Questionable Literary Merit

The Many Reasons Why EVERYONE Should Adore The Supernatural Christmas Special

Reblogging myself for seasonal reasons…

questionableliterarymerit:

A few weeks ago, I was browsing through Tumblr and I was shocked to see that a couple of individuals had listed “A Very Supernatural Christmas” among their top five least favorite SPN episodes in one of those “30 Day Challenge” thingies…

Insanity, yes? I have nothing but love for that episode and, in honor of my 1,000th post (yay! milestone!), I would like to explain to you why I esteem that episode so highly…

Structure and Context

If there was ever going to be a Christmas-themed SPN episode, there is no better place for it to exist than the beginning of Season Three. Given their latchkey kid upbringing, it makes sense that the Winchesters would have little to no motivation to normally celebrate the holidays. What then would be the one event that could change their perspective and provide a meaty, emotional context for the entire episode? Dean’s One Year Hell Countdown, of course!

It’s one of those brilliant references to a story arc that just makes so much sense in retrospect. The drama bubbles in “Fresh Blood,” and foams in “Mystery Spot,” but no where else in the third season does the quiet, impending doom of Dean’s ever-ticking hell clock carry as much emotional weight as the Christmas special episode. 

The holidays are supposed to be emotionally complex; edging on notes of the melancholy variety just as often (if not more so) than the joyful. Thematically, the somber reality of Dean’s situation is entirely appropriate to the mood of a holiday special.

Supernatural is, technically, a horror genre show. By labeling an episode as “A Very Supernatural Christmas” it would be important to adapt the concept of a Christmas special to the Supernatural setting, rather than the other way around. A hypothetical holiday story would, thus, have to be somewhat gruesome and have a real-world, mythic basis in order to stay true to the show’s premise.The use of actual winter solstice folklore nicely informed the obligatory Monsters of the Week: the fiendish pagan gods that looked like Martha Stewart’s BFFs. I love it when a plan comes together!

Kripke also intended for this show to serve as a satire of a Christmas special. The benevolent-looking baddies help the episode to parody the notion of a Christmas special by showing the sinister and subversive things that lay below our seemingly innocuous holiday trappings. That feeling is also affirmed by all the torture and bloodshed that ensues in the final act of the episode which create an overall mood that is entirely unlike, say, the Charlie Brown Christmas special.

All these elements are, however, mere window dressing for the lovely flashback story that is told about Sam and Dean’s childhood.

Groundbreaking Backstory Moments Featuring The WeeChesters

Oh, Lawd. Any Weechester moment breaks my heart, but this one almost did me in. How do people not fathom how significant this storyline is? We get to witness Little!Sam uncover the truth about the family business, which is tragic for two main reasons: 

1. This is the beginning of Sam’s normalcy complex. He might have felt different before with the constant traveling and lack of parental guidance, but this new intimacy with the supernatural cements Sam’s feelings of isolation, not just from other kids or from a larger given community, but, eventually, from the rest of humanity. What Dean considers empowering, Sam will find condemning. It is his first moment of “otherness.” This striking difference between the boy’s perception informs not just their individual backgrounds, but the rest of the entire series. (See 2)

2. This moment establishes the horrible pattern of Sam constantly being victimized / uninformed. Sam was clueless about the role of his psychic nature in Azazel’s plan, clueless about how to save Dean’s soul, clueless about Ruby, clueless about Lilith, and clueless about how his blood-exorcism powers would lead him to addiction. It’s not that he’s excused from any culpability, it’s just that it feels like poor Sam is always THE LAST PERSON TO KNOW. Again, this colors not just his immediate character background, but it also establishes themes that perfectly will set up Sam’s emotional damage for the NEXT THREE SEASONS! In the same way that Sam always feels like an outsider, he will always feel flawed as well: Ex. Luciferliberator!Sam, Lucifer’svessel!Sam, and Soulless!Sam.

Meanwhile, the final interaction between Little!Sam and Little!Dean, does three things simultaneously:

A. In terms of pacing, it contains a nice comic relief break because the gifts Dean steals are, unwittingly, “chick presents”. This momentary lightness is all too welcomed after the fingernail-pulling scene from earlier. (Shudder!)

B. Backstory-wise we witness the origin of The Samulet! which demonstrates Sam’s absolute love for his big brother. We see Sam (quite literally) crowning Dean as his father figure by giving him the amulet Bobby had intended for John. Sam’s antagonism toward John makes so much more sense within this new context; his need to separate from that patriarchy was practically inevitable. However, at the same time, this act also foreshadows Dean as the future patriarchy against which Sam will have to rebel.

C. This storyline, in which Little Dean tries to give Little Sam a makeshift Christmas BEAUTIFULLY parallels the present-time story, wherein Big Sam tries to give Big Dean a makeshift Christmas in a ratty motel with air-freshener decorations and gas station gifts. It’s absolutely compelling because you get to see both brothers trying desperately to support and love each other in the face of adversity and uncertainty. 

Structurally speaking, having these actions inverse and parallel each other in this way is this episode is just…gorgeous. That’s A-grade story building, people!

Best Music Cue In the HISTORY of Holiday-Themed Television

The final scene ends with Rosemary Clooney’s cover of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Sound editor or writer or whoever it is that decided to use THIS version of THIS Christmas song to score THIS scene…may I please rear your children?

Look at how the lyrics work so well with the emotional notes of this story:

Through the years we all will be together. If the fates allow.

Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow.

So have yourself a merry little Christmas…now.

As I said, before, the melancholy tone of the episode is wholly appropriate for the holidays. Dean’s predicament is actually a pretty relatable one. If you stretch it a bit, his hell clock could be seen as a a metaphor for terminal illness. Stretch that a little bit more and you realize life is a terminal illness and we’re all patients. Tick tock. Dean’s situation is worse because he knows the hour and the day, but truthfully…we all have sand slipping through our hourglasses. For that reason, the seasonal message of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” can be extrapolated on a much larger scale. We ALL have to make the best of whatever time we have left. We need to make every moment count, because “now” is all we have.

