Category: Christmas

Ronin

Hawkeye is on a roll. This penultimate episode is delicious.

LEFTOVER NINE

A snowy, wooded landscape. Over, we hear Natasha’s voice from Black Widow tasking Yelena with curing the Widows of their mind control. 2018. Tucked in the woods, a small mansion. 

Sneaking on the roof and entering are Yelena and a sidekick. Inside, they surprise Anna, another Widow. Pause, and they battle like crazy until Yelena can hold her down and hit her with the antidote. Turns out Anna wasn’t brainwashed, and all this is a chance for some exposition. Yelena has helped many Widows. “It’s hard watching them wake.” Anna asks, How is your sister? (Emphasize Yelena’s relationship to Natasha, for those not up on the latest Marvel storylines.)

Yelena steps into Anna’s powder room and splashes her face. A pixelated disintegration, and the room changes color around her. Out she comes to a different decor. Confused, she’s ready to attack. A man and child play quietly, and from the corner comes Anna. “You’re back!” (Another representation of what it felt like to return from the Blip. Wandavision did this, which I enjoyed.)

So now it’s five years later. Anna catches Yelena up on life. “I was in for five seconds and I’ve lost five years,” Yelena says. “I need to find Natasha.” A long beat as we remember that, if there’s been a Blip, Natasha is dead. The screen goes black, and the Marvel logo runs.

Continue reading “Ronin”

Poinsettia over Poinsettia

Remember last year’s poinsettia piece? It was a redo of a previous, failed encaustic. Well, it’s been redone again. The original poinsettia faded to white and turned brittle. Remnants of the old plant can be seen underneath the new leaves here.

I liked that former piece, but I’m learning the behavior of organic material in wax. Moisture doesn’t age well.

I won’t list all the possible metaphors this piece suggests, lol.

Echoes/Partners, Am I Right?

I’ve combined Episode 3 with Episode 4.

Echoes

Finally, Hawkeye hits its stride. We’ve got a real show here! 

ONE

A child at school in 2007. It’s not Kate, it’s someone new. Her world is silent. As the teacher’s lips move, subtitles appear. Seeing the child writing in a workbook, the teacher comes over and taps it. We see her name on the teacher’s lips: Maya. She’s a good student.

Now we have sound. Shadow puppets. It’s little Maya signing with her dad. Their relationship is absolutely charming. (Kudos to both actors.) She asks about dragons, and why she isn’t in a school with kids like her. Dad is sorry, he can’t pay for deaf school. She must learn to jump between two worlds.

In judo class little Maya watches as a larger boy shifts his weight and scores a takedown. Her dad observes class, then says her uncle will take her home. We see a black suit coat and a hand that lovingly pinches her cheek. (Subtle Easter egg there, for anyone looking.) Maya steps onto the mat, and now we see she’s also a right leg amputee with a prosthetic. Watching for the shift, she takes down the bigger boy.

Time passage, and it’s the Woman In The Red Light from last episode. In case we had any doubts, we see her leg prosthetic as she spars in a boxing ring. (I already totally love Maya.) She’s fierce as she watches for the shift again.

On a motorcycle, she arrives at a warehouse. Sneaking, she can see Ronin through the window stabbing and attacking. She runs inside, but it’s too late. Among the people dying is her dad. They sign with each other, and she cries. “Fly away from here, little dragon,” he says to her.

Run title logo.

Continue reading “Echoes/Partners, Am I Right?”

HENRY (1947), THREE

How can David Niven be unlikable, lol? A bishop, a revered community and religious figure, is played as a git. Bold choice.

He’s determined to build his cathedral. We all see the irony immediately: he thinks he’s glorifying God, but by ignoring his family and his flock he’s doing the opposite. Because of that tension he’s stressed all the time. What he’s feeling is unsustainable.

I want to say he’s a Three. His charm and success, the ease of his vocation, are all things that happened before this story began. All we see is his crisis. Still, though, a man in his position is gifted at the social skills. He’s greatly admired in the community, even now. Only his wife sees the first signs of fraying.

And one of the things that upsets him the most is his failure. He looks bad as a bishop when he can’t get the cathedral funding, and Dudley makes him look bad with his wife, which he hates. Threes, who succeed at so much of what they touch, really dislike the rare moment when they don’t.

Episode 9

It’s Christmas at Downton Abbey! Beautiful dresses and heartfelt acting compete with an overly melodramatic, season-ending plot. I love the characters, the setting, and the time period, but I don’t know if I’ll write up future seasons. The disordered structure of the series takes all the fun out of examining it.

ONE

Roll credits and theme music while a truck carrying a pine tree drives toward Downton. When the truck arrives at the front door, Thomas waves workers forward to untie the tree. Inside the house, Daisy totes cleaning supplies from room to room. She walks past the tree, now set up in the front hall, as O’Brien helps decorate it. People wander through and admire the tree. Now Cousin Rosamund and her lady’s maid approach the house in a chauffeured car, to be greeted by Mary. The Dowager pokes around the Christmas cards, tutting at whatever’s written.

End credits. Christmas 1919.

