Re-imagining, Returning, Extra Detail: Finding the Story

We've been slow to get to Andor, not because we weren't interested but because we're - how to say - picky? abstemious? tight? yeah, tight - about how much we spend on streaming services. But one sweet Disney + discount later, we're one season in. And had that peculiar pleasure of being reeled in slowly until at the end of ep.11 we found ourselves saying "forget THAT" to waiting another day for the Rix Road finale. Don't roll through to a second episode very often in this household, but zero regrets that we did that on this one :)

Should probably clarify that we are only medium-level SW fandom. Oh the shows we haven't seen! (And, yes, the previous comments about streaming services applies, but also - not sure we're ALL IN.) Feels like this needs to be said to indicate that I'm NOT someone who knows every piece of lore, can clock any given Easter Eggs, picks up the resonance of any detail for any other telling, prior or parallel.

Reason *isn't* to criticise mega-fans. As before, my baseline position is that it's best to let people love what they love! Except if it's illegal, non-consensually sadistic or both of those. I guess. I'm sort of sad that I feel the need to clarify that part, but seems we're orbiting some kind of zero-tolerance-for-nuance discourse most of the time(?).

So as a nod to the true super-fans, there's a link at the bottom of the page to a pretty detailed article (that has citations, YAY!) which does seem to carry the in-depth contextualisation, analysis and commentary. DEFINITELY HEAVY WITH SPOILERS SO - CARE.

I've skim-read it but/and checked none of the ancillary citations so putting it there partially to be able to return as relevant and I'm really very super hoping that none of the references are *awful*. Same reasons as above - scared of the ground I'll find myself on clinging to.

Scared - but interested. I'm drawn to know more. Andor felt like it was going to be "my kind of show" and by ep 12 it was definitely, finally feeling that way. Basically mostly a spy thriller. Focused on the non-royal non-leaders for much of the time. Largely dodging the spooky and mysterious in favour of the graft and the grift, the effort, the daring, the cohesion or otherwise of networks and community...

And before I get into any detail about the things I ultimately ended up really liking (I'll come back to these another time), here's the basic thing I'm appreciating for the time being:-

That stories are fractal. That there's endless room for another story to be found, lurking in the shadows of a story that's already been told.

True, not every story takes the same amount of space. Not every story's equally deserving and many of the most deserving stories aren't commercial so won't be told. It's a strange miracle that this indie-feeling tale has emerged on the edges of such a huge franchise. But my basic point here is about the moments before we have to sift and decide which story will be presented to an audience.

The basic point is about potential. That there are potential stories *everywhere*. And I would like to carry on getting better at seeing them, shaping them, expressing them.

Carry on. As you were. On the verge of checking out this much more deeply considered article that actually is about Andor S1 (w spoilers!).

Hiya and thank you :)

In 12.12, Cas says “I love you” but he doesn’t look at Dean. He looks at everyone else. He only looks at Dean and holds his gaze after he adds “I love all of you.” It felt like he was scared of the full weight of the words, especially with everyone there. I think he did want to tell Dean he loved him but was afraid of the weight behind those words. Early in the episode, we have Dean’s reaction to Mandy flirting with Cas. We don’t know how that interaction would have gone without other people around, but we can get an idea by the insert of Dean’s face after she calls Cas handsome. 

Dean decided to hide the situation by spreading the weight out and making it applicable to everyone. Still focusing on Cas, but in a manner that pulls the weight off of his feelings. He doesn’t think he can react any other way and is scared to. And of course, Dean knows how to judge a room anyway, it would probably be even more awkward for everyone if he actually got annoyed.

When Cas thinks he’s dying, there are several people around and we certainly know that Sam and Mary are important to him too. He made that clear in 12.09. They truly are all important to him but his focus here is Dean(it’s Dean’s segment after all) We can tell by the face he makes, just like with Dean. In this case as well, the situation feeds Cas’ anxieties. He doesn’t know definitively that Dean cares the same amount about him that he does, so he addresses the issue in a way that spreads the emotional weight around to everyone. If it was just he and Dean, it may have been different. But as it stood, I think he felt compromised as much as Dean did before and didn’t want to leave all the weight of his death, and how awkward that would be with Dean. But he had to tell him, tell them.

Tentative Steps Frwd

Such a strange - strangely happy - season... Rose of Nevada is probably the kind of movie I would have spent years hoping/guess I wd like but fearing to experience in case it was too - harsh. And now: it's the kind of thing where I'm saying YES to the impulse.

Because it will probably be right - and because it's [just] a piece of art - no matter what terrors my amygdala might conjure up about the survivability of the experience: I will. I'll walk out of the theatre. Alive. Whether or not I enjoyed it. Like, truly, a context where it doesn't seem too fate-tempting to ask: What's the worst that could happen here?

We make art. [Hopefully.]

We make art - if we can - if we dare - if we persist.

