So I Watch You From Afar...

Still looking.

[hr-rep]

MLH Awards (2014)

[garydrostle]

[pronounyaoi]

dude stop before i develop a strange and powerful fondness for you

[rylandsgrace]

[georgecuntanza]

end of tsitp they’re going to peel back the summerhouse wallpaper and find black mold and that’s why everyone was acting like that

[fellshish]

i suffer through sleep deprivation torture each morning [snooze alarm]

[klucis]

‘I’m Not That Girl’ maps onto the plot of Glee so perfectly that my mind created a false memory of Rachel singing it. I was genuinely shocked to discover that cover doesn’t exist…

[stuckinapril]

notice how linkedin isn’t on maslow’s hierarchy of needs

[mia-down-under]

[klucis]

So…season 4B, eh?

I’m the kind of person that doesn’t like to pile on something without suggesting a better alternative. Therefore, after reading everyone’s takes on what was done wrong and how they would have done it differently, I’ve finally decided to throw my own 2c in, too.

Before I get to ‘my version’, I must comment on some of the most glaring moments of 4B in which the bag was monumentally fumbled with JJ and Jiara.

1. All of the near death experiences of JJ falling into water. First, the villain boat night trip. Second, being left to die by Groff at the sea. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE that Kiara, JJ’s girlfriend, has 0 reaction??? Especially because we have the exact same scenarios to compare it to from previous seasons. Aka, the infamous ‘sup?’ scene from season 2 or the bike crash scene from season 3. Girlie was so worried. Now we don’t even get a hug??? It is so weird, that it pulled me out of the story. Those are not two people in love, or even two people who are friends. That’s the reaction one would have about a coworker at best.

2. JJ and Sarah almost dying at sea. John B runs to Sarah the millisecond he sees them. Kiara doesn’t even stand up??? What?! That was so bizarre I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I don’t know how to possibly read it as anything other than “I don’t care”.

3. Another peak stupidity moment - why would JJ turn his back to Groff who was just threatening Kiara with a knife? He’s always had above average survival instinct and reflexes, what was that? How about you get away from the lunatic who’s already tried to kill you once before the emotional reunion? Beyond stupid. Just out of character and bad, no excuse there.

4. JJ abandoning all of his spidey senses when road tripping with Groff and acting so incredibly out of character that it was sad to watch. Where all the trust issues go? It’s BAD writing.

5. JJ having to open his mother’s casket… literally why? What was the point. I am literally speechless. Haven’t seen this much unnecessary suffering bestowed upon a character since reading A Little Life.

Now here’s how I would have done it. The three main variables I’m working with are i) Rudy is leaving; ii) Rudy and Madison have some sort of an issue and need to touch as little as possible; iii) Netflix demands a fifth season.

1. As much as I loved the slow burn of Jiara in the first 2 seasons and even the 3rd, given the actor drama, clearly it’s impossible to have those two as a couple. So during the 2 years time jump have them give the relationship a try and ultimately decide that it can’t work. Continue on the season 3 line of JJ being freaked out about letting Kie that close and ultimately she’s afraid to lose him as a friend and mess up the group dynamic too, so they call it quits. When we meet them after the time jump they are no longer together, but there are lingering feelings communicated through stares + the awkwardness between the actors (which we all felt) would work in favour of this plotline if interpreted as ‘it’s awkward to touch you / be near you, because we have crossed that line and maybe a part of me still wants that’. It would also work perfectly well with JJs other plotlines and the sense “that everything I touch turns to shit”. No romantic touching really has to be involved at all. Drama averted.

2. Turn up the volume of the found family trope. My jaw dropped when we got that 6second scene from the Pogelandia house with the Pogues cooking and JJ eating pasta off the wall. We needed more of that! Why didn’t we get more of that?! Maybe have that be the first year in the house when everyone was coupled up and it was “perfect”, then followed by Jiara break up and things getting rocky financially. This strengthens the idea that “good things don’t last” for JJ.

3. I think I would keep Luke as JJ’s real father but have him think that the mother chose Groff and was going to raise the baby as theirs. Have Luke really love the mother but also be incredibly resentful that she ‘didn’t chose him’, which he projected on JJ, who also looks like his mother. Then have JJ and the audience learn through Groff that actually the mother was about to leave Groff for Luke. When JJ learns of this he might go somewhere and notice a happy family of three and think of an alternate universe where that could have been his family. This could be nicely integrated with Sarah pregnancy storyline too. All this gives JJ the feeling that everything about his life was already decided when he was a baby and there is no point to his actions anymore.

4. Throughout the season, put emphasis on JJ being the last surviving heir and make it clear that while he is alive Groff will want to kill him so that he inherits all. Thus, JJ has to disappear for a while. Let’s also not forget the murder charges against him and everything. It is clear that JJ has to disappear to protect himself and his friends and to have a chance at having a full happy life in the future. In a way, JJ still sacrifices everything - can’t stay in his town, in his house with his friends/family, can’t figure out whether there is anything left between him and Kiara, etc. But he is alive. Get the tearful goodbyes and everything.

