Quarantine Control #9: Deep Politics in a Pickle

More and more governments are beginning to reopen their economies now that coronavirus cases have settled down, thanks to a good portion of the public staying at home and doing intense social distancing since the pandemic started. That’s still necessary to an extent to keep the virus from resurfacing, something places in the United States and other countries have recently struggled with. As mentioned last week, this means Quarantine Control is here to stay for a while. Well, unless we run out of video games, movies, and TV shows to play, watch, and recommend, but the chances of that happening are extremely low.

Angela Moseley

To say the last week or so has been volatile (police violence, protests, civil unrest, an ongoing pandemic, etc.) would be a dramatic understatement. It is a careful balancing act between staying informed and needing to occasionally unplug. I can’t say I’ve made a lot of progress in watching TV shows and movies, but I’m getting caught up on a few things.

Rick and Morty, Season 4 (2019, 2020)
Source: Adult Swim
Episodes: 10

During my vacation two weeks ago, one thing I was able to catch up with is Rick and Morty. I had missed the first half of season four, but came back to the show just in time to get to the second half. While the first episode of the new season was fantastic and set the mood of 2019 going into 2020, I found myself less impressed with the season overall. That is until the last two episodes aired. Compared to season three, I wasn’t too hot on the overall shift to a more episodic series. But when the season did take a serialized approach the episodes were outstanding. Nothing is going to top the episodes “The Ricklantis Mixup” and “The ABC’s of Beth” as two of my all-time favorites. However, “Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri” is pretty damned close.

Because Rick and Morty is so heavily episodic it isn’t easy to summarize. In this season Morty becomes obsessed with a death crystal that shows him how he’ll die and he uses it so he can die with his crush, Jessica. Rick actually dies and has his memories are transferred to various clones of himself throughout the multiverse. He discovers fascism seems to be the default government. We also learn that Rick is a shy pooper and his loneliness is self-imposed. Other adventures include Rick’s hatred of heist movies, Morty’s misadventures with his own dragon, intelligent time traveling snakes, a story train, parasitic face huggers, the vat of acid, Rick impregnating a planet, and getting an answer to one of Beth’s earlier decisions.

The overall theme of season four is Rick further losing control of the family. This is drastically different from season three. In season three we saw Rick become the head of the Smith household as Beth and Jerry separated. By season three’s end Beth had gotten back together with Jerry as the family turned against Rick’s control. This continues in season four as Rick has to ask permission for Morty to join him on his adventures. At the same time Morty is growing both independent and tired of Rick’s antics. Fearing that independence, the scientist isn’t above sabotaging his grandson. We see him do this by getting the teenager to abandon his heist movie pitch to Netflix and in the pettiness shown in the “Vat of Acid Episode.”

At the same time, the writers continue to show that Rick may be god-like in his intelligence, but he’s still a petty narcissist. Not to mention it is lonely at the figurative top of the universe. He still cares for his family and isn’t above protecting his bruised ego first. Is it any wonder the family continues their turn against him? Finally, while Rick claims to be god-like, his throw down with an actual god nearly has him killed. He also faces off against an old friend and is nearly killed again. Both times he was saved by the rest of the family. This season really hammered home that despite all Rick has done he’s not all-powerful. (Also, because of his consciousness transfer program he can’t really die even if he wanted to.)

The only parts of this season that I didn’t enjoy as much were the Meta commentary. I liked the call out in the first episode to obsessive fans in the form of Nazi Morty, but the story train episode (“Never Ricking Morty”) was a bit too much. The call out to fans, creativity in the writer’s room, and taking shots at the network were too high concept. It was tough to tell if events of the episode actually mattered or if none of them mattered because everything was commentary. In the end, it was too on the nose and self-serving.

All and all, Rick and Morty is still fantastic. I’m okay with the mix of episodic randomness with occasional continuity in the form of serialized episodes. Since we can expect another 60 episodes I’m hoping Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland and their crew of writers can keep up the quality of this show.

