#austism

Welcome to Phoenix Parks

Dead End follows two teens, Barney and Norma. Barney, voiced by trans musician and actor Zach Barack, is an upbeat trans teen hiding a mountain of insecurity, not helped by his parents who while supportive and using the right pronouns, don't have an ounce of backbone when it comes to his deeply transphobic grandmother Grammy Grams, who spends every Friday night saying awful things about Barney to his face while his parents just shuffle in their seats.

If there's one limit the series clearly had it's that we don't get to hear exactly what Grammy Grams actually SAID. We just have Barney constantly refer to them as "those awful things she said". I am completely sympathetic to why they tried this route: having Grammy Grams actually say those things on screen could be way too much for both the trans kids watching this is vital to and to the network. Netflix already gracefully allowed a lot for this series, I get trying not to push it when you've already pushed it miles farther than any other network ever would've allowed. Not only that having it said.. could be hard character wise. Too little and assholes online will leap at the fact that "Oh he's getting rattled over nothing", too much and Barney's parents look like monsters. It's easier to have the audience fill it ina s most views, trans and not, who have experinced this shit or seen too many people experince it can easily fill in the blanks. It's jarring we don't see it but I get why not and the scene in episode 3 I mentioned does just enough to fill in the blanks. The series makes it clear enough how HORRIBLE she makes him feel and how much worse his parents do by making him sit through this all the time, just brushing it off with "oh you know she won't understand", a line most of us have heard at one point. And sometimes it be complicated keeping a relative around.. and other times like this, cutting her off is the right move.. his parents juts dont' want to have that difficult conversation and know they can get Barney to just suffer through it and don't realize the sheer harm their doing till he's already out the door.

To get out of this situation Barney heads to dead end. Being a soft boy, he takes along his dog Pugsley his good boy best friend. Joining them is Norma Kahn, Barney's Neighbor who relatedly barely remembers him despite sitting next to him in class. I can't tell you how many warm classmates I had warmly greet me only to get a blank expression because I had no idea how to respond. While Barney sees this possible job as an escape, Norma just sees it as her dream.

The Job is at Phoenix Parks, based around superstar Pauline Phoenix. voiced by Drag Performer Miss Coco Peru, a southren superstar vaguely similar to dolly parton but also nothing like her. The series is.. frustratingly vauge with Pauline's career: We see which works inspired the portions of her park eventually, we get the broad strokes: She was a big deal, had a long career, it slowly faded into supporting roles and tv, and by present day the parks are all she has, and it's enough for the series to get by, but I never got a sense of who she was as a performer other than hammy and southren. I get a sense of her as a person: hammy, in love with herself, southren, kind of batshit and as we learn later, evil and selfish, Coco does a fantastic job as her and does most of the heavy lifting, but when the whole setting is a park dedicated to her, we need more. We need a sense of her carer trajectory, her style, what made her famous. Why her career tanked we get implicitly: Hollywood is a terribly ageist place, as we see later in the season Pauline was not at all easy to work with

And said doctor show defintely comes from a time when working tv was seen as a massive step down for your career instead of most film stars second or third act these days. I can piece together enough for it to not hurt the show badly, but it still hurts it just enough. We don't get WHY people are so enamored with this blonde lady other than sheer charisma. I mean granted i'm sure from the outisde looking in my obessions with actors like Keith David look insane and his career is a weird rollercoaster, but Keith David isn't the person being focused on and we dont' have plenty of opportunities to fill in the gaps. We do explore every inch of phoenix parks over season 1, so the opportunity to get into the park and pauline's history and slowly fill it in was then.

It'd be something most series didn't have the tools for without coming off as exposition heavy.. but most series don't have Norma, whose hyperfixated on Pauline and all her works. Someone who while VERY awkard at talking about anything else, something I can oh so relate to, will gladly go on for hours, and does in episode 2 when given a chance to give the tour, about pauline. So we had no real excuse to lack context for most of the season about what most of the attractions come from and what their themed around. The only one we really get a sense for is dead end, the titular attraction and where most of the main cast lives. It's the one big weakness I get from the series: that it dosen't really world build the park: it's just a theme park with a lot of diffrent themed worlds aorund an actress's works we only see towards the end of the season for the most part. We also could've gotten more videos from pauline herself, something we get in the first two episodes and the seventh, but would've been easy to sprinkle in troy mclure style to help flesh things out and vary up exposition. The series HAD the tools, they just didn't use them. I get 22 minutes isn't a lot, but it's enough to squeeze in just enough to make phoenix parks feel more alive, to sell us on why pauline is so big to have their own theme park and why she got one before nichoolas cage. Seriously where is cageland. Ohhh the nicholas cage experince. I mean the homestuck kisok alone...

Still even if they don't sell us on why Norma's so hooked, you relate enough: Pauline is her world and she would die for her so getting to work in her park, and as security so she dosen't have to interact with people as much, is her dream. Which leads to the two competting and you get why: norma needs this to validate her life and get her overbearing but loving mother to accept she can do this, and Barney needs a new home. Both are so desperate they fail to notice the call for the job is just.. a piece of printer paper with a barely coherent offer written in comic sans.

That letter was by Courtney, voiced by Young Sheldon and Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage star Emily Osmet who I haven't had the pleasure of seeing in much but boy is she a delight here. Courtney is non binary but uses she/her as netflix was squeeamish about having a non binary demon character. Granted Courtney is better done than most, as while non human she's still fully fleshed out and her being NB is a non factor. She's not a shapeshifter, she just happens to be both nonbinary and a demon, but I get after She Ra why netflix may prefer to go this route even fi they still coudlv'e got a non binary actor for the role and simply found one that uses he/him or she/her prounouns to compromise instead of casting a cis actress.

Courtney is a croaky trickstery demon who just wants to go home but can't get the mysterious elevator on dead end, which has been conveintly closed since pauline impersonator Jennifer Swan mysteriously vanished months ago, to open for her. So she summons the demon king Telamaluchus, played by broadway star, beetlejuice and Hellaverse MVP Alex Brightman to do it for her, offering him a flesh vessel i.e. our heroes.

