Doctor Who, Season Ten, Episode Twelve: The Doctor Falls

I almost don't know where to start with this final episode because there's so much that needs unpacking. On top of it all, Moffat had me all up in my feelings with his delicate balance between humor and impending doom. We had dueling timelords and masturbatory Masters. It was all too much and just enough at the same time.

The overarching question this season seemed to center around whether or not Missy could be redeemed.  The Doctor and the Master have known each other since childhood and Missy, is the only one really capable of being the Doctor's ever lasting companion because while the Doctor's human companions can spend the rest of their lives with him, he cannot spend the rest of his life with them. This is even more true now that the Doctor potentially has unlimited regenerations. World Enough and Time was supposed to be Missy's test run at being good but it all runs into a wall when she meets the Master. 

I must admit that Missy and the Master played off of each other so well. Until the very end we didn't know exactly where Missy stood. Her two hearts were pulled between her previous incarnation and her life long frenemy. John Simm's Master continued to throw in just the right amount of nasty, teasing Bill about being a cyberman and the role he played in that change, as well asking her for a bra, in reference to his own upcoming regeneration. John Simm's Master is evil because he can be and even when it leads to the revolt of an entire population because of the cruelty of his headship, he sees no reason to change, only a reason to move onto something new. 

Throughout this entire episode, we were continually reminded of just how great an actor Peter Capaldi is. I'm going to miss him so very very much.  When the Doctor gave an epic speech explaining that he does what he does not for attention or accolades but because it is the right thing to do, I found myself completely drawn in.  Missy, who has been struggling to change was clearly conflicted but of course, the Master didn't give a damn whatsoever about the Doctor's appeal to the better angels of his nature.

When the final stand between Missy and the Master occurs, it's quickly clear that it could not have ended any other way. Missy killing the Master was perfect and stealthy, just the way that you expect Missy to act. When Missy declares that it's time to stand with the Doctor, we know in this very second the Doctor has won and that he will finally have his eternal companion. Naturally this cannot be allowed to stand and so the Master destroys his own future redemption by killing Missy and making it clear that she shouldn't even bother to try and regenerate. The Master absolutely refuses to stand by the Doctor. The Master may be fascinated by being a Time Lady but he's only wiling to allow himself to go so far.  It makes me wonder if Missy's change of heart is about her experiences with the Doctor, or if the change in gender between the Master and Missy was simply enough to change her outlook on life and the universe? It makes very little sense for the Master to kill Missy, knowing that he's about to become Missy himself.  It shows the level of his unwillingness to bend.  I am absolutely going to miss Michelle Gomez as Missy.

The Mist: Season 1, Episode 2: Withdrawal

This episode focuses far more on the Mist and the dangers around it - but it does involve the cast all making some pretty major leaps and a definite fast-forwarded apocalypse. And we’ve already split this huge cast into several groups which is slightly annoying. There’s also a lack of brutal murders despite some people being really annoying.

Anyway, begin with The Police Station where Kevin, Adrian, Mia and I’m-sure-this-wasn’t-his-name-last-week Bryan are hunkered down in the police station. Kevin wants to go out in the Mist and get to the Mall to be with his family (reasonable) and also because they have supplies there.

Supplies? Kevin you can’t have been hunkered down there more than a couple of hours. Why do you need supplies?! This is what I mean when we talk about fast-forwarded apocalypses. Why does Kevin believe they’re going to be hunkered down that long? I wonder how TVlandia works, you get a power cut and everyone starts raiding the local shops and stockpiling? The slightest thing and everyone prepares for the end!

Mia is the only one who thinks this is a bad idea, but she doesn’t want to be left alone. This seems to be a major theme of hers because she almost panics when Bryan discovers she’s an addict and tries to take her pills: she begs him not to tell anyone and he agrees so long as she leaves the pills behind, because a heavily withdrawing woman is just what they need.

