Life: an Absurdist Play

twelve episodes, twelve contestants - a mix of annoying middle aged sci fi authors, fan fic authors and random people off the street

a variety of against the clock writing tasks, big finish scripts, ability to interact with actors without shouting at them and challenges where you have no budget or doctor for an episode

judged by solely by christopher eccleston

At 12:08pm the phone rings. I answer with our business name (I will call us Us) and my name and before I can ask how can I help the guy on the other end barks "MOVE MY APPOINTMENT. I'M NOT COMING."

I ask for his name and look him up in our appointment book. He's not there. He INSISTS I move his 12pm booking which he doesn't seem to have. He doubles down with "I don't care. Move it to after 1." I explain that we close at one and he yells "Well why did X tell me to come in for Y at 12 if you close at 1?!?!"

It clicks. He has an appointment with the business next door (who I will call Them). Our names are not remotely similar and we provide completely different services within our industry. I explain he called Us and needs to call Them to move his appointment and I mention that they also close at 1 today. He yells "I DON'T CARE JUST DO IT." I again explain I DON'T WORK FOR THEM I WORK FOR US." He counters with "You're IN THE SAME BUILDING JUST DO IT." And then makes a bunch of generic When I Get There Your Job Is Over threats and I hang up.

This is like calling Coles to move your Just Cuts hairdressing appointment because they are next to each other in the shopping centre.

So he arrives at 1 while we're packing up. Storms straight past Us and starts slamming his fists into the locked door of Them like a 2 year old having a tantrum screaming and yelling about how they HAVE to let him in. He has AN APPOINTMENT. Our Boss comes out to see what all the noise is about and this grown-ass man has resorted to slamming his shoulder into the door while trying to rip the door handle off. Boss of course goes WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?! and this absolutely unhinged manchild starts yelling at Our Boss about how Boss' staff are useless and didn't move his appointment and make Them stay back until he arrived. Boss goes "They don't work for THEM they work for ME. YOU need to call THEM." At which point this guy turns on me and demands I give him the number to which both my Manager and Boss go, no get it off their door or look it up. Not our job.

So while we're still packing up to leave this guy sits outside the locked door of Them and leaves A TWENTY MINUTE ranting voicemail about how their business is a scam, their staff are useless, threats threats threats etc etc.

I hope he gets banned from the whole building.

But here? This reveal? This is a Big Reveal for us, Peter B Parker, and Miles, all on different levels. We and Peter both know Doc Ock is a portly dude, not a woman. We know the name Octavius… Otto Octavius. But when she says her name is Olivia Octavius we’re clued in to the fact that Doctor Octopus is a woman in this universe. And she has Peter captive.

Miles, if he was paying attention in science class earlier in the movie, would have known her name was Olivia Octavius, but that doesn’t mean anything to him, why would it? Liv has apparently been very good about keeping her supervillainy a secret. She’s in educational videos shown in high-schools. So to Miles, the reveal here is this scientist lady, who he knew enough about to know was the head scientist at Alchemax, is a supervillain. He gets the reveal a second or two after Peter.

And the movie? It was dropping hints the entire time, confident in our expectations blinding is to the truth. Olivia’s name was partially visible when Miles got to science class. Her glasses are octagonal. The lights in her lab are octagonal. We know she’s working with the Kingpin. Why wouldn’t she be a supervillain? Because she’s hot? Hell, Peter even says he needs to reexamine his internal biases. Maybe he was telling us that we should too.