Tonight’s Outland takes us on a Fab-ulous journey!
Discuss it here!
Categories: arts & entertainment, Culture, fun & hobbies, Life
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Tonight’s Outland takes us on a Fab-ulous journey!
Discuss it here!
Categories: arts & entertainment, Culture, fun & hobbies, Life
Hoyden About Town 
I really enjoy following @FabXXL on Twitter, and getting the foreshadowings.
Dawn Klingberg as “Nan” – what a wonderful time she was having! I hope that scenery was tasty!
I’m feeling a bit ripped off that Fab’s episode had so little Fab! I just about lost it with the whole “it smells like pee” and “but not in a good way” bit.
I have a bit of a soft spot for the horror genre, so I thoroughly enjoyed the episode. Though I can’t decide whether I had more fun watching Rae’s over the top terror while trapped in the corridor or Toby’s while stuck in the doll closet.
I have a Whovian theory about the origins of Space Station Beta. Coincidence?!?!?!
I’m enjoying the connection of the episodes to what they are meant to be watching each week. Horror this week, X-files last, strong women before that. Can anyone remember what the Max episode screening was meant to be? Did it have a point?
I think the Max episode was a screening of the original Space Station Beta pilot, and didn’t have much of a theme outside introducing everyone. Which is a shame, because I think the themes have really strengthened the other episodes.
I saw the first episode as metacommentary on the sense of shame Max felt about confessing to his SciFi nerd habits to his new squeeze, and how there’s a sense of it still being a marginalised hobby (whereas folks who know their sports stats off by heart are lionised in pubs – go figure).
If you watched Adam Richard’s interview on Adam Hills IGST which aired immediately before Outland last night, there was a moment when they reminisced about running into each other in Heathrow about 5 years ago and how Adam R was hugely embarrassed to tell Adam H that he was in the UK to go to a Doctor Who convention in Cardiff.
It will be interesting to see if Max’s character ends up with a narrative arc where he moves beyond the embarrassment.
P.S. the rise of so-called “nerdcore” comedy shows over the last few years as a distinct stand-up/sketch comedy genre, and one which is growing more and more popular with comedy audiences generally, is probably attributable to better networking by geeky fandoms using social media tools extensively, so that various nerds/geeks feel far less alone than they used to.
More Visibility >> More Acceptance?
Yes, I saw the first episode as combined metacommentary and a big Doctor Who joke, from the title to the Daleks everywhere to the Rae-Dalek-stairs gag to the dealbreaker being the “everyone knows Daleks can’t climb stairs!” statement. I interpreted the choice of Space Station Beta as also being a bit of creator thrill at their project getting off the ground – “BETA GO!”
This week’s episode was for me the most hideous in terms of the role of women and its statements on mental illness and ageing. I get that the “Crazy scary old lady, haha” is a horror cliche, yes; but the way that it was portrayed in this episode really grated on me.
Ooh, I just remembered my favourite bit. It was when Toby found the room full of dolls and instantly got what the person who put it together was experiencing, and imagined putting the last one in place thinking “Now I’m safe”.
@Lauredhel – the bit where she laughed at them made me think she was a more active participant than just the ‘crazy old woman’, also when Rae’s wheels got stuck on the skirting board and the old woman reached out and just gave the chair a gentle push made me think that the idea was to mock the stereotype rather than adhere to it. But I could be wrong.
Mindy – I agree with you that the creators probably thought they were subverting it, at least in some ways. I’m just not convinced that they were successful, at least not for me. The erroneous “crazy” (gah) perception could have been done in camera angles and with background music, for example, instead of having her leering at them with her lipstick all over her face.
@Lauredhel – the lipstick bit was a fail, you are right. I did like the way they referenced Basic Instinct at the end though when Toby was brushing her hair. I thought the bit where Toby understood her collecting was lovely.
I’m another who thought the line between the “crazy old lady” stereotype and subverting the stereotype was too muddied. But (admitting that I don’t watch a lot of horror) I did like that horror wasn’t in a dark place, but all pastel pinks and greens and yellowed newspaper (and also, Spoiler! but I guess this is by definition a spoiled thread – that the real nan’s apartment, a place of safety, looked the same).
Did anyone else get the impression not only that Toby understood the doll collection, but that he is beginning to realise his own collection isn’t working for him? And I think this is me adding feminist depth rather than the writers, but I thought the collection made the old lady an ancestral geek, a forgotten foremother.
Also, I’m still trying to follow what I think are the thematic patterns – Max and Rae’s relationship problems, Andy’s laid-back, minor technical problems, and now (and I think it’s in character) Fab being more of a source of problems for his friends than having them himself.
I like the ancestral geek thing, although I did wonder if there was a smattering of’ this is how it will all end’. I also liked the Tardis like dimensions of the flat which seemed to be really big for a council flat.
Mindy, I noticed the Tardis dimensions of the flat too, the really looooong hallway, and the room the dolls were in- most council flats are fairly utilitarian in design, and don’t really have any wasted space.
Like others here I thought the episode was an attempt to subvert the crazy old lady stereotype that didn’t quite come off. I enjoyed the other characters exposing Toby’s classism. The way he is ridiculously privileged and equally ridiculously unaware of it, cracks me up. The whole tertiary collection thing had me in stitches.