Tonight is mostly about creepy stuff. Horror movies, horror TV shows, roleplaying sessions. And the scariest thing of all… that which you can’t even comprehend! Enjoy!
QUESTIONS:
Have you ever considered recording your game sessions as Actual Plays? –Craig
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Tony guessed that The Haunting of Hill House novel was published in 1953, I guessed 1956. According to Wiki, it was 1959. By Price Is Right rules, I win!
By pretty much ALL rules, you win, dude.
Thoughts about “The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell” (after 1 ep.):
I like it. It reminds me of Peewee’s Playhouse.
Realizing that it did remind me of that show, I went and looked up the director ’cause I had a vague recollection it might be Tim Burton–which it was. So Tony’s description of The Pioneer Woman done by Tim Burton seems spot on.
My first thought about the show is that the connection between the cooking show and the world the cooking show is taking place in (primarily with Rose and Rankle) is that Rose and Rankle are both creations of Christine’s in the same way the things she makes on the cooking/craft show are.
And then I got to wondering why I like stuff like this, and Tim Burton’s work, and Goth generally, when I don’t like horror as a genre. What do things like this take from horror, and what do they leave behind?
Horror takes us out of the normative world (at least temporarily) and into things that are less acceptable and primarily less acceptable because of their association with the body (sex and death). I think that’s what I like about Tim Burton’s work and Goth–that celebration of the abie-normal, the outsider status, the marginal, the monstrous. What I don’t like about horror is that it tends, in the end, to be fairly conservative. We are punished for inhabiting the body by physical terror (especially for people like me who tend to react strongly to scary things), the sexual are punished, bodies are tortured and maimed.
So coming back to what I like about “The Curious Creations…”–I think that the center of it is a cooking/craft show is brilliant because cooking is also about the body–the sustaining of the body. And cooking/eating are also one of the central social rituals of bonding with others. Now cooking shows can often seem pretty insipid and very much about enforcing social norms (proper table manners and all). That’s why when someone like Julia Child came along and was messy and embraced the whole pleasure side of eating (I think this needs a smidge more…butter!), it’s so refreshing. So by connecting the whole goth thing to the cooking show, and by having Rose and Rankle act as sarcastic 4th wall breakers (ala Waldorf and Statler), you inject the monstrous and the marginal, but you’re still indulging in food, creativity and community. Instead of mortality, we get resurrection. Instead of killing off someone whenever they indulge in the pleasures of the flesh, we get Rose.
Oh, Peewee’s Playhouse! Yeah, that *is* a good parallel!
I’ll be curious how you feel as the plot of the show takes more focus. There is actually a plot. 🙂
Mike Teavee: Why is everything here completely pointless?
Charlie Bucket: Candy doesn’t have to have a point. That’s why it’s candy.
These quotes are from the remake of Wiily Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and what popped into my head when Tony said he didn’t understand the Curious Creations show. There is no reason or a point to this show; it just is, and it is magnificent.
I’m also curious about “Sabrina.”
Have to say I like the tagline on the trailer:
“I’m not an evil person, but these are desperate times.”