HUGE-ISODE, The Sequel
So Marianne has started watching Huge, and so now she has thoughts about it, as do I. In this episode, we discuss tennis douchebags, mean girls, Alistair’s yet-to-be-determined sexual orientation, and The Horror of the Vanishing Muffin, all in the context of body politics and social justice. Oh, and if you haven’t seen Dead Poets’ Society and plan to watch it in the near future, you might want to skip this one because Marianne basically spoils the whole movie.
The music heard in this episode is by Revolution Void.
July 16th, 2010 at 2:03 am
Wow guys, I heard that Shay/Dr. Gina “Lorraine” conversation completely differently; I’m pretty sure Dr. Gina says “Too bad we can’t invite her,” which still kind of implies that something went down which now has her barred from the camp (unless she’s like … no longer alive, or in another country, or something), but yeah, I don’t hear “can’t find her” at all.
July 16th, 2010 at 8:44 am
Ha, Scott, that certainly makes a lot more sense than how we heard it!
July 16th, 2010 at 9:33 am
Hah! I can’t believe you have a spoiler warning for Dead Poet’s Society!
July 16th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
The last two podcasts, which I get via an itunes subscription, have been cutting out at various points in the show and just…oh my, it’s late, and I live in a foreign country and have not spoken English all day except with my toddler, which doesn’t count…they just…turn off. I fast forward to a few minutes after the problem area, and can listen again, but then it cuts off again maybe 10-15 minutes later.
This doesn’t happen with anything else I listen to, so I am hoping it is the files and not the ipod itself. Anyone else have this problem? Please reassure me that my ipod is not on the fritz. This foreign country that is sucking away my ability to communicate my bloody native language is one where a new ipod is like a month’s salary.
July 16th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
@CTJen: It is with a red face that I admit never having seen Dead Poet’s Society. I listened anyway because I’m aching for intelligent Huge discourse. I guess this is my turn to be on the “Darth Vader is WHO?” side of the conversation.
@Sarah: I download the MP3s directly from the blog, and don’t use iTunes, so I can’t verify whether they serve the same files, but I can say I’ve never encountered this issue, beyond the odd word lost into the Internet-ether as is standard in any online communication.
A couple of things I’d suggest are checking if the problem is reproducible in the same places: i.e. seek to a previous “turned off” area and verify the issue remains–if it doesn’t, this is almost certainly a playback issue rather than an issue with the original file; secondly, I’d play back the file on another device (anything at all, really: a computer, cell phone, another iPod, etc.) and see if you get the same problem there. Once again this should help to confirm where the failing point is.
If it does turn out to be the iPod that’s the problem, it’s by no means a certainty that you’ll need to replace it; I believe iTunes has a button somewhere to initialise the device (this means delete everything, so make sure you have anything you need stored elsewhere), and if not I think the iPod can even initialise itself–but it’s years since I used an iPod and don’t want to state either of those with 100% certainty. If you have a file system issue which is causing this, initialising and re-copying may help to repair it. Besides that, do you know what model/generation of iPod it is, e.g. “20GB Classic 4G (fourth generation)”. There may be hardware or software peculiar to your specific device which is relevant to the issue.
Sorry for all the nerd-talk.
July 17th, 2010 at 12:05 am
I might be off base on Will’s reaction to the tennis jerks, but it made me wonder if there’s some type of sexual abuse history between those two characters. Did y’all think it was fat bullying alone?
Just wondering.
July 17th, 2010 at 7:16 am
Please, please, please keep the HUGE-casts (and any other podcasts) coming. I, too, am cautiously optimistic about this show and love that there are people who love to watch it and disect it as much as I do.
On a separate note, I have missed Marianne’s signature “whoo” at the end of the last two podcasts. I hope it returns soon!
July 17th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Isn’t it only a matter of time til we start seeing Huge fan fiction? I love how we all have this impulse to spin out back-stories and offstage stories and project their relationships into the future! I think that’s a sign of how real and engaging the characters are.
July 18th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
@Scott…Thanks so much for the nerd-talk! Will try all of this. I also forgot to add that very recently a line of dead pixels mysteriously appeared on the screen. I hate to point fingers here, but whatever info I may find via your testing suggestions, I suspect all roads will bring me back to my unspoken fear/hypothesis that my kid probably dropped it from a high place onto some kind of a tile or concrete surface when I wasn’t around (as has been the case with most things in our house of any monetary value).
July 18th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
jackie – i was thinking that maybe they had dated or whatever it is kids do (in like, sixth grade maybe?), and then mr. douchey realized it was uncool to date a fat chick and then made her life miserable.
July 18th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Yeah, Team Becca! And now I will have to catch up on other Fatcasts, because this one was totally awesome. Seriously, this is the only podcast I’ve ever been able to listen to all the way through. YAY!
July 19th, 2010 at 1:57 am
I just watched this episode on hulu and there was no muffin scene! Perhaps this was in episode 2 (which I didn’t watch and is no longer up)? I feel cheated!
@ Sarah, this used to happen to me fairly regularly with podcasts in general when I was streaming them on my iPhone. I never did figure out why, but if you download them via iTunes before you listen, you shouldn’t have a problem. If you are streaming, I doubt it is your device that is the problem, which is good!
July 19th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Please do keep the Huge-talk coming! I am loving this show and (like you) am being taken back to all the stuff I went though as a fat teen. Even though I’m in my 30s now and way more confident and don’t have to deal with being bullied, etc., it’s still comforting to see people showing on TV the stuff that was happening to me that no one ever really talked about.
July 20th, 2010 at 2:22 am
@Roxarita — the muffin was in episode 2.
And I think there’s all sorts of interesting family back story for Dr. Gina, too, Marianne.
Although I have to admit I’m wracking my brain a bit to work out what dire thing happened in TV in 1995 to bring about your break up with TV… ;^)
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:00 pm
I LOVE your podcast – super fun and SUPER smart!! I also love HUGE and am glad that you are doing some discussion and analysis. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the last episode.
What did you think of the LARP though? I thought it was filmed similarly to Dead Poet’s Society – all dream like, kind of a third alternative space in between snooty tennis camp and fat camp.
Alistair to me kind of represents this space as well – he’s all into magic and he admired how he looked when Ian held himself in disdain in the same scene (they were sharing a bathroom). I wonder if there isn’t some utopian vision that the writers sometimes point to – a place beyond the politics and bodies of this world…
Peace out. Love you!!!
July 28th, 2010 at 2:08 am
about alistair: as a queer person, i have mixed views on outing. i disagree that no one should EVER call someone gay unless they’ve explicitly identified that way. that just reinforces the notion that straightness is the norm, and that it’s a terrible thing to be called gay if you aren’t (or don’t know if you are). that said, i also don’t think straight people should be blase about outing people publicly, especially if they don’t know with any certainty that the person is queer.
but for queer viewers of a fictional television show, i don’t think it’s a problem to identify alistair as queer (“gay” is more specific, and i don’t think we can know that yet). if the only characters i identified with on tv were those that explicitly called themselves lgbt, i’d be so limited! of course i want to proudly claim people as queer, whether they’re gay or straight or bi or undecided. and i don’t read alistair as queer because his bullies called him/described him as gay – which I agree is dangerous – but because of other traits that the show gives him.
(full disclosure: i also – delightfully – read will, becca, and some of the other characters as queer. even though will is straight, for example, i totally identify with her as a gender misfit. especially in the realm of popular culture, gender roles and sexual identities are represented as so rigid, will is the closet we’re going to get – even/especially on shows about lesbians! – to a butch or tomboy or masculine girl on tv).