I spent the better part of four months working on a video essay on the complete history of the reality competition program The Mole in english speaking countries.
It is now finished. I hope you enjoy this behemoth of a video.
@nbcsnl
idk how much communication you have with lorne or the higher ups, but someone needs to tell them that absolutely no one wants this. i can not think of a single person who wants this.
and i don't mean miley
@yugiohtas
they've been doing this a lot with great actors lately. simon russell beale, shakespearean actor and tony winner, was in Thor Love and Thunder, and i cannot for the life of me remember who he played. Give these people something worthwhile to do, Marvel!
Okay. We need to talk about Harlan in the Umbrella Academy. And his relation to autistic portrayals in the media.
SPOILERS for Umbrella Academy Season 2, and yes, this will be a thread. A very, very, VERY long thread.
Foo Fighters's killer performance on
#SNL
is the catalyst to potentially get more rock/alt-rock acts on the show. So please, guys. Ease up on the pop acts, get back to the rock.
@EricMGarcia
this could have been any one of dozens of my relatives that live on staten island
yes, they're all conservative, but i don't think this is a partisan issue
@MaraWilson
my grandmother lives in austin, and nothing mcconaughey does seems to faze people down there. we're on some highway, and she motions to some area and goes 'oh, over that way is the bongo house'
@Lin_Manuel
(i'm not being sarcastic, this is insanely important and respect points through the roof for SNL, and for Lin for having time to film this)
Not really a contest, but this was the best
#SNL
of the season, solely because it was all weird, conceptual writer's sketches, and because Mulaney is not only a great sketch performer but a trusted presence in any writer's room.
An A+ show from me. Well done.
@realJaredGilman
It should be like the before trilogy where every so often an acclaimed director should cast you two alongside each other in a different time period
that performance of the Lightning 1 and 2 from Arcade Fire has to be one for the trophy case for
#SNL
. Lighting, cinematography, sound, feeling, editing. Holy crap.
-the r-word is not used at all over the course of this show. nor is 'slow'.
-Harlan is not a blank slate. Harlan's eyebrows are arched a lot. He's in thought, he's capable of thought. He is not zombified, like a lot of nonverbal autistic characters.
Harlan is 8 years old in 1963, when this series is set, and he has autism. He is nonverbal, communicates monosyllabically, if at all, has an extreme artistic eye, and is one of the chief macguffins of this season of Umbrella Academy.
Which is nice.
@ShadowTodd
been thinking about this. is perhaps the simplest criticism of this song that sam smith wanted to do montero but they forgot they weren't lil nas x?
@jareddashevsky
I think I wrote in your fifth grade yearbook to have a great summer, so I hope you also have a great summer while also being a doctor. That’d make both of us right.
The most important takeaway for anyone who's been able to make it this far, and I commend you all, is this:
Cast autistic people in autistic roles
Cast disabled people in disabled roles
Representation matters in media, and it will never not matter.
Before I get too critical, I'll go over some things with this character that I like.
-Harlan doesn't reek of tokenism, and his autism is not the only facet to his character, though it is the only facet that isn't plot-related
-he is shown tied to special interests happily
@DaltonRoss
"mark it's jeff, they just asked for a can of the survivor trivia pringles we gave for a reward in season 10, i don't know if any of them still exist, please help they're standing there judging me"
Studios need to stop casting neurotypical actors in autistic roles.
Especially nonverbal autistic roles. Because there is nothing more embarrassing than an actor who's playing an nonverbal character being able to talk when the director calls cut.
-yes, Harlan is in peril at points in this show, but A.) this show doesn't go towards the tired 'deadbeat dad abuses autistic child' trope [though it feels like it might], and B.) the ending points him towards an environment where he will thrive, and the potential to recur in S3.
-Sissy, his mother, is portrayed as an understanding, compassionate advocate for Harlan's needs, and appreciates Vanya, our protagonist, further for being able to help Harlan, especially during meltdowns [forgive me for the outdated vernacular, i can't think of a better word]
@ShadowTodd
that Changes cover that Bowie duets on with butterfly boucher is...ascendant. Bowie showing up on that track FLOORED eight-year-old me [who only kinda knew who bowie was to begin with]
@KyleKallgren
you're not a 'channel awesome kid' until you start a minor controversy and refuse to apologize for it while acting like nothing has changed.
you're a channel awesome grown-ass adult, a much rarer breed
@thunderrmuffin
I just have this visual of Tyler and Josh just laughing their asses off, watching all the frantic clique tweets, going 'alright...what do we wanna throw 'em next?'
