Perpetually late and that’s okay. Next week, I swear! We’ll get this stuff back on track. At least before the end of the year, right? It’s fine.
Anyways, on account of… stuff… I did not finish 9-1-1 this week, and instead had to take a brief and quick detour once again into the world of Carmilla, which I’m not necessarily complaining about. I mean, c’mon, it’s Carmilla.
Nevertheless, that means we’re on Catch-Up so let’s get into this, shall we?
SPOILERS
(But you knew that)
9-1-1
Okay so, I mean, it’s been like two weeks nearly, so while I have had to detour I did, in fact, watch some since last we spoke before then. Specifically, I made it all the way to the Season 6 finale! I know. Well done me. I have not yet watched that finale, but I am there.
With that said, that does mean we crossed the insurmountable bridge that is Season 5, and, ya know what, quite honestly, I may be bias and miss her greatly but the season itself is not half bad.
Maddie’s arc, as absent as she is, is very well constructed and “Boston” was just as fantastic as I remember it. Though, I think I had pleasantly forgotten they break up, but it feels as though it’s resolved pretty quickly so it is what it is.
Though, ya know, what I did catch this time, through my very literal tears, watching the infamous “Boston”? Maddie’s haircut. Now, look, I’m not saying I didn’t notice she got a haircut the last time I watched this. The few of you who know me personally will know I am very perceptive of these things. Further, I am not unaware that such changes are considered a warning sign of the emotional state Maddie is going through at the time of said haircut. Not to mention the obvious real world situation of Jennifer Love Hewitt.
All that said, however, just consider, Maddie gets out of the ocean, at some point takes out like half her life savings in cash, and then gets in her car and travels from LA to Boston, we presume within like a few days. I don’t know, I don’t live in the US, what’s that distance? The point is, in between what I can only imagine was an incredibly emotional haze of events she got a haircut. While travelling from Point A to Point B she stopped to trim her hair.
Ya know, maybe it was a very Season 6 Buffy decision and she cut it herself, which is to say it is just another well timed IRL event that reflected well on the plot and Maddie’s headspace. Or the less appeasing version that she made the very conscious decision to cut it so as to be less recognisable, which we get not wanting to be found in the current headspace, that would be her reason for running. That, however, then implies not wanting to be found by our favourite chaotic and lovable paramedic, and that hurts your soul (even if it is true).
The point is, this particular moment for the new do catches you if your first thought is that she walked into a salon. Largely, because what? Self-care day right before she committed herself? Though, as I say that even that is not unreasonable. However, if you give it an ounce more thought – or contrastingly no thought at all therefore circumventing this entire ramble – the logical conclusion is she cut it herself, again, likely because she was about to commit herself. She is feeling worse than she ever has before – and, wow, has she been through a lot. This is not a professional trim. That is tears and a pair of kitchen scissors in front of a bathroom mirror haircut. It is, as posited, Buffy Season 6. In which case, this ramble brings us to my concluding point: Maddie, I want to give you a hug.
All this, an overthought into a cosmetic decision or happenstance, I am sure.
So, moving on.
We then make it on to Season 6, don’t we? That season certainly is something. It may be about a week since I watched it, but even with having watched it so recently I can’t say I remember half of what occurred, which was true before I watched it again as well. Maddie and Chimney bought a house, though! And got engaged, didn’t they? Good for them. Isn’t May at Uni now? Oh! And that case from Athena’s past, and the narrative shows us how unwilling they were to commit to Hen getting a new job. Inevitable really.
In short? Funsies.
I will, I hope, watch the rest of it in the next few days. Season 6 finale, Season 7 once more and, of course, the anticipated Season 8. Then we all sit and wait for March, don’t we? I’ll be normal about it.
I promise nothing.
Carmilla!
My dear, my love, my favourite gays.
Look in many ways you are going to have to claw this little webseries out of my cold dead hands, and if I get my wish that would be made infinitely harder by my sudden taste for blood. Okay? I will be watching this until I die and then after.