Naturally given Pugsley was right there and is good dog best friend he jumps in the way. Telamaluchus isn't at all bothered and can still conquer the world but leaves courtney behind. So it's up to our heroes to stop him. Well Barney at first, Norma realizes despite not knowing barney and this only tangentally involving her it's the right thing to do and reluctantly helps. After a tense and hilarious flog lum chase, the two manage to trap the demon king in a photo despite his best efforts. I love that he both saw them using the photos on the ride coming, and that Barney beats him.. by using the commands he taught puglsey. Tela can't beat his ingrained commands or his doggy need for good boys scritches and thus gets trapped.

The teens confront Courtney who hastily offers them the jobs: she scares off security usually, they need a job and she happens to have jennifer's old id and the uniforms laying around. Norma accepts without thinking any of the implications through like if Courtney can actually get them the jobs. Turns out.. she can and it's really THAT EASY to get on Phoenix Parks payroll, but Norma is just happy to get the job, while Barney ends up accepting.. and asks if their's any rooms, moving in to an awesome montage at the end.... and finding out as they go to sleep in their coffins for the eveing that Puglsey can talk.. just as Courtney finds out a piece of temaluchus didn't get sealed away with the rest of him, giving Pugsley good boy magic powers and Alex Brightman's voice. Props to Brightman: I assumed given he uses his natural and awesomely croaky voice in everything else iv'e seen or heard him in, that was all he could do.. and I was wrong as Pugsley, while still sounding like him, has a more normal voice, the croakiness saved for Teleamaluchus, who even then has a deeper, more violent tone to it befitting a demon king.

All of that was in the first episode which neatly sets everything up, and leaves the rest of the season to explore the park and it's three main arcs: Barney deals with both the freeing nature of the park, as he makes clear to norma and we'll dive into shortly it's the first place where no one knew him pre transition (And no norma dosen't count. If she can't remember he exists till yesterday, she can't remember what he was like before he came out), but also the damage as his little brother Patrick ends up visting the park and can't fully grasp why his brother left in the night.. and understandbly dosen't get why his brother can't text him. Courtney badly wants to go home and struggles to find a way, while in the second half of the season Norma stumbles into Jennifer: where she's been.. and the biggeer mystery around that. All with plenty of great slice of life stuff wrapped in it, fun characters and shenanigans. So to properly cover things i'm going to cover the three major arcs and the main cast members tied to them (And Pugsly, can't forget pugsley), then each of the episodes in a capusle format i've used for both venture bros and king of the hill. First up

Barney and Pugsley: Acceptance isn't Enough

Barney's arc is the most intresting of the three. As I said having a characters transness be a main part of them is rare and having a trans lead in animation is pretty much nonexistant, so this arc is signifigant. And while the Grammy Grams thing is mildly limiting, theres more than enough depth and nuance to this arc and to Barney's journey to compensate: we get the gist enough and see the other struggles with his family enough that it papers over not knowing WHAT Grammy Gram's said: what matters is it was bad enough for Barney to flee home.

The show is clever in that it dosen't show the damage at first: We barely see Barney's mother so we assume his parents are awful. In the original comic they were, and Barney got the job entirely because it left him homeless and snuck into the house after work. Norma had been working there for years and was way more surly and done with things in the comic.

While that approach is valid and sadly all too common in real life, I do like what the series did: instead his parents are just people, flawed people who fucked up and didn't realize how bad till barney left one night, never came back, and ghosted them. We first see how freeing the park is for Barney: he can make his own routine, gladly bathes in the fountain, and gets to hang out with his best friend who can now talk back. Living in a literal haunted house with a demon roomate who while she dose'nt say it is exastic to not be alone for once is pretty nice.

The bigger advantage is laid out in one of the season's best scenes. After a day's shenanigans we'll circle back to, Norma finds out Barney's been living there, having already been supscious as he beat her to work that morning. She's not mad but does want to know why. And Barney makes it clear "I'm trans norma". It's the sentence that set off Elon and his stooges. What they willingly ignored is the rest.. the context... the fact that for the first time NO ONE ELSE knows that until he tells them. His coming out to norma tells us both how much the park means; he may not care about Pauline at all (we find out towards the end of the season he's only seen one of her movies), but he's found a place he can just be Barney without baggage, without people mocking him just for being himself, without Grammy Grams or parents who won't stand up to her. He's free.

That dosen't mean the journey is all smooth as the rest of the episode was focused on barney himself needing to accept someone: Pugsley, who they smartly use as a metaphor for queerneess and transness, and how sometimes being in a marganlized group dosen't mean you won't marganlize other. It was a risky aseop to have in only episode 2, we only just met barney, but it worked well.

Barney is at first excited his dog can talk. Norma is more hung up on the "barney beating her to work" thing. His best friend can talk back, they can hang out even more. The problem is much like his parents while Barney ACCEPTS his dog is forever changed, he dosne't fully understand it. He has puglsey stay quite, neglects him for his crush and eventually leaves him on a train. While bad enough if the dog wasn't as intellegent as a human now it's devsitating to pugsley. While Barney likes his dog can talk, he dosen't try to understand Puglsey as a person, and when Puglsey is letting a bunch of mascots seemingly yelling MEET out, he assumes his dog is just being a silly little guy, not getting Puglsey is now a person with his own thoughts and efeelings. Even as a regular dog he defintley was, but the soul shark clearly upped his intellegence.

The two have it out and while it starts hilariously with the two repeating "bad pugsley" "Bad barney" for about a minute, it gets serious quick: Puglsey is mad barney won't respect him and after b arney says he liked puglsey how he was Puglsey compares him to grammy gram.. and later while baridcading himself from the living mascots, Barney realizes his dog was right. He was being the asshole. Pugsley did screw up as while he correctly figured out the mascots he accidnetly brought to life were saying "MEET", he didn't count on the fact they were still terrifying. Barney apologizes, accpeets Pugsley as he is , happier and better than ever, and finds a way to have puglsey talk in public: he's now a mascot. And since dead end's policy on weird shit is offically "Keep it to yourself darlin", no one's going to dig that deep. It also says a lot without spelling it out that while Barney's parents will need a bit to realize how they fucked up, and him spelling it out, Barney only takes half an hour at best to realize it and try to reconcile.From here on out the two are ride or die and are on equal footing now. Also Pugsley can do magic things and is now aware of that, and Courtney is going to try and exploit it.

