Written by Shae RufeTHIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...Steven Universe is an amazing show that, as many of you know, I fell in love with during a very hard time in my life. This show has continued to hold a special place in my heart, and with 'The Summer of Steven' over and season four under way, I thought it time to revisit this show in blog form. Let's talk feels and recap, shall we? Spoilers ahead! First and foremost, how awesome was 'The Summer of Steven'? Granted, it never lasts as long as we want it to, but Summer of Steven took us from July to August in a month of awesome, with an episode nearly every week night. We got to learn a lot about Steven and we also got to see some characters come together. Lapis Lazuli came into the show with a strong presence of anger and rage, but she's calmed quite a bit. Our lovely blue gem now calls Earth her home and is even living with Peridot of all people. Lapis spent a lot of time fused with Jasper, but it seems the two faced off against the Crystal Gems and lost. I loved Lapis' story arc in this season because we got to know her as a haunted, yet kind character. That is until Jasper reappeared and begged Lapis to fuse with her. We learned that it wasn't Jasper who had control over Malachite, but Lapis, for the most part. Sadly, the purely kind gem we know was abusive toward Jasper. This story was an amazing way to bring in a very tough topic that even adults don't talk about. Abuse is a hard subject for anyone, yet the truth is abuse happens in so many different forms. With Lapis and Jasper it was physical, but abuse can be mental and emotional as well. While these two were enemies, Lapis showed sincere regret in hurting Jasper and refused to do it again. While she admitted to part of her enjoying the abuse, Lapis knew it was wrong and she didn't like that about herself. I think this show needs an award for the amazing ways it brings to light that which we seldom talk about. I know people who've come out of emotionally abusive relationships, and I can say I've been in similar situation with past friends even. The sad truth is that abuse isn't talked about as often as it should be, but this show makes hot topics like that easy to talk about with how it confronts them. Of course, Lapis stays strong in her desire to never go back to that. She moves on and stands up for herself, and learns to be here. There's a lot about Lapis we still don't know, but that's part of the fun. We also got to see Pearl and Greg come together. It's been a long time coming, to say the least. Yet Pearl's hate for Greg was always breezed over. And then we got an all musical episode and we learned a whole new side to the story. We all knew Greg and Rose met and fell in love and had Steven, but we never knew the extent of Pearl and Rose's relationship. We actually still don't. We did find out that Pearl was madly in love with Rose and the crushing truth that Rose didn't feel the same. Unrequited love is perhaps the cruelest of all things in this world, and we got to see that first hand as Pearl sang 'It's Over' and we fell in love. The song, while sad, was also cathartic, and in the end Greg heard the whole thing. The two finally seem to talk and by the end seem to even have a level of understanding. Rose is a mystery we may never get answers to, yet she left behind a whole lot to look into. Throughout Summer of Steven we did see more of Rose and we learned a lot about her. For one, Rose had many secrets. Aside from choosing Greg over Pearl, she also had a Crystal Gem hidden away from the others. Bismuth was the gem hidden in Lion's mane and she was very happy to be set free. The full half hour episode featuring the old Crystal Gem spoke volumes to what really happened in the rebellion. A turning point was about to occur and Bismuth was leveling the playing field. Bismuth are blacksmiths and their main purpose is to build spires, temples, arenas and so on for the Diamonds. Except this Bismuth, she invented a weapon that wouldn't just change the war, but win it. The Breaking Point was a weapon designed to shatter gems, unlike Rose's sword which only damaged their physical form. Rose's answer to this was to poof Bismuth and hide her away. She never told the others what happened to her... Sadly, Bismuth came and went far too soon. She tried to kill Steven and in an event that cannot unhappen, he poofed her and bubbled her away. The only difference is that Steven told the Gems everything, which included Rose's lie. Lastly, Jasper. The arc of Jasper has been long and convoluted, yet we finally got to the end of the road, or did we? As it so happens Jasper was born on earth and her purpose was to fight the rebellion. She never got to officially fight Rose but she had heard a lot about her. Jasper spent her entire time stuck on earth calling Steven, Rose and refusing to believe he wasn't his mother. From her fusion with Lapis to the end of it, we got to see Jasper's path to corruption, and it wasn't a pretty one. Jasper's whole purpose is to fight and win, but against Steven that's kind of hard. Steven lost the battle to persuade Jasper that he wasn't his mother nor was he trying to manipulate her. Jasper's corruption was complete after she fused with a corrupted gem. Just before she turned into a monster we learned that Jasper wasn't just made on earth, her diamond was Pink Diamond. Of all the Diamonds only two have made an on screen appearance, and Pink Diamond has only been seen in one mural. We also learned that Rose was a soldier just like Jasper, which explained her giant pink hair. Through the Rubies who were searching for Jasper we learned that Pink Diamond was supposedly killed by Rose. Our world has been forever changed. This conclusion to season three brought so many more questions with little answers. We finally got to see Smoky Quartz, who turned out to be the cutest fusion of Amethyst and Steven, we saw the corruption of a gem first hand; we also saw a half healed corruption with Centipeetle. Corruption turned out to cause damage to a gems mind, unlike a physical crack, corruption cannot be healed, so far. We also learned that Steven can possess other bodies, as he does with Lars. And so far, season three wrapped up with an amazing ending that has left us all wanting more and more. More is what we got, thankfully. Hopefully season four can captivate us just as strongly, which something tells me it will! What a wondrous adventure we're on!