Eric Kripke once said that the brother’s troubled past led to a lot of “chick flick” moments in the show. The writers learned to work through this when they discovered that sometimes it’s not what they say to each other, but what they don’t say that creates the truly expressive moments of the show. No where is this more evident (or more painful) than when Sam tries to express something heartfelt to Dean…but then changes gears and asks him if he “feels like watching the game” instead.

The thought of actualizing Dean’s fate by addressing it, even in a compassionate way, is too much for Sam…so he decides it’s best to “muddle through” so they can have a merry little Christmas…right now.

The final moment of the show, where the music ends and the camera pans out and we see Sam give his big brother one last sidelong look…Gah.

It never stops hurting. 

“Proud Mary Keep on Burning” - Negative Gender Tropes and Feminist Criticism Related to Supernatural

Note: My tumblr refuses to update the tags on this post, so I’m RE-posting it and adding the tags MYself. Apologies for the rerun! - QLM

In one of my previous posts, I reblogged some excellent videos that Anita Sarkeesian from the Feminist Frequency did regarding media tropes related to the portrayal of women in pop culture sources ranging from comics to movies and television (see list below for links to these tropes and their corresponding videos).

• The Manic Pixie Dream Girl
• Women in Refrigerators
• The Smurfette Principle
• The Evil Demon Seductress
• The Mystical Pregnancy

After watching the videos, I immediately started thinking about my new favorite TV show, Supernatural, and how, sadly, it’s guilty of perpetuating a lot of these negative tropes.

The Evil Demon Seductress

One word: Ruby. But also, pretty much every female-gendered antagonistic entity the show has ever depicted. Granted, Lucifer got fresh with Sam that one time, and Crowley did french Bobby, but still… the sexualized bad girls far outnumber the sexualized bad boys. Ruby, specifically, is the quintessential example of lady baddies using sexuality to elicit sympathy and/or manipulate others because of her long term relationship with Sam that ended in complete betrayal. 

Actually, besides, Crowley, are there any lower tier characters that have regularly antagonized the boys that aren’t female? Ruby. Bela. Meg. All variations on the same femme fatale theme. Even Anna, the only female-gendered angel in the show (who was actually pretty progressive to start), ultimately became an antagonist when she was reprogrammed by Heaven’s patriarchy and decided to uproot the Winchester family tree. Her sexy times with Dean was pre-fataleness though, I think.

Lilith. Eve. On Supernatural, it seems as though evil is most frequently characterized as being female. I think this is a side effect of the show’s biased male gaze, yes, but more specifically it might be also be latent homophobia.

In order for evil to be effective, it has to be intimate. It’s safer to have sexualized female characters get closer to the boys because a) sexy bad chicks are good for ratings and b) sexy bad boys would offend subconsciously homophobic viewer/creator sensibilities. Having all these antagonists constructed as women allows the writers to play with themes related to evil in terms of temptation and carnality without things getting too “gay” in the process.

Of course, those creative decisions certainly haven’t stopped the show from reeking of homoerotic sexual tension anyways. *cough* Destiel! Wincest!, *uncough*

The Mystical Pregnancy

Ah yes. Mary Winchester and the Faustian bargain that resulted in Psychic!Sam. Mary had to go through A LOT of shit on the show, and all her suffering stems from the fact that Hell wanted to use her lady oven for demonic occupancy. The Mystical Pregnancy is damaging partly because of the way it depicts a wholly natural biological process, but it also diminishing because it reduces female characters to their reproductive functions and domestic roles. Mary, specifically, is most frequently understood only within the dimensions of wife and mother. Thankfully, the time travel episodes provide us with the chance to see her in more of a three-dimensional light, as a skilled hunter, rather than just a motherly martyr.

I love Mary but from day ONE she has been there primarily to pull on our heartstrings and move the plot forward for her menfolk. Which brings us to the next trope…

Women in Refrigerators

Mary Winchester again, but, more specifically…Jess. We didn’t really get to know Jess as much of anything outside of a martyr figure whose death was used for a purely functional purpose in the pilot: To motivate Sam to take up arms with Dean and go a-questing for ol’ yellow-eyes. For these reasons, Jess is more so an idea worth fighting for instead of a real, three-dimensional person. 

Jo and Ellen might also be seen as characters who edge on this trope, but I think they were a little more well-rounded than Jess. Still, the fact remains that their collective death was both oddly sudden and certainly ineffective in terms of resolving any crucial story conflict for that season. Their deaths really only served to create a sense of urgency in Sam and Dean by upping the “end of days” ante.

Again, women are used as plot-fodder. Eesh.

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl

I think Lisa fills the function of this trope for Dean, but in a different way than the standard Pixie Dream Girl. Rather than comforting her man with wide-eyed, dreamer sentimentality, Lisa embodies the mundane for Dean; the luxurious ideal of “normalcy.” The end result is the same though. Lisa is likewise reduced to representation; a mere symbol of the life domestic and nothing more. That’s why she’s not relatable or particularly interesting. She’s not even a real person; she’s just a lifestyle that Dean eventually discovers he can never have. This is best embodied, again, through her ovaries, when Dean discovers Ben is his progeny.

Lisa is defined by this motherhood role (even if she is not specifically motherly to Dean). Would Dean feel so attached to her if it were not for Ben? Would her role have expanded past one episode if she hadn’t reproduced? Give me a break!

The Smurfette Principle

The Impala. She is the only recurring feminized entity on the show. And the poor gal is always being objectified and infantilized by Dean.

“My baby! Nobody touches my baby!”

- Dean Winchester (Every other episode)

Just kidding, but not really…It’s worth noting that there’s not a single female regular in the series, so this is a trope Supernatural avoids only because it isn’t even eligible for consideration. It’s hard to expand upon gender disparity in a given show when one gender isn’t even really represented.

Top Seven Glee “B-Sides” (Non-Album Singles That Are Worth Your Download Time) - SEASON THREE EDITION!