We'll get to the dogspoltation more in Courney's section, for now this episode STILL has one more thing to cover: Logs, played by Kenny Trahn, the health and safety guy at the park who Barney instanlty gets a crush on. We soon see that while Barney is good with most people, around his crush he's nervous as fuck and his insecurity really peaks out. Logs is nice, a friendly guy who just wants to help people.. but he feels underbaked this season, only getting two episodes really focusing on him.

The first did help sell me on the relatoinship more: while i'm happy to have a MLM relationship front and center of a kids cartoon (only helluva boss really has one outside ), Logan just felt like nice handsome man. I've seen it a LOT in romance stories and while it's nice it's for a man this time, it's still not a lot and I really didn't care. I knew from what spoilers i'd picked up they end up together, knew from the comic he was into barney this whole time and they were both mutually insecure, something that was kept in full, I just wasn't invested.

Wait Time 22 Minutes helped a lot. It helps it has a unique gimmick: Norma is waiting in line for the grand reopening of the dr love ride, bringing along barney so she's not stuck with a stranger, a valid concern especially for someone with crippling anxiety, can relate. I'm not a theme park person myself, but I get not wanting to go to one of these things alone. You need that social buffer. So the main gang gets stuck in line. Norma treis the employee line but it endds up being just as fast, but neatly splits her, pugsley and courtney off.. and leaves Barney alone with Logs. We get a real sense of who he is: friendly and personable like barney, kind of goofy, and really into his job, on the ride to check it for health and saftey. He's a likeable guy, he just dosent' get much beyond "likes his job" "handome" and "into barney but barney's too insecure to realize it". It's still a cute episode, with two older lesbians reminsacing on their own first date and helping barney out on what's essentially his. We also get some fun bodyswap shenanigans as everyone takes a turn possesing barenty which not only kicks off the jennifer plot, more on that in Norma's section, but has some neat animatoin: while they use the old overused trick of the other characters voices coming out of barney, the animation does a fatnastic job making barney act like the other characters and the eyes also change with it. It's really neat. I also love the slot machine effect on the possession spell. Eventually Barney does almost get on the ride.. but decides to leave. Not because he dosen't want to, he makes it clear to Logs it's simply a "not now" not a no, but realizes he has other stuff to resolve as he ended up in line in the first place.. because he saw his parents.

So winding back a bit, after episode 3 focuses more on Norma, Barney's plot comes back for Episode 4, Night of the Living Kids. There's a birthday at the dinosaur portion of dead end and Barney is glad to cover, both being great with kids and loving dinosaurs. Norma is less enthused and brings movies to watch when the kids fall asleep, naive to how these things work. It helps this day has been tough for Barney as it's his brother Patrick's birthday. Patrick is an adorable sweet little guy.. who Barney has been struggling to text since he ran off, wanting to let him know he's okay, but not having the words.

This being TV, naturally the party is for Patrick, so while Barney can hide in his dinosaur suit till he gets the words, he can't avoid actually talking to him. It's here we finally get consequences to his running away: He left for good reason but he chose the shittiest way to do it: instead of telling his parents "I need this to change or i'm moving out" or "I'm moving out because you keep forcing me to be around grammy grams and refuse to stand up to her", he just left. And took Pugsley. Pugsley genuinely misses Barney's parents and especailly Patrick, but gets WHY they have to stay nd it hurts the little guy. And Barney geninely misses patrick ,didn't mean to hurt him.. but did because his own emotoinal constipation meant he couldn't reassure the guy. So when they finally do reunite it's tense at first: patrick genuinely CAN'T understand and Barney can't explain it fully. He can at least apologize and the two are close enough.. but it's clear Barney can't just keep running from this. Even if he never comes back, and understandably so.. he can't hurt Patrick. It's a dlileemma i'm sure a lot of trans teens face: stay in a harmful home or go but leave your sibling and maybe never see them again. Barney at least knows his parents aren't monsterous enough to keep patrick away, he has that luxury.. but as longa s he can't face them he and pugsley are down a brother and it's not fair to Patrick. patrick didn't not stand up for Barney. Patrick apparently wasn't there and even if he was wouldn't understand WHY Barney's unhappy every friday. He's just a kid. He's not the one casuing shit, Grammy Gram's is and the parents are enabling her.

Still progress is Slow as Barney, whlie having a chance to talk to his parents. .can't. And as mentioned when given the chance to talk to them after another episode unrealted to his arc, runs. And while possesed gets stranded in the inbetween, a red spooky dimension between planes where if he stays he dies.. and it's geninely tempting. He dosen't know if he can ever face his parents and if it's right he can't. Norma reassures him: Yes this is hard, she's sympathetic.. but he has to live his life. He has to face this eventually. So he does, he goes to his parents, reveals he's fine and he's been here the whole time, and offers dinner.

That leads to the next episode, and while the A-Plot is all on the spooky stuff, the b-plot is simple: An uncomfortable western dinner with Barney and his parents and also patrick and good boy. And there's two telling things: barney no longer has any hangups about sharing that Pugsley can talk: patrick knows from the sleepover incident, and Pugsley only dosen't at first because he wants to get his mom and dad belly rubs first. Their the best at it. He only gets outed sooner because Barney panics and things are so damn awkward his parents don't have time to relaly freak out about their dog talking.

Instead it's just one awkward incident as his dad makes jabs about aps , his mom tries to keep the peace and Barney tries to say anything. Evetnually his dad being an unquestionable dick, using Barney not wanting the last nacho and trying to politely give it to his dad as a metaphor for barney being "ungreatful" that Barney finally snaps and the two have it the fuck out. This dinner also does a very nice job showing WHY things have been tense without having the characters just say it: Barney's mom is kind and sweet but badly avoids any sort of conflict, trying not to take sides. She GENTLY tries to get Barney's Dad to backdown, but dosen't take a firm stance either way or tell them both to knock it off. Barney's dad meanwhile takes the all too common stance of "I'm the adult and I bought you things and gave you a home therefore I win". He gets conforntatoinal over a goddamn chip, compeltely misses why barney left. He tries enough to not hate him, but enough for you to still want to punch him.

