culebras all decide to go atheist next season you know why

So what does that leave us with?

Back from the Undead (The Bloodhound Files #5) by D.D. Barant

When Stoker, an old adversary of Jace's, contacts the NSA seeking help to break up a child trafficking ring, Jace isn't sure she should leap to the bait. If there's any chance that this could be true, Jace knows she has to try.  Stopping child trafficking will see Jace cross the border where her badge doesn't hold as much power she's used to and if that were not enough, she's running out of ammunition for her gun, not that a gun will necessarily help her against the ancient God whose attention she seems to have unwittingly garnered.  Just like everything else since Jace has entered Thropirelem, everything is SNAFU.

The hook for this story is supposedly a child trafficking ring; however, D.D. Barant quickly changes the focus and the child trafficking actually becomes an almost insignificant plot point.  As a reader, it felt a little bit like a bait and switch situation for me, particularly given that the plot we were given is so very convoluted that at times it was hard to follow. Also, if you're going to bring up something as serious as child trafficking, you really need to follow through.

Thropirelem is an alternate universe in which vampires, Golems, and shifters exist in greater numbers than humans and have in fact take over the earth.  This is not a book one should read if you have not already read the preceding four books.  As it is, even with awareness of the backstory, Back from the Undead is hard to follow at times. D.D. Barant spends a lot of time on Shintoism in this book and introduces its concept of heaven and hell, as well as various deities.  I will admit upfront that other than the kitsune, I know virtually nothing about Shintoism and therefore, I am no place to judge how Barant treated the belief system.

Having a large focus of Back from the Undead be Shintoism, naturally led to the inclusion of characters of colour, including the return of Tanaka. Unfortunately, the characters of colour were all evil in some way with the exception of Tanaka. This is a problem given that this series hasn't been particularly inclusive in terms of race.  We did learn about Tanaka's back story and it turns out that he's a samurai who now feels that he owes Jace a debt because he betrayed her.  Unfortunately, paying back this debt means sacrificing himself for Jace. If you're keeping score, this means that all of the Asians are evil and the only one who isn't dies. This isn't great.

The Strain, Season 3, Episode 9: Do or Die

Everything has gone from bad to worse - Ferraldo tries to rally her troops, but they have been decimated and, ultimately all of New York is lost. She tries her last plan – they all fall back to a secure area, but most of her forces abandon her. She’s left with 7 people willing to fight to defend the city

Looking at that even she realises it’s time to leave

Augustin and Angel have the same idea. New York is lost.

Vasiliy seems to be joining in the despair, trying to convince Abe and Dutch to leave the city with him (not Ephraim though). Ephraim is super happy Dutch decides to stay and fight because he decides it’s all about Dutch staying with him because she can’t possibly have any other motive. They’re more than a little nauseating together.

This attempted escape goes poorly when Feraldo’s escape vehicle ends up stuck in traffic. At night. Being stuck in cars at night in a vampire infested city isn’t good.

Feraldo’s group is attacked – seen by Angel who insists he and Gus go and help (much to Gus’s disgust and disagreement). There’s a battle as they all try to escape, people around Ferraldo are taken down one by one… and then her aid is killed who has been there from the first.

And Ferraldo is infected. Angel is bitten. In the end only Augustin escapes. Everyone else dies (epicly in Angel’s case with a shining silver cross harkening back to his wrestler days). While part of me will never be happy at the death of a strong female character and the awesome, disabled Latino Angel on a show that hasn’t been good to either POC or women, part of me also recognises the power and meaning of this. The importance of these characters is established because their deaths is supposed to be a shock and a symbol – their death is the death of New York. Their loss is the end of hope for New York. Their loss is symbolic of the end of the city and hope for victory