5. Then season 5 is still getting back at Groff and the Pogues making sure that JJ has a chance to come back. JJ is completely off the grid. Then at the very end, possibly after another time jump, have the Pogues be summoned by the new mysterious owner of Goat Island and learn that in fact part of it is being turned into a nature reserve. Surprise, surprise, once the Pogues get there, it turns out that JJ is the new owner and voila we get a happy ending after all the crap. Maybe throw in one more ‘Stupid things have good outcomes all the time’. Plus, have one last Jiara hug + a “Welcome home” + a loaded look implying that the year/s apart have shown them that they do belong together. Film it before Rudy leaves or negotiate him coming back for that one final episode. If thats not possible at all, then pull out the alleged body doubles and make do.

That’s my take on the situation. JJ deserved better, the story deserved better, we deserved better. This turn of events was tragic.

[pandan2]

[madeleineengland]

The true protagonist of the movie

[winnie-the-monster]

[klucis]

Ok ok ok, but hear me out

I hope we, the folkmore girlies, can agree that the double album is a continuation of the folkmore universe, so in my head it shall from now on be known as the 3rd sister album…

[profalseidols]

All of Us Strangers (2023) dir. Andrew Haigh

[yrsonpurpose]

bonus ±

[klucis]

Conversations with friends

I was going through old notes and found some thoughts I wrote down a year ago after reading and watching Conversations with friends. I don’t remember much of it now, but thought it might still be worthwhile to put these here in case someone stumbles across them and can relate

—————————————————————

I flew through Conversations with friends (the book) in about two evenings and apart from severe irritation at the absence of quotation marks, was fascinated with the characters and their relationships. Since then I have seen tons of people say they couldn’t sympathize with any of the characters and found them insufferable. I understand why, but to me this novel was never about personally relating to what was going on, rather the spectacle of it all.

Then we come to the TV adaptation… I don’t know quite how they managed it, but every single character was done wrong, and as a consequence every relationship felt wrong too. Now that is quite the ‘achievement’ if you ask me. It made me question whether I had misread something in the novel and how the characters came across.

Frances – plain-looking but confident, hiding deep insecurities behind a cool façade. Not this extremely awkward, shy thing like in the show. Don’t get me wrong, I was and often still am the extremely shy girl, which is how I know that this characterisation is not conducive to coming onto a married man. The book Frances was daring but cold as opposed to Bobbi who was a daring social butterfly. On the inside Frances wanted to be taken care of, while also actively trying to convince herself she could do everything on her own. It’s the brazenness of youth when your false sense of invincibility and/or superiority or uniqueness hasn’t been broken down yet.

Bobbi – in the book she was irresistible, which to me invoked a confident and very flirty person that deliberately oversteps some boundaries to ‘stir the pot’. Bobbi too used this persona to hide how uncertain about her future she felt inside. She didn’t let that show.

Melissa – in the book I imagined her to be very feminine and a ‘wifey’/artist type. Interesting and put-together, presenting as nice but has strong opinions, which you can see in her eyes. She cares about appearances and finds people who don’t hustle like herself to be a waste of her time. All that is very straining and exhausting to her and she worries how long she can go on like it, when will the moment come when she will inevitably fail.

Nick – a washed-up actor in short, but in that there is a memory of former success or at least excitement and drive – charm or energy he used to have when he first met Melissa and she found him a worthy addition to her life. Then a breaking point – depression, loss of whatever he had that was perceived as interesting and a slow but thorough belief that he doesn’t have it anymore. This was reinforced by Melissa’s affair and firm and obvious belief that Nick was now “pathetic”. Frances, I imagine, in part due to her youth and the way how she liked to disrupt, reminded him of how he used to be, who still saw him like that person or at least allowed for the possibility that he could still be that person. So their moments together was a space for Nick to practice being ‘ok’ and eventually ‘happy’ again.

Nick/Melissa – they used to have something great and they both recognize and value that something, no matter how fucked up things have become. By now it’s a memory at most. She thinks he is pathetic and is genuinely irked by his inability to move into adulthood without breaking down. Because in that state he reminds her of her own fear and how real the possibility of failure and despair truly is. At the same time, she knows it wasn’t always like that and that there is thus a possibility that it won’t always be like that. Nick wants to prove to Melissa that they can go back to whatever they had. That he is not pathetic. But on top of that he really resents her for kicking him when he was already down, for not giving him reassurance that he was going to get through it, for not looking at him as someone worth her time anymore. They keep up appearances. She does it because the fallout of a divorce and the societal failure associated with that does not work. He does it because he is too sad and lacks the energy to figure out what other options there might be. It’s easier to just go with the flow.

Nick/Frances – Melissa was supposedly the more interesting one out of Melissa/Nick, whereas Bobbi was the more interesting one out of Bobbi/Frances. Thus, naturally Nick and Frances already could relate to each other and understand each other’s experience from that perspective. Frances is also younger and prone to romanticizing the people around her, which was a welcome change for Nick whose closest person before Francis (i.e. Melissa) had described him as pathetic. She was a disruptor, a reminder of how he used to be and a hope that he might once again be happy and successful. Frances gets tangled in her own ‘act’, which causes many misunderstandings between the two. On some level the affair is another one of her cold bold acts much like her spoken word performances. Only she can’t really rise above her own feelings either, even if she ignores them.