Barney lays it out: it's over grammy gram, they wont' say anything, and that's why it hurts him: and their reactions say it all: his mom tries to make excuses and once again avoid conflict, just like her son had up to this point, and his dad .. looks gneuinely sorry.. but then doubles down and tries to leave despite it clearly hurting patrick. What stops it.. is Barney stopping the cycle: he could let them leave this time.. but it wouldn't be at all diffrnet from all the running he's done. It wouldn't fix anything. It'd just hurt Patrick.

So Barney apologizes. It's why this plot works so well: Barney is in the right, did need the space, and did need to call out his parents.. but did ghost them and flee and wasn't firm with them on why he was so hurt. By being honest then by being empathetic, recognzing he hurt them he gets his parents to actually open up a bit. He's not raedy to come home telling them "You have to make it one first".. but it's very clear he's actually GOTTEN to them. And he's right: While he's almost 18 (And would've been in the third season, alongside everyone else), Barney is still their kid and they should be the ones going to him. He's the one they hurt. He needs to know this shit won't happen again and NEEDS to know they've really changed.

That brings us to the finale.. well the episode before it: When Barney is banned from the park, long story, he ends up captured and Logs end sup siding with Pauline because he needs the job and understandably dosen't want to piss off someone with pull and thin skin. So Barney sings a whole ass song about how he feels, how he does have feelings for logs but he's afraid to act.. but finally does. And turns out Logs was indeed into him the whole time, too scared to ask him out and they agree and Logs does the right thing and lets Barney out. The two end the season basically a couple and with a kiss.. in frotn of Barney's parents which leads into the resolution of his plot

The final act of the season has his parents turned to stone and Patrick kidnapped due to finale shneangians, with Courtney's actions getting the damage reversed. And with that near death or stoned forever experince or whatever you call it out of the way, his parents finally get the courage to do what they shoudl've done in the first place; Reconcile. They apologize fully, his mom the most, admitting conflict avoidance runs in the family and deciding to hold firm: no more dinners till grammy grams accepts what she did and she's being kept far away from barney. What I like is that he DOSEN'T return to living at home: He does decide to stay at the park.. but it's a full circle moment: he's moving out because he's almost a legal adult and likely at the end of high school and as we saw genuneinly loves living in dead end. But he'll see them every saturday instead and can come home when he wants. He can visit them. Stay over if he needs to. He has his family back on his terms. It's a wonderfully well earned ending to Barney's arc and I look forward to seeing the episode with his family next season to see how things are.

Barney's arc tells a hard but needded aseop: that accepting your kids.. is the bare minimum. Barney's dad TRIES to use that as an argument in his favor.. but it backfires. You have to defend your kids, be open with them. Accepting thier queer is a good thing and a hard thing to fine.. but it's also fine to not accept the bare minimum and to not act like your being done a favor for doing the right thing. The only thing. While Barney learns to stop running away, it's rightfully on his parents to stop doing the same metaphorically and face the fact that accepting Barney is trans.. means defending him. Being there for him even if it means loosing another realtive. It's hard but the right thing isn't easy, and it's taking that hard step and cutting GrammY Grams off that mends the family. It took them a while to get there, but I like showing parents who are flawed, but aren't monsters: they do n't reject barney's identity, but needed to learn to protect it too. My Mom protects my sister and nephew. I try to too. You don't be paternalistc or shitty about it, but you stand up and say not o bigotry even if its someone you love. And as a result Barney ends the season with his family, a boyfriend and a place he belongs. And not talkign dog bestfriendless.

Norma: Her Frankenstein

Norma is my favorite of the main cast, with Courtney a close second but we'll get there. It's easy to see why: besides getting the best jokes she's also an autistic nerd who gets overly excited about shit, has heavy anxiety, and deals with people she once loved and idozlied turning out to be

She's also Bisexual. That's not a factor this season, but it's something you all deserved to know. I feel seen in Norma. Like Barney they allow her to both be a full person and don't hide that she's autistic the same way they don't hide that he's trans or gay. There's no goding: Norma Kahn is autistic and her autistim is in every part of her just like a real person. We get one episode fully focusing on it, but you can see it in her hyperfixation on pauline, trouble remembering names, and touch sensetivity. A lot of this is mostly highlighted in her first spotlight, episode 3's Trust Me, but it's who she is and it's so gratifying to see. To see me in some form.

Before we get to her spotlight though we once again circle back to episode 2: When preparing for this review I didn't realize how much I was going to have to talk about this one, but it has a LOT of important character setup and moments in hindsight. Case in point our heroes meet Logs in the first place because it's orentation day, something Barney is meh about as these things tend to eat away at your soul, but Norma couldn't be happier for.

Leading Orentation is Badya Hassan, voiced by Kathreen Khavari who voices Ms Marvel in anything marvel has animated that wasn't MCU related and was ironically in the film Mascots. Badya... is my faviorite, a friendly, sometimes sarcastic little bean whose reaction to Norma's habbit of calling her co workers by where they work is to adorably coo at being called Deathslide, who when instructed to leave soup puts it in the mailsllot, and who defintely is on the spectrum herself and even if she isn't she's the best. I saved her for this section as while she's AROUND Barney, she's kept mostly around Norma and weirdly out of the insane shit going on. I dont' get why as we have an explination for why no one reacts to this stuff, she's happy to help. Badyah just isn't used a lot this season but when she is she's delightful and it's clear from what I know the writers realized this and she gets a lot more to do next time.