@ThatWeekInSNL
-Fishbone in 91 jumping all over the stage
-Janelle Monae in 2013 instantaneously leaping onto everyone's radar
-Prince in 81 saving one of the most notorious SNLs ever.
-any one of Billie Eilish's recent ones.
-Foo Fighters at Christmas in 2017
-David Byrne and friends in 2020
@realJaredGilman
op is forgetting that Sam's late teens coincide with the rise of the vietnam conflict and hippie movement. there's no way he's pro-cop even at the end of that decade.
Nonverbal autistic people cannot turn it on and off like neurotypical actors. Autistic people can mask, but a neurodiverse person passing as neurotypical is a lot easier to stomach than a neurotypical person passing as autistic.
We're not a role challenge. we're not a costume.
Now. The Umbrella Academy has done a lot correctly in this regard, and a this is a lot more progressive of a portrayal than most autistic characters onscreen lately.
However, despite this, the writers still commit a few sins in crafting Harlan, and I will detail them as well.
Let’s get another WB writeoff trending, the more we rail against the more pressure against Zas. Like, I really wanna see Salem’s Lot as well, but apparently the masses don’t mean anything to the studios anymore.
Between you and me, Twitter, I've seen the new SALEM'S LOT and it's quite good. Old-school horror filmmaking: slow build, big payoff. Not sure why WB is holding it back; not like it's embarrassing, or anything. Who knows. I just write the fucking things.
Also, autistic people aren't going away. There are lots of autistic writers and actors out there. You wanna write an autistic character? Consult us on how to write them. Cast us to play them. You literally cannot do this without us. We'd rather not be spoken for.
With autistic characters in media, especially nonverbal ones, a lot of the conflict lies with 'oh, this is a horrible thing to happen to a person', and here is no different. We get a few cutaways of Harlan's impressive drawing skills, and the rest is focused on drawbacks
@ShadowTodd
I just wanted to tell you that I’d never heard this song before I watched your video on it, and today as I was driving it came on the radio.
So…I turned it up.
Firstly, despite no uses of the r-word or similar vernacular, Harlan's father, himself an antagonist of this season, makes note of, and jokes about, Harlan's inability to speak. Several times. So the amount of time in which Harlan's autism is portrayed positively is...limited.
You can make the argument that autism was less reported-about in 1963, which is true. But Vanya, from 2019, makes a point that present-day advances have made for an easier climate for people with autism, and yet she doesn't...say...the word.
When working with other autistic people, I tell them to focus on the parts of themselves the autism has embellished. Special interests, perfect pitch, fantastic abilities. This way, the drawbacks seem more minor.
Harlan's portrayal is 90% drawbacks.
Harlan is an autistic character. A nonverbal autistic character.
He is played by Justin Paul Kelly. As far as my research tells me, Justin Paul Kelly is a neurotypical actor.
Not only can Kelly talk, he has Paw Patrol voice credits on his resume.
In conclusion.
The Umbrella Academy Season 2 is good, wonderfully insane, and features a nonverbal autistic character that is pretty well-written and slightly more progressive than other recent ones, despite more progress still needing to be made.
@4thContext
funnily enough this is a direct reference to a similar Bob Hope fourth wall break in Road to Morocco, which this is spoofing. "whatever villains we may face, we haven't any fears" "Paramount will protect us cause we're signed for 5 more years." Seth was clearly a fan.
Why do they need to stop doing this? Because this will tie the magical powers directly into the autism, which is another unrealistic message for autistic viewers.
My autism gives me cool abilities, but they are not magical powers. Anxiety is not a magical power.
Secondly. Harlan is the newest entry into the latest infuriating Hollywood uber-specific trope- AUTISTIC PEOPLE WITH MAGICAL POWERS!
Okay...really, it's just Harlan and Jacob Tremblay from The Predator, but really, Hollywood needs to stop doing this.
@SurvivorPenner
how about 'penner is the only player in survivor history to get his own close-up confessional while directly under another player's ass'?
This could potentially give the uneasy message to autistic viewers that your difficulties are more important than your strengths, and therefore will be focused on more. We don't want that.
Think about that. Vanya could easily say the words 'he has autism'. But they are never said, even by people who know full well what autism is.
This decision must have been made by the writers, or even the producers, to purposely not say it. How else can you explain it?
@SNLinReview
i think about the fact that people wanted him to get back on the show for 5 years just to show everyone he could do it, and then he goes and bombs in his monologue, fumbles multiple laugh lines and alienates the audience early.
and that makes me laugh harder than this show did.
@yugiohtas
i love explaining to people that the iron giant was pitched as an adaptation of pete townshend's rock opera adaptation of the book and seeing them wrap their head around all of that.
On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer.
He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren.
During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace.
-The Simpson Family