In the fifth episode of the first season of Slings & Arrows<\/i>, I AM SO ANGRY. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Slings & Arrows<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of mental illness<\/b><\/p>\n
I am very UPSET and I have some HARSH WORDS.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Magic<\/b><\/p>\n This show is willing to have fun with the absurdity inherent in theater, and I really don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doubt that the people writing it have inside knowledge of what this profession and this community is like. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too specific for me to think otherwise. (Unless we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just dealing with a team of writers who are just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 really fucking good at research, I guess.) But for me, the beauty of this show is how sincere<\/i> it is. Theater is a mess. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ambitious and challenging and terrible for your nerves and your health and I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even do it for that long! I never did it in a professional setting either, so my experience is only limited to high school and college. Yet there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much to recognize and empathize with in this episode, and the thing that I want to focus on is the heart. Slings & Arrows<\/i> truly feels like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s struggling with finding the heart of live theater, and you can view this whole episode through that lens.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Which means that it is fitting that Geoffrey, while claiming to understand the point of Shakespeare and theater, still manages to take a while to find that center again. Part of it is due to his mental illness; part of it is due to fear; part of it is due to the nightmarish logistics of managing all of this under people like Richard and Holly. But when Geoffrey finds it\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 oh, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just undeniable<\/i>. We saw it before: the monologue he gave that opened the show at his old theater. The corporate leadership workshop. And then, twice in one episode, he devotes himself to the utter understanding of a character, to interpreting their emotional motivations in a manner that is arresting and electrifying.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Yet each of these moments is received in a completely different way. Bless his heart, but Geoffrey tries<\/i> to get through to Claire, to get her to understand that her depiction of mental illness and trauma in Ophelia is flawed and it shows<\/i>. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO OBVIOUS. And in that moment is a dynamic that many of us are probably familiar with: people in creative fields refusing to listen to the people whom are being depicted in a work of fiction. Geoffrey gives it a genuine shot to try to ground Ophelia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s characterization in her life of trauma and fear, to explain that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just being weird and quirky and random. Claire even acknowledges that she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have Geoffrey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153experience\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153madness,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but she still refuses to take any of his direction and criticism. That shot of Richard leading Geoffrey away is both comical and devastating because you can see Claire doing the same banal and offensive shit in the background.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth, the show could do with some specificity in Geoffrey. Not all mental illnesses are even remotely the same, and the script just refers to it all as being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153crazy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153insane,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which sometimes makes it had to grasp what the show is going for. But that scene was so vital to understanding Claire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s flawed process: she decided being stoned put her in the same headspace as Ophelia, and then she wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hear any feedback on it whatsoever.<\/p>\n When this happens again, though, the context is much, much different. I was so pleased that this episode delved into Jack\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s process in such detail. Prior to this, all we saw was his physical style and his use of modern vernacular to improvise the lines in order to determine his character\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s motivation. The former example was\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 clumsy, to say the least. The latter, however, was a hint towards Jack\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sincere attempt to do this play and this character justice. And I am fascinated by that! It would have been so much easier to have him be a fool with talents that worked in only one genre or medium, but this<\/i>? Oh, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so, so much better. That scene where Jack and Geoffrey discuss the famed monologue of Hamlet<\/i> is incredible<\/i>, one of the finest moments of the season, and it really gets down to the challenge of putting on a Shakespeare production. How do you keep something interesting when it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been interpreted in so many different ways? How can a monologue that virtually everyone knows feel important and energetic when it is so instantly recognizable? That<\/i> is where the sincerity of this show matters and why I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m convinced this show was written by people who have been in theater. Those sort of conversations are so important to putting on a production, and it gave this episode a gravity that I adored.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also an oversight here, though, and I do understand why so much time was devoted to Jack. But after granting Kate the opportunity she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been aiming for this season, I was confused by the decision not<\/i> to show us her first attempt at Ophelia. We see Jack struggling to nail his character, but what of Kate? Did she rise to the occasion? Granted, we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see any<\/i> of dress rehearsal, but I really think that Kate deserves space within the show for this specific part of her growth. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (mostly) dealt with Claire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shitty comments about her relationship with Jack, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like her to have a plot that doesn’t<\/i> have to do with him.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also becoming real worried about what Ellen is gonna do with Sloane? That relationship\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 does not look good. At all. The guy is infatuated<\/i> with her, and she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem him that way. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also such an odd match for her. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s young and pretty and devoted, but that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem particularly fulfilling for her either. I also cannot get over the fact that he gave her a Gameboy<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so purely in character for him, of course, but\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 lord! Neither of them really understand the other person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interests. THIS IS NOT GOING TO END WELL.<\/p>\n Which brings me to the anger. Because y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I am angry. I AM SO UPSET AT RICHARD AND HOLLY. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve both steeped to low, low things in the past, and they clearly have no real problem with betraying the people who have been friendly with them in the past. But what these two do here is just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 monstrous. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easier to talk about Holly, who appears to have intentionally given May another heart attack with Shakespeareville. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still<\/i> reeling from the very idea of that place, and I get why it was so horrifying to May. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like a manifestation of the worst sort of nightmare a theater lover could have. In Holly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vision, this \u00e2\u20ac\u0153theme park\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of Shakespeare is about exploitation and profit, a chance to turn the Bard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work into a comfortable and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153accessible\u00e2\u20ac\u009d means to make a shit ton of money. The worst part\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwell, aside from Holly giving May a heart attack again<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis that PEOPLE WOULD TOTALLY BUY INTO THIS. I know that Holly isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wrong about how well this would sell!!! I HATE IT! And up to this point, she has gotten away with all of her scheming, and I HAVE ANGRY WORDS FOR HER.<\/p>\n Richard, meanwhile, is taking after Holly in all the wrong ways. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s taken up condescension and manipulation as tactics. He plants the notion of failure in Ellen so that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll bait Geoffrey onstage; he tricks Geoffrey into giving him a season order that is artistically sound and creative, but can easily be out-shadowed by his profit-making plan; he unnerves Geoffrey by revealing that the seven preview performances have been cut; and then, in his worst move, he undermines Jack just minutes before Jack takes the stage. He knew that Jack was self-conscious about his acting, and his backhanded compliments were totally intended to make him doubt himself! AND JACK TRIED SO, SO HARD, AND I AM VERY, VERY ANGRY. Ugh, how are these two ever<\/i> going to come back from this???<\/p>\n The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mirror Up to Nature\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the fifth episode of the first season of Slings & Arrows, I AM SO ANGRY. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Slings & Arrows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[692],"tags":[693],"class_list":["post-6961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-slings-arrows","tag-mark-watches-slings-and-arrows"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}