They leave the station, get in a car and have Mia drive (see this is why in crisis situations some information needs to be shared). They’re ambushed on the way by men with guns which Mia deals with by accelerating - which works. But her withdrawal means sh also keeps on accelerating until they have a car crash

And they have a weird moment when they all freak out a little at the glass cracking - they’re acting like the Mist itself is dangerous. But then they forget that and get out and head to the nearby church after Mia hallucinates her mother just appearing and speaking to her. Except her mother is dead and she also moves faster than any person can - appearing in front and behind

At the Church Father Romanov is comforting hippie Nathalie who is obviously pretty shaken by her husband’s death. Connor the cowardly police chief arrives after driving his car into a moose (causing it to drop both its poutine and its Timbits). Once there he promptly makes up all the excuses why he should hide in the church rather than get out there and find killers/monsters etc.

When the police station gang arrives all kind if pissed at him for abandoning them to die - to which he responds by lying (caught by Father Romanov) and cuffing Mia. This guy is a class act. When does something eat him? Or I’ll settle for his jaw being ripped off, totally not picky here.

Nathalie has a series of beautiful moments talking about her husband (and I like how the fluffy hippie is also more than that, she’s a real person and grounded in reality) and she asks everyone to drink in her husband’s memory - the cheap wine he loved.

And Connor stops Adrian drinking because Kevin should know about the dangers of underaged drinking. Yes he said that. Yes he did. No something didn’t eat him. Yes something should.

Outcast, Season 2, Episode 5: The Common Good

This episode contains a whole lot of progress and development told at a really unnecessary slow pace

I’ve said before that this show is so in love with ATMOSPHERE that it’s dragged out far far further than it needs to be so we can all grasp the EMOTIONS.

Alison rejoins the cast at last. In the mental institute, for very-obvious-demons who share the ward with her seem to think that tormenting her is fun. Yes it makes for a very ominous feel but what do the demons get from this? If they want to kill her, why not do it? If they want to use her how is this happening? Instead we see one guy taunting her and vanishing with lots of personal information about her daughter he shouldn’t know. We also throw in a creepy kid. Because you’ve always got to have a creepy kid, right? Of course this happens in a mental institution so we have the classic mentally ill people used as background horror props because few things invoke horror like neurotypical people having to endure the presence of the mentally ill

Except creepy kids. There’s something weird about our culture that small children are some of the scariest things out there. And dolls. Dolls are worse than clowns.

Anyway, duly provoked, Alison demands to be released despite clearly-a-demon-woman trying to convince her to stay. She leaves and joins her daughter

Time for the next side plot which is even more brutal - we have Megan living with her parents and planning her future. Kyle is horrified she’s gone to them because her house is haunted - as he points out to her: “and this isn’t?”

Remember that Megan was raped as a child and this is the house where it happened. He offers his home to her but she can’t- she thinks Kyle is “crazy” which is talk of possession and dark forces. She needs to insulate her daughter from that so they can heal and get back on track

Of course it quickly becomes clear they can’t stay at her parents - even aside from her own memories, there’s also her parents who are terrible people. Hyper-religious they’ve decided that yes they did wrong by Megan when she was a child - they let her stop going to church! Not stopped the rape, but stopped her going to church. Megan chews them out gloriously. The best line beyond the brutal description of her rape: you did nothing but go to church

Now to the main plot and some actual development - starting with a flashback of daddy Kyle torturing Helen trying to get her to tell him about the Great Merge which sounds awful. He can’t possess her because she’s not full of black gas, she’s full of tentacles. Ew ew ew. Further ew - rather than talk to him she bites out her own tongue.

To the present and Anderson checks out his lighthouse church people - and they’re all apparently ex-possessed people. Looks like we have an army if necessary.

American Gods: The Good, The Bad and the Awesome

Ever since it was announced that Neil Gaiman’s American Gods was going to be made into a television adaptation, there was a vast amount of hype about it.

I’ll admit, we weren’t the ones overly hyping it. On the whole while the book was interesting and original in some ways, we weren’t huge fans and, we’ll further admit, there was a whole lot of chuntering between us about how utterly overhyped this was and how it was going to be painful to watch. We sat down to the first episode, faces set to frown and all prepared to take on the world and tell you all how wrong you were.

We were ready. You were all going to be told. Oh yes.

