086: Crimson Peak (2015) - None More Gothic

This is currently my desktop background. O_O

SPOILERS FOR CRIMSON PEAK (2015). Also spoilers for The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County (YEAH IAN BRINGING IN THE OBSCURE REFERENCES) and Dark Floors (2008).

In this episode:

• We give our thoughts on Guillermo del Toro's Gothic masterpiece, Crimson Peak!
• ...after everyone else has already done so.
• Seriously, though, go listen to Cleolinda and our podcast buddies over at Anglo-Filles discuss the movie on their three-year anniversary episode (congrats!).
• Charming Tom Hiddleston is all charming
• The structure of the reveals is done quite well and the pacing of the reveals is effective
• The opening section of the film is mad clunky, though and the ghost thing is heavy handed
• The most Gothic mansion in Gothic fiction history
• The pairing of Lucille vs Edith and the way that’s seeded throughout the early film
• The confusion over various misdirects in the film re: whether the Sharpes were supernatural beings or not
• How many Guillermo del Toro mainstays can we spot?
• Poor adaptations and their difficulty making the boring milquetoast male lead interesting
• The ridiculous amount of money spent on production design in this film
• Links:
• Cleo's Post on Crimson Peak 
• Our friend Audrey T. Carroll's author page on Facebook
• Banished to Oz: The Vanishing Ladies of 'Supernatural' 

 THERE'S ALWAYS AN ADDENDUM:

• Happy Halloween!
• Is it still necessary to capitalize the word "Gothic"? I'm getting red underlines when I don't capitalize it.
• Highlights from Fio's timestamps:
• 24:08 - “Like it seems like” real fuckin eloquent, Fio
• 29:36 - My “hrrrII hab no idea” is bullseye Hiddleston. Just sayin
• 34:06 - “I can’t remember the name of the movie…” Groundhog Day? Ian from the future: Figured it out. It was Dark Floors. Hit a lot of points for me aesthetically, but didn't quite bring it together in a satisfying way.
• 50:46 - I meant to say red blazer here, not red sportscoat, but whatevs. Also, I know Harker’s job involved real estate in some way, and he was helping arrange Dracula’s purchase of some land in London and stuff, but I don’t remember what his exact function in the process was.
• I dunno, by the time I got to that Chastain line with “I’m not going to stop until I kill you or you kill me” I was firmly in the camp that there’s nothing supernatural about the Sharpes

Music:

• "This is My Design" - Ian Doherty | SoundCloud | Bandcamp |

http://archive.org/download/AMOT086/AMOT086.mp3

085: Hannibal Retrospective - Everything Has to Happen…So Much

SPOILERS FOR ALL THREE SEASONS OF HANNIBAL, and potential spoilers for where they plan(ned) to take the series next.

In this episode:

• Cleolinda Jones joins us once again! We discuss the Hannibal panels at Dragon Con 2015 and the way the Hannibal TV series wrapped up.
• Cleo's Dragon Con experience was pretty awesome.
• Our discussion of Dragon Con mixes with our discussion of the Hannibal Finale.
• We get very deeply into discussions of the placement of Bedelia’s final scene, joking ways that Hannibal and Will could have survived, and the ramifications of the finale on all of Will’s emotional connections were the show to continue and he actually run off to Argentina with Hannibal.
• At 1:25:52, we begin our discussion about Hannibal as a show in a broader context, including how Bryan Fuller handled the show and its community, the contrast between the first and second halves of Season 3 (and the reasons thereof), and how we feel about the show as a whole.
• Links:
• Part 1 and Part 2 of the now-infamous Hannibal panel where Scott Thompson and Aaron Abrams drove off storm troopers with finger-guns. (Header image screen-grabbed from Part 2.)
• Blight club: Mr. Robot, Hannibal, and self-destructive TV
• The Bait, by John Donne
• Keep us in your podcast feed! We're moving to a monthly format, so stay tuned next month for a special, Halloween-themed episode.

THERE'S ALWAYS AND ADDENDUM:

• Alternate titles for this episode:
• God, Tennis Balls
• Get Weird With The Lithuanian?
• Playing Around With Tiny Flaming Homoerotic Birds
• Highlights from Fio's timestamps:
• 36:38 - “Or something stupid like that” - Ian on American education. Ian from the future: “Critical Thinking,” that’s the homework question section I was thinking of.
• The Sordid Activities of Scott Thompson and Aaron Abrams
• “They should take it on the road” Yeah they should. Sorry, I’m terrible.
• Cleo shouldn’t feel bad about not being able to talk to famous people, I totally clammed up while meeting Gail Simone in bmore.
• “You can’t do that, people won’t be on board with that” - And the ratings told them that they were right, hahaha
• Man, we could probably talk about The Satanic Verses and its intrusive narrator forever.
• We get mad sappy about this show, dude.

