The Mist, Season One, Episode Ten: The Law of Nature

I think that this episode should have been called everyone on this show is horrible to some degree and deserving to meet individual mist monsters, including the writers themselves.  Almost from the beginning, the writers have been determined to escalate the fear of this show, often sacrificing plot to do so and this episode fits in with that objective. 

The Mall

The mall is the first location in which we saw people lose their ever loving minds when they decided to exile Vic.  With supplies running short and only one day of food left, the tension has increased. Gus is desperate to try and maintain control but Shelly is attempting to wrest it from him. Gus tries to sympathise by saying he cannot imagine Shelly's pain at losing a child but makes it clear that he thinks that she has become unstable.  For her part, Shelly is attempting to weaponise the people against Alex while playing up on her grieving. 

The only authority that Gus really has is that he is the manger. Given the shortness of supplies, Gus tries to rally the people into going on a supply run but there are few options near by and Kyle rightfully points out that even if they leave the mall, there's no guarantee that anyplace they go hasn't already been looted. 

Things come to a head for Gus when his secret stash of food is discovered by none other than Shelly.  This is the break that Shelly has been looking for to finally be able to usurp Gus's authority and to get the residents of the mall to go after Alex, who she blames for surviving the mist monster while her child died. 

As for Alex, she is busy getting her flirt on with Jay, who it seems has managed to convince her by virtue of his cuteness and his heroically burned hands that he isn't responsible for raping her.  Alex and Jay even share a kiss which Shelly witnesses. Shelly of course reports on the kiss and talks about how Alex through a wedge in the town by accusing Jay of rape yet now is kissing him. Do I really need to say that judging how a rape survivor responds to her assault is problematic? Shelly has spent quite a good deal of time slut shaming both Alex and Eve.

 Eve becomes increasingly upset watching as Alex and Jay get closer and so she devises a plan to separate them in order to protect her daughter. Jay is sent into a secluded room to gather some water, only to find himself locked inside by Eve.  Eve must have had a moment of generosity because not only did she leave Jay with enough water but he has magazines, toilet paper and a bed. 

Knowing that hiding food is going to get him exiled just like Vic, Gus bashes Shelly over the head killing her.  As blood pours out of Shelly's wound, Gus calls out for help.  When people arrive to find Shelly dead, they are quick to blame Gus, despite his claims of innocence. After being punched several times and witnessing the mob mentality which is developing, Gus blames Alex for Shelly's death claiming that he saw her running away from the scene of the crime. 

The Church

Nathalie is playing all mysterious religious figure.  Nathalie explains that she is waiting for a sign before returning to the mist.  It's Nathalie's belief that the Mist wants something to right the violence because the last time that the mist appeared it was after a young girl was assaulted.  

Connor is actually relieved that it was Nathalie and not Father Romanov who returned. Connor explains that Romanov presided over his marriage, as well as ran the funeral service for his departed wife.  Connor developed a strong dislike for Romanov when he implied that Connor's wife died because Connor wasn't faithful in his prayers to God.  I'd say that's a pretty damn good reason to have resentment. Connor's next confession is his belief that Jay is actually guilty of raping Alex. Connor feels that because he wasn't the type of father that Jay needed and didn't teach him a proper moral code that Jay is guilty. That's a big huge leap to make on Connor's part but Nathalie is more than willing to go with it because she is looking to make a sacrifice to nature and Jay fits the bill. Nathalie decides that they need to leave the church and head to the mall so that they can sacrifice Jay to appease nature and quite surprisingly Connor doesn't object to his son being the sacrifice.

Killjoys, Season 3 Episode 7: The Wolf You Feed

We have a lot of drama here and I’m feeling all kinds of torn about it. Because I love the storyline, the revelations, he backstory and the building of the armies - but I’m not sure I like where we end up especially with Dutch

Last week Dutch and Zeph ran off to do techy stuff and this week Johnny concentrates on finding them (after D’avin tells him to do “your best friend power twins thing” which is so perfect) which leaves D’avin with the army

Which is in trouble. Their first tests of piloting the Hullen ships go horribly horribly wrong, killing 2 pilots; morale is low,.Turin is not helping stomping around shouting at people.

