{"id":6978,"date":"2018-09-17T13:00:38","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T20:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6978"},"modified":"2018-09-01T08:11:36","modified_gmt":"2018-09-01T15:11:36","slug":"mark-watches-slings-arrows-s03e04-every-inch-a-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/09\/mark-watches-slings-arrows-s03e04-every-inch-a-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Slings & Arrows’: S03E04 – Every Inch A King"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fourth episode of the third season of Slings & Arrows<\/i>, death is imminent, and everything is a mess. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Slings & Arrows<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For extensive talk of death<\/b><\/p>\n

Death has always surrounded Slings & Arrows<\/i>, and once Oliver died at the end of the first episode, this show was always<\/i> going to be concerned with the topic. Initially, we saw how Oliver\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presence allowed Geoffrey to deal with grief and his creative process, but the concept of mortality still stuck around. These people had legacies to leave behind; what would they be remembered for? Was the work they did meaningful, or was it always a pointless trainwreck?<\/p>\n

This season, however, is so much more in-your-face about death. In Charles, we must accept the realities of aging in a way that the show only alluded to in Ellen. I still think her character is concerned with death and aging, too, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to ignore that aspect of this specific episode. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much more direct with Charles, whose cancer is advancing, whose medications are clashing, whose behavior is erratic because of the maelstrom of all these things. And he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absolutely taking it out on the cast and crew! That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s undeniable, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to acknowledge that because it lends necessary insight to Barbara\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decisions.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I like how Geoffrey eventually summarizes it to Anna when Anna confronts him: He is in over his head. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s drowning<\/i> in this decision, and he sees no way to save himself, to save Charles, and to save King Lear<\/i>. It is an agonizing experience that precedes this, though. We see another botched rehearsal where Charles can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember his lines, tries to insult the other actors, and then is FINALLY stood up to, and that<\/i> goes disastrously, too. Because Geoffrey knows Charles\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s secret, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so obviously biased to help him out, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why he isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t more strict about Charles\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s outburst. He should<\/i> be, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen him take others to task far quicker in the past. The cast knows this, and it infuriates them! Why have all these exceptions been made for someone who, if they were someone else, would have been criticized or fired already?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So I sympathize with the cast, even<\/i> in the case of Barbara, who has no loyalty to the others at all and backstabs them to advance her own career. She might be selfish, but who can blame her after an experience like this? Charles regularly<\/i> refers to her as a cow in rehearsals! She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not an amateur and she knows what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing! But Geoffrey is trying to balance a solid and talented cast with a single actor who is<\/i> talented, but their own life is a horrible fucking mess. That preview night was just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 lord. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen bad on this show, and that felt almost absurd<\/i> in comparison to some of the other performances we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen.<\/p>\n

But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of why Geoffrey is so stuck, something he tries to work through in therapy. God, those scenes were so spectacular, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all! I loved that McTeague got Geoffrey to speak directly to Oliver, unaware that for Geoffrey, that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t an exercise<\/i>. It was reality! It produced another electrifying scene, brilliantly acted by all parties, and it shed such necessary insight into where Geoffrey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frustration came from. He felt pushed into this act of charity, only for Oliver to largely abandon him once things got difficult. Which is fascinating if you think of Oliver as a ghost\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmeaning that Oliver\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s haunting has begun to take over Geoffrey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life\u00e2\u20ac\u201dor as a manifestation of Geoffrey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mental illness. That<\/i> part is a lot more complicated. Is this unresolved guilt? Is this Geoffrey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obsession with leaving behind a legacy? Is he willing to indulge Charles because it makes him feel like a good person or because it might go down as a legendary last performance, one that Geoffrey was partly responsible for?<\/p>\n

Regardless, all of this comes to an upsetting climax once Charles does not show up for opening night and Geoffrey makes the decision to flat-out cancel the performance. For a moment, I was excited to see what Jerry would pull out of his, but I understood why Geoffrey couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do that. Despite everything, he still<\/i> believed that Charles had the right performance in him. And what a demonstration of faith! He was willing to cancel the whole thing so he could still give Charles a chance.<\/p>\n

So what does it mean that Charles can now see and talk to Oliver? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m of the mind that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s closer to the veil of death, that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s accepted that the end is very, very near to him. And that acceptance brings forth a sensitivity to\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, someone like Oliver. This feels like confirmation that Oliver really is a ghost, but you know what? Despite that I prefer that interpretation, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still into the idea that this never needs<\/i> to be defined. Because here, it works as a chilling harbinger: Geoffrey does not have much time left.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And since Richard doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the truth\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand, frankly, probably wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhe can only make a decision based on his business background. Despite that Richard, now affectionately called Big Dick by the musical cast, seems to have found the success he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wanted, it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lost on me that he became exactly<\/i> like he was at the beginning of the show. He ignores Geoffrey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s creative process and need, and he decides to swap the musical and the play because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 money. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s it. Well, I bet he also knows that the musical cast and crew will be thrilled to have a bigger space, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll further elevate Richard in their eyes. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a brilliant contrast with another character: Ellen, who doesn’t<\/i> pursue fame and success once it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s offered to her. I mean, she might change her mind after the events of this episode, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very intriguing that she resists Chris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attempts to bring her to Hollywood. She is a self-admitted shallow person, and yet, she demonstrates more loyalty than Richard does.<\/p>\n

I wanted to close this off singing the praises of Anna, who continually is one of the most real and enjoyable characters on this whole show. That scene where she confronts Geoffrey about Charles is incredible, yet another sign that there is probably no one else in Slings & Arrows<\/i> who is more empathetic than her. She weaves her way through this theater company, doing what she can to help others, and most of the people have no idea just how wonderful she is. I WILL FIGHT FOR HER, OKAY.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway: everything\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a mess, LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S GO.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Every Inch a King\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":"