A Little TLC(w): The Yang’s Saga: Episode 3 (1986)

I’m getting into the swing of this miniseries more – the further I get into it, the better I can keep track of who’s who and follow the tangled web of what’s going on between the different clans. (I was the same the first time I read The Coast of Utopia; for like half of the first play, I was constantly flipping back to the character list going, “Wait, who’s that again?”) I think I’m also liking it more and more. Having a better handle on all the characters helps, of course, but beyond that, I’m just having a good time.

 

When Seventh Boy takes a rash course of action in an impulsive moment, he puts the entire Yang family in peril. The Pan family is out for blood in retaliation, with the Elder Statesman Pan trying to influence the Emperor against Seventh Boy and the rest of the Yangs. At the same time, Lord Yang is between a rock and a hard place – he doesn’t want to see an example made of his youngest son, but it’s also his duty to uphold the law and he won’t allow for any hypocrisy.

 

Today’s update for “things I have straight now”: the Pan family is the clan that includes Pan Hong, Princess Chai’s suitor/Sixth Boy’s rival from the first episode. Now, I’ve always known that Pan Hong and his ilk are bad news, but keeping track of their names is a newer development for me, making it easier to talk about the story. All the Pans are pieces of work, as evidenced here by 1) some shady deeds during the martial arts tournament from the Pan brothers, 2) Elder Statesman’s Pan attempts to tar the whole Yang family with the same brush as Seventh Boy, and 3) the Pan daughter (a royal consort) using her influence with the Emperor to try and sway things in her family’s favor.

 

I like seeing (nearly) all the Yangs rally around Seventh Boy, even as they all agree that he allowed his hotheadedness to make him do something really ill-advised – it’s a very loving anger, and even as they bemoan his mistakes, they try to shield him from the worst of the Pans’ wrath. And even Lord Yang, for all his strictness and gruffness, cares for Seventh Boy too.

 

That’s two episodes in a row now where Seventh Boy is the most prominent Yang, which I am of course entirely down for. Leung’s performance of the character, while still green and unpolished, continues to endear me to Seventh Boy. He often acts without thinking, but his heart is usually in the right place, and for all the immaturity that his rashness suggests, he also recognizes his mistakes and doesn’t back down from the consequences. Those scenes of his siblings and his mother rallying around him, trying to protect him? They’re followed by scenes of Seventh Boy not running away from his problems because he’s worried that the fallout would land on them instead. The picture we see here is of someone who’s very young, very earnest, not too prudent, not too patient, and very devoted.

Doctor Who: Series 25, Episodes 5-7 – “The Happiness Patrol” (1988)

“The Happiness Patrol” is one of those serials that just make me smile and think, “God, I love Doctor Who.” Heartening to see a story like that so near the end of the classic run – even 25 seasons in, the show could still deliver a totally bonkers “only on Who” kind of dystopian sci-fi romp.

 

The Seventh Doctor and Ace have their work cut out for them on Terra Alpha, a human colony ruled by the tyrannical Helen A. and her elite police force. On the surface, Helen A. would say she just wants her people to be happy, but that’s not it. She demands them to be happy, sending her lethal “Happiness Patrol” to round up “killjoys.” To defeat her, our heroes will have to evade the Happiness Patrol, contend with a vicious beast named Fifi, and confront a candy robot executioner.

 

Only on Who, right? On some level, this story reminds me of “The Macra Terror” from the Second Doctor’s era, just in that 1) it uses a similar “society of happy shiny people is always hiding a dark underside” trope and 2) it contains elements that are just delightfully off-the-wall. Throw in some not-so-subtle Margaret Thatcher allusions, and you’ve got the makings of Doctor Who gold.

 

A scenario like this is a great fit for Seven and Ace, a little reminiscent of Twelve in “Smile.” Even though I wouldn’t call Seven a grouchy Doctor by any stretch, the air he gives off isn’t as frequently cheery as that of some Doctors. And of course, Ace’s moods are touch-and-go under ordinary circumstances, but if an authority figure tells her to smile? Then of course you’re gonna get a huge scowl from her. In other words, both of them have no problem quickly causing trouble for Helen A.