Sometimes it’s good to be wrong (novel experience though it is)

For awesome as American Gods is, like everything else on television, it’s not perfect.  Given that we live in a White supremacist world, it’s hardly surprising that the Gods which got the most attention were Norse and or white. Sure, we had two episodes of Bilquis snacking on people with her forever hungry vagina, a Jinn, Mr. Nancy, Anubis, Mr. Ibis and of course brown Jesus, but it would be fair to say that they didn’t feature heavily in the story. The Gods originating from cultures of colour were each given moments of complete awesome, like Mr. Nancy’s speech on the slave ship explaining to the slaves what to expect for generations once they landed.  The problem is that they were additives and this belies the importance that each God has in their specific culture.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention the absence of Gods like Kali or Ganesha. Where is Buddha? Where is Muhammad? Where is Hachiman or Omoikane?  There is supposedly a war between old Gods and New Gods and yet somehow, the older Gods who still have power because they continue to be worshipped are somehow absent?   The Gods from Islam, Buddhism, Shinto, and Hinduism are all respectively old Gods and all of them to this day still have a sizeable portion of the earths population praying to them and giving offerings. The writers might have been able to reduce Jesus to a peace loving hippy, who posed no legitimate threat to the current celestial unrest but no such storyline would have been possible with Hachiman or Kali. The centering of Eurocentric Gods in the face of this once again sets up a hierarchal order of what religious beliefs matter and what can simply be dismissed and or ignored because the people who are devout are of colour. Odin, for all of his wisdom and power could not and would not be such a singular symbol of power without the exclusion of the aforementioned deities.

It’s further telling that when Odin did reach out to older Gods to form an alliance he chose Czernobog and Vulcan; two God who are clearly lesser in strength than him. Wouldn’t Hachiman, as a God of war be a far more fitting ally? Europeans have no more claim on North America than people of colour. Just as Europeans brought their beliefs and or Gods, as Mr. Nancy explained, the Gods of people colour also travelled to the so-called new world.

When these Gods arrived, just like European colonisers they didn’t simply erase the people and their beliefs who were present for centuries before.  Why is there no mention of Gitche Manitou for instance? Each Native American tribe had their set of Gods and religious beliefs and what did American Gods offer us? They gave us a white buffalo which died when its people stopped believing in its divinity. For Native American Gods to have disappeared so completely, Indigenous people themselves would have had to disappear.  Given the holocaust brought upon by European settlers and the ongoing resiliency of Aboriginal people in the face of this, their erasure from American Gods, even if not intentional, is quite certainly harmful and definitely myopic.  

There’s also Salem and the Djinn; as beautiful as their scene was (and it was), equally the LGBTQ inclusion on this show was a bisexual woman who literally ate people with her vagina and two gay men who had one amazing scene and then never really took part of the plot in any meaningful way. If it weren’t for that beautiful scene, we would probably call these characters tokens.

But really, compared to, well, so many of the other shows we watch (nearly all) it covered inclusion and social justice themes and minority characters with astonishing skill and tact.

The OA, Season One, Episode Seven: Empire of Light

Prairie has another one of her nightmares and for this means that something bad is coming. It's Able who goes to Prairie's bedside to comfort her.  Prairie asks Able if he is mad at her and when he says no, she explains that she thought the note that she left behind would be comforting.  It seems that when Prairie left to go and find her father, she left behind a note saying that she would only be gone for a few days but as we know, that was not the case because she was kidnapped. Able clearly has no idea what the hell Prairie is talking about but he covers by claiming that he forgot about the note. 

Able and Nancy wait outside of Rahim's office for Prairie to be finished with her counselling session. They joke around a little bit and then Able brings up the note. Nancy says that she doesn't know what he's talking about, but it's clear that she lying. In the counselling session, Prairie discusses the vivid dreams that she's been having.  Rahim suggests that what we think of as psychic could be our brains way of processing all of the information that we take in. Rahim even suggests that what really Prairie really needs is a way to deal with all of the pain and loss that she's suffered.  Prairie however is not sold and is certain that there's something significant that she's missing and that she needs to put the pieces of the puzzle together before it's too late. Nancy who cannot seem to stop trying to control Rahim, asks to speak to him alone but he decides that it wouldn't be appropriate. Nancy then brings up Prairie's dreams and points out that when Prairie was a child that the doctor medicated her and while it didn't fix everything, it seemed to help. Rahim's big suggestion is that Prairie head out to dinner with her parents and establish a sort of regular family routine.