I promise nothing, but I make wild and grand claims to this maybe, probably, hopefully, being a promise.
I had to write about Carmilla for something unrelated, and as such a hasty but attentive rewatch (and reread) became a necessity. So, I paused my venture into 9-1-1, pulled up YouTube, cracked my lovely deluxe edition hardback, and consumed both at a rapid pace I knew to be possible and yet was still impressed with.
Poor planning is just a part of my nature. Like my aversion to sunlight.
That said, while I knew it to be the case I don’t think I had ever watched Carmilla through the lens of it being an adaptation before. I noticed quite a few things I never had before, and had equal (or greater) to the amounts of enjoyment I always do.
From my Cold Dead Hands.
This show is remarkably clever. I think, because of its streaming location and budget your expectations for it aren’t as high as other shows of its kind. It’s a webseries, ya know, it’s not on like BBC or whatever. This, coming from someone who adores it with every cell of my being.
I think I try to convince people to watch it a few times a year, and when you tell them it’s on YouTube there’s always a noticeable readjustment of their expectations, and I think that’s a mistake. It’s not so much a hard sell, depending on their interests, but it does have a sort of specific area in its gay and vampiric nature that can make it a hard sell depending on the person. And even the gothic loving gays can have doubts when you direct them to YouTube.
Still, a mistake, I think. It lives up to high expectation, in my personal opinion. Sure, the first season has a few budgeting and technical issues, some chunky dialogue, and some mannerisms that take a minute to find their footing but stay with it, because for what they had they blow your damn socks off. When I say remarkably clever I truly mean it. Everything from plot to character to the set dressing from all outside perspectives and a deep and loving analysis seems to have far more thought put into it than you may have expected.
I find something new I hadn’t noticed each time I watch it, and believe me I must be breaching 20-30 watches by now if I haven’t already exceeded that. We are on watch four of this year alone, and I have been watching this show for a while.
Then, to compare it to its inspiration? The through threads of how they got from that to this are noticeable when you look into it. I don’t know why I never had before. The characterisations, though 150-years apart, are consistent and fantastic. The use of half the novella as Carmilla’s backstory makes perfect sense. The transition of vague authority to Dean of Students for Carmilla’s mother is kind of a perfect through line and in both stories she really is some ominous figure of control even when hardly seen. Matska Belmonde coming from the single mention of a name and the implication she didn’t get out of the carriage in the crash actually makes perfect sense, if you think about it. She really gives “would not step foot in the countryside even in a crash” vibes and you cannot argue with me on that. From Governesses to floordon’s and givers of advice seems appropriate. Laura’s curiosity and 1st person POV narration giving us the vlogging journalism major is a brilliant idea.
This doesn’t even account for the plot, because look, Carmilla getting her redemption in the webseries is probably in part the result of the vampires of the time who came before her. Ya know, think Angel, Spike, hell, even Edward Cullen and the likes of early 2000’s CW shows. Wow, that’s a lot of men, isn’t it? The point is Carmilla makes it glaringly obvious they’re quite aware of the vampiric genre, history and lore they’re building upon and following. They make numerous references to Twilight, Dracula and the like. They know the space they’re working in, and do you know what’s popular in that space? The morally grey, redeemable vampire. I also like to think it’s the result of a contemporary reading of the original novella, because while the novella has no reason to garner sympathy for Carmilla – it’s going to brutally murder her anyways – she is nevertheless sort of a queer icon, and Carmilla in 2014 has every reason to look at that and decide its not going to bury its gays. Every reason to reclaim that character, and give her a story that doesn’t end in her decapitation. Which it does, infamously.