Click on the song to see a video or audio post

7. “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)”

This techno-club mix of Whitney’s unforgettable song succeeds in no small part because of Heather Morris’ unique vocals. It may not be built for the Cole Porter songbook, but her voice does have this rich, throaty, effervescent quality that really grounds the song while making it shine at the same time. This track bubbles over with happiness. Like Heather Morris herself, it is positively radiant.

With regard to the staging/ story context, I can’t say enough nice things about all the goodies they were able to cram inside this short two minute performance. Look at Quinn’s nervous uncertainty when Brittany starts dancing with her peers. Look how Brittany doesn’t think twice about including her in the dance. Marvel at the homage to Whitney Houston’s attire in the costuming! Most of all though, I love how the song itself has been adjusted so that it is a subtle (but not at all clandestine) celebration of sapphic love <3

Brittany and Santana don’t step out of character to reprise Whitney’s lyrics in this song. They sing as women desiring other women, and the pronouns reflect that! I’m glad this happened because I think lesbian activity too frequently gets fetishized on TV. It’s really easy to move from romantic lesbian representation to hetero-male fantasy via, say, a gratuitous make out session. But this performance doesn’t do that. It’s based on the serious, fervent emotional and spiritual connection that these two young women have together while still being fun and exuberant.

6. “Smooth Criminal”

Out of all the Michael Jackson covers ever featured on Glee, “Smooth Criminal” is arguably the most creative interpretation implemented thus far by the music producers. Does that necessarily make it a good song?

No, maybe not by that virtue alone, but this interpretation isn’t about novelty…it is about innovation. The cellos used in this cover really elevate the song. I don’t just mean that they make it sound “fancier” or “classier,” I mean that they make the song reach an entirely new level of technical interest. 

The strings complement the vocals so well because they make the exchange between Naya Rivera and Grant Gustin feel like the bloody battle it is meant to be (rather than just a mere duet). Their performance is controlled, but not restrained. Even when  Naya’s wailing hits its crescendo, the vocals from both parties are tight and aimed with deadly accuracy. I don’t know if Annie is okay or not, but Naya and Grant BOTH should be arrested for what they did to this song. ‘Cause folks? They KILLED it.

5. “Up Up Up”

Kevin McHale and Dianna Agron both bring their own unique kind of jubilant energy to this bouncy, uplifting song. Kevin’s contribution is his laid-back reggae-esque vocals. Diana’s joyfulness is more of a buoyant, sassy Go-Go’s pep. Different as they can possibly be, but you know what? They work!

They are entirely, beautifully complementary together. So much so that I can’t figure out why these two haven’t done a duet with each other prior to this episode.

4. “Love Shack”

When Darren Criss sang Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual” in the season three premiere episode, my ears almost fell off because they were so excited. Because of his natural dancing ability and his character’s generally positive outlook on life, Darren usually gets saddled with the “fun” music numbers on the show. These are the tunes that get people a-moving and a-shaking. Case in point: “Love Shack”- The perfect closer to one of the best episodes of the entire season. I love me some B-52’s, but I still think that he and Kurt did a fantastic job capturing the energy of the original.

On a related note, although I’m not a hard core Klaine shipper, even I have to admit that the couple is wretchedly adorable in this performance. The entire cast seems to be having a blast, actually. Whether it’s Sugar’s invocation in the lyrics or Cory’s white-dude fist pump dancing…everyone really sells this song. Plus, how much did we all love Blaine’s Molotov Coqtiz Eye Patch reveal? Wait…was I the only one who cared?

Damn.

I might have been the only one :(

3. “Home”

I was skeptical of Damien McGinty’s character when he first debuted on the show as a conniving leprechaun-impostor who was trying to get into Brittany’s pants. However, since then Rory Flanagan has really grown on me. He wasn’t used for much in Season Three outside of the occasional tearful ballad, but when he did sing, it was usually memorable. This tune, in particular, was my favorite, hands down. It provided a nice balance to the overtly lovey-dovey songs in the V-Day episode. Plus, I could listen to Damien wail out that second to last “ho-ooo-oooome” all day long. 

One point of criticism worth noting is that it doesn’t differ very much from the Michael Buble version. Still, not every interpretation has to depart so drastically from the original to be considered good. I’m biased though. Damien’s cover was the first version of this song that I ever heard, so I can’t help it if it occupies a special place in my heart <3

2. “Never Can Say Goodbye”

No, Dianna Agron is NOT the most technically proficient vocalist in the Glee cast. No one is arguing that. She’s not a dynamo Mariah vocal machine by any means, but the girl can still sing.

Dianna provides SO much depth to this song. Her voice has this delicate, wounded vulnerablity about it. It’s a quality that is very much needed for a song like this, which seems upbeat at first, but is really about self-destructive behavior and ambivalence. It also adds some much needed clarity and maturity to the delivery of the lyrics (at least compared to the Jackson 5 version).

But what really impresses me here is that she’s able to step outside of that comfort zone for the big finish. She really punches up those “never-never-never-nevers” and hits that second to last “ohhhhh yeah” right in the GUT.  BOOSH!

Someone call the hospital, because you just got AGRON-ED. *sob* I just love her so much!

1. “Shake It Out”

In a sea of forgettable musical performances, inconsistent character development, and insipid plot twists, every once in a great while, Glee still manages to make you feel something really special; something transcendent. Sometimes, most of the time, that feeling is positive. It’s an upwelling of joy. Other times, it’s somber or sorrowful. Until this moment in the show, I don’t believe that I had ever before felt both of these feelings, together, at the same time, with such tremendous emotional acuity.

This performance of “Shake it Out” is elevated ten-times over by the meaty emotional context provided by the show: the domestic abuse that Coach Shannon Beiste suffers in her relationship at the hands of Cooter Menkins. Likewise, the story greatly benefits from the song’s inclusion. They enhance each other. Had the song been used to score any one of the lesser, flimsy plots on the show (like the annoying will they/won’t tension of Finchel or Emma/Will) I would have had cried buckets of tears for the lost opportunity. Thankfully, the powers-that-be chose to pair a strong song with an important story so that both affirmed the gravitas of the message they were sending out.