Morale is also low because Dutch, the woman who put this army together, isn’t there either. The Farren in particular are not happy with her absence since they swore to follow her more than anything else and they’re more than a little suspicious of generals and rulers who aren’t there with them. That leaves D’avin to struggle to inspire them

Examining the ships they talk to Fancy who is with his fellow cleansed about why the ships work. The ships are designed to work in tandem, and to properly use them you need to have your brain rewired with Hullen goo. So D’avin can do it. And so can the Cleansed. No-one else can

The problem is that the Cleansed are desperately trying to rebuild their lives after what the Hullen did to them. On top of that Turin is having the Killjoys harassing the Cleansed because of the idea that they could relapse or are sleeper agents. Turin’s harassment doesn’t make this an easy sell to them - they demand D’avin have their back against harassment.

Especially when Turin decides to round up and imprison all of the Cleansed. He understands only they can fly the ships but hey now they can experiment on hem because war is hard like that, don’t you know

This earns him the come back that he isn’t a general - he’s middle management

The Farren are also super pissed because it’s this kind of betrayal by their generals they were founded to stop. Alvis and the Scarbacks are similarly not ok with this

D’avin has to step up, make some epic speeches, challenges Turin and free the Cleansed. They will pilot those ships and they will be trusted - because the Cleansed are taking an even bigger risk trusting them after the way they’ve been treated. Turin objects and D’avin has him arrested - all the factions of the army; the Cleansed, the Farren, the Scarback monks, the refugees, all backing D’avin over Turin.

Turin is locked up and this brings my first and most minor character issue - what happened to Turin? He was always as diplomatic as a hammer to the face, but when did he become this incompetent? I want to see some character development to see him turn from abrasive, but caring and competent leader to this hot mess?

D’avin is extra awesome when Fancy himself expresses concerns that he may relapse and be evil Hullen: D’avin once turned on his squad because of a chip in his head. Rookies fail and veterans crack - no soldier is a guarantee

Dutch and Zeph are using science to spurt brain goo into Dutch’s brain so she can relive Aneela’s memories. SCIENCE

There we see the history of Aneela - presumably way back before the 9 made their deal with the Hullen to take over the Quad. There we see Aneela and Khlyen, one of the Kreshi major families (it looks like the 9 were 10 at this time) and Khlyen being all fatherly and promising a new dream future for them

Zoo, Season 3, Episode 7: Wham, Bam, Thank you Sam

Abigail has rejoined her fellow Shepherds and they’re trying to use the kids on Melvatox they kidnapped to be psychic. Apparently they’re experimenting on children for the sake of the hybrids, something Abigail loves because she is almost comically evil now.

Our gang of good guys are swooping in to the rescue by tracking the improbably radioactive drugs. Clem wants to join the raid but Mitch says no because a) she’s pregnant and b) she’s literally the key to saving the human race

I feel that her miracle baby is going to be used far more as a shackle for Clem. I mean, normally if someone says “you’re pregnant you delicate flower, sit yourself down and act like the incubator you are now” we’d call it out - we’d even have a call out in show from the pregnant woman (just look at Wynonna Earp doing just that). But by throwing in “saviour of the human race” that puts on a whole lot of pressure for Clem to be obedient and quiet

Abigail and her minions have alarms of their arrival and are apparently ready to go at a moments notice - because when the gang attacks all of the Shepherds and their data has been removed, leaving only a stasis pod (for Mitch to be very sarcastic about - because he’s snarky about everything) and the children since they don’t need them any more. The data in the tanks also proves that Abigail was there and healed

While Abigail herself goes to their nearly abandonned plane, attacks Clem and takes back Abendigos.

In the aftermath of the rescued children there’s lots of media attention and Logan is approached by clearly evil man, Henry Garruson. He’s part of the IADG and evil. He has reports of a hybrid attack in Germany which is a biggie because Hybrids are an American problem and he wants logan to join his evil organisation of evilness since he thinks Logan has lots and lots and lots of experience with hyrbids

People may argue that I have no proof that this man is evil. But he’s super cagy and the actor is Michael Hogan so there’s at least a 70% chance of evilness here.

Logan takes the deal, especially since, as he explains to Jaime, Jaime is more into Mitch’s surly ruggedness than Logan’s boyband cuteness. But Evil guy does have a lead on a hybrid in Peru which will help with their pokemon style collection.