We make it - and at a certain point it finishes and moves away from us - into our past and, if we're lucky, into someone else's future. If we're really super-lucky, maybe to an actual audience. [Conflicted about the optimum size of the audience - too many examples of how being super-famous/successful doesn't correlate to being super happy/fulfilled and it's an irrelevant field of inquiry for the kind of art I'm making - super niche, possibly niche to the point where it's for an audience of one. Which would have bothered me, once, but now *doesn't* - now that I've discovered what a lovely time can be had by making *exactly* what you want to make. [If given the very great privilege of not HAVING to earn from making it, since *that* feels like an invitation to raging despair.]

NB I've dropped the Jack Howard Second Time Round collage back in here (can't remember *when* I used it before but pretty sure I did...)

First thing I ever heard about this short film was a sliver of his post-mortem with Mark Kermode when he talked about *not* getting shortlisted for the Oscar - that's the oscar buzz mentioned in the tweet below - it *did* get longlisted, unexpectedly - he says - so there was this up-surge of HOPE and then - it was GONE. Didn't happen. Fades into the past. Time for the next project. That was its existence / DONE.

And - if that sounds bleak, I believe their conclusion was: "That's the creative life, in essence. You make it. Gone!! You go again. And repeat."

Still sounds bleak (in my own head, reading it back). The tone was much more reconciled-to-their-fate-and-the-nature-of-things than I seem to be able to make it sound inside my head and, perhaps, here.

The Quinntessential Review on X: "Digital success meets Oscar buzz! 🌟 "His attention to lighting alone would shame many a feature production gracing modern cinemas." @JackHoward's The Second Time Around is a compelling mystery streaming on @Channel4. Read our ★★★★ review: https://t.co/6htIW1Q4YQ #UKFilm" / X

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Since this seems to be about - taking the shot and it working or not - sometimes, perhaps, we take a shot we don't know we're taking. I truly hope I never get over how the first 15 mins of the cartoon movie UP made me feel - even though I will probably never get to repeat the sheer SURPRISE of finding myself in floods of tears when seeing it, cold, in the movies (them wuz the dayz) with zero idea what was coming up.

Michael Warburton on X: "One of the most beautiful & deeply moving sequences in ALL of Movie history, not just animated movie history. UP (2009) If you fail to be moved by this in some way there’s something wrong with you frankly. https://t.co/zKVqfbGgUi" / X

PS The reason I took that particular screenshot, though - much as I love UP - was that it happened, on my feed, to juxtapose with another lil post about the marvels of TOBS. Specifically, here, Mrs Gardiner, played by the very fabulous Indira Varma <3 <3

PS2 gives me an excuse to clip the following interview which I just came across and which - TYSM - has DF expressing approximately what I've been assuming about his character's sleeve-rolling [viz, that the character has no idea he's creating a MB thirst trap and **this is what makes it so effective and affecting** - that it's NOT SLY!]

'The Other Bennet Sister': Dónal Finn On Tom Hayward & Yearning

Moments that stood out to me from that interview...

This series really centers kindness. What was that like to be part of?

It does. Mary Bennet has the ability to bring out the best in everyone. But what I love about the show is that Mary would probably describe herself as an unlikely protagonist and Tom would do the same. He has moments where he feels shy and is happy being small.

It’s so easy to be enamored by Elizabeth Bennet as a protagonist and to live vicariously through her decisions and the boldness of her personality as a woman at that time. But I would maybe not naturally identify with her as a character — I’m more like Mary. So it felt like a great privilege to be part of a story that centered people who might feel the same as an audience, and to give you permission to feel like the main character in your story.

Those moments stood out to me so much — when Mary picks up the graces hoop and their fingers touch, or the second time Tom rolls up his sleeves. People are like, “He knows what he’s doing!” How much do you think is conscious or subconscious in trying to woo Mary?

He definitely believes that this is a very welcome friendship, and one that he’s clearly enjoying. I don’t think he knows what he’s doing. It’s the truth of the moment, like, he doesn’t want to rip his coat again. That’s why he takes his jacket off. It’s the unassuming nature that people respond to — not even thinking about that being something Mary might be attracted to is actually what makes it so.

PS3 Such an absolute tonic to keep coming across these niche lil interviews with - I believe - small-scale social media accounts bcz instead of being soul-destroyingly managed, dumb and repetitive, these interviews are - nerdy, hilarious, dumb, and unexpected. 1000 times better at offering insights into the actorly process as well as doing the mandatory, zeitgeisty, de-nous-jours cultural stuff (my take being that the media circus to promote streaming media is deliberate parasocial engagement bait - and well done to all who subvert or resist the worst of it - imagine being able to skate delicately along the surface, taking delight in the good bits and gracefully dodging the rest... this is presumably an media-illiterate fantasy... sounds impossible - like, the devil's bargain CANNOT BE SUBVERTED, O MORTAL ONE)

One of the tragedies of adulthood is that you start to see, over time, that some of the people around you will never change. Because most people do change. Personality traits may be fixed, but they’re not stagnant. They’re like water – they drift in a certain direction over time, carrying you through your life, maybe getting deeper or more shallow, but never stopping. Or, as I think of it –…