For now she's leading Orentation, when Norma taps her on the shoudler in one of my favorite moments. This is the face of the autisim spectrum

She is afraid to be touched.. but will gladly break that to ask what version of the orentation this is.. and knows theirs multiple. And when Badyah jokingly suggests she run the tour instead, Norma does so and instead of grumbily taking the mike away, Badyah just roles with it, getting Norma's exicted. She regrets it as it's an hours long tour, but even then just makes sure not to let Norma run it again rather than get angry or anything. She's the best. But it's running this tour that shows off the depths of her fandom: While Norma was already rattling off hos much she knew, this episode really locks in how much. The girl looked up what ORENTATION for the park was like and knows enough to give an hours long tour. She's talented at knowing everything about Pauline

Which makes what happens later that much more shattering: We see just how obessed she is.. how much this means.. and how much having it all torn down is gonna hurt.

Before we get to the pain, we have Trust Me, my favorite episode of the season. This episode perfectly captures what it's like to have anxiety on top of autisim: how hard it is to interact with people, how just trying to smile and fit in.. can get questoning looks, how just intearactinig with people can be terrifying. And how most people just expect you to be "normal" and act weird when you don't as shown with Logan, local park douche, and Harm-Many, their counsler and secret demon and metaphor for autisim shaming.

It's Team Building day at the beach, something everyone else is excited for: Barney to show off his cool pink sunglasses (He dosen't say that but come on. Their so dope), Puglsey because structure and ordered activites are his thing and Courtney for beach. Norma isn't, barely getting out of the car with her mom's encouragment, her mom pointing out that at the very least, most of those people are open to her and already friendly.

I also love Barney's reaction: Much like Badyah you get the sense that unlike a lot of people Norma's likely had to deal with, he gets she has autisim and is senstive to her struggles. His reaction to her saying everyday conversation is terrifying to her.. is a sympathetic and heartbroken, but defintley suprised "Oh.. really" and then to try and gently encourage her. Mostly get her to stop using out of pocket nicknames, even of Badyah likes hers. Norma seems geninely like the first human friend Barney's made since transitioning and one of the few people to just.. accept him on sight. So he does the same. Tries to ease her into it.

Harm-Many, as you can tell by the name, is less about that. He's played by absolute gay icon Alan Cumming, who was a hell of a get. Sure this was before The Traitors sent him rocketing back into the limelight with a thousand fabulous outfits and a dog in tow also in a thousand fabulous outfits, but he's still a broadway and screen legend and this is a seemingly one off villian role. They thankfully got him back for season 2. Which to be clear I haven't watched yet I just know things. Granted he also purposfully chosed what seems to be a one episode ,two at most episode, role in Mighty Nein coming up, so he may really just like smaller parts that allow him to take his dog into the stuido with him. Who knows. The point is he's fantastic and a perfect fit as the seemingly helpful new age guru... who then mocks poor norma when an exporcise having everyone solve a human knot leads to the poor woman breaking down and running while he mocks her. That would be a nightmare for me too and I Love that the real issue isn't the demon who plans to feed on everyone's fear, though he does have to be dealt with.. but simple societal anxiety. The kind of shit we'r easked to do we're juts not comfortable with but do out of peer pressure. Norma had no real choice in this and was never comfortable iwth it.

We do get a very sweet scene with Badyah going to comfort her. Barney might've too but Badyah got there first. She's senstive to Norma's needs, kind and it makes what's going to happen next season all the more painful. Sometims I wish I didn't know everything: it helps for things like knowing we'll be getting alan cumming again next season, but it makes the shipping i'm trying to avoid doing with them for reasons I won't spoil harder. Neither of them's the asshole in this situation, no one's secretly evil or abusive, it's just.. something that happens.

For now their cute.. and back just in time for a what they fear episode. It helps when your name sounds like Harmony. We get the barney scene I mentioned and some funnier fears like Badyah being afraid of hamsters and Logs being afraid of having no charge on his laptop. Norma wins the day by offering herself up as she's the main course here... and doing the classic monster tactic of offering Harm Many way too much, via abeauitufl and heartbreaking sequence showing how distorted the world is to norma in gorgeous watercolors, how her anxiety FEELS. The day is won, Norma can have a GOOD team building experince, but does sit out volleyball for now. She has her people... well her person, pug and demon acquaintance.

While Night of the Living Kids was Barneycentric, it does have an important development for Norma: she meets a friend. While the rest of the kids run off form movie night to go do shenanigans that end up summoning a night hag, Norma ends up bonding with one of the kids, who turns out to have beaten her at an auction for pauline merch and be the forum head for the Pauline fan Forum. The two quickly bond and it's geninely sweet to see the two bond over their shared intrest and see that Norma can actually be really good with kids.. it just has to beo ne she relates to> I relate to finding that hyperfixation that overlaps with one of my nieces or nephews , giving me something to talk about and not feel awkward as hell like I do with pretty much everyone.

It also leaves a crumb for the overarching plot: Barborah, Pauline's former stuntwoman who has bitterly said Pauline ruined her life. Kid belives her, Norma dosen't, unsuprisingly this will be important later. IT did not seem extraneous at the time.

This leads to wait time 22 minutes an episode later. At the start of the series we saw Jennifer Swan, a pauline impersonator being chased.. and in present day Norma relays to barney how she went missing. While stranded in the inbetween, Barney ends up finding her and Norma sees, the two managing to pull her out but loosing contact with her.

So the next episode, now having a hot lead to the mystery, Norma decides to solve it, getting help from her friend. Barney was supposed to but had the whole dinner and it's a nice little character moment that while frustrated Norma dosen't try to talk him out of it. She's pissed.. but she gets how hard this is for him and courtney's busy seemingly dragging a corpse upstairs. The truth is just sad and we'll get to it.

Thankfully Badyah showed up to hang and I love the small detour that Badyah just.. knows this is where Norma hangs out all the time. Barney, Courtney and Pugsley all live there. Norma just hangs out there because everyone else is. So she's got her sidekick. Badyah insists partner but for now sidekick. They look into the other impersonators, finding out Jennifer was Pauline's favorite.. and that Pauline is creepily tracking everyone. Unsuprisnigly Courtney was the thing chasing her, but lost her... and something else got her. And she's not even the first to disappear as Courtney and Badyah find a ton of missing persons posters stacked on top of each other leading to the Janitor, who claims the park brass are covering it up, scared to dig into it for some reason. A reason she knwos as earlier when Norma was at the pauline phoenix experience to meet her informant, which also has the delightfully batshit hall of ex husbands, she saw a glimpse of an insurance commerical.. and having seen EVERYTHING Pauline's ever done, it stuck out as something Norma was unaware existed.. and something the Janitor goes to see.