ANNCast (2009-2020)
Source: Anime News Network, Various Podcast Catchers*
Episodes: 410

I’ve been a listener of Anime News Network’s ANNCast for 10 years. The podcast featured a mix of anime industry casual talk between the hosts, industry interviews, and convention panel recordings. The podcast began with hosts Zac Bertschy and Justin Sevakis. The co-hosts changed throughout the years. For a time Jacob Chapman served, then was replaced by Lynzee Loveridge. Throughout it all, Zac remained firmly in the driver’s seat even as he served as ANN’s Executive Editor. Last month the podcast’s 11-year run came to an abrupt end with the sudden death of Zac.

ANNCast was a cut above most anime podcasts because it featured talk with those directly inside of the industry. Zac had been covering anime as a journalist and editor for 21 years. His contacts within the industry gave a depth and breadth to the show that most other anime podcasts couldn’t match. He talked to everyone from the owner of Rightstuf to marketing managers at FUNimation. Through ANN it was possible to have an understanding of how the anime industry worked, how companies operated, and some of their difficulties working directly with industry in Japan.

At the same time, ANN is good for its opinions as well, even if you don’t always agree. The hosts often talked about what they thought of the shows they were following for the season. If they liked a show they talked about why it was meaningful to them and why it was worth your time as a viewer. The same extended to series they didn’t like, as they pointed out why a show was bad or didn’t work. It could be for technical reasons or just from a story-telling point of view. Zac’s background in film studies also helped bring another level of critical thinking to anime consumption.

Another great aspect of the podcast was how Zac and his various hosts often took the time to discuss movies and video games. Their commentary on movies was just as interesting as any of the movie critics. As for video games, their opinions differed a lot from those actually covering video games for a living. So their thoughts were a breath of fresh air.

Some of my favorite ANNCast episodes were Holiday specials, talk of the Supernerds, and the Revenge of the 2000s. The holiday specials were fun because they included movie recommendations, including Zac and Justin recommending movies to each other and sharing their thoughts. Sometimes they hated what was picked out for them which made for hilarious discussions. The Supernerd episodes were fun because the hosts of Anime World Order were often brought in for unique takes. Revenge of the 2000s was a round-table of various staff members and writers from other outlets all discussing what anime they enjoyed from the aughts and it was fun to see if a favorite show made the cut.

ANNCast was officially put to rest with a eulogy of those Zac touched during his 21 year career. He built quite a legacy at Anime News Network and the show will live on through its archives. Rest in peace.

*Episodes on Podcast catchers only reflect the last 40 episodes. The entire archive is available at ANN.

 

Geoffrey Barnes

I’m going to be honest here: I haven’t watched much entertainment in the last week. The slow-but-steady descent of the United States of America was too enticing and frightening not to watch and read about. The US already wasn’t doing well thanks to select areas of the country doing little to combat the coronavirus in their desire to put their economies over people’s lives, particularly after their leaders realized it was disproportionately hurting tightly-knit urban minority communities. Who would have thought that an outright societal upheaval would happen during a pandemic in the US, even with 2020 going the way it was? Pure insanity.

Let’s be clear here: This was bound to happen eventually. Feelings of anger and resentment about injustices over the years combined with recent economic woes were the equivalent of a pot that was going to burst in time. The combination of the pandemic affecting some communities over others (and the desire to reopen economies despite that), the economic fallout from it, and the murder (honestly, lynching in broad daylight) of George Floyd seen on camera was just the match the pot on the stove burner needed to boil over.

Protests have been happening every day since Floyd’s death last Monday, but the anger resulted in damaged and vandalized property and looting at the start. The subsequent depraved militarization of the country through the police in several cities across the country, calling of the National Guard, and the outright occupation of Washington DC has also been insane to watch. This all feels surreal and unreal, and yet, it’s happening in front of all our eyes. This year just keeps getting worse, and it’s sobering to think about the potential for communities across the country and the world to further unravel.

Anyway, I did find the time to watch something this week.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars — Seasons 4 & 5 (2011-2013)
Source: Disney+
Episodes: 42 (22 for Season 4; 20 for Season 5)

My journey through Star Wars: The Clone Wars hasn’t been consistently good, sure, but it didn’t need to be to make for an enjoyable show when the best episodes are of such high quality. This applied to the first three seasons, a pattern that’s largely continued through the fourth and fifth seasons.