So everyone back to the plane without Logan - we have lots of geeking over the stasis pod and the potential of the technology. Clem admits she had a fight with Abigail so Abe checks her out an Jackson and she have a moment about what it means to have the cure for the world inside you and the rather extreme pressure it puts on you. I’m glad there is at least a nod to this.

The blood tests do raise a concern with the baby - it has a disease which needs a full blood transfusion to help it survive or the baby will die in 3 days. Throw in super super rare blood type and Abe declares they have to find the baby daddy (and not in anyway is this an excuse for the team to check up on Clem’s ex). The father is Sam Parker but Clem has issues because, in hunting down Mitch, she kind of ran out on him without saying goodbye.

Stranger Things, Season 1, Chapter 1 The Vanishing of Will Byers

Mark this down as another one of those hundred shows where we suddenly realise “wait, that’s out genre!?” and then we have to do a catch up (by the way, if any of you know of shows which are our gene and you think “why isn’t Fangs covering this?” this is why. Let us know and I’ll check if it’s good: if it is I’ll do it. If it’s not I’ll foist it on Renee.

The helpful screen writing tells us this show takes place in 6th November 1983 in Hawkings Montana.

The 1980s and rural Montana. So I’m going with dystopian.

And in an Ominous Lab of Ominousness we have a scientist running through spooky flickering lights. He is duly eaten by some unseen scary monster. Honestly what’s the life insurance rates for people who work in ominous government labs? I mean, it’s right behind “henchman for millionaire scientists who owns own island with volcano”

This being the first episode of a series and us having a lot of cast we have the obligatory introduction to ALL THE PEOPLE scene. This is something that seems to be happening more often, especially in small town-settings in the genre or when there’s not one focused protagonist - there’s a sudden need to show us EVERYONE in the first episode and it gives me a headache. I find myself hoping some of them die off just so I can keep track. This brief introduction to everyone also makes it very hard to invest in anyone.

So to get past this it’s time to do a quick round of the characters:

Mike, Will, Dustin and Lucas. The geeky outsider kids. Lucas is Black, Dustin disabled and all of them are bullied (Will also faces homophobic bullying apparently from his father as well though there’s no indication he’s gay).

The Byers family: single mother Joyce raising older teenaged working teen Jonathan and relying on him a lot to help her with geeky kid Will.

Wheeler family: Ted and Karen Wheeler, children geeky kid Mike, teen daughter Nancy (who is dating inappropriate, popular kid Steve) and baby Holly

Awful police chief Hopper, divorced, has a tragic dead daughter and eats doughnuts drinks too much alcohol and is generally indifferent to his job. This character is mass produced for so many shows.

So, there’s the main cast and the action starts with the geeky kids’ DnD game breaking up and Will riding home at night. On his way through the spooky lands of the Ominous Government lab he’s menaced by a growling shadowy monster. We never get to see it but it’s duly scary because we can’t see it as Will desperately runs home to try and avoid it. We see it unlock doors, remove chains and make lights flicker. Will runs, struggles with a gun in the shed (this child has access to a gun. A gun.) before the light shines super bright - and then Will then disappearing.

The Homophobia of The Mist

The Mist is based on a novella by the same name by Stephen King. Given that the source material was originally published in 1980, to be relevant to today, it most certainly had to be updated.  Erasure is not something new to this genre and therefore the lack of LGBT characters in the novella while not surprising is certainly common.  As part of updating this series, the writers behind the Stars version decided to include LGBT characters.

The desire to make a series inclusive which was once erased is good; however, good intentions don’t necessarily lead to good representation. This is especially true when it comes to Adrian and Tyler.  It’s perhaps even more problematic that both Adrian and Tyler are teenagers, given that this is a time when youth are actively looking for characters they can identify with.  There is little enough LGBT representation on television for young people to identify with and therefore offering them not one but two characters that both leave so much to be desired is actually harmful.