The dinner stars out fine, with the family joking about Prairie's former boyfriend. Things go off the rails on a perfect stranger pops by the table and asks to take a picture with Prairie. Before Prairie can even respond it's selfie time much to Nancy's dismay. Before leaving the stranger comments about how brave she thinks that Prairie is for surviving being kidnapped, raped and beaten. This sets Nancy off.  Able, tries to keep the dinner peaceable but Nancy won't listen. When the waiter comes over because Nancy is making a fuss, it turns out to be French, who's shocked to see the OA out with her parents.  French goes off to bring water to the table as Nancy begins to forth at the mouth about what the stranger is going to do with the photo she took of Prairie. Nancy is horrified that the stranger will write things about Prairie that aren't true. Nancy finally works her way into admitting that she doesn't know the first thing that happened to Prairie while she was in confinement and demands to know how Prairie got the scars on her back. Perhaps in an effort to calm Nancy down, Prairie says that she is the Original Angel and that she made the scars on her back herself. Predictably, Nancy reacts badly and slaps Prairie across the face.  

Fortunately for Prairie, French is quick to return to the table and guide her out of the restaurant.  As they sit in the car together, French talks about being astounded to see that Prairie actually has a family and that while she told them all about Homer and the experiments, she didn't mention that she had living parents. French surmises that what Prairie really needs to is focus on her family because they may be what she's been searching for. Really French? It turns out that the Johnsons and French are about to become the least of Prairie's worries.

iZombie, Season 3, Episode 13: Looking for Mr. Goodbrain, Part 2

Ok… that happened. Talk about a game changing episode.

After the action of last week the gang gathers together to deal with the aftermath of losing 12 Fillmore Graves people. Major is traumatised, Justin horrified and asks where Liv was. And she tells him about sleeping with Chase.

Ok, I appreciate the honesty, but ye gods, Liv, timing! Timing!

Justin doesn’t hear any explanation and storms out - he doesn’t accept brains as a reason because he has been on brains and he has been able to resist

This is something iZombie has touched on previous seasons but never really developed, especially not this season where the brains have been reduced to comic relief. The struggle of having your personality stripped, of having to resist alien thoughts and urges, of being drawn into situations and opinions which you’d normally reject. There’s a horror to that this show has completely lost and it was needed in this scene

Another problem is that this scene seems to exist entirely to remove Justin from the plot line. Maybe he’ll appear again in season 4 for some relationship angst, but just when all the action is heating up he has been completely removed from the plot line. Contrast with every other one of Liv’s relationship, Justin has been completely sidelined. It’s lucky he didn’t die last episode but, really, a corpse would have had as much presence.

Also last week I said how they didn’t shame Katty for her sex life- well in this episode there’s a lot of harping on her low standard and addiction to anonymous sex (and the only objection is Ravi’s self esteemed).

We have a brief interlude with Blaine who is not seeing business go well. He’s lost a shipment of smuggled brains and a minion. And Chase doesn’t accept his deal to provide brains because Chase has decided unprocessed brains and their personality changes are dangerous to his unit (he’s not wrong) and despite his shortage, he’s banned his men from going to Blaine’s bar - and that’s half his business. It also means less bars full of choreographer brains which, I have to say was awesome.

Another twist is Major - mourning Natalie and his squad mates, he goes to Chase and asks to be scratched. Chase warns him zombie reveal is coming and he needs to realise how bad things are going to get - but Major insists. Majoris a zombie again

At the morgue, Clive, Ravi and Liv compare notes, from Tatum bringing Chase’s dog back from Paris, to Chase being in touch with Katty (provided by Liv) and some other leaps: basically they think that Chase’s dog is apparently spreading the deadly flu around on purpose to kill loads of people and get bains on tap.

Also apparently there are dog collars that spray your dog when it barks. I did not know this and do not approve, train your dog, don’t torment it, lazy dog owners.

