Hey sorry if it's already been asked, but I wonder about your recap technique! How many times do you watch a single episode? Do you really watch only once, and then just like, fast-forward to the bits that stood out to you? Do you take notes while watching, and if so, is it on paper, phone, voice recording? Also where do you take the pics from, some website or you watch on a computer and screenshot it? It's a lot of work!
Oh my god, oh I will gladly explain MY PROCESS. Come behind the scenes of Wellntruly Dot Com and learn how I spend all my time during a recap season!!!
I already know this is gonna get lengthy, but I always find hearing how other people write FASCINATING, and as you will see, you caught me on an open day—I got the time.
Alright, so there are basically three flavors of TV writing that I do. One are what I normally call “watch notes”, e.g. the semi-elaborate (semi-coherent…) live blogging for Deep Space Nine or The Good Place. Another are like, a paragraph or two of summary narrative/review, which I think I only did for some Star Trek TOS episodes, but extremely enjoyed and fully believe to be probably the best writing I’ve done.
And the third are full blown recaps, the most extensive AND time intensive by a mile. How does that process go? Well, you asked!! We’ll talk Legion because that’s what’s going on right now.
Tuesday
A new episode of Legion airs on FX. I have never had a cable subscription in my life, but I DO have my parents’ satellite TV login, so as long as I’m willing to wait until the next day, and I am, I can watch this on FX’s site once they release it online Wednesday.
Wednesday
I watch the new episode of Legion! First half of this season this was on my own, now it’s usually with my bff Jen on the phone so we can pretend we still live together and watch our fave shows communally. This is supposed to be a real proper watch, with hardly any pausing, so that I can experience the show’s timing as the creators intended. Usually what this actually means is that I only pause a handful of times to type some sentence fragment in one of my trusty TextEdit docs. With Jen, we pause maybe ONCE because a tangent Must Be Followed, but the only material I’ll be coming out with will be from whenever I remember to scribble down parts of our commentary with good ol’ pen and paper, and my THOUGHTS.
Then I let it rest. I sleep. Because the marathon is about to begin.
Oh, I don’t necessarily think that Syd being in Clockworks means that she has A Diagnosable Mental Illness the same way David does though. People are institutionalized to control them, and there are lots of reasons someone would want to control Syd. Like, along the same lines, I wouldn’t be surprised if Lenny was institutionalized more for doing drugs and having sex with women than for Having A Mental Illness.
Well, “Diagnosable Mental Illness” is a tricky one though right? I have never been strictly diagnosed with any specific longterm mental illness, but have I suffered through periods of intense anxiety and overwhelming panic attacks where it gets so bad that my throat literally starts to close up? Yes. Have I gone through classic depressive episodes, like the one that contributed to me remaining mostly unemployed for a fair bit of 2016? Also yes! I don’t have any one Diagnosable Mental Illness, but I’ve experienced some mental shit. And I would guess that Syd, based on everything we’ve seen of her on this show, and especially in her big episode this season, SURELY has as well. I definitely definitely think her institutionalization was due to people’s fear over her very unusual and very high key aversion to being touched, which aligns with what you say about those being spaces being designed to control. But while I super don’t believe anyone we met in Clockworks should have been there (I mean really no one should have, in case I have not made my very critical feelings about that terrible trap of a place clear!), I ALSO don’t think Syd, David, or Lenny arrived with a perfectly clean bill of mental health, you know? They should never have been institutionalized, that was the opposite of helpful, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t still use some help.
I was being too flashy by bringing up Syd’s time in Clockworks to make my point about how little the show seems to examines Syd’s own mental health struggles, when all I should have said was just….with some of the maladaptive coping methods she’s developed from the shit her body and the world has put her through, Syd could really benefit from talking to a good therapist.
Hah you are not the first person to ask this :) But I do have an update! I’ve since listened to the Overinvested podcast episode about The Terror, which confirmed what I guessed about it pretty much right down the line, and as, you will be SHOCKED to learn, I tend to be more of a Gavia in most things, my current plan is to probably binge the whole sorry thing one long weekend in the winter with like, many toddies.
I wish I could link you up with this other Terror fan until then, but unfortunately you are both anonymous! Two friends talking about the show for 45 minutes though, I can totally offer. Warning though that Morgan: was not a fan.
And you are also not the first person to ask about this! But I must have not replied to that ask publicly, or at least didn’t tag it “Flowers”, so I can’t manage to find what I said last time. What I’ll say this time (probably the same thing): maybe! It’s intriguing that two people have both recommended it to me, but the fact that I have yet to see anything else about it anywhere outside my inbox means that it’s just never been a very big light on my radar.
Anyhoo, to everyone I will also remind: Writing about TV shows and movies takes up the lion share of my free time, and I do it because I love what I’m writing about. If you want me to take some of that time to write about your fave thing, you always have the option to pay me! I would, in fact, happily review stuff as my whole job, if that were viable. In the meantime, I have this approximate, freelance kind of arrangement available.
hi! love your blog! I was reading your Legion recaps, and got to the "thought crimes are not real crimes" part. it really struck me for two reasons— 1. a lot of US law is about trying to decide intention and state of mind during a crime 2. currently in many fandoms, there's a culture of purity of thought, about what it's okay to like or ship in fiction. tbh I'm kind of exhausted over it (thoughts aren't actions imo), but I'd be really curious to hear your thoughts in the context of that quote?
Well I don’t know anything about LAW, but I do know the civil code on Wellntruly Dot Com and it’s: you do you, buckaroo. Don’t harm others, keep it in your house where people are free to leave if they choose, and you know, keep a sense of self-awareness about yourself.
There’s this Hairpin quote from years ago about Lana Del Rey that I think about all the time, which went like: “she stands for things we like but need a safe way to enjoy, such as lying down by the side of the road and giving up, or driving your car off a cliff, or walking slowly into the ocean with your dress train billowing up as you sink.” Sometimes we just need a safe way to process certain dark things in ourselves without damaging us or others, and that’s where art comes in.
hi! just curious b/c i work in post too -- if you're not on your cooking show anymore, what are you working on now?
Hiiiii! What do YOU work on?? It will be way more interesting than mine because mine is none, none shows. I left the whole scene when I left New York. [Vermillion voice] Now we are this.
my art peaked wen i was 4 or so and would just throw whatever shit i could find (juice, rainwater, plants, moss, shells, dirt, sugar, soap, rocks, milk, toys etc.) in2 a bucket n stir it with a wooden spoon 4 hours sitting in th garden n wen som1 would ask me wot th fuck i was doing i would b like “Potion”
#my entire early childhood was spent making weird soups out of nature stuff [memory-for-trifles]
SAME, I had two occupations they were: 1) witch kitchen, 2) science experiment, which were mostly distinguished by the latter being placed in the freezer and forgotten about, to my parents’ great joy.
I used that oatmeal recipe just now and I only fucked it up a little bit. It's really good 😊
WONDERFUL! Yes there can be a teeny learning curve with this one because this is not like, a norm technique, so the first round kinda feels like taking your bike out without training wheels for the first time, but so quickly you will be saaailing along like a graceful bird~