The Florence+The Machine version of this song is beautiful, but…and I’m sure some will cry sacrilege here…I actually prefer the Glee cover to the original.  With multiple vocals coming together so sweetly, the commiseration feels so much more tender, the solidarity so much more powerful. Every feeling is intensified when the girls sing together, especially when they harmonize for that optimistic, chirping chorus.

When Florence sings the chorus, her voice sounds like it’s straining or else it feels lost amid the deep, dark drumming found in the original. With the Glee arrangement, the girls sound tearfully insistent: “Shake it out! Shake it out! Shake it out! Shake it out!” To think of them begging Coach Beiste to let Cooter go… To know that she couldn’t bring herself to do it…

To know that it’s hard to dance “with the devil on your back…”

Damn.

It gets me every time.

Link to my original post with previous season’s B-sides HERE!

“Pontoffel Pock? What the FOCK?” - Revisiting the Weirdest Dr. Seuss Animated Special EVER

Astute readers of the Seussian catalog are not surprised to learn that the “doctor” was a political cartoonist. The sociopolitical messages of works such as The Butter Battle Book or The Lorax are apparent even to those readers who don’t wish to dig too far below the surface to probe for meaning. These works have a timeless quality to them because they address evergreen social issues, like warfare or discrimination. 

But this isn’t a post about The Butter Battle Book or The Lorax.

No, sir.

This is a post about one of Seuss’s lesser known B-side creations. It’s one that’s significantly less popular, but perhaps no less noteworthy…

You know how a lot of pop stars invariably perform that one weird single that winds up in the discount bin of your local CD Exchange? Madonna had her cover of Don McLean’s “American Pie.” Jessica Simpson desecrated Nancy Sinatra’s legacy with her  country-fried interpretation of “These Boots are Made for Walking.” In that same vein of lackluster releases that are generally forgotten by the American public, Dr. Seuss had his made-for-TV special: Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You?

Pontoffel Pock is a strange story about a lonely moron who is given a magical, flying piano in order to escape his problems. It features offensive racial sterotypes and a confusing conclusion that may or may not institutionalize the grinding force of modern day corporate industry. I still can’t tell for sure.

Minimally, it DOES encourage kids to work in pickle factories and shut the f*ck up already with all their stupid bitching.

Yes. I’m not joking.

So, right now you’re probably asking yourself:

“If this thing is so weird and forgettable why the hell are you reviewing it?”

Good question!

Here’s my answer:

I’m a big fan of underdogs of all shapes and sizes, and that includes forgotten, animated abortions like Pontoffel Pock. More to the point, I have a special spot in my heart for Pontoffel because I was given the movie as a gift when I was but a wee lad of five. Having a somewhat limited home video library meant that I watched Pontoffel ad nauseum. The video would finish, I would press rewind, and then, quite literally watch it over and over again. Along with The Chipmunk Adventure and Snoopy Come Home, Pontoffel Pock played a prominent role in my early media development. When I saw it listed as a bonus feature on The Lorax DVD, I knew I just HAD to buy it.

However, the main reason I wish to revisit this “film” at this time is because, at its heart, it is a story is about work, purpose, and the crossroads of life. I find myself approaching such a personal crossroads in the coming days, when I finally graduate from college with my masters degree (yay!). The combination of nostalgia and fated real-world relevance was TOO much for me to ignore. I had to sit down and dissect this bitch.

Come along with me! Bear witness to this crazy-ass fable by watching along!

Link to Youtube Video HERE.

Okay, so the story starts optimistically enough. Pock is given the opportunity to labor at The Dill Pickle Factory, where he is being instructed by the Master Pickler himself, Mr. Gill Gickler.

Cue the first music number!

“Just pull on the Pullum

and push on the Pushum-

and the pickles go into the jars. Tra-la-la!!!!” 

Ok. Sounds simple enough…

“What a wonderful way

to spend everyday.

You should thank your lucky staaaars!”

Oh! Hold up! That sounds like some anti-labor propaganda if you ask me, Mr. Gickler. What? We should be thankful to work for below minimum wage at your stupid pickle factory THAT DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A GODDAMN BREAK ROOM!? I don’t see YOU pushing on any pushums or pulling on any pullums, you bourgeois bastard!

Well, anyhoot, as you can imagine, Pock royally focks up by pulling on the pushum and pushing on the pullum. *Sigh*

Seriously, Pock? Seriously?How could you mess this up?

How many tasks indicate the nature of their operation strictly through their name? Pullum- PULL IT! Pushum- PUSH IT! Shit.

Personally, I think Pock focked up on purpose. Who wants to labor at the Dill Pickle factory for the rest of his life? Who wants to join in with the plight of the disenfranchised, proletariat pickle picklers?

After Gickler dickishly fires him in front of EVERYONE (rude). Pock shambles off toward the sad, winding road that leads home. He laments his fortune, but lo! Here we heap salt onto his already open wounds when we learn that Pock has no home to which he can go.

He has no home. 

He only has a house…The house that his family has left him. 

Ladies and gentleman, I now present to you:

The Saddest/Shortest Song in the History of Children’s Animated Programming.

“The House That My Family Had Left Me”

——

“The house that my family had left me

was badly in need of repair.

The gicky, green shudders were groaning.

The weathervane flapped in despair.

The termites were munching the staircase

as I climbed to the very top shelf

of the house that my family had left me…

Alone. 

All alone.

By myseeeeelf.”

——

If that song didn’t make you feel as though your heart was ripped out and set on fire, than I pity you…because you have no soul.

C’mon! Think about it! Isn’t abandonment pretty much every kid’s worst nightmare? This song perfectly encapsulates what life would be like living in an old house that your parents bequeathed to you after they bit the big one (or else decided to pack up and just leave without you). Pock’s house reflects this complete absence, not just of relations, but of love. The shudders are groaning. The weathervane flaps in despair…

Who was Seuss channeling when he wrote this? Sylvia Plath?

Seriously though, the one bright spot of this special is the music which, I will admit, is pretty catchy. This song, in particular, is probably my favorite, in spite of the fact that it makes me cry like a cake-deprived Delta Burke every time that I hear it.