At the restraunt, after Barney's parents leave, the gang tries to figure out who dunnit.. and by that Norma in heavy denial blames barborah and everyone else rightfully figures out it's Pauline. While Barborah has motive, a grudge against pauline, it adds up way more for the woman herself: she took an interest in each of these impersonators before bodyjacking them, she can creepily track them, she's likely the reason brass are scared and as Badayah perfectly puts it "She's a rich white lady and they can be the worst. " The fact when talkign to Jennifer herself, who seems terrified of angering pauline, that she had to sign an NDA only proves it.

But I get it: when you put someone on a pedestal it takes a bit to accept they lept off and kicked a puppy. I was in heavy denial about Brad Jones for a few months: Surely this content creator only stayed with a company that had abused several of his friends, hid a sexual abuser, and was being called out because it was complciated. right ? right? righttttt?. Having someone you watch every day, who makes your days better, be a prick who gladly sells out almost all his online friends for the worst of them hits fucking hard, so finding out your idol is straight up napping people is a lot to accept. It's why you see so many people who clinged to harry potte reven though death of the author only goes so far. the movies I get, there's other people involved, but the books.. were Rowling's own work. And that took devistated me... finding out someone whose work was my childhood was a fucking selfish transphobic monster who wrote a whole essay saying "i'm not traphobic.. I just don't think their women which is transphobic" before going full mask off after predeictably many a person was distgusted by her "apology".

It's a narrative that's revlenat hits hard.. and needed a bit more seeding in the rest of the season. Not to an overbearing amount, but Jennifer Swan is mostly forgotten till episode 6, and we only get one small clue between then and the big wham moment in Wait Time: 22 Minutes. Norma Kahn: Paranormal Detective still does enough heavy lifting to help smooth things over, but like pauline's career they backload the information we get.

Thankfully the payoff is fantastic and leads into the final episodes: Our heroes confront the janitor who WAS BARBORAH ALL ALONG

Voiced by Karen Maruyama. And it turns out Pauline is a spooky ghost, determined to supress the comrecial. ANd Barborah instantly earns my praise as she takes Pauline's attacks.. to play her, buying everyone else time to run into the tv itself, of course it's magic, and as norma stands in tears she runs too

This leads to my second faviorite episode and the season's biggest format bender. They did this a little with wait time 22 minutes, having the whole episode take place in line (even the inbetween stuff was where the line would be in the inbetween, and it being creepily empty added to the horror and mystery), The Pauline Phoenix Experince takes place entirely in Pauline's movies, the ones playing on a loop on the tv with our heroes cast in the other parts.

The formula is simple: our heroes slowly wake up, Puglsey being the first after playing Pauline's werewolf grandpa, quickly slapping barney awake, and then courtney in the western scenario. I also like the solution to barney realizing his character dies first in a shootout between pauline and norma. We hear a bang.. and then cut to barney who cheerfully realizes "right blanks, this is a movie" and fakes his own death. Pugsly also gets turned into a horse. It's majestic.

Eventually when ending up in Dr Love we get a fantastic twist: Norma.. was awake the whole time. She woke up as soon as she got there.. she simply prefers this reality: one where she can hang out forever with her pauline playing the greatest hits. It's a nice metaphor for how many try to do death of the author: how if you just IGNORE them as they are now it dosen't hurt. But Barney makes it clear A) norma is a hell of a lot herself and is more than just her fandom and B) she can't run away. He knows form experince it dosen't work.

So they prepare to leave.. after seeing the tape. Pauline was filming a hilarious guilttrap of an insurance commerical and argued with Barborah, who stormed off after Pauline refused to acccept how dangerous it was to sit in a swing over a cliff.

So Pauline.. died. Outright. Barborah went to save her.. and for her kindness got bodyjacked. It's why so many: Pauline takes a body for a few months or even years and if it fails to meet her standards or ages, swaps to remain forever young. Jennifer only lucked out because our heroes intervened. While our heroes are quickly banned, they now have to stop Pauline.. but not before norma breaks down sobbing, her whole world collapsed.

Thankfully the same episdoe she has to process this for the first time.. is the series musical opus Phantom of the Theme Park. It has some issues: I don't like Logs "I'ts just my job" justification or how long it take sto explain and find Badyah still working there after she both found HEAVY evidence Pauline is up to shady shit and her friends were banned two minutes after they found said evdience. It's very hand wavy. Josh not carring makes sense. Josh sucks.

To get back in Puglsey uses a spell he was saving for Barney's brithday: everyone starts singing.. including our heroes. The opening number is whatever but the rest are all fucking masterful: Barney gets a heartfelt ballad explaning his crush, Courtney gets one expressing her desire to go down there tha'ts both hialroius and deeply moving, Temalucus gets a duet with Pugsley that just slaps and was added ENTIRELY because they had Alex Brightman. While all the cast it turns out can sing masterfully, everyone getting a banger number, the episode omittied puglsey till they cast alex, realizing they HAD to give him a number. Given how big of a banger "Hell is Forever" and "Two Minutes Notice" are, this was a wise choice and like those it's a standout moment in an already standout show, helping flesh out our seeming true final boss.

Norma gets two as her actress can REALLY belt it. The first is the most heartbreaking and the best of the episode: My Frankenstien, a heartfelt moment as Norma, using a glamour to appear just like pauline to bait her as her next target, pours her heart out: how this was the kind of moment she always wanted, how much she NEEDED pauline, how much her work meant.. and then belting about how much it hurts to find out she's a monster.. and that Pauline in a way created Norma herself "Your my frankenstiennnn and i'm your monstttterrrr" God that song is good. Please let these be on spotify. It's the best scene of season 1, a beautifully coregraphsed show stopper, showing the glamour behind norma in the mirrorr, complete with backup dancers and the stage fucking blowing up around her.

