New Fiction 2020 – November

EarthBound dev. Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory (1995)

It’s still rattling around in my brain. That’s a good sign. The music, the strange encounters and people. I loved it all, but it has the vibe of a polarizing work. It veers way off the path laid out by its JRPG predecessors. I can understand why it gained such a small and devoted following. But it wasn’t perfect. Battles are a far smoother experience here than in so many contemporaries, including the blessed removal of random battles, but they are still a tedious part of the process. Enemies late in the game can kill a party member with a single attack and can require particular tricks or items to defeat. But it’s all worth the journey.

Pee Wee’s Big Adventure dir. Tim Burton (1985)

This is a good inclusion alongside a few of the others this month. It’s a strange and surreal journey through America, the sprawling nature and open spaces. The weirdness of meeting strangers in life. This movie also has a similar meta-commentary on the nature of its medium. Movies about movies, games about games. Surreal comedies are a good way to explore those aspects.

Smooth Talk dir. Joyce Chopra (1985)

On the other hand, a story like this. A coming-of-age movie set in a small place that turns into something else, something more sinister. By comparison to the other stories this month, this one is claustrophobic, rife with frustration over the limitation of being here and not there. The events unfold that way but I suppose it’s about confronting the seriousness of growing up, of entering a world of adults who know more. The movie extends a bit beyond the ending of the original story by Joyce Carol Oates, and that changes the final feeling of it.

The Muppet Movie dir. James Frawley (1979)

Pee Wee’s Big Adventure almost feels modeled on this. It’s a hoot. It’s especially interesting to see all the cameos from renowned comedians and actors. And I just have an appreciation for road movies. I think there’s something in moving that’s compelling. Moving here and there, the encounters along the way.

Police Story dir. Jackie Chan (1985)

A Jackie Chan classic but small-scale relative to some of his other hits (especially contemporary works like Armour of God). Still, this is “pure Chan excitement” at its core, full of the same insane stunts and a middle act that turns the whole thing into slapstick comedy before the big stunt set piece at the end.

The Simpsons – “Treehouse of Horror XXXI” (2020)

I was excited to see that the writer for this episode is a comedian and longtime co-host of a Simpsons podcast to which I subscribed for a while. The segments were a bit forgettable (I needed to check out the details again), but the introductory segment about the election (like the election itself) likely subsumed the rest.

Bob’s Burgers – “Heartbreak Hotel-oween” (2020)

I wanna hang out in haunted hotels. Really, old hotels are getting harder to find. The creaky ones that couldn’t stay in business before a pandemic and now have little chance of surviving. The trope is well-worn I suppose, but the writers of this episode did a great job with it. Halloween episodes of Bob’s Burgers are always good.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Seasons 6-7 (2019-2020)

The second half of this show figured itself out in style. Instead of trying to drag a single conceit across a whole twenty-some episode season, they designed the season as a series of shorter arcs, and this kept things fresh. The final two seasons were shorter overall and didn’t have a chance to do that, and I think season 6 at least suffered for it. But then their final season wises up to the idea that this is indeed the end, and so it becomes a fan service-filled extravaganza across time and space. It’s an interesting and fun release in a year when Marvel properties were otherwise absent as Disney held everything back until the pandemic is over.