I had an endoscopy. It… it wasn’t so bad, actually? It’s everything around the procedure that’s not fun. Having to clean out my digestive system, for instance, was terrible. It sucked. And then all the paperwork beforehand. And then the weird feelings I’ve been getting since. But actually sitting on a hospital bed, getting wheeled around? And going to sleep for a bit? That was okay.
But forgive me if this feels rushed; I wrote this Note this morning because I was burned out last night after filling out my NaNoWriMo word count.
Anyhow I started reading Sins of Empire and I forgot how good these books are and I’m excited to see where this one goes.
I had an idea for a Note on Assassin’s Creed after reading The Fall, but I thought two weeks in a row is too many Assassins.
Apparently something happened on Supernatural this past week?
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Over the Garden Wall is Amazing
Over the Garden Wall is pretty darn close to the perfect animated miniseries.
I rewatched Over the Garden Wall recently. It’s on Hulu. For those not in the know, it’s the story of two brothers, Wirt and Greg, lost in a very weird set of woods called the Unknown. They want to get home, and the only guide they have is a talking bluebird named Beatrice. Early on, they’re told by a weird, creepy Woodsman that out there in the Unknown is a creature called the Beast, and it will do its best to entrap lost souls.
As the story goes in, it becomes obvious that there is something… off about the people they run into in the Unknown. I mean, other than a talking bluebird (which is weird, even in this world). There are anthropomorphic animals that don’t talk but wear clothes and go to school. There’s a village with people who wear scarecrow outfits and have wagons pulled by turkeys. There’s a tavern full of people who only go by the occupation and don’t seem to compute someone with an actual name. There’s an old rich man who has a house so big he admits he doesn’t even remember building all of it.
The Unknown is a very weird place. Some of the ads try to paint it as a world of old fairy tales. I don’t know if that’s quite true. But it’s a place of old stories, a place in which you meet people and animals who wouldn’t feel out of place in American folklore from a hundred years ago.
And with that premise, you’d think that this would be a very dark fairy tale type story. And in some ways it is! Look, there are parts that are (to me, at least) genuinely terrifying. But more than that, there are scenes that are just… unsettling, in ways that are hard to describe. I’m weirded out by the anthropomorphic animals, because they’re wearing clothes and go to school, but none of them talk, and often stare out at the other characters with blank expressions. And then there’s the Highwayman’s song and dance, which isn’t scary, but it’s… it’s weird. It’s disturbing. A guy shouldn’t be moving like that while he’s talking about mugging and killing people. Or really be singing about how he’s mugging and killing people.
But hey, this series is also really, really funny. Part of it is the sheer absurdity, and the way that it bounces off all of our leads. Wirt, the socially awkward teenager, is utterly confused and trying to make sense of everything, while also trying to keep his cool. Greg, the younger brother, doesn’t seem to even notice that what’s going in is all that weird, and is taking it all in stride as long as he gets to have fun on the way. And Beatrice is utterly done with everyone’s nonsense and just wants to get this all over and done with. So we have these three characters going through a world which doesn’t make much sense and reacting to all the weirdness out there.
And it is glorious. We are gifted with great scenes such as this one.
The decision to make each episode its own little story also works in its favor. They all connect, of course, but they also let the characters grow in their own self-contained narratives. It all leads to Greg and Wirt’s journey home, but they’re also memorable stories on their own. And they give you great moments building up how these characters act, interact, and set up how they’ll develop going forward.
Also this is a story that is, at its core, about two brothers, and for the longest time (including when I first watched it), Sibling Stories were My Jam. The relationship between Wirt and Greg takes center stage; mostly, in that Wirt has to learn to see his brother as more than an annoyance, and Greg has to take responsibility for more of his actions. It culminates in a touching and very uplifting climax.
It’s really good. It’s also deep. I mean, maybe not that deep, but there’s something going on with the Unknown that’s probably not much of a surprise if you pay attention from the get go. I mean… guys lost in a dark forest, being led by a figure named Beatrice… it’s not that subtle, I suppose, but it is fun, especially by the time you get to the end of the series and it all adds up.
This is honestly one of the best cartoons to have been released in the last decade. It’s brilliant, it’s fun, it’s funny, and I could watch it over and over again every autumn. It’s a fantastic thing to watch for the season.
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