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Written by John Edward BetancourtSometimes, the toughest part of this gig, is finding the best way to balance watching the vast amounts of shows that I enjoy and because of that, sometimes a series or two that is on your list or catches your eyes simply goes the wayside, that is until someone reminds you to get off your hinder and take a look. Scotty has done this to me numerous times, when it comes to various movies and such and Shae gives me the same business when it comes to Steven Universe which means you simply find a way to carve out time to see what you need to see and recently, one of our followers on the site on Twitter, the awesome @obi_juanita (seriously, follow her fellow geeks) let us know that we were missing out on AMC's nerdy offering; Geeking Out which means I made a little time to settle in and give this series a look. Now the first thing I noticed when I settled in to watch this, it instantly reminded me of the now defunct Attack of the Show when it came to its studio atmosphere and well, geek themed reporting, but that's about all this show shares with AOTS because it goes above and beyond in doing exactly what its namesake promises. Hosted by nerd legend Kevin Smith and J.J. Abrams acting staple Greg Grunberg, Geeking Out is perhaps a pinnacle of nerd culture by more or less giving us a show that looks and feels like say Entertainment Tonight but stays true to every geekdom out there thanks to its passionate and exuberant hosts. The format is pretty simple, at least from the episode I watched. Kevin and Greg take you out and about in the geek world and well, what makes this show extra awesome is the fact that their established status in Hollywood gets us behind the scenes of some pretty cool places. Greg for example, who landed a role in Star Trek Beyond takes us onto the red carpet for the film's premiere where Greg is able to talk with Simon Pegg, J.J. Abrams and even composer Michael Giacchino before showing us highlights from the premiere. Not to mention, there's quite the cool moment when Matt Damon pops up on the show to talk with Kevin about his latest release, Jason Bourne. I suppose however, my only complaint about the show is that at times it feels as though the incredible sights and sounds of the geek world fly by and well, you're left wanting more but...that's also the show's greatest strength. It reels you in, it has your attention for thirty minutes and well, I'm going to have to dig in and watch more because as I looked through the episode list On Demand there's some cool people popping up on the show, and some amazing places that they go to. So, my thanks to @obi_juanita for recommending this gem to us and I hope all of you take a moment and give some of your time to Geeking Out, which airs Sundays at Midnight, eastern time on AMC to get a geeky fix from two big time professional nerds. Written by John Edward BetancourtTelevision and the many shows that it provides is something that I outright adore, after all it can at times move us in incredible fashion and there's truly something for everyone out there story wise. On a personal level, I only ask for one thing when it comes to a TV show, just give me an enthralling and fascinating story line and I'll watch every episode you send my way. Sometimes shows don't meet that personal criteria for me and I tend to gravitate away, but once in a great while, I will give a television show another go round to see if by chance I was or am missing something wonderful and recently I spent a little time on demand giving a particular show another shot in that fashion, The Big Bang Theory. Now this is a show that I watched years ago when it first came out for obvious reasons, nerds, doing nerd stuff, making people laugh, meaning that it should be a winner and in many ways it is...it's a ratings juggernaut, but since sitcoms tend to not have engaging plots that draw you in, well I lost my way. But upon coming back to it, well I found myself surprised. For starters, the laughs didn't quite resonate with me at all this go round and while I can live with a sitcom no longer making me laugh heartily, there were a few other things about the show that suddenly caught my eye that I had never noticed before. The sheer fact that it is in no way properly demonstrative of nerd culture and the people it represents, nor is it relatable because of this fact. Think about it for a moment. Every single character on that program that is a centralized 'nerd' work at a university, enjoy government grants for their work and well, live comfortably in order to pursue their every single interest and desire for the things they love and that's just not realistic. Now yes, I know, it's a TV show, but for this story to be about nerds and oddly enough, feature plenty of nerdy things, it doesn't represent nerds properly. I'm not saying that there aren't people that are indeed similar to these characters out there, but the nerds I know of in life, come from all walks of it. The bartender out there that just so happens to love Doctor Who. The nurse that never misses an episode of The Walking Dead or the police officer who can't wait for Star Trek: Discovery to hit the digital airwaves. These are folks that save up for every collectible, set money aside for conventions and autographs and live and breathe their fandom and well, they are what nerds truly look like in our world and by not seeing a better representation of nerd culture, a giant question came into my mind while re-watching this show...is The Big Bang Theory bad for said culture? The answer to that question is not a simple yes or no, but I know I'm not the only one to speak up about the show's quality or what it stands for. Heck we've seen the videos making the rounds slamming the series for overloading pop culture references and really, that's more of a jab and condemnation of the show's writing over anything else. My concern is that the show has capitalized on what a 'nerd' should be and that it relies upon stereotypes for our characters, the 'rocket scientist' or 'poindexter' if you will and well, this show feels like a missed opportunity to really do something special. They could have given us an incredibly diverse cast from all walks of life and instead, it's Seinfeld with Doctor Who jokes thrown in with a few famous guest stars to keep us happy from time to time. But while The Big Bang Theory will likely not change its style or design, we shouldn't view it as bad for nerd culture, we should view it as a stepping stone. As the old saying goes, if you dislike it that much, go out and make it better and that's what we can hope for; that a group of folks come together and put together a big time show that is just as geeky as this one, but truly represents the people it intends to fictionalize. Such a story may never make its way to network television since it's all about formulas in that part of the entertainment world, but if someone, anyone can get a series going that improves on this one...one that truly brings joy and reaches us on a fundamental level...then perhaps sitting through so many seasons of gratuitous cameos and pop culture references will have been worth it after all... |
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