Sadly Norma does get bodyjacked, but everyone saves her.. at a cost as teleamaluchus is free. More on that in the next section. Norma does get to be the hero, rallying everyone even if their efforts dont' pan out, and rallying pauline which DOES pan out: she points out this park is Pauline's legacy.. and it's going ot end in demons taking it over and turning everyone to stone. So she gets the stonevilians to saftey.. and isn't happy when Norma, Barney and co rightfully get credit at the end, vowing revenge... which while it will come true next season never meant she was the big bad. She wants to be.. but Teleamluchus and his sister were bigger threats.. and as she rants someone else is already making plans for our heroes. More on him in a bit. Pauline's a decent villian, Coco does a fantstic job with her, but she's ultimately not the big bad. Still fun enough to merrit all this screentime and still given the weight she deserves, so it dosen't feel like time wasted. She'sd simply a bait and switch is all.

Norma still ends the season with friends.. but with a lot of unanswered questions i'm eager to explore next time. Her whole world was turned uptside down and while sh'es coping best she can the transition won't be easy.. and won't be without more heartbreak.

Courtney (Feat Pugsley): Down There

So we've come to the last of the big arcs for the season. You'll notice how they overlap pretty well. You'll also notice puglsey didn't quite get one. He's still a main character and goodest boy, but he's a supporting player: he's primarily there to help Barney emotionally, use his magic to cause or end shenanigans, and to be the comic relief, something he outright calls himself. He's still present in the big storylines though: he's Barney's emtoional support while still being a remidner his familys not bad his parents just needed to get their heads out of their asses. While he's largely irrelvant for the Pauline side of things, he does play a major role in the other plot: Courtney's.

Courtney's arc is the one that suprised me the most, and that feels by design. At first glance she's the leads other wacky sidekick: She shows up, does a joke, and flees when things get dangerous because she can teleport. Like Pugsley she seems like a supporting player: Her knoweldge of demons and desperation to go home means she's the one who both tries to help Puglsey with magic and gives him the spellbook that allows him to cast it at all. The two form a bit of a double act, with the two having a subplot in the first half of episode 4 where she tries to scoop out one of his eyeballs with a melonballer, leading to the gag above with a deadpan "this is exactly what it looks like", and Wait Time 22 Minutes has her try to outright eat puglsey.. after he told her she could only eat a little pugsley. Norma rightfully calls out both of them: Courtney for eating her friend and Puglsey for agreeing to let her have any Pugsley. She's unhelpful, obnoxious, and is firmly aware of both things and seemingly fine with it. The second and third episodes have her on the side, fleeing in the second.

It's Night of the Living Kids that finally explores her depth.. after she spends a few minutes trying to pluck one of Puglsey's eyes out with a melon power to get his powers. When the two actually stop and talk she's honest: The way home is right there: Dead End, for mysterious reasons that aren't explained apart from Pauline Having it installed, has an elevator to hell and above right in the middle. A bunch of demons use it to help Courtney summon Telamalchus. Yet for reasons she can't even remember she's banished: she can't even open the damn thing and just wants to go home. It's what causes Pugsley to almost relent and let her have one of his eyes: he too is just INCHES from his home, but can't go. Thankfully things at the slumber party go even more south with all the human characters possesed by their lack of sleep, so Pugsley is forced into a die or fly situation with his magic.. and succesfully summons the Day Hag to counter the Night Hag what caused stuff.. and for both to be understandably upset people labeled them hags. With this Pugsley unlocks his full power ,opens the elevator... and Courtney STILL can't use it as it turns out the gold rings on her aren't part of her body.. their shackles.

Courtney spends the next episode depressed, even more bitter than usual. Even Barney giving her some christmas in july trash, having gotten a wizard hat for pugsley and a y2k pauline figure for norma, can't cheer her up. Her relatoinship with Puglsey, one of the season's low key best, is what gets her some empathy: to the others Courtney's just that asshole barney lives with and who tried to make them into demon king meat puppets. Puglsey's seen HOW much pain she's in.

So our heroes go to hell to enter Hox's Castle, a parody of Takehshi's Castle and just as impossible. So while Courtney and Badyah watch, our heroes try to get Courtney a fabulous prize. Thisi s a nice moment as while Courtney can be a lot... the others recognize she needs them and are good enough people to try and do something. Granted they nearly die a bunch and barney flat out dies as Hox gets increasingly pissed someone is actually.. winning the game. I love his "What in the here was that" when Pugsley uses his powers in the first challenge. Barney's death.. is one of the funneist damn things in the season from Hox just shoving him down the staris.. and getting the poor boy struck by lightning, to his wonky death pose, to Barney coming back, wondering why everyone's so happy to see him.. then seeing his dead body turn to dust "Remind me when I get back to call my therapist about this".

The trio nearly loose as Hox brings back his giant crab , apparently ii's been a few thousand seasons.. only for Telamalchus to take the wheel.. and Hox to freak the fuck out as he realizes "OH SHIT ONE OF THE COMPETIOR'S THE DEMON KING" and hastily lets them win with a cheesy mug.. a cheesy mug Courtney treasures as it was for her. It's a nice moment. It also underlines that courtney didn't get a ton of focus in the first 6 episodes: enough to flesh her out, give her a story but still not enough to tip off that the entire season would hinge on her. It does hhowever hint at the real final boss of the season as Telamalchus' Sister, Zagan played by Michela Jae Rodrigeuz sees him on tv and plans to pay him a visit.. eventually.

Episode 6 has the wacky subplot, and episode 7 has Courtney simply pitch in for the plot: she saw what hapepned with jennifer to the point. Yet it also sneakily adds more motivation. That corpse I mentioned/ Turned out it's a stolen animatronic that looks like barney, and a stuffed dog to represent pugsley. When Norma comes to get her info, she finds courtney.. having tea with them and GENUINELY worried Barney's going to move out.. and reveals being by herself wasn't healthy for her. "Turns out i'm a real jerk". Courtney can't flat out admit she cares, but she does.