TWO

The family is dressed formally, and giving out presents. Mary hands Anna a small box and Cora says they all prayed for Bates today in church. As each servant is given a present from the family, filing up one by one, Hughes talks to Anna. “I wish I could tell you not to worry.”

Cut to downstairs where the servants enjoy the meal at their own table. Crackers pop, hats are worn, and cheering goes up. Rosamund’s maid makes a cheeky question about Bates, “the murderer”.

Upstairs, Sir Richard complains about the lack of service. Downstairs has their luncheon, the family has dinner, Mary says. It’s Christmas Day. Well, that’s not how he’ll run his household. Basically, the family exchanges gifts and barbs in equal measure.

THREE

In the hallway Mary comes upon Matthew hanging up the phone. Mr. Swire (Lavinia’s father) is ill — dying, and Matthew’s on his way in the morning. They discuss Bates’ trial. Some of the servants will need to testify.

Continue reading “Episode 9”

Hide and Seek

Again, let me remind you that Hawkeye is a newly-dropped series, and spoilers abound in my breakdown. Critical Notes, as always, follow.

LEFTOVER NINE

We begin with last episode’s cliffhanger. Clint grabs Kate in the Ronin suit and unmasks her.

ONE

They introduce themselves and leave the alley. Run credit logo.

TWO

Walking down the street now, Kate peppers him with questions. Are you assessing threats? She’s clearly star-struck. Promoting herself a little, she calls herself the world’s greatest archer.

They’ve arrived at her large apartment over the pizza shop. When they enter, the dog greets them. It’s not her dog, she corrects Clint, and she inherited the place. Throughout, he is surprised and impressed by nothing.

THREE

(There is no Three.)

Continue reading “Hide and Seek”

JULIA (1947), NINE

The title’s subject, the Bishop’s wife, Julia is universally loved. Like Mary Bailey, is she an everywoman? Or is she a real person with flaws?

She’s pretty and she’s gentle. She’s socially naive, though. When Dudley takes her to lunch, and the other ladies start to gossip about her, she is unaware. Social damage, to herself and to her prominent husband, is dangerous, yet because her intentions are pure she doesn’t see it.

She’s not particularly useful as a bishop’s wife. The community can look up to her kindness and gentility, but she’s not a saleswoman. Henry carries the whole weight of organizing his fundraiser. She longs for simpler times and a quieter home life. She’s not ambitious, which is a strength, but she’s also not in sync with her husband. She’s lovely, someone who attends functions at Henry’s side, but she’s not the manager.

She’s a Nine. She knows what’s right and she knows what she likes, but she won’t argue with anyone to make it happen. Avoid conflict, smooth the waters, and carry on. A Nine is an asset to an ambitious partner, but only in a background role. No leading, no fighting, and no pushing. It’s a perfect choice for Julia’s character.

The Snowball Effect

Nothing but love for this episode, I promise.

ONE

Bubble-wipe to a real life iceberg scene. Over wintery landscapes, the French narrator speaks of the mighty iceberg that can sometimes stray into warmer waters. 

TWO

Cut to the three-palm island as an iceberg floats in. Now we look at Bikini Bottom, that cozy community, as snow begins to fall.

THREE

Continued scenes of snow-covered undersea buildings as the weather fish, wearing a trapper hat, reports on the winter blanket covering Jellyfish Fields and the neighborhoods.

Continue reading “The Snowball Effect”

MR. POTTER, FIVE

He’s the villain. He’s stingy, cross, and infirm. He’s ambitious. Without George he practically turns Bedford Falls into Vegas. He certainly fits a lot of tropes: greedy capitalist villain, angry physically-challenged villain, crotchety old man villain. If he had a mustache, he’d twirl it.

Underneath all of that stereotyping, do we have an Enneagram? When he realizes that Uncle Billy has left the bank deposit in the newspaper, does he have a brief moment, a flash, of sympathy? (Well, no. He takes an evil glee in knowing a secret.) When he and George are the only two to keep their heads during the bank run, he admires George as more than a competitor. And when he offers George a job, tempting him to sell the Savings and Loan for an easier life, isn’t he almost successful because he knows what pains George the most? Either he’s just the Devil, or he’s a man who has watched George over the years. Does he have — gasp — fatherly feelings toward George?

Let’s make some guesses. Potter physically declines with age, which in the most general and anecdotal way possible suggests a Head Type.

Five, Six, or Seven? Not a Six. He doesn’t seem to have a moral code, a black-and-white view of the world. He’s bad because he’s stingy and cheap, not because some great wrong offends him.

He’s a Five. A Five’s besetting sin is stinginess. They’re just knee-jerk that way. They’re also uncanny in their observation of others. Potter’s understanding of George, of what drives him and of what he fears, fits this. And the Bedford Falls he creates without George is just a mash-up of others’ vices. A Five would become overwhelmed with a bunch of competing desires and step away, letting everyone do as they want. As long as order was maintained a Five would turn hermit and escape.

Also, a Five’s social clumsiness can turn them into a curmudgeon. They want to be liked but other people are so baffling! Potter is a Five pushed to all the extremes.