When we first meet Adrian, he is sitting down for dinner with his father. Mr. Garff clearly disapproves of his sons sexuality and the fact that Adrian wears makeup.  Adrian tries to address his father, only to be met by silence. It’s Mrs. Garff who reminds Adrian that his father cannot hear him while he is wearing makeup. The viewer is meant to recognize Mr.Garff as the homophobe he clearly is, while seeing Mrs. Garff as the so-called good parent. The problem with this is that by not calling out Mr.Garff on his treatment of Adrian, she is equally guilty in the oppression of their child. Silence in the face of bigotry, no matter who is doing it, is not benign. More, Mrs. Garff’s wording focuses the fault on Adrian: she not only doesn’t challenge her husband, but openly accepts his narrative. Her husband isn’t ignoring their son, he “can’t hear you while you’re wearing make up” - she pretends sympathy but the fault is still her son’s.

Surely, there are parents out there who are just like the Garffs, who are actively doing harm to their children - but in itself this is why this unchallenged, unexplored scene is so damaging: there are a whole lot of Mrs. Garffs out there who think they are “the good parent” and that sorely needs to be challenged.

Clearly there’s a problematic juxtaposition when it comes to the Garffs; however, Adrian’s parents actually represent the least toxic version of homophobia that The Mist engages in.

After a less than pleasant supper, Adrian heads off to the football game to indulge in his male privilege to gawk at the football players. Yes, please do read that sentence again. What the ever loving fuck?  It’s only the first episode and it’s already clear that the writers have no idea what the hell they are talking about. You cannot just throw buzz words around with no rhyme or reason.  Adrian has male privilege because he’s male and it has absolutely nothing to do with his sexuality. In fact, just being a bisexual male in a situation like a football game (a sport known for its toxic hypermasculinity) could actually prove dangerous for Adrian.

This is not only logically ridiculous, but the show itself openly acknowledges homophobia (pretty much being the sum total of Adrian’s storyline) - it is mind boggling for the writers to decide Adrian is in the privileged position to drool over football players, while in the very same episode he’s attacked by one of those same football players.

Homophobic violence pretty much defines Adrian’s storyline, from being homophobically attacked at a party, to being violently assaulted by Tyler in the hospital. Follow this up with what can only be described as an attempt at a touching bonding moment with Tyler describing yet another violent attack on a perceived gay or bisexual man. We’re only only on the 7th episode and Adrian is far from a major or focused character but we’ve thrown in four examples of homophobic violence. Change the damn record.

Worse, the themes around these incidents is further toxic - most glaringly that Tyler himself is a gay or bisexual man. Look, internalised homophobia exists, it would be impossible not to in a society that still continually denigrates and abuses LGBTQ people; self-hatred and externalising that is a problem. But this meme that homophobia is caused and primarily perpetuated by LGBTQ people ourselves has to die yesterday. All homophobia comes from cis, straight people - even when it’s perpetrated by the self-loathing LGBTQ people themselves. And even that is by far the exception - the vast majority of hate crimes against LGBTQ people, discrimination against LGBTQ people and oppression of LGBTQ people is entirely at the direct hands of cis, straight people. This tired trope that that violent bigot is secretly gay themselves is never an attempt to analyse the damage society causes LGBTQ people, especially LGBTQ youth, but as a way to shift the blame from straight people. Enough, homophobia is not an LGBTQ on LGBTQ crime, no matter how many times cis, straight people love to sell this narrative.

This comes packaged with another terrible message - endurance and forgiveness. Adrian is beaten bloody by a violent homophobe and seconds later is willing to make out, maybe have sex with him and suddenly they’re all friends? In case the message didn’t sink in, Tyler recites a story of abuse and his “respect” for the victim who didn’t report him for breaking his freaking arm.

Touch of Frost (Mythos Academy #1) by Jennifer Estep

When Gwen’s mother died she was claimed by the Mythos Academy. An Academy that teaches young, magically gifted warriors to be ready to fight Chaos as has been their solemn duty for centuries

But Gwen, with her powers of psychometry and no magical history or culture felt very out of place among the affluent, strong and powerful valkyries and spartans of the Mythos Academy

And never did this rift loom so large than when one of their class is killed and her war torn peers seem to not even care. It’s left to her to investigate and find the actual truth

I can’t even begin to review this book without addressing the great big elephant in the room and the problem is it underpins a lot of the whole book.