After shooting a basketball that goes straight through the termite-infested floorboards of his house-not-a-home, Pock gives up. He pleads to the heavens for some way to escape his woeful existence. He cries out:

“Oh how I wish wish WISH I could get away from it all!”

Cue magical, Irish-accented faeries and their benevolent intervention.

The faeries offer Pock a piano that he can use to travel anywhere in the world. Each colored button on the device denotes a specific region to which he can visit. As you can see in the image above, none of the buttons on this magical contraption are labeled. That will actually end up being a plot point later on, but it’s a terribly unrealistic design oversight if you ask me. These faeries have apparently mastered the art of piano-based flight, but they never bothered to think about the importance of a friendly user-interface.

Steve Jobs would be spinning around in his grave if he saw this shit…

Pock uses his piano to fly to Grugan, a place that couldn’t BE anymore stereotypically Scandinavian. The citizens yodel, plays tubas, and say things like: “Tuberflugan!” 

From a narrative perspective, I’m not even sure what the point of this interlude is. Pock flies around like a moron, divebombing innocent yodelers for shits and giggles, until he finally gets blasted out of the sky by the Grugan national army’s trendiest non-lethal: The Glooey Gun. 

I’m sure you can guess what it shoots.

(A: Glue)

Pock manages to fly home, but the faeries are PO-ed because he f*cked up their magical piano (which was, apparently, a rental).

The faeries almost rescind their gift, but they decide to give Pock one last chance. They fix the piano and send him off to Kasbahmopolis which ends up being JUST AS RACIST as it sounds. Once Pock lands there, he marvels at the proliferation of camels, veils, facial hair AND it is there that Pock meets his indigenous love interest: Neefa Feefa the…-Are you ready for this?- “Famous. Eyeball. Dancer.”

I’m not sure why they couldn’t just say “Belly Dancer.” Maybe it sounded too sexually provocative to be denoted as such in a kid’s cartoon. But let me assure you that when Neefa Feefa dances, it is NOT just with her eyeballs. If it’s just a matter of propriety, I wish I could go back in time and talk to Dr. Seuss about this. I would tell him:

“Hey, Theodore? Eyeball dancer just sounds awkward, not less whore-ish. I’m not calling her a ho, but if that’s your concern…well…what’s that saying about a rose by any other name? Why mince words, Tedddy? Homegirl’s a stripper. Case closed.”

The one recurring theme in this movie seems to be job dissatisfaction. Neefa gets to sing two numbers for the overweight king (re: Sultan) of Kasbahmopolis. Both songs openly express her disgust for her current profession as well as a desire for something better, someone better who could help her escape from her life of eyeball dancing and (I’m just guessing here) sex slavery.

Pock tries to help her escape with his piano, but Neefa Feefa falls off at the last minute and falls into the waiting arms of the royal guard. Pock ends up wandering from realm to realm, ever searching for Neefa because he is unable to remember the color of the button that corresponds to Kasbahmopolis. 

(See? I told you it would be a plot point!)

Finally, Pock recalls the right color and manages to locate Neefa. He crash lands on top of the tower in which she is being imprisoned.

Side Rant: Okay Sultan of Kasbahmopolis, if you knew some dude with a flying magical piano was after your girl, WHY OH WHY would you imprison her at the top of a tower? That’s what DUNGEONS are for, dude. Damn. / End Rant

So anyways, Pock crash lands on the tower and runs over to Neefa. Neefa embraces her love and then cries out how she wish wish wishes they could “get away from it all.” The very same faeries who aided Pock in the begining come to the rescue, taking the lovers back home along with the mangled magical piano.

In the final number, Gill-Rockefeller-Gickler gives Pock one last chance at working the assembly line of his Pickle Empire, and wouldn’t you know it? Pock correctly pulls on the pullums and pushes on the pushums! What’s more than that, he gets to work alongside his lovely, liberated ladyfriend….Neefa Feefa.

If I had to squint and try to make out some sort of message here, it’s that soul-crushing drudgery is significantly more bearable when you do it with people you care about. 

Also, maybe it’s not where we are or what we’re doing…but who we do things with that really matters.

That’s really the only thing that really changes for Pock during the course of the movie. Escape mean nothing if you don’t have someone to come home to. Happiness isn’t about status or location, but the relationships that we form along the way.

Meh? Maybe?

Like I said…it’s a weird movie. 

The Many Reasons Why EVERYONE Should Adore The Supernatural Christmas Special

A few weeks ago, I was browsing through Tumblr and I was shocked to see that a couple of individuals had listed “A Very Supernatural Christmas” among their top five least favorite SPN episodes in one of those “30 Day Challenge” thingies…

Insanity, yes? I have nothing but love for that episode and, in honor of my 1,000th post (yay! milestone!), I would like to explain to you why I esteem that episode so highly…

Structure and Context

If there was ever going to be a Christmas-themed SPN episode, there is no better place for it to exist than the beginning of Season Three. Given their latchkey kid upbringing, it makes sense that the Winchesters would have little to no motivation to normally celebrate the holidays. What then would be the one event that could change their perspective and provide a meaty, emotional context for the entire episode? Dean’s One Year Hell Countdown, of course!

It’s one of those brilliant references to a story arc that just makes so much sense in retrospect. The drama bubbles in “Fresh Blood,” and foams in “Mystery Spot,” but no where else in the third season does the quiet, impending doom of Dean’s ever-ticking hell clock carry as much emotional weight as the Christmas special episode. 

The holidays are supposed to be emotionally complex; edging on notes of the melancholy variety just as often (if not more so) than the joyful. Thematically, the somber reality of Dean’s situation is entirely appropriate to the mood of a holiday special.

Supernatural is, technically, a horror genre show. By labeling an episode as “A Very Supernatural Christmas” it would be important to adapt the concept of a Christmas special to the Supernatural setting, rather than the other way around. A hypothetical holiday story would, thus, have to be somewhat gruesome and have a real-world, mythic basis in order to stay true to the show’s premise.The use of actual winter solstice lore nicely informed the obligatory Monsters of the Week: the fiendish pagan gods that looked like Martha Stewart’s BFFs. I love it when a plan comes together!