Time to prove this by sending Liv to check Chase’s dog - and get caught. So Liv and Clive confront Chase and tell him that Harley was not responsible for killing the zombie family.

Sunchaser (Smilodon Pride #2) by Beryll & Osiris Brackhaus

Roen is a loner, a weresmilodon who doesn’t like to spend too long in the same place. He wanders as the mood takes him, alone and working as little as he has to

He certainly doesn’t rescue imprisoned and abused werewolves or go on the run with said werewolf and a local woman from a small town in New Mexico

And so began the weirdest road trip he never asked for - with a dangerous unknown supernatural chasing them and some very angry cops looking for her

This book is so much fun

What I love above all else is Betsy. Amazing, awesome, human Betsy. Throughout this book Roan makes assumption after assumption about Betsy. He assumes she’ll be weak, vapid, shallow, selfish, self-absorbed, whiny - and every single time she awesomely challenges him.

But at the same time she doesn’t subvert and shatter (because she does way more than challenge his assumptions) his assumptions by being an action girl underneath the dye and make up (and it is a sad trope that is so common in Urban Fantasy that for a woman to be kickarse and awesome she most run screaming from anything reminiscent of traditional femininity) - she is just awesome complete with the dye and make up. She’s kind and compassionate, she’s smart and she’s tough. She isn’t a dangerous fighter or lethal nor is she filled with rage or jaded or cynical (other so very common tropes for the Appropriate Urban Fantasy Female). She’s hopeful and positive and pro-active, she wants to change her life and she will.

She makes some pretty silly and sheltered assumptions largely because her connection to the supernatural has been entirely through fiction (and there’s some really subtle but quite snarky poking of tropes there, and I do love a good trope poking), but she doesn’t cling onto these ideas past them being proven wrong or disputed. She thinks in stories, some of them very twee indeed, but she deals with reality - whether that’s a brutal firefight with drug dealers or stealing a car or handling the reality of wereanimals around her. Above all she tries - completely out of her element, having to learn really quickly, she keeps moving, she isn’t stunned, or incapable - she learns, she tries, she keeps on plugging and not with even the slightest sense of martyrdom. She doesn’t persevere and learn and try while being suffering and noble - she does it because she’s got this and she can do this. She’s the gem of this book.

Shadowhunters, Season 2, Episode 14: The Fair Folk

This episode does the unprecedented - it has some people making good decisions!

Well Alec making good decisions. Some good decisions. But, hey, this is Shadowhunters one person making a good decision is still unprecedented.

First, some not so intelligent decisions - they need to speak to the Queen of the Seelie, to make sure that the murderous Seelie Kayley was acting alone. Are we all rapidly running past the fact that this is the second episode where the Shadowhunters are quick to assume collective responsibility for downworlders (actually that’s pretty much every episode with the Clave) while the Clave merrily avoids any responsibility for their serial killer in the basement, his entire army and the genocide sword. Because Shadowhunters are the utter worst.

The Queen of the Seelie is totally willing to meet with Clave representatives - but only Valentine’s “experiments”. Namely Jace and Clary

Alec agrees to these terms and sends the two shadowhunters who are described as “experiments” to the Seelie Queen’s realm for her to play with

This is not the good decision

Simon also decides to join them despite knowing nothing about Seelie, the Seelie realm or, well, anything, he’s coming along because REASONS.

This is also not the good decision.

In the seelie realm we see that general ignorance with Clary and Simon acting like this is a romantic stroll (while Jace seethes, his envy further stoked by Sebastian inserting the knife and taunting him. Oh, yes, people still haven’t done a background check for this guy. Also not the good decision). Simon is also killed by a passing before they finally reach the Seelie Queen who looks like a small child because we all know children are creepy and possibly evil.

She is happy that Simon is there because she wants to recruit him to the team of immortal Downworlders club because Shadowhunters are a) totally not immortal and b) stick to their own and hate all downworlders anyway

Hey, she’s not wrong.

Simon, of course, says no.

So instead the Queen sets up a game (using Simon’s inept ignorance of the world) to threaten to kill both Jace and Simon unless Clary kisses the one who means the most to her. Guess which one that is?

Because the Immortal Queen of the Seelie? She totally cares about teenaged love triangles.