Music:

• "This is My Design" - Ian Doherty | SoundCloud | Bandcamp |

http://archive.org/download/AMOT085/AMOT085.mp3

084: Hannibal 3x13 "The Wrath of the Lamb" - Hannibal and the Wonderful, Fantastic, Murderous, Very Best Day Ever

None more artful. *sniff*

SPOILERS UP TO (and including) THE HANNIBAL SEASON 3 FINALE, as well as for the novels and movies Manhunter, Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal.

In this episode:

• Alright, wipe away your tears, time to start talkin’ bout, talkin’ bout the Hannibal finale
• Vic joins us once again to discuss Hannibal 3x13 "The Wrath of the Lamb," including everything, and all of it happening so very, very much.
• Running to the end of this season, we basically have a full exploration of Will’s character when it comes to the source material.
• The article Fio references: Tracking Hannibal Lecter, from Manhunter to Red Dragon
• Book purist reactions and the deviations from the source material that have been inherent in Fuller’s “remixing” strategy since the beginning.
• Comparing and contrasting the various Dolarhyde stories, especially in reference to Reba’s story’s conclusion.
• The problem of Jack becoming more of a side character this season as opposed to his more central role in previous seasons.
• In her Aperitivo recap, Cleo actually gets deeper into the differing emotional ramifications of the show’s relationship between Hannibal and Crawford and the Book/Movie’s which we touch on only briefly here, but it’s good to mention.
• Digesting the reaction to the Hannibal Finale (see what I did there?)
• Is this really as close as we’re going to get to Hannigram Confirmed? 
• Stay tuned in a couple of weeks for our series retrospective episode with Cleolinda Jones!

THERE'S ALWAYS AN ADDENDUM:

• I got nothin', so here are the highlights from Fio's timestamps:
• Hashtags are just stupid and funny. I don’t know why, but they are.
• I don’t agree with Vic’s reading of Red Dragon / Silence of the Lambs / Hannibal in regards to Will Graham vs Clarice, but I think we got away from it before I could interject. In Red Dragon, Hannibal completely fucking destroys Will so bad he becomes nothing more than a footnote in someone else’s narrative by the end of it, but in Hannibal he acknowledges that he can’t even predict how what he did would change Clarice, so I think my reading of the books is kind of the opposite of what he was proposing.
• Yes you do want to say “fall under Hannibal’s spell” admit it. ADMIT IT IAN
• Will absolutely will not go to jail after the jailbreak because Murder Wizardry > Real world experience in this show. Every damn time.

Music:

•  "This is My Design" - Ian Doherty | SoundCloud | Bandcamp |

http://archive.org/download/AMOT084/AMOT084.mp3

082: Hannibal 3x12 " The Number of the Beast is 666(...)" - If You Play Chicken With The Abyss...

(Cue fingersnaps and Dolarhyde getting ready to rumble with some Sharks)

SPOILERS UP TO (and including) HANNIBAL 3x12 and RED DRAGON (Book, Movie, whaddaya got), SILENT HILL (Movies and games), SPAWN (Todd MacFarlane gives good cape), SINISTER, SINISTER 2 (No real spoilers, just that it's terrible)

In this episode:

• CHILTON'S LIPS FOR THE LOVE OF THE NINE BLOODPISSING HELLS
• So, that happened.
• Chilton has layers in this adaptation. Get out your Shrek jokes now.
• All the love to Raul Esparza
• Nah, but for real, we spend a lot of time talking about the Dolarhyde/Chilton scene so... you know... strap in for that.
• Bedelia has moved into a very sinister, alien place in the Hannibal mythos
• Also, I didn't think we were gonna compare Bedelia to Scully at all, but whatever, here we are, everything's Hannibal and everything Hurts.
• We also talk about the origins of the Bedelia character as we know her.
• Will's character progression and how his somewhat-regression-y-motions during this episode are super really important.
• How certain are we that Will's responsible for Chilton's predicament and how conscious was he about this happening?
• The fact that Armitage has managed to make his performance so distinct from Fiennes while walking a lot of the same ground is frankly astonishing.
• Our (super-vague, unsatisfying) predictions for the way the finale is going to shake out.
• How exactly do you read the last scene between Dolarhyde and Reba?