So, the plot is adjusted, isn’t it? Actually, it just sort of expands on ideas the novella introduced but never delved into. Ya know, Carm’s mother, Matska and etc, they’re all there in the original novella. It’s clear there’s something else going on but the ‘saviour men’ of the narrative have no inclination to, or desire to, follow up on that (or are just plain stupid). Vordenburg literally declares Styria free of the vampiric scourge after killing Carmilla. He killed ONE Vampire! ONE! Sure, it was the only one he personally knew of to have survived the last Vordenburg slaughter, because his ancestors are just as mildly creepy here – arguably creepier in the webseries – but like what? He has no follow up questions? He’s too busy exposition-ing and bragging for it to occur to him that just maybe Carmilla hasn’t been working alone for a century? Really? And look, I know Laura’s dad’s a little dense the entire novel, Sir “I had quite forgotten to tell you about this dead girl”, but it doesn’t occur to him either? Carmilla was dropped on his door step by a woman who couldn’t have fled the scene faster and left him with the only instruction that she must not be quizzed about her history and he doesn’t have a single inclination as to a grander plan? He is so thick, seriously. Papa Hollis was an improvement in every facet of his being.
I think I got distracted. Yes, so, the novella implies there’s something larger going on, and the webseries clearly took that and ran with it. They did an excellent job, honestly. Sure, by the third season the only things evidently inspired are a quote or two and we’ve really left the novella in the dust, more original plot than anything. I don’t think the novella was ever implying the mother to be a Sumerian goddess, or a monster worshipping immortal for that matter, but ya know… She is always running off to somewhere apparently so, who knows, maybe she was off to some angler fish ritual murder. We’ll never know. If only because the exact methods with which to talk to the dead have not yet been invented.
That said, the monster worshipping ritual murders is not an inaccurate interpretation of the plot we’re given. Like we get the dreams, and charms, and vampires obviously. It’s there. Not to mention giant black cats, and the Mother’s obvious control over Carmilla. Like that is true throughout both, arguably she is as much a lure and tool of the mother in the novella as she is in the webseries, but the novella has no reason to explore that while the webseries takes it for what it is and gives us a wonderful story of redemption, freedom and reclamation. More on that to come in a future post.
Not to mention the core of both stories is, of course, Laura, Carmilla, and the relationship they share. In both stories we follow these two girls, filtered through Laura’s eyes, and watch as they gradually, and inevitably, fall for each other. Sure, there’s a lot more mutual respect, acceptance and consideration for consent in 2014, making it, of course, much healthier, but nevertheless there is a love between these two women at the core of both stories and that… well, that’s just beautiful irregardless of the century.
Now. What was I saying? I’m not entirely sure what point I had when I started this if any, but heyho, we’re here now. I think, my point, is watch Carmilla. For funsies, for exploration, or just because you can. It has far more to offer than you would first expect of a series such as itself, and has given far more thought to many, if not all, its aspects than is first obvious. It is a pop culture referencing, thought causing, loving adaptation of a truly brilliant novella that deserved far more credit for its vampiric status as gothic horror than it ever got. This show is a love letter to the gay ass vampire, and her nerdy ass lover and it adores everything about its genre and themes as much as its supposed or intended audience does. It might be on YouTube but it is one hell of a tale, and it deserves your undivided attention.
So, in conclusion, I love Carmilla and even with cold dead hands I will not be giving it up. I will watch it into death, and love it to death and in death. No such thing is a lack of breath shall keep me from it. Dramatic? Perhaps a tad.
Anyways!
To Conclude
This was not an even split of adoration but do you know what it is? Posted before the end of the weekend. Yes, I know it’s still a week behind. To that effect, I will see you next weekend, perhaps with something on the festive side.
Further to a point, with the festive season comes a brief interlude of escapism and hence I have a few plans to finally post to some of the other headers, including those that have been newly introduced. I hope for the time, energy and initiative to do so, and hopefully festive cheer will bring us that. So, keep an eye out for those.
In the mean time, all the usual thank you’s for those of you reading my little fortnightly rambles, and I will see you soon.
Feel free to leave a comment or send me a DM on socials.
You can follow me on Instagram at: @thebomff or on Threads at: @thebomff
On to the next!
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