 

But really, it’s all in service of the citizens. I always appreciate stories that highlight the importance and validity of all emotions, not just the outwardly-positive ones (hello, Inside Out!), and the Doctor and Ace champion that here. People have the right not to pretend to be happy when they’re sad, and what’s more, experiencing sadness gives you a greater understanding of/appreciation for happiness. Because I’m apparently full of comparisons today, I think of Ten defying the Cybermen (or it the Daleks? One or the other – I can’t remember at the moment) when they claim that his grief makes him weak.

 

Also, can I just say one more time – candy robot executioner?? I mean, come on, what’s not to love?

John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City (2018)

Last Week Tonight is done for the season, and after a hard push leading up to and after the election, The Daily Show took a well-deserved week off. So, as is tradition, I’m tagging in a standup special in place of News Satire Roundup, and this special, in a word, is aces.

I remember John Mulaney first catching my attention years ago during a rare onstage bit he did at SNL (where he worked mainly as a writer,) extolling the wonders of Girl Scout cookies. Ever since, I’ve periodically caught the odd standup clip of his on YouTube, increasingly so since I started watching Big Mouth, where Mulaney voices Andrew. That’s what led me to see his exquisite “there’s a horse loose in a hospital” bit, which is why, when I found myself in need of a standup special to watch, I turned to this one.

We’ll get to that bit specifically later on, but there’s all kinds of funny jam-packed into this special before that. Mulaney does a number of extended story routines in which maybe a few hilarious narratives are woven into the same theme, or in which a story begins along one theme and carries over to another. There’s his reminiscences over school assemblies, his indignation at receiving mailers from his alma mater soliciting donations, his shameful admissions of having reached the “gross” stage of life, and memories of going to mass as a child, among others.

And all of it is hilarious. Like, laughing-so-hard-I-have-to-remind-myself-to-breathe hilarious. Much of it is down to Mulaney’s delightfully-offbeat delivery, with his old-timey radio voice and weirdly-emphatic diction. Some of it is the cognitive dissonance of his wholesome appearance, the youthful-looking face and the clean-cut suit, mixed with the often-outrageous things he says (this special doesn’t get as profane as, say, Ali Wong’s Baby Cobra, but plenty of what he says is naughtier than you’d expect from someone who looks a bit like a 14-year-old dressed up for his cousin’s baptism.) And then, a huge helping of it comes from Mulaney’s wonderfully out-there brand of humor.

What’s not to like? I love the grounding asides he makes to the audience in the middle of his wild anecdotes, slices of the mundane to remind us just how absurd they are (like amid his impression of the “stranger danger” speaker’s presentation, “ ‘Now, when kidnappers throw you in the trunk of a car’ – it is 9:00 in the morning!”) I like the weird but amazingly-apt descriptions he gives (like in explaining what college was like for him, “I lived the life of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.”) I really enjoy the way he takes time to let a joke build, at times allowing the audience to realize where the routine is heading and start laughing in sheer anticipation until he teases out the punchline (like as he begins to realize his wife’s misconceptions about The Last Supper.)

And then, yes, “there’s a horse loose in a hospital.” What an expertly-crafted routine – what at first seems like a ludicrous analogy turns out to be a stunningly-perfect examination of the Trump era. Every aspect of this is golden. To pick out just a few great bits from it, I love 1) the opening thesis, “I think everything’s eventually gonna be okay, but I have no idea what’s gonna happen next!”, 2) the observation that, “when there’s a horse in the hospital, you’ve gotta stay updated,” with everyone constantly on their phones checking to see what the horse is up to, and 3) the terrific line, “And then you go to brunch with people, and someone says, ‘There shouldn’t be a horse in the hospital!’, and it’s like, ‘We’re well past that!’” So, so good – I die, OMG. If you haven’t seen this bit, get yourself over to YouTube, and if you haven’t seen the special, I highly recommend checking it out.

Warnings

Language, drinking/smoking/drug references, sexual references, and thematic elements.