THERE'S ALWAYS AN ADDENDUM:

• We're running lean this week this folks, so no real notes from timestamps to speak of, which is a shame, we know you love our sloppy excuse for wit.
• Lots of thanks to @princess_starr for reminding us how cruel Bryan Fuller can be and to @munin_and_hugin for pointing out the staples (to me at least).
• Ian delivers "I was lying... on yOUR BEHALF!" really well, if anybody's looking to audition voice actors, give him a ring.
• Ian mentions Bedelia talking about being Hannibal's bride, but I'm pretty sure she's making a Bluebeard reference in that scene.
• Just poking you with this one, Ian.

Music:

• "This is My Design" - Ian Doherty | SoundCloud | Bandcamp |

http://archive.org/download/AMOT083/AMOT083.mp3

082: Hannibal 3x11 "...And the Beast from the Sea" - He's a Helper

That's...not a GOOD sound...

SPOILERS UP TO (and including) HANNIBAL 3x11

In this episode:

• Discussion of Hannibal 3x11 "...And the Beast from the Sea," including the adaptation and departure from book material, Richard Armitage and Mads Mikkelsen's performances, Nina Arianda as Molly, and OMGWTFCINEMATOGRAPHY.
• Dolarhyde trying to pass on the dragon to a new host or to sate it with Will’s family
• Hannibal has in fact always told the truth, in his own way.
• Hannibal - Textbook Egotist
• The measured conversation between Will and his step-son
• "Wolves in the Heart" and its connection to the duality of Dolarhyde and the Dragon
• What’s really well done about the home invasion scene is that it allows Molly and Walter to escape without making Dolarhyde do something stupid. They earn their exit.

THERE'S ALWAYS AN ADDENDUM:

• Again, apologies for the delay. This week and next week have been/will be particularly busy for me, so there may be some shuffling again. After next week, though, things lighten up, so we'll definitely be back on schedule for the finale, if not for next week. Hopefully.
• Huh--I think I was looking for the word "fable" when talking about that Cherokee story, but the site I linked to (which I just found while Googling now) calls it a parable as well.
• So this story is not actually Native American in origin, it seems to originate from a 1978 book "The Holy Spirit" by Christian Evangelist Billy Graham. Thanks to @munin_and_hugin on Twitter for providing the source.
• Just one highlight from Fio's notes this week: 46:00 - “I feel like we’ve only been talking for like 45 minutes or so” One minute, Ian. One minute away frOM GLOOOOOORY

Music:

• "This is My Design" - Ian Doherty | SoundCloud | Bandcamp |

http://archive.org/download/AMOT082/AMOT082.mp3

081: Hannibal 3x10 "...And the Woman Clothed in the Sun" - Dolarhyde's Chairs II: The Chairening

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080: Hannibal 3x09 "...And the Woman Clothed with the Sun" - Dances Frolarhyde

...Is THAT how you dance the Frolarhyde?

SPOILERS UP TO (and including) HANNIBAL 3x09. Also MAJOR SPOILERS FOR RED DRAGON, the movie and novel.

In this episode:

• Reidan of the Anglo-Filles podcast joins us!
• Discussion of Hannibal 3x09 "...And the Woman Clothed with the Sun," including Hannibal and Will's new relationship, the reinterpretations of classic scenes, the introduction of Reba, and our concerns about Alana and Margot.
• Let's have another horrible revelation about Abigail, shall we?
• Alana is the only one standing between Hannibal and the outside world, which doesn’t seem like a great idea. There’s a reason the president and vp always fly on different planes, Alana.
• The scene with Dolarhyde’s grandma is weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeird
• Reidan brings up the term “scaroused” in reference to Armitage’s Dolarhyde
• The difference in approach between the re-interpretations of Dolarhyde and Hannibal
• Why is Reba’s creep radar not going off for Dolarhyde like at all?
• MAJOR SPOILERS BEGIN. We discuss whether we think Freddie will have the same outcome as the book. Ditto for Will and the end of the Red Dragon storyline.

THERE'S ALWAYS AN ADDENDUM:

• For those interested, here are our previous podcast episodes discussing the movie adaptations of Thomas Harris' Red Dragon. Spoilers abound, obviously.
• 010: Manhunter (1986) - Dolarhyde's Chairs
• 013: Red Dragon (2002) - RIDE With Me! (feat. Cleolinda Jones)
• The Psycho post I mentioned.
• Highlights from Fio's notes:
• I want to start using “Oh, go name the spiders” as a really really mild “fuck off” now
• Didn’t Mads used to be a dancer as well? Ian from the future: Indeed.

Music:

• "This is My Design" - Ian Doherty | SoundCloud | Bandcamp |

http://archive.org/download/AMOT080/AMOT080.mp3