Kripke also intended for this show to serve as a satire of a Christmas special. The benevolent-looking baddies help the episode to parody the notion of a Christmas special by showing the sinister and subversive things that lay below our seemingly innocuous holiday trappings. That feeling is also affirmed by all the torture and bloodshed that ensues in the final act of the episode which create an overall mood that is entirely unlike, say, the Charlie Brown Christmas special.

All these elements are, however, mere window dressing for the lovely flashback story that is told about Sam and Dean’s childhood.

Groundbreaking Backstory Moments Featuring The WeeChesters

Oh, Lawd. Any Weechester moment breaks my heart, but this one almost did me in. How do people not fathom how significant this storyline is? We get to witness Little!Sam uncover the truth about the family business, which is tragic for two main reasons: 

1. This is the beginning of Sam’s normalcy complex. He might have felt different before with the constant traveling and lack of parental guidance, but this new intimacy with the supernatural cements Sam’s feelings of isolation, not just from other kids or from a larger given community, but, eventually, from the rest of humanity. What Dean considers empowering, Sam will find condemning. It is his first moment of “otherness.” This striking difference between the boy’s perception informs not just their individual backgrounds, but the rest of the entire series. (See 2)

2. This moment establishes the horrible pattern of Sam constantly being victimized / uninformed. Sam was clueless about the role of his psychic nature in Azazel’s plan, clueless about how to save Dean’s soul, clueless about Ruby, clueless about Lilith, and clueless about how his blood-exorcism powers would lead him to addiction. It’s not that he’s excused from any culpability, it’s just that it feels like poor Sam is always THE LAST PERSON TO KNOW. Again, this colors not just his immediate character background, but it also establishes themes that perfectly will set up Sam’s emotional damage for the NEXT THREE SEASONS! In the same way that Sam always feels like an outsider, he will always feel flawed as well: Ex. Luciferliberator!Sam, Lucifer’svessel!Sam, and Soulless!Sam.

Meanwhile, the final interaction between Little!Sam and Little!Dean, does three things simultaneously:

A. In terms of pacing, it contains a nice comic relief break because the gifts Dean steals are, unwittingly, “chick presents”. This momentary lightness is all too welcomed after the fingernail-pulling scene from earlier. (Shudder!)

B. Backstory-wise we witness the origin of The Samulet! which demonstrates Sam’s absolute love for his big brother. We see Sam (quite literally) crowning Dean as his father figure by giving him the amulet Bobby had intended for John. Sam’s antagonism toward John makes so much more sense within this new context; his need to separate from that patriarchy was practically inevitable. However, at the same time, this act also foreshadows Dean as the future patriarchy against which Sam will have to rebel.

C. This storyline, in which Little Dean tries to give Little Sam a makeshift Christmas BEAUTIFULLY parallels the present-time story, wherein Big Sam tries to give Big Dean a makeshift Christmas in a ratty motel with air-freshener decorations and gas station gifts. It’s absolutely compelling because you get to see both brothers trying desperately to support and love each other in the face of adversity and uncertainty. 

Structurally speaking, having these actions inverse and parallel each other in this way is this episode is just…gorgeous. That’s A-grade story building, people!

Best Music Cue In the HISTORY of Holiday-Themed Television

The final scene ends with Rosemary Clooney’s cover of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Sound editor or writer or whoever it is that decided to use THIS version of THIS Christmas song to score THIS scene…may I please rear your children?

Look at how the lyrics work so well with the emotional notes of this story:

Through the years we all will be together. If the fates allow.

Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow.

So have yourself a merry little Christmas…now.

As I said, before, the melancholy tone of the episode is wholly appropriate for the holidays. Dean’s predicament is actually a pretty relatable one. If you stretch it a bit, his hell clock could be seen as a a metaphor for terminal illness. Stretch that a little bit more and you realize life is a terminal illness and we’re all patients. Tick tock. Dean’s situation is worse because he knows the hour and the day, but truthfully…we all have sand slipping through our hourglasses. For that reason, the seasonal message of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” can be extrapolated on a much larger scale. We ALL have to make the best of whatever time we have left. We need to make every moment count, because “now” is all we have.

Eric Kripke once said that the brother’s troubled past led to a lot of “chick flick” moments in the show. The writers learned to work through this when they discovered that sometimes it’s not what they say to each other, but what they don’t say that creates the truly expressive moments of the show. No where is this more evident (or more painful) than when Sam tries to express something heartfelt to Dean…but then changes gears and asks him if he “feels like watching the game” instead.

The thought of actualizing Dean’s fate by addressing it, even in a compassionate way, is too much for Sam…so he decides it’s best to “muddle through” so they can have a merry little Christmas…right now.

The final moment of the show, where the music ends and the camera pans out and we see Sam give his big brother one last sidelong look…Gah.

It never stops hurting. 

My Favorite Halloween Themed TV Shows - Peanuts- “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”

If the Charlie Brown Christmas special is about how the true meaning of Christmas lies in honoring the religious significance of the holiday, what can be said about “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” an animation special that both mocks and undercuts the spiritual fervor of Linus, the exact same protagonist portrayed as the moral touchstone in the aforementioned Christmas special? 

Linus’ obsession with The Great Pumpkin is played as a humorous case of mistaken identity in this special. The concept for the show was: “Hey! What if some kid effectively mixed up his holidays and attributed Santa behavior to a Halloween figure analogue?” 

It’s supposed to be cute, but watching Linus struggle year after year can become pretty frustrating for the hardcore Peanuts fan. No matter how many times we watch, there’s never any payoff for Linus. There’s never any real growth or resolution at the end of the show. Instead, we are only promised that next year it will happen all over again. Weirdly enough, Linus’s naive resolution to “try again next year” becomes true in a meta-narrative sense if, like me, you masochistically watch the special every Halloween season only to witness one of your favorite character being beaten down time and time again.

I think the big question here is:

Why has this special stood the test of time when the story is so depressing?

Linus writes a fan letter to Kim Kardashian…

Why do I say the special is depressing?

Uh, have you actually ever watched the show? Like, all the way through?

