The only thing that makes me crazier than Plodding On and Stage/Fright is the way the two of them work together.
Spoilers for both under the cut, just in case.
So, the thing about comedy and horror is they're the two most self-referential genres in the world. They're in constant conversation with everything that came before them, and also with their audiences. 'Hey, remember this?' they say. 'You saw when [a house fell on Buster Keaton and he was left standing in the window]/[David Warner got his head cut off by a plate of glass in The Omen]/etc. We saw it too! Here's what it made us think.' And Inside No 9, which essentially falls into both genres, does that all the time. On top of that, it's written by Reece and Steve, and I think a lot about that description of all TLoG guys as 'conscious mythologisers'- obsessive geeks making things that are deliberately intended to inspire obsessive geekery. They are and always have been very tuned in to the general response to their work and to their fanbase in particular.
Which is why it makes me feral that they did *that* with Plodding On. Like, it makes sense that the last episode, the victory lap, would be a meta episode. It makes sense that it would tie in to a lot of other episodes. It even makes sense that they would bring back the themselves-as-characters bit from Deadline, if they were going to go meta. But there were *so many ways* they could have done that. It could have been about the Curse of the Hare, and how IN9 has been a haunted production the whole time. They could have done a Tristram Shandy-esque comedy episode about them trying to write the final episode. But no. They really sat down and went 'As far as the fans are concerned, the scariest, most heart-wrenching thing we can do is say we're not going to work together anymore and have a big fight about it'. There's no poltergeist in the studio, no threat of the haunting breaking through into the viewers' living room ala Ghostwatch; the Big Scare of the episode is Steve saying to Reece, "I don't even know if we are friends anymore." And it's *devastating*.
And then Stage/Fright comes along to make it all better.
Because Stage/Fright? Does exactly the opposite of Plodding On. Stage/Fright absolutely does use the guys-playing-themselves bit to do some classic meta horror, to put the ghost right there with you in the theatre, to make you complicit in summoning it, even. But it also tells you right up front 'Every ghost story is really a love story'. The *point* of the show isn't the fun ghost train stuff in the second half; the point is that we get to see *this* Steve (in contrast to Plodding On's Steve) being devastated at losing Reece, and then thrilled to reunite with him. They're dead at the end of Stage/Fright, but the ending isn't that they die; it's that they're ghosts haunting the same theatre, singing and dancing and telling bad jokes and doing the thing that they love. Together. Ever after. *That's* the final button they put on Inside No 9.
And the thing is, both the episode and the stage show presumably work fine if you're a casual fan. They're well written, the jokes are good, the emotional arcs work. But it will never stop making me crazy that those emotional arcs are consciously, deliberately *laser targeted* at the people who are there for Reece and Steve, before they're there for the show even, who are invested first and foremost in them and their partnership. It's such a bold, weird statement to make that what the end of your show is about, and I love so much that it's what they did.
No disrespect to roleplay blogs but house would never say "I'm gregory house, a doctor" if he had a blog he'd make an introductory post like "what's up [random slur]s bigbootylover420 here" and it would be 99% shitposts except for when it's 3am and he's posting "I have nothing in my life. The drugs create a short facade of contentment and when I wake up sober life crashes down on me once more." Followed up with a picture reblogged from a porn bot
This is perhaps a cruel feeling to have but I am made almost angry by people who “doubt their faith” just because a bad thing happened to them.
You always knew it happened! You are an adult! You know horrific accidents happen, innocent people are hurt, fawns die in the woods without witnesses! But as soon as it’s not “somebody” and it’s you, you stop believing in a loving God?
If you say “I can’t reconcile all the bad things that happen on Earth with a God who is good” I get it.
If you say “I can reconcile all the bad things that happen on Earth with a God who is good” I get it.
If you say “I can reconcile all the bad things that happen on Earth, but I can’t reconcile all the bad things that happen to me with a God who is good,” I dont understand. I’m uncomprehending.
Once again thinking about the power of Will Graham to turn Hannibal Fuckin' Lecter into the POV character for the audience because you'll see this beautiful man with his frizzy curls and his big wet blue eyes just quivering with shame and horror at himself whispering brokenly, "I liked killing" and you'll be like "BABYGIRL. You should never feel bad about yourself you are so pretty you kill as many people as you want." and then eventually you'll see him lift his head and his eyes will be as clear and sharp as a polished blade beneath the sun and he will radiate power and he will not be ashamed anymore and this is his becoming and you will be like "BABYGIRL. YES. KILL PEOPLE. You are so pretty when you bare your blood-covered teeth in the moonlight and admit it's beautiful." and oh whoops haha now you're Hannibal.
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