it's the final countdown

fuckyeahjohnlockfanfic:

Signal boost for cabinpressurefanfic! If you love CP and have a hard time finding fics (like me) this blog is a great start! 

cabinpressurefanfic is BRILLIANT!

regala-electra:

THEY CUT A CUTE TINA & MIKE INTERACTION DURING “RIVER” SOMEONE HOLD MY EARRINGS THIS SHIT IS SERIOUS. MY EARS AREN’T EVEN PIERCED.

*snort*

In which regala-electra stars in Priscilla, queen of the tumblr

Brilliance.

As someone who spent a lot of time around older people, I have Feels for both Douglas and Carolyn. This is a wonderful essay about noticing the things missing in a middle-aged life. 

But I want to talk about Arthur, and why he’s a tragic figure to me.

Arthur is 30. He acts 15. But I disagree with the characterization of him as unaware of his situation or as being a child in an adult’s body. He’s *cheerful*, but not childish. And while I’m not going to play the sad olympics and say he’s more or less miserable than others, he does get frustrated with his intellectual limitations and he does take a look at his life and want more. But he’s stuck.

I lived at home as long as Arthur did because I had a long-term illness and couldn’t work, and it just sucks. You’re caught in a frustrating limbo where you are and aren’t grown-up, both a part of the world and a part of the world in your head. It’s lonely, because if you live in the suburbs, there’s only children, newlyweds, and old people to socialize with. It’s boring. At least Arthur has an exciting job, but it’s a dead-end job until his mum dies, which he certainly doesn’t want to happen!

In the meantime, he isn’t learning any skills or growing professionally. He has to be a steward to help his mom, she won’t let him take over any other aspect of the business because she’s too controlling and mistrustful that he’ll screw it up, and I wonder how much of Arthur’s being a clot is due to Carolyn treating him as an incapable child and him accepting the role because it’s safe and comfortable. And he likes and respects his mum and wouldn’t want to challenge her authority.

Arthur likes many things about himself, but he does have deep insecurities. He goes for girls he doesn’t really like who he  knows he can get, but isn’t really interested in them; mostly, he doesn’t date at all, even though he really wants someone to love. He wants friends and to have a good time, because people are great, but he seems to spend a lot of time with technicians and pilots. This puts him in the role of the little brother hanging around with the big boys of the group. They like him, but they don’t respect him, because they’re smarter and act older than he is — some of those techies may actually be younger, but they have full time jobs they get paid to do, they’re self-contracted, and some are probably married with kids. Arthur must be in awe of them, and can’t help comparing himself.

He spends a lot of energy deflecting teasing at himself, sometimes with humor and sometimes with just avoidance, as if he’s still in school avoiding the bullies. Most adults of 30 have adopted a sort of authoritative or self-possessed dignity that tells others they won’t tolerate teasing, but Arthur’s just so goofy and childish that grown up bullies find him an easy target when they want to let off steam. Arthur laughs off the teasing in stride because it’s been the habit of his life, but there are times it goes too far, with certain clients or when Douglas calls him useless too many times, that it really starts to get him down. Only Martin has the thoughtfulness to know when the teasing has gone to far, which I think is telling, since Martin is the most empathetic character; he seems to sense when Douglas’ barbs start hitting Arthur too close to the truth.

What I want for Arthur is to get a girl/boyfriend, his own place, and to start taking over non stewarding duties at MJN. Anything administrative, data entry, taking over the kitchen supplies, anything so he feels more involved and in control of his career rather than being handed a job because it’s the family business and he can’t be fired. He can do it — I have worked a LOT of jobs in a LOT of places, I have seen people far stupider than Arthur responsible for the inventory.

I’d like Carolyn to sell the house and get something smaller for herself so Arthur doesn’t feel obligated to live with her, and I’d like Carolyn to shack up with Herc so Arthur doesn’t feel he has to be the man of the family to the exclusion of being the director of his own life.

Thing is, everyone starts out adulthood as childish and clueless as Arthur. They’re just usually 18 at the time. He’s got a lot of things going for him — a supportive mum, life experience, the ability to make friends and impress people, a servicible education. He could be more.

I think it would take a big push, but I fear it would take something terrible happening to Carolyn before he’d do it.

thepudupudu:

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: I really don’t find Martin Crieff to be ‘a tragic figure’. If anything, I envy him. He is a man following his dream. When I was younger I really, really wanted to be a doctor. I’d still quite like to be one, but very much am not and this is the case for practically everyone I know: very few people are able to say that they have the job they wanted most in the world as a child. A vast majority of people didn’t even have a goal in mind at that age but Martin did, and he stuck at it.