The emotional injuries Linus sustains throughout the special are as numerous as they are severe. He was dismissed by his friends, rejected by his only disciple (Sally), sustained physical trauma during his veneration via exposure, and most importantly of all, was never once rewarded for his faith.

Like Job from the Old Testament (or maybe even Wile E. Coyote), despite his suffering, Linus ultimately remains steadfast in his convictions. To his credit, the only difference between the two figures is that Linus never received reparations to make up for all the trials and tribulations he experienced as a result of his faith. Biblical Job made out like a bandit by comparison.

But maybe Linus doesn’t need reparations. Despite the lack of spiritual dividends, Linus still shrugs off the naysayers and resolves to try his hand at meeting the Great Pumpkin next year.

So…what sort of message is this special trying to send us exactly?

The Great Pumpkin is a supernatural character who rewards the faithful/moral with an abundance blessings. How is that not a possible analogue for God or some other divine figure?

But lets look at the end result of this set up! Linus attempts to find a “sincere” pumpkin patch during the show, arguing that this quality will please The Great Pumpkin. Linus’ beliefs are then persecuted and ridiculed. In the end, at the height of his mania, Linus’ “Great Pumpkin” ends up being a dog in a WW1 aviator costume.

The curtain is pulled back, and the audience (like Sally) is left with a profound sense of emptiness, hopelessness, and futility.

A cynic might look at this show and see it as a microcosm of our own society’s doe-eyed beliefs. Why bother believing in anything at all if this is all that happens to the faithful? The special seems to ask us this question:

Is it useless to believe in God or goodness or sincerity when we cannot always see evidence of their existence? 

Sincerityis the most questionable element of all, because, as Linus indicates in the special, it is the sincerity of a pumpkin patch that matters most to the Great Pumpkin. How could Linus, the most earnest and devout Peanuts character ever, be lacking in this virtue?  If Linus doesn’t deserve to be rewarded for his faith and his honesty, who are we to say we deserve better? How can we believe that God, fairness, karma, or the Great Pumpkin exists when this injustice is allowed to persist?

Still, perhaps this show is actually demonstrating what real faith is all about: Rising above our limitations and clinging to the courage of our convictions despite overwhelming opposition and evidence to the contrary. 

That’s sort of inspiring, but hardly the definition of benign family entertainment.

I’ll be the first to admit it, out of all the Schulz holiday specials, this show is sometimes the hardest for me to sit through. The Linus storyline is engaging enough, but also slightly sad and emotionally draining more than it is entertaining. Charlie Brown’s perpetual loser-dom is shoved down our throats when he famously receives nothing but rocks when he goes trick-or-treating (a gag which seems more absurd than laughable as I get older). The worst offense, I feel, is the strange “Snoopy as WWI Flying Ace” extended flight sequence that seems to eat up an inordinate amount of time during the show without providing much plot contribution until the anticlimactic climax. People I know frequently refer to this as the “piss break” moment in the show, and I really can’t argue with them.

Easily, my two favorite moments are Sally’s angry tirade (wherein she rebukes Linus) and that moment at the end of the show when Linus’ sister, Lucy (the biggest metaphorical “pharisee” of them all), goes outside to help her brother out of the pumpkin patch and into his warm bed.

This seemingly small gesture suggests that for all her vehement protesting, Lucy still expects Linus to go through with his plans to sit in the pumpkin patch, and year after year, despite the fact that he defies her time and time again, she still takes care of him. Like clockwork. Literally. She even sets an alarm to remind herself to wake up and check on him!

Just as Linus is ever faithful to the myth of the Great Pumpkin, so is Lucy ever faithful to her duties as Linus’ big sister. Supporting family or loved ones in their craziest efforts can be difficult but we still do it because we love them so entirely.  

Maybe that’s why this lesson is intertwined with Halloween. It’s a little scary how much we can love people. How we can love them despite whatever sort of obstacles logic or reason might impose. How we can love them no matter how painful or futile it may seem at times to do so. It’s downright frightening when you think about it long enough…And isn’t that a part of faith too? Fear?

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is strange, awkward, funny, discouraging, hopeful, subtextual, subversive, and slightly avant-garde…

That’s a lot for a kid’s show.

But, that’s exactly whyit’s at the top of my Halloween Special list.

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Links to My Other Posts about Halloween Themed Television Specials:

Freaks and Geeks - “Tricks and Treats”

Community - “Epidemiology”

King of the Hill - “Hilloween” 

My Favorite Halloween Themed TV Shows - Freaks and Geeks - “Tricks and Treats”

This series had SO MUCH HEART it could have died of complications due to cardiomyopathy…

Knowledge of Freaks and Geeks continuity is helpful but not required for appreciating this gem of an episode. Lindsay Weir (played by the vastly underrated Linda Cardenli) is a bright, young lady who, throughout the series, begins to walk on the “wrong side” of the tracks by hanging out with the misunderstood burnouts and troublemakers at her school (re: freaks). Her brother, Sam Weir (John Francis Daley), is an unrepentant sci-fi fan who is also struggling to find his own way in high school with his two best friends, Neal and Bill (re: geeks). 

In this episode, although Sam is now in high school, he decides to go trick-or-treating one last time before the official onset of post-pubescence kicks in. He and his geeky friends dress up (see picture above from left to right) as Groucho Marx, The Bionic Woman, Gort (from The Day the Earth Stood Still) and a stabbing victim. If you’re on the fence about watching this episode (for whatever reason) I’m letting you know now that Bill’s transformation into the Bionic Woman is worth the “price of admission” alone. 

“Hold on. I’m going to put the phone on my bionic ear. (pause)  That’s—that’s better. No, don’t talk so loud! Don’t forget, I’ve got bionic hearing!”

Lindsay and her new friends discuss potential plans for Halloween night. The group, [made up of love sick Nick (Jason Segel), bitchy Kim (Busy Philipps) and heartthrob Daniel (James Franco)] want to plan a double-dateish outing. The only problem is that Lindsay promised her mother she would help her hand out treats that night. Mrs. Weir even buys Lindsay a costume so that they can be dressed up properly for the evening! Naturally, conflict arises when Lindsay has to choose between the two.

