kimaracretak (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kimaracretak) wrote2021-02-28 10:07 pm
kimaracretak) wrote2021-02-28 10:07 pm
Entry tags:
requiem (2018)
I watched Requiem because I was in the mood for low-brain low-investment pretty horror. I did not particularly care for quality of anything beyond 'Sian Reese-Williams having feelings' and 'lingering shots of the gloomy Welsh countryside'. I had very low expectations, which were met and in some cases exceeded - this was exactly what I wanted to watch this week - but gods does the very central key of this show bug me.
Requiem is the six-part story of accomplished cellist Matilda Gray travelling to (fictional) Penllynith, because she's looking for answers after her mother kills herself in front of her eyes, and also someone is desperate for us to know who in the cast has Welsh by making them all say 'Penllynith' once an episode. It's a story about identity, and not-so-haunted houses, and less about the ways in which a landscape holds onto its people than it had told me it would be. It's sort of maybe a story about what happens to you when a parent dies and you realise they've been keeping secrets, but that thread is only occasionally picked up and it's a bit dull when it is there - self-discovery and self-creation set against the broader backdrop of history is more successful than specific parenting stories. It's a story with which Kris Mrksa has achieved the impossible: he has created a show that made me say 'D'you know what? The non-supernatural AU is better.'
I decided to watch this fully aware thatsnickfic was saying "I enjoyed it while watching but I don't recommend it", and I hit play on episode 1 thinking "I am so fucking homesick that I'll probably love this wholeheartedly no matter how bad it is". (Un?)expectedly, I ended up thinking it was both much better and much worse than I had thought it would be.
Most convincing reason we should never have a series 2: Five cult members, four graves. Kendrick is definitely dead. My heart says Sylvia made it out - their leader! the one who knows everything about the angels! indisputably too hot to die! - but my head says it was probably Nick, last one to be seen with possessed!Tilly and bearer of Even More Dull Romance. I do not want my heart proven wrong.
Most underwhelming asshole protagonist with an affinity for the supernatural and deep-seated identity issues: Tilly. I don't even know what to blame this on, she's supposed to be my type and I don't think Lydia Wilson is even particularly badly cast or particularly bad at the part, but she just lost all definition and interest until she really did seem like nothing but an empty body for an angel to jump into, which brings me to:
Most implausible addition to a cult: The angels. Okay, look, it's not even that I am on principle opposed to genuine supernatural horrors. Off the top of my head, Jordskott, Zone Blanche, and Marianne have all done really great supernatural horror additions to their gloomy small-town identity-conflicted heroines. And Welsh mythology is full of stories to draw from! I could even have been convinced by a handwaved vaguely-Celtic changeling story! I need to stress to yous that I came into this with extremely low expectations.
But, like, there's nothing here that needs the supernatural, a fact only emphasised by how the angels come out of nowhere halfway through the show, and the way that the supernatural is just. Completely not tied to any character's arc until the last twenty minutes of the final episode is so deeply unsatisfying! I just can't get over the fact that someone really looked at Tara Fitzgerald and Pippa Haywood and said 'no, they can't lead a cult on their own, they need angels'. And that even if there was a need for the supernatural, someone really skipped right over the obvious ghosts - the stories about history and identity and the way time slips in these quiet places simultaneously full of too much life and too much death - in favour of angels that didn't even ... feel particularly angel-y, unless you count the fact that the arcangel keeps saying 'here I am', which - okay, look, I'm just going to quote![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
fanchonmoreau here, because she knows the bible and I don't:
(This comes from the endnotes to her Chilling Adventures of Sabrina fic, which is Zelda/Lilith + Jewish mythology and just astonishingly good)
Follow this to its logical conclusion and the arcangel is here to serve Tilly, to do her work because it is hard and because it believes in her. Maybe Sylvia has even summoned it because sees something in Matilda-Carys - the ability to come home, even if it hurts, reintegration & repairing bonds, which, oh, gives a beautiful extra dimension to Tilly's relationship with Trudy who just wants to leave. How do you return to a home someone stole you from in order to 'rescue' you? How do you love your home and your family and reconcile that with how much more you want - to achieve some of that more without laying waste to what you have? I think of that bit in Kathleen Jamie's Surfacing, where she's talking to the cafe owner on Westray: "It can't go on like this," the lady says, gesturing to the phones and TVs and strip lights and ferries, and yet, when Jamie asks if she'd go back to the auld days she's reminiscing about, the woman's no is instant.