I admire his determination- I have very seldom failed at anything, but that’s because I make a point of not putting myself in a position where I might face failure or rejection. I went to Oxford, which had always been something I had wanted to do, but I studied English rather than Medicine, being fearful of taking the leap into the unknown that that would have occasioned. Martin has never had this problem: every hurdle he faces makes him more determined, marking him apart from those of us who would just give up in favour of an easier path.

As for his oft referenced ‘attic and baked potatoes’, once again, I don’t pity him. I know many single men in their 30s who live on diets of baked beans, and I am, personally, a huge fan of both pasta and baked potatoes. Martin is very seldom at home- when he is not, he gets his meals on GERT-I. Also, from my experience, attic rooms are often the nicest and most spacious in a house. Alright, so the circumstances might not be exactly those that Martin had envisaged, but he’s still young and has his whole life ahead of him. We’re seeing him grow into his own skin and into his role as a Captain who even the more experienced Douglas now trusts to land a plane on one engine.

Ah yes, Douglas Richardson. Now, if we’re talking about ‘tragedy’, here is a figure to take note of. Hubris abounds and how the mighty ‘sky god’ has fallen courtesy of bad fortune coupled with fatal flaws- appropriately for Allam, it’s almost Shakespearean. Whereas Martin’s character evolves into a stronger character the more we find out about him, Douglas seems to crumble with each piece of new information (an insight into why he is so reluctant to give it). Martin can afford to be an open book, because he has nothing to hide. Although Martin’s lamenting and open failures might appear ‘tragic’ because we are alerted to them, what remains unsaid about Douglas is surely more so.

The implications for Douglas’s backstory are stark: he doesn’t drink anymore, though was careful to disguise this fact (he is a recovering alcoholic and ashamed of this fact); he has at least one daughter who lives in Cumbria (he very seldom sees her- Cumbria is around 800 miles away from the South East where Fitton is presumably located and he spends most of his time abroad); he has had three divorces (turbulent relationship history, with the last divorce at least having shaken him considerably- Martin might have little luck with women but no one’s cheating on him); he was a Captain but is now a First Officer (whereas Martin’s young life is on an, albeit gradual, upwards curve, Douglas’s has, in middle age, had a rapid downwards plummet, his crowning glory now being his ability to win a cheese tray off Martin).  

The weight of expectation on Martin’s shoulders is very light indeed- he frequently gets things a little bit wrong, so nobody minds all that much, and when he does manage to do something brilliant, his achievement is recognised. Douglas, on the other hand, is always expected do ‘make things alright again’- one day he might not be able to help and the defeat will be crushing. The revelation of the forgotten keys in Ottery St. Mary is a reminder that Douglas too is fallible, and one day this will be exposed when it really matters and it will probably have to be Martin who steps up and saves the day. Triumphant moment for Martin, yes, but the complete opposite for Douglas.

If I’m entirely honest, however, I don’t see Cabin Pressure as a tragedy at all. It has elements of the tragic, yes, but all the best comedies do. The downfall of Gordon would not be so triumphant, nor as uproariously funny, if we had not been supplied with the paradoxically upsetting insight into what was, presumably, a miserable childhood for Arthur. Carolyn is a complete master of all she surveys- an alpha dog extraordinaire- but this at least partially because her circumstances dictate that this is the role she had to take on to avoid being perceived as ‘a little old lady’. Comedy and tragedy co-exist within Mr Finnemore’s glorious scripts, juxtaposed to provide foils for each other and making the show delightfully three-dimensional, but the truth is that no one character is more tragic than the others.

They all have their burdens and my comparisons between Martin and Douglas were provided to illustrate this point. People might feel more sorry for Martin because he is the ‘every man’ of the piece, the most emotionally open and easily empathised with (and, as an added bonus, an every man played by an actor who many perceive to be ‘pretty when he hurts’), but the truth is that for every round of ‘Martin Crieff feels,’ there should probably be a round of the same for the other characters as well and might not this lack of compassionate recognition of the sufferings of Douglas and Carolyn  in particular make them the most tragic characters of all?

regala-electra:

sottovoice:

theboxscene:

“Extraordinary Merry Christmas:” Act Six

Read More

SO I THOUGHT THE ACTUAL SCENE WAS GOING TO BE HILARIOUSLY ANTI-CLIMACTIC AFTER EVERYTHING WE BUILT IT UP INTO

NOPE

N O P E

Co-signing forever.

And that was just the script. The thing we always make fun of for being total shit (because apparently they only leak the rough drafts, or something). GUH IMAGINE THE REWRITES AND DIRECTOR’S ON SET IMPROVEMENTS.

Pizza for dinner?

I’ve been good for WEEKS.

…

pizzahut.com to manual