MAG 160: well THAT escalated

[jazzfish]

"Hello, Jon."

OH HOLY FUUUUUUCK

I don't think I have ever been so ... activated ... by two words.

I am extremely impressed, on a craft level, how this show has gone seamlessly from "anthology of standalones with slight framing story" through "anthology of standalones with slight-to-moderate framing story and traces of interconnectedness through each story" to "anthology of standalones with deep mythic resonances and connections to the framing story" to "intense framing story around an anthology of nominally standalones."

And VERY interested to see how it all shakes out in the conclusion.

And also unsure whether, when I finish, I'll just start over from the beginning, or dive into Old Gods of Appalachia or some other such thing. Because I am dead certain that a relisten to the whole thing will be absolutely fascinating.

---

for those of you who still haven’t listened to the Magnus Archives, one of the great things about it is that the writer really avoids using things like sexual violence and ~scary mentally ill people~ and awful racist tropes as fuel for horror, and instead makes very, very effective fuel for fear out of things like not being able to quit your job, one (1) very large pig, teaching an entry-level college class, 19th century british architecture, having a crush on your boss, community center art classes, having to move back in with your parents, package deliveries, men named Michael, reading, a metalhead who refuses to explain himself, going to a concert and the band is really shitty, the overall concept of doors, A Hole Full Of Meat, and poetry

--from tumblr via rydra_wong

Comments

[rydra_wong]

"Hello, Jon."

OH HOLY FUUUUUUCK

I don't think I have ever been so ... activated ... by two words.

I KNOW RIGHT???

I felt the pit of my stomach just drop.

Also I had an entertaining moment a while later when I shocked myself by remembering that Ben Meredith is not actually in this ep. Jonny Sims's Elias-through-Jon's-voice impression is so good (and the writing for Elias-Jonah's monologue is so strong), part of my brain had just gone "Elias is very much in this ep, therefore Ben is in this ep".

[jazzfish]

Also I had an entertaining moment a while later when I shocked myself by remembering that Ben Meredith is not actually in this ep.

Yes! Which is explained / made even more hilarious by the bit in the Q&A where Jonny talks about how Ben developed the Elias-voice by taking Jonny's Archivist voice and turning up the smugness, so for 160 Jonny was doing an impression of himself.

[rydra_wong]

Yes, it's delightfully recursive.

[rydra_wong]

Btw, I did a re-listen of S1-4 during the hiatus before S5 started, and can report that it stands up really well to re-listening -- it's fascinating watching the construction and how early bits of the underlying plotting are being put in place.