{"id":6974,"date":"2018-09-11T13:00:53","date_gmt":"2018-09-11T20:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6974"},"modified":"2018-08-30T12:05:14","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T19:05:14","slug":"mark-watches-slings-arrows-s02e06-birnam-wood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/09\/mark-watches-slings-arrows-s02e06-birnam-wood\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Slings & Arrows’: S02E06 – Birnam Wood"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the sixth and final episode of the second season of Slings & Arrows<\/i>, the play must go on, and Geoffrey unleashes one final tactic in order to get the version he wants. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Slings & Arrows<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of manipulation.<\/b><\/p>\n

I liked most of this finale, but it does drop the ball on two of the subplots. LET US DISCUSS.<\/p>\n

Anna<\/b><\/p>\n

I expected that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Birnam Wood\u00e2\u20ac\u009d would deal with the fallout from Anna and Lionel, given that things left off at such an uncomfortable place. Lionel had promised to shelve the play that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d written based off of Anna, but then ran after a producer who wanted to stage it off-Broadway. So, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a pretty awkward decision to make, and yet? \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Birnam Wood\u00e2\u20ac\u009d addresses nothing<\/i> between these two. We just see them making out in the office, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s it? So, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not mad about what he did? Their relationship is fine? I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like there was any realistic sense of closure in the previous episode, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m confused. Why drop this plotline entirely? Why not address any of this?<\/p>\n

Romeo & Juliet<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing that the writers did not see Patrick\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s realization as all that big of a deal. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing wrong with a person realizing that they are bi or pan, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not really a sense that this is what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happened here. Once Patrick falls for Sarah, he stops acting<\/i> gay. He stops talking to all his gay friends. By all appearances, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not sexual fluidity on display. It looks like he became straight<\/i>. Granted, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still the same problem as before: this is a subplot. We get markedly less than other plot lines.<\/p>\n

I can accept that. However, I felt really weird about where this story went. I tried looking for a reason that all this happened, and it appears that this episode finally grants us that. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Sarah and Patrick\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s young love\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcoupled with Geoffrey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s manipulative display\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat convinces Darren that his production is wrong. That has an unintended message, but a real unnerving one: Patrick had to stop being gay to save the play. Which I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think anyone sat down to write! I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel malice in any part of it, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear these two actors have IMMENSE chemistry with one another. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just such an unfortunate turn because those two kissing on stage, in front of everyone, had<\/i> to happen to give Darren his epiphany.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At least Darren finally relented and staged a production of Romeo & Juliet<\/i> that cared about the play! So that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good. But I expect we won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see these characters again in season three, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I wanted to bring this up.<\/p>\n

Macbeth<\/b><\/p>\n

Look, I get why Geoffrey did what he did. Henry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s character was one obsessed with comfort. His career was based on a safe, but entertaining craft. People like him, and for someone like Henry, losing that was tantamount to complete failure. I still think Brian was right: Henry was terrified of doing anything that ruined his image, one he had meticulously crafted. Plus, there was that issue with his GIGANTIC EGO, so we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t forget that.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 hoisting nightmares upon your actors without their consent is very, very, very creepy. And there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a long line of white male directors who do this sort of thing to get their actors into the right \u00e2\u20ac\u0153spirit\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for a role. Is Henry an asshole? Yes. Was changing his entrances petty and satisfying? Oh, 100%. Did it give us all a better performance, the sort of flawed-but-human version of Macbeth that Geoffrey wanted? Definitely! But having an actor be nude<\/i> for a scene without his consent is really a step too far, and so, despite not liking Henry at all, I get why he punched Geoffrey. Geoffrey may have made the scene and the play better, but he also humiliated Henry and implicated Ellen in it, too.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But I do get the sense that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re supposed to feel this way about Geoffrey, that he may have produced a fantastic piece of art and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still miserable. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a tenderness to that misery, especially since season two, with all its ups and downs, was about so many people in that same state. Anna was for a while, and Richard definitely<\/i> was, too. What sort of cost do you pay when you produce art for the world, but you are fundamentally unhappy? For Ellen, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dealing with the reality of aging out of an industry when she has no other skills. (The audit scenes really<\/i> highlighted that reality.) Geoffrey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story rings so true for me as a tale of someone struggling to create while having a mental illness. Richard has dreams of leaving the world of finances and accounting and business to be in musical theater, but sometimes, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get<\/i> to live out your dream.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What do you do when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re miserable?<\/p>\n

You keep going. If anything, I felt like season two of this show was much more coherent than the last one, and while I had a few minor issues with is, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about people trying<\/i> so very hard to be happy. Did they succeed at that? Well, Ellen and Geoffrey are at least willing to give it another try. They did their best, and that means that sometimes, they failed. Spectacularly. But I have a thing for characters who fail, get back up, try again, fail some more, and then\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 keep going. Does that mean they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll fix everything in season three? Oh, most definitely not. I hope Geoffrey remains the artistic director; I hope Ellen finds ways to cope with her own fears better; I hope we see Brian again. I suspect Oliver isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t done with Geoffrey either. But as a whole, this was just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 incredible. Truly, this show feels so achingly real at times, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s treat to journey through it.<\/p>\n

Onwards!<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Birnam Wood\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":"