Lindsay, unable to tell her mother about the change in plans, ditches mom at zero hour and tells her, while running out the door, that she’s “hanging out with friends” and will return. Of course, she does not give a specific time :(

James Franco, at his cutest….

Sam and his friends go out trick or treating, but the reception they get is lukewarm at best. Because they are older boys, their costumed tomfoolery is met with a certain degree of skepticism by candy givers. The magic of the evening completely dries up when the gang runs afoul a local bully, Alan, who beats them up and steals their candy. With their goodies gone and spirits broken, the boys slowly shamble their way back to home base.

Meanwhile, back in the Freak Wagon, Lindsay has a hard time relating to her homies. The trouble is that they don’t really want to actually do anything. Lindsay makes seasonal recommendations, (like watching a scary movie or visiting a haunted house) but her compatriots just want to “raise a little hell,”which involves a lot of petty vandalism and Jack-o-Lantern-icide.

Mailbox-icide too (see below).

As you might expect, our storylines converge in the saddest of ways when Lindsay puts down the bat in favor of some raw eggs. She and Kim throw the projectiles indiscriminately from their moving vehicle, and end up plastering Lindsay’s little brother Sam in the face! Lindsay realizes, as they drive away, the identity of their victim. She begs Daniel to back up so she can talk to Sam and after much pestering, he relents.

Lindsay is painfully contrite. She pleads with Sam to get in the car so that they can drive him home, but he just stares at her. Everyone else in the car tries to make amends as well, but Sam just runs off. Back at home, Sam doesn’t supply a name when his parents ask “who did this to you?”. Instead, he glares at Lindsay and says: “A bunch of freaks.”

Sam’s mother is beside herself. Earlier in the show, she tried to hand out homemade cookies to kids in lieu of candy, but each time she was refused. The accompanying mothers looked at her in disgust and explained that all their children had been trained never to take open or handmade sweets from houses while trick-or-treating. Mrs. Weir is shocked (more so than offended) when they suggest that there could dangerous items in her cookies, like razorblades. It simply wasn’t an idea that had ever occurred to her. After a few more refusals, she gives up and asks her husband to go to the store to pick up some bags of candy. *sigh*

Overall, Halloween was not too kind to Mrs. Weir: Hours of fruitless baking, an absent daughter, disillusionment via obstinate soccer moms and now…an emotionally crushed son; all evidence of a cruel, hopeless universe.

Happy Halloween, indeed!

Mrs. Weir: The world is such a different place than the one I grew up in. Everyone just seems so much meaner these days.

Lindsay: (incredulous) Mom, kids didn’t throw eggs when you were in school?

Mrs. Weir: I don’t know. I guess so…(thoughtful pause)

Mrs. Weir: I just know I never did.

Gets me every freaking time…

After talking to her mother (and apologizing to/thanking Sam for not squealing), Lindsay puts on her damn costume (of her own accord) and hands out candy with her mom for the rest of the evening. Mother is happy. Daughter is redeemed (sort of). And Sam recovers quietly in his room while he reads Crime and Punishment. 

I don’t think I can advocate this episode on the basis of it extolling any specific virtues that Halloween has or even necessarily using any horror motifs in scary or creative ways. Really, Halloween is just a backdrop for a great narrative about family…and about how the times, they are a-changin’…

It’s just a good, good show. Period.

Bonus Photoset From This Episode: ”Thanks for the Candy, Skinny!”

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Links to My Other Posts about Halloween Themed Television Specials:

Community - “Epidemiology”

King of the Hill - “Hilloween” 

My Favorite Halloween Themed TV Shows - Community - “Epidemiology”

Community has conjured up some masterful ways to incorporate (and spoof) epic film tropes into a TV show that’s basically just about a college study group. They’ve tackled space travel, post-apocalyptic warfare, spaghetti westerns, role-playing games, and even claymation. It’s really remarkable that these “concept” shows are sometimes their best episodes. Rather than get bogged down by the need for creative exposition, these shows breathe quite naturally all on their own and often allow for significant long-term character development as well.

“Epidemiology”  is no exception here, in fact, it may be one of the largest gems in the show’s already glowing crown.

I would have never thought that a zombie-pathogen outbreak show would have been feasible given this sitcom’s format, but Community doesn’t just make this far-fetched scenario believable…it makes it hilarious, heartfelt, and yes…a little bit scary too.

Dean Pelton’s purchase of discount chow at an army surplus store accidentally exposes most of Greendale to an experimental virus fashioned by government hands. The bug causes fever and severe zombie-like behavior in the infected parties. The Community crew must grapple for self-preservation while they find a way to help their infected classmates, lest the fevers rise unabated and everyone ultimately die of brain damage. 

Really, this episode has some of the strongest writing the show has ever seen. And despite the severity of the aforementioned stakes, the laughs just keep coming. 

You want drag? You got it in spades! Dean Pelton dresses up like Lady Gagaand Chang wears Michelle Kwa-oh, excuse me, Peggy Flemming skating attire. You want meta-moments? Take your pick! The show frequently pokes fun at Horror movie tropes like: The Cat Scare and Black Dude Dies First. You wantabsurdity? Get this: The whole episode is scored to ABBA’s Greatest Hits, and you know what? IT WORKS! Watch it if you don’t believe me…

Still, more so than ABBA, zombies, or cross-dressing, this show actually develops one of the core relationships on the show: Troy and Abed’s friendship. They fight about their nerdly behavior and later on have a touching Star Wars reconciliation moment (I won’t say which scene).

What I like most about this episode, other than its brilliant execution, is the fact that although this is a comedy and you’re laughing throughout the entire show, you don’t ever stop feeling for these characters. The danger comes off as real and the sacrifices they make are very genuine. I loved it!

Oh! And did I mention that George Takei does some narration in this episode? That’s like the mutha-trucking cherry on top, people. You can’t top THAT!

Here are links to my other favorite Halloween Specials!

(There’s just one other one so far!)

King of the Hill - “Hilloween”