These two seasons of the Clone Wars continue the pattern established in the previous episodes, though with notable experimental sagas. Both seasons feature a bit less Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and Ahsoka Tano, despite still being the overall focus of the series. The writers and directors realized that having too much of them might be too much of a good thing, and sought to either have episodes that focused on teaming them up with other characters or focus on those other characters entirely. This mostly works well, but misfires in other cases.

Needless to say, though, the best episodes still focus on those characters. The biggest twist in these seasons is the return of Darth Maul, once thought dead after The Phantom Menace. (This isn’t a spoiler anymore, right? It’s been years.) I thought it was a lame twist when I first heard about it due to him clearly being sliced in half in the movie he was introduced in, but the character development he was given here and the reveal of how he’s an actual character who can talk made this a worthwhile retcon. The quality of the episodes he and apprentice Savage Opress star in further justify the revival. It couldn’t be made clearer that Maul wants revenge against Obi-Wan for dealing the previously-final blow against him, but there’s more than that driving his newest exploits.

The second, third, and fourth seasons were of consistently good quality after the show found the tone it wanted to abide by following the first season. But some slight inconsistency rears its head in season 5, mainly in episodes that don’t primarily feature most of the main cast. There was talk about how producers regretted how dark the show had become, and the arcs focused on the Younglings and the droids in this season are perhaps an indicator of that. Both served as reminders that this show did air in the evenings on Cartoon Network, but was moved to Saturday mornings as of this season. As someone who enjoyed the darker episodes, it was tough getting through those clearly aimed towards younger audiences — the droid ones especially. The other arcs in the season, involving Maul, the liberation of Onderon, and the bombing of the Jedi temple, more than make it worth watching thanks to being some of the best episodes in the series.

I’ve talked about how the animation started off iffy in the series and slowly improved over the course of several seasons and half-seasons in previous posts. As the team at Lucasfilm and outside partners like Polygon Pictures improved with experience over time, the prettier it became. The lightsaber battles still looked a little jerky even after earlier animation improvements, but they flow far more smoothly in the fifth season, making for prettier and more memorable battles. The music isn’t on par with John Williams’ pieces for the movies, but it gets closer and closer as the series goes on — especially at the tail end of the fifth season.

I’ve reiterated how not all the episodes of the Clone Wars in these two seasons have been good, but the good ones have been so excellent that I’m felling sad about how I’m nearing the end. But still, I’m not quite there yet. Season 6 is next, which consists of the “Lost” episodes the production team created just before Cartoon Network and Disney initially pulled the plug on it after the latter company purchased the franchise from George Lucas. There’s also the recent Season 7 that aired on Disney+, which fully bridges the gap between the series and Revenge of the Sith. You know where I’ll discuss these episodes after I finish.

 

Joseph Daniels

“Having seen a little of the 21st Century, there is one thing I don’t understand.  How could they have let things get so bad?”
“That’s a good question.  I wish I had an answer.”  -Dr. Bashir, Captain Sisko

With the current protests happening around the United States and the growing divide between those who are privileged and those who are not, instead of recommending an entire show or podcast, I wanted to focus on one particular episode of one particular show, one that takes place just four years in our future but which is still relevant to us now.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Episode: Past Tense, Part I
Original Airdate: January 2, 1995

Episode: Past Tense, Part II
Original Airdate: January 9, 1995
Source: Netflix

The episode opens in the year 2371 on the Defiant as Captain Benjamin Sisko is getting ready to see his sister in Portland.  It looks to be an ordinary day for the crew of Deep Space Nine, but a transporter accident drops Dax, Dr. Bashir and Captain Sisko in the Sanctuary District of San Francisco in the year 2024.

The significance of 2024 in history is that it was the year Gabriel Bell led what were to become known as the Bell Riots in protest to the way the poor and homeless were treated in Sanctuary Districts all across the United States.  The Sanctuary Districts were intended to be a good idea, especially given all the demands for affordable housing over the years, but the way they were implemented in most major cities, they were basically a way to wall off a problem that no one wanted to deal with.

