One of my favorite parts of the Internet is being killed off:
DailyCandy and Television Without Pity, two high-profile Internet content properties owned by NBCUniversal, are being shuttered, a move that management told staff this morning would be occurring next week.
Local recommendations site DailyCandy had been purchased by the Comcast media unit in 2008 for $125 million from the New York-based Pilot Group. The sassy TWoP TV review and recap site — its motto is “Spare the snark, spoil the networks” — was purchased by NBCU’s Bravo cable unit in 2007. Both were founded in the Web 1.0 era.
Attempts to sell the properties were made, but apparently were unsuccessful.
You all know it because of the Galactica recaps, because while I might try to talk about that show Jacob ripped it open and found God inside it.
Whatever face the messenger wears, and I don’t honestly think it matters, the message can’t come clear, through all this dirt and fear and pain. Until you burn off what doesn’t work, between stars and between your lovers and your lies, until you lay down the burdens of hate that keep you tied to the pain of your childhood, unable to see your way clear, you can’t hear the message properly. Until the rain washes you clean again. You’ll never hear it right, until you watch it unfolding and realize it couldn’t have been any other way. I don’t know if the Cylons can see time this way, but I know the Hybrid can, which is why nothing surprises her, or Leoben. But it’s also the way Kara can write her own destiny, and have it written for her: this is just a story she’s been telling herself, all along. It’s the only way we can live. If we knew what was going to happen — if we knew the pain and fear and ugliness that’s part of our fate, if we forgot that it keeps the world turning — who knows what we’d do differently? That’s why the Oracle only has one eye, because this is not part of the physics: God and time work together to tell you this story, as many times as it takes, until you start paying attention. If it doesn’t hurt, if it doesn’t feel like death, you’re just pretending to change. Burn sage and sweetgrass and get a haircut and move to another city, go on a diet and swear off men for six months, a year, the rest of your life: that’s cosmetic. Nothing really changes until you close your eyes and jump. That’s half the confusion right there. Take a drop of water, or mercury, and divide it: whatever face the messenger wears, the message stays the same. Socrata, the Lords of Kobol, the Oracle, Leoben, the Hybrid. The message stays the same, it’s just that we keep hearing it wrong. Over and over again, until we get it right.
I have a little plastic box with file cards in it and I write down things that stick with me, put them on index cards and put them in the box. There’s an entire SECTION of things that I re-read when I need to, things like bits of books and quotes from movies, and in there there’s a whole handful of Galactica reminders:
“This is how change works, all change: it feels like dying because it is.”
“The question is, ‘When Will the Work Be Done?’ And the only answer is: Never. You don’t get to lay down your burdens, the rough spots are all you ever had.”
There’s a Facebook group for people archiving the recaps Jacob wrote for this and other shows. I’m copying some of them myself; go and help out if you can.
A.
In addition to Jacob genius, I have ancient fond memories of the Buffy and L Word forums. I think I got banned twice from the Buffy forum. It was a fractious bunch.
I didn’t watch the show, so didn’t read these recaps, but the piece quoted here is typically perfect Jacob:
http://www.levityandwit.com/on-television-without-pity
I only found TWOP a few months ago (for “The Blacklist” recaps), and now it’s gone.
This is why we can’t keep nice things.
My fave scene deconstruction from Jacob:
(It helps if you saw Monday’s “Blacklist”)
Abby: “Hello? You are not my friend Jackie!”
Ivan: “No! I was just playing a creepy, scary game.”
Abby: “That’s so weird! I was just texting with her.”
Ivan: “No, that was me. I have control over your entire life of being a millennial. I have your Twitter, your text messages, all of your social networking is under my control because of this magical iPad.”
Abby: “To what end, sir?”
Ivan: “So we will fall in love! I am obsessed with you, and all teenage boys know that the key to a woman’s heart is through memorizing trivia about her life. Like I know all about your mp3 collection, doesn’t that turn you on?”
Abby: “I am going to go back home if that’s okay.”