A core concept of this book is that the magical kids in this school are have magical gifts based on the mythological, legendary warriors of the past. This works for the valkyries with their super strength. And the Amazons with their super speed. But then we have the Romans, Celts and Spartans… these are actual people? Also I question why your legendary super-warriors for men are actual historical people. While your magical warrior women are mythological? I don’t think it’s intentional and there’s no actual sense that there’s a magical divide between men and women: but I think it kind of sends a weird message that awesome warrior women are… well… fictional… while awesome warrior men are historical.

But then there’s Gwen. Gwen’s magical gift is psychometry - she can touch things and get sensation and images off it. Her mother and grandmother also had psychic gifts like this. And they are called Gypsies.

Argh, no. First of all that word is not neutral, it’s a slur used to denigrate, demean, insult and perpetuate no small number of myths against the Romani people. And Romani are not legendary, mythological or even historical people - they’re an ethnic group, a highly discriminated against ethnicity that faces incredible amounts of persecution as well as really damaging stereotypes. One of which is this pervasive fortune teller/woo-woo depiction - this is damaging

Travelers, Season One, Episode Six: Helios 685

My ongoing complaint regarding Travelers is that up until now, the writers have been really vague about why humanity is coming to and end.  We've been told that the air and the water is so recycled that it's metallic, people are crammed into shelters and that resources are extremely limited. Now we know that the genesis of the problem is an asteroid that hits the Eastern seaboard of North America. After the asteroid crashes, wars break out over the scarce resources. 

Apparently, all of the missions that the Travelers have been assigned to date have been a sort of warm up for the big event - diverting the asteroid and in the process, putting the course of humanity on a new path.  For something this big, it's going to require a huge team and so the Travelers take over an elderly rapture cult just before they can drink a glass of poison.  It will also require the presence of Mrs.Bloom, a Traveler who seems to be pretty high up in the chain of command. Mrs.Bloom has dedicated her life to building a machine to knock the asteroid off of its trajectory and she just wants to be the one to turn the key.  Mrs. Bloom arrives in the body of a woman with terminal cancer, who was just about to avail herself of physician assisted suicide. 

The Travelers take a vow that at the peril of their own birth that they will see this mission through to completion.  It seems however that the only one to understand what this vow really means is Trevor. If the asteroid is averted and the wars don't happen, there's a good chance that the Travelers will never have been born. Essentially, to make the world a better place for others, they are risking their own existence because they will have erased their own time line. The harsh reality that success means non existence is enough for Marcy to call David and thank him for his help and warn him not to worry if she gets reassigned.  Carey confronts MacLaren, wondering if he is going to miss his wife and admits that she is worried about what will become of her son. 

Nothing the Travelers ever do seems to go smoothly however.  The bus containing the suicide cult is late, making it difficult for Carly to hold off the Non Traveler emergency people who want to help.  Charged with keeping the antimatter safe, Delaney locked down access using her own biometrics.  This wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, if Gleason hadn't decided to bring her in for questioning based on the testimony of the driver who survived the truck explosion. This means that MacLaren is forced to hunt down Delaney and threaten Gleason because the military has no jurisdiction over Delaney. It's all a brilliant bit of theater and bluster because while MacLaren is arguing with Gleason, Delaney is sneaking into his car.

Before Delaney, Marcy and MacLaren can even get back to the lab, Gleason learns through a report that the lab has been compromised and so he makes his way there with his men.  Now that Delaney is back at the lab, she has to be convinced into releasing the antimatter.  This is no easy task and involves telling her the truth about the Travelers.  Delaney does in the end agree to release the antimatter but by this time, Gleason and his men have arrived.  Carly, along with the Traveler death cult are fighting off the soldiers but they've been ordered only to take non lethal shots which the soldiers quickly pick up on. 

Mrs. Bloom orders the cell to get Delaney away from the blast because it's going to end up killing a lot of people and she decides to wait around to be the one to throw the switch.  The team make their exit, picking up Carly on the way.  Before Mrs.Bloom can flick the switch, Gleason enters and promptly shoots Mrs. Bloom when she won't back away from the key.  The future intervenes and one by one turns Gleason's men in order to ensure the mission's success and Gleason responds by killing them all. When Gleason is the last one left, he realises that he is next to be taken over and so attempts to commit suicide. Gleason pulls the trigger but he blew all of his bullets killing his men and Mrs. Bloom.  The moment Gleason is invaded by a Traveler, he flicks the switch and antimatter explodes, shooting a laser into the sky to deflect the asteroid. 