There are things that people in power want to be able to sweep under the rug.  The way that the officers responsible for the death of George Floyd were initially charged speaks volumes.  The officer who actually choked him initially only got a third-degree murder charge, which is basically their way of saying “We don’t want to charge him with anything, but you’re making such a big a deal over this so here, we’ve brought a charge against him, now will you shut up about it?”

Unfortunately, the death of a black man in Minneapolis is not something that privileged people like to talk about.  When Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Canadians to stand up to racism, many racists in my country, rather than examine their own prejudices, instead got a hashtag trending in Canada calling back to a time when Justin Trudeau wore blackface in his younger days.  In response to protests all across the United States, Donald Trump called everyone thugs and threatened to send the military after them.

It’s funny looking at the episode and seeing how people of 1995 thought that 2024 would look like.  The architecture of Chris Brynner’s office resembles the 24th century and yet the computers shown look sort of like computers from 1995, just a bit more… sculpted, shall we say.  They did figure out that we would have touch screens by now but these computers were much bigger than the laptops and tablets we can use now.

True to the modern day, the processing center in the Sanctuary Districts are understaffed; you’d think that they could create more jobs by putting more staff in these districts and although that’d be a small drop in the bucket of unemployment, I’m sure it would still make a difference to those who would now have a job.  We’re seeing it today, with government assistance programs swamped with applications due to Covid-19, and you’d think if a few of these people who were put out of work due to their business being non-essential were hired to help manage this sudden surge in paperwork, that would make a difference for everyone, but that’s the kind of forward thinking that the government is not known for.

It’s also funny looking at the episode and seeing how people of 1995 thought that people in 2024 would speak.  The mentally challenged are called “dims” in the episode, but this is one instance where they thought the slang would evolve and it didn’t, since they’re still called ‘retards’ today, and there hasn’t been any real effort to change the slang other than to come up with politically correct ways of referring to them.  But even back in 1995, “mentally challenged” was a term.  The term for people who are needing help is “gimmie”.  Gimmies are people who need assistance, and you have to applaud the writers for coming up with a slang term that makes it sound undesirable to be someone who is down on their luck and needs assistance.  The term “gimmie” makes it sound like they’re greedy and unwilling to help themselves.

District Security is underpaid and overworked, which pretty much perfectly describes the police of today.  Money was a huge problem in 1995, money is a huge problem today and money seems to be a huge problem four years from now when the Bell Riots begin.  That said, the Bell Riots finally opened everyone’s eyes and attitudes began to change towards the downtrodden and disadvantaged… for two years.  2026 is when World War III begins and according to Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Encounter At Farpoint, it was an even worse period in history than the one that led to the Bell Riots.

Dr. Bashir and Captain Sisko originally try to stay out of history so that they don’t influence events, including having to refuse giving medical assistance to people, but they find themselves swept up into the events of the time period when a brawl on the street gets Gabriel Bell killed before the Bell Riots even begin, putting the future at stake.

The two episodes do a good job of showing the unrest during this time period, but in a much scaled down manner, given the budget.  It’s hard to adequately show tens of thousands of downtrodden people within the confines of a pair of 45-minute episodes, especially in a season with 26 of them.

I think what’s most galling is that, near the end of the second part, the police storm the processing center looking to “pacify” the building.  This entails shooting first and asking questions later, and they claim that they were told rumours the hostages were already dead.  The term “pacify” is another good use of euphemism and I have to applaud the writers for their masterful use of language throughout the two-part episode.  In the end, history is saved and things go back to normal for the crew of Deep Space Nine.  But as someone living through this history as it happens, I can’t help but wonder when things will go back to normal for us.

 

This is a Quarantine Control post, so we have to recommend that you stay home as much as possible to prevent further coronavirus spread despite how it seems safe to go out. But you should stay safe regardless of that these days — especially if you’re in the United States. Coronavirus coverage has been supplanted by stories highlighting the protests, social upheaval, and the country’s slow march towards authoritarianism lately. People have considerably more to fear from militarized police and vigilantes than the supposed “outside agitators” — people of color especially. Be well.