This ends up backfiring next episode: After the tv shenanigns, which mostly has courtney in funny costumes, her reactoin to Pauline's bullshit.. is to laugh, genuinely impressed and rubbing it in norma's face. This gets the others to reject her, understandably: From their perspective Courtney's been a one dimensional asshole who tried to kill them and has only marginally gotten better since. From Courtney's.. it's the only friends she's ever had and the only people who ever accepted her turning her away. You see both sides.

So Courtney joining Pauline isn't a suprise: Pauline makes the valid bluff that since she had the elevator put in she can hack it and Courtney turns on the others. They can't fully convince her to stop... but Pugsley does point out the one hole in her logic: If Pauline needed Courtney's help to bind Pauline's soul to a new body... how could she possibly do something advanced as hack the elevator. So Courtney in a rage attacks Pauline.. but it's not enough> It buys them time.. but Courtney simply isn't strong enough and with the options being loose norma or loose himself.. Pugsley picks himself, willingly let Telamalchus take control after a banger dance number.

This predictably goes horribly: while it stops pauline and frees norma, with him doing so with no effort, Telamalchus isn't about to let go of his body, and as if it couldn't get any worse... Zagan shows up right after with an army and annoyed turns most of the park to stone

Courtney confronts them.. to let her the fuck go. And we get a big twist, one I knew as I know an even bigger twist about her that's saved for season 2 as it was orginally in the second book and season 2 combines bits of book 2 with the bits of book 1 it cut out for reasons I wont' get into here but I have theories already. Probably even more after I finally watch season 2.

Anyways Courtney finds out the shackles aren't due to the demons.. but the ANGELS, a factoin we've barely heard about but are about to be a much bigger pain in the ass, and Zagan gladly frees her as they need more troops and Courtney was brave enough to call out demonic royalty. This isn't the other hell, they reward that shit like you should.

So Courtney leaves and while our heroes finale about, we ahve the turn you expect.. but it works. Is Courtney missing her old life predictable? Yes, entirely. But it works emtoinally: the horrifying slightly underdefined landscape that was alien to our other heroes is home to her, what she always wanted, waht she sang about.. but it lacks the one thing the suface had: people who actuallyc ared about her. Sh'es still alone. The thing she was trying to prevent is only worse.. and seeing the mug again gets her to do the right thing.

And Courtney.. ends up saving the day. While she was out Pugsley got some control of his body back, and while he tried , Zagan's minons bringing her patrick gets Pugsely to step up and forces him to blow it. Things are seemingly fucked when Telamachus takes back over.. only for him to also be unable to let her harm patrick. The piece of him left behind also gained all of Pugsley's experinces during that time: Movie nights, walks, patrick's prevoius experinces... he gained humanity.. and he hates it. Zagan sees it as a weakness to exploit. Zagan.. is also cool as fuck having a neat mask that slowly breaks over the episode, an army and expert swordsmanship. She also easily takes out barney and logs when they come to help.

In the end Courtney shows up just in time to help... and her plan is risky, sounds counterproductive.. but as zagan stabs the floor, is the only option: She brought the soul photo.. and wants puglsey to rip it. Part of the reason Zagan has the advantage is that Telemachus only has a small chunk of his power. At full power he could easily beat her.. but then there's the same problem they had last time he took out another villian: he's still there. But courtney has a genuine plan and asks for trust knowing she dosen't deserve it.. but that this WILl work

And shockingly it does: Tele easily beats his sister who heads back to hell, omniously warning the angels will probably be after them.. and she's gonna tell mom. neither sounds good.. but netiher does Telemachus rampaging.. only for Courtney to taunt him as he can't crush Barney and co. He tries.. btu he just can't. That above humanity is emphsised and it's a brilliant twist: His soul piece was still enough to be present inside pugsley.. so why wouldn't it grow along with him, see every GOOD thing about humanity and life that a brutal demon king desperate to prove himself and constantly fighting his sibling for more terriotry would ignore and lock away. It opened his heart. And while Telemachus isn't SUPER happy about this he accepts he can't just magically undo it and that conquering earth just wont' make him happy. He decides to leave, free Pugsley and go reconcile with his sister. And undoes all the damage. It's Courtney learning empathy, finally admitting after a season she gives a shit after pushing everyone away that saves the park.. and gets everyone to forgive her and makes her decide to stay, deciding she has more here.

So the season ends with everyone happy, the park wrecked but okay... and naturally that mysterious little man I mentioned who tells heaven our heroes might be the ones theyv'e been looking for. Oh fuck. Well.. tha'ts for later this month. For now

Episode Ranking and Final Thoughts

So a few stray thoughts first: There's some cute little nods to Phantom of the Paradise a film I adore and reviewed last halloween. Jennifer Swan's last name seems to be one but the audtiion scene in Phantom of the Theme Park defintely is: the theater looks just like the one from the Paradise and like Swan , Pauline does her auditions behind a completely black window only with her voice.

Onto ranking the episodes. It's something I do on occasion and in case certain parties read this, I want to avoid the ask.

Trust Me The Pauline Phoenix Experince Into the Fire Phantom of the Theme Park The Tunnel The Nightmare Before Christmas In July Night of the LIving Kids Norma Kahn: Paranormal Detective Wait Time: 22 Minutes The Job

I will stress none of these episode are bad: The job is at the bottom because it's a bit slower paced than the rest, but it's still a solid opener.

Now the "avoid having to do this later portion" is done, it's time to close the park for the season. We'll be back next season, hopefully next week. For now season 1 was excellent, only getting better as it went , sneaking in a tremendous character arc while still putting some upfront and when it fits having a joke denseity of a golden age simpsons episode. Dead End is truly special, it's a shame it didn't last as long as it did.. but watching it made me remember the words a wise android once told me

Even if a show dosen't have an ending because excutives did a stupid, it should still be enjoyed. A show should still be loved and celebrated for what it got to do. I may of done this because Elon Musk sucks dirty ass in thunderstorms, but I also did it with love.