MacLaren pulls over to the side of the road and orders everyone to shield their eyes moments before the explosion. When the smoke clears, all of the Travelers are still in their host bodies. Did the mission work or not?

The most compelling moment of this episode was watching desperation take over Gleason, as he realised that he would lose control of his body next.  It actually humanised Gleason quite a bit and this was necessary because he was on the verge of becoming a mustache twirling villain. David Lewis absolutely sold this scene and made me a believer in terms of Travelers taking over hosts. 

At this point, I'm even more convinced that Trevor is an old man inside a young man's body. When MacLaren expresses frustration with Mrs.Bloom, Travis tells MacLaren not to take it personally and hints that he's known Bloom for over 100 years. Could it be possible that even with the deprivations that humans are actually living longer in the future? If Trevor has known Bloom for 100 years, how old does that make him?  It makes sense that he seems to chafe under his father's orders.  If Trevor is really that old, from his perspective, his father is the know nothing punk.

I found an interesting contrast between the death cult Travelers and MacLaren's cell. When Travelers first arrive they are all about their mission and the wonders of the 21st century. The death cult travelers were amazed that they saw a bear/dog, whereas; MacLaren's group has moved past that initial stage and are now thinking about the connections they've made by assuming their hosts's life. For Carly, it's her infant son and for Marcy, it's David.  MacLaren may have strong feelings for Carly, but I suspect that at the very least he's developed a grudging respect for Kay.

I suspect that there's going to be some trouble from the Director for MacLaren's cell, given that Bloom suggests that they are famous for all of the wrong reasons in the future. If the mission failed and Bloom died on top of it all, this will absolutely be upsetting to the people in charge.  The question is, what consequence will MacLaren and his cell pay for it?

Shadowhunters, Season 2, Episode 19: Hail and Farewell

Time for everyone to be super stompy and unhappy.

Jonathan has been discovered and is now all stompy and angry but still pretty much dependent on his daddy issues and being constantly manipulated by Valentine. They’re also on the run now, hunted by the Clave

Clary & co have decided to tell the Inquisitor about Lake Lin being the real mirror. Since before this absolutely no-one knew and, within like 10 minutes of Clary telling the Inquisitor and her deciding to guard the lake, Valentine also knows I’m going to put this down as yet another ridiculous decision. Seriously the whole point of the lake’s security was that only someone who was getting convenient plot points beamed into her oh-so-empty head could actually find it. And the first thing she does is broadcast it? And the first thing the Inquisitor does is spread it around and place a guard?

More tension comes from the Downworld. Fearing that Valentine is going to use the mortal instruments to summon the angel Raziel and basically nuke all things Downworld, Magnus, Raphael and Luke accept the Seelie Queen’s offer of sanctuary for their people in the Seelie realm - out of angelic reach - but agree to basically letting her set Downworlder policy. And among that is to hunt down Valentine themselves rather than work with the Clave to do it

And… this is bad?

I mean, seriously, even Alec oh-so-nice Shadowhunter decided it was grossly appropriate to just lie to the Downworlders that Valentine had the mortal genocide sword - and he IS vastly better than every other Clave authority out there. The Inquisitor treats them worse than dirt, Aldertree tortured and threatened Raphael without any consequences at all and they’ve been grossly ineffective at stopping Valentine. In fact that, even now on the run and after a decade or more of vanishing, Valentine still has legions of followers he can call on at at time suggesting a not insignificant proportion of the Clave are Circle members

On top of all this, this independence is considered breaking the Accords and may lead to the Clave and Downworld going to war

Let’s be clear, they’re not attacking Shadowhunters, they merely do not wish to co-operate: this is considered an act of war. When thinking why Magnus, Luke and Raphael would basically serve the Seelie you have to see that they’re actually just swapping one master for another - and the Seelie has shown them nothing close to the disrespect the Clave has.

We still having touching bonding moments between Raphael and Izzy who decide despite their very very very very shaky beginning there is definitely something between them. And between Luke and Clary where, astonishingly, no-one faints because Luke is actually thinking of his pack for once. He still keeps feeding them info though because Shadowhunter addiction is hard to kick