And, again, it's not even that I object to that story! That could've been an interesting story! I fucking love that story, if it is ghosts instead of angels, and like I could even be open to being convinced about the angels. But it's not what we get - we get, instead, very boring angels who are just interested in jumping into human bodies to checks notes eat sheep and stab the people who made their journey into this world possible. The first is understandable, if not my bag, the second just seems counterproductive if you ask me.
Most excellent abstract ship: Following from above, Tilly/Death, which didn't fully occur to me until after I'd finished the show and looked up the 'here I am' reference that had been itching at the back of my head, but, like: death and the maiden except death raises the girl and later possesses/marries/takes over the world with her? A++ dynamic would watch three more seasons of. Tilly/weird conceptions of an eldritch divine, Tilly/being an instrument of murder, possessed-and/or-eldritch-divine!Tilly/prophet!Sylvia, there is a really good show here two steps of the left of the show I watched godsdamnit.
Most unnecessary character: Hal. Largely there to remind us that Tilly's being a bit of an arsehole and that Trudy is very definitely straight, we'd lose absolutely nothing by losing him. Well, we'd lose that bit in episode 5 where he's like 'I care about you and not just your fame' and Tilly's like 'Hm that sounds like a personal problem', but honestly Trudy turning down Ed's proposal serves the same purpose. Toss the lad and give Graves more to do, which, speaking of:
Most underexplored relationship: Trudy/Graves. I love Sian Reese-Williams, and Craith has proved she's more than capable of carrying her own show, but I was only vaguely aware of Calbraith as someone who popped up for bit/supporting parts in anything from Corrie to Vera. But Graves is possibly my favourite of the whole ensemble, a perfect mix of skeptical and trusting and badass, and there's so much unspoken between them that I really, really want to see more of.
Most oddly placed Welsh: Blaidd Carreg, episode 4's titular stone wolf. Carreg-y-Blaidd is a real place in Cerrigydrudion, Denbighshire, though I don't think there's meant to be any real connection between the two. It's just ... a cave? A thin space in the world for the thin ones find temporary mortal homes? Did I miss the wolf motif cropping up elsewhere?charlottenewtons thought that we were supposed to read Hal (and possibly Sean?) as a werewolf or werewolf-adjacent and though I didn't get that vibe it would at least be some kind of connection. I wanted more Welsh in general - how else am I supposed to practise? - and Trudy and Ed shittalking the English ones in the pub was fun, but this gave me more questions than anything.
Most (in)appropriately amusing exchange:
Nick: *Panics over the cult ritual*
Sylvia: Oh, for heaven's sake. Why don't you make yourself useful and put the kettle on.
(I really loved Sylvia, y'all. She's right and she should say it.)
ANYWAY. I don't think I actually rec this, but also, I want everyone to watch it and yell about it with me.
Requiem is the six-part story of accomplished cellist Matilda Gray travelling to (fictional) Penllynith, because she's looking for answers after her mother kills herself in front of her eyes, and also someone is desperate for us to know who in the cast has Welsh by making them all say 'Penllynith' once an episode. It's a story about identity, and not-so-haunted houses, and less about the ways in which a landscape holds onto its people than it had told me it would be. It's sort of maybe a story about what happens to you when a parent dies and you realise they've been keeping secrets, but that thread is only occasionally picked up and it's a bit dull when it is there - self-discovery and self-creation set against the broader backdrop of history is more successful than specific parenting stories. It's a story with which Kris Mrksa has achieved the impossible: he has created a show that made me say 'D'you know what? The non-supernatural AU is better.'
I decided to watch this fully aware that
snickfic was saying "I enjoyed it while watching but I don't recommend it", and I hit play on episode 1 thinking "I am so fucking homesick that I'll probably love this wholeheartedly no matter how bad it is". (Un?)expectedly, I ended up thinking it was both much better and much worse than I had thought it would be.Most convincing reason we should never have a series 2: Five cult members, four graves. Kendrick is definitely dead. My heart says Sylvia made it out - their leader! the one who knows everything about the angels! indisputably too hot to die! - but my head says it was probably Nick, last one to be seen with possessed!Tilly and bearer of Even More Dull Romance. I do not want my heart proven wrong.
Most underwhelming asshole protagonist with an affinity for the supernatural and deep-seated identity issues: Tilly. I don't even know what to blame this on, she's supposed to be my type and I don't think Lydia Wilson is even particularly badly cast or particularly bad at the part, but she just lost all definition and interest until she really did seem like nothing but an empty body for an angel to jump into, which brings me to:
Most implausible addition to a cult: The angels. Okay, look, it's not even that I am on principle opposed to genuine supernatural horrors. Off the top of my head, Jordskott, Zone Blanche, and Marianne have all done really great supernatural horror additions to their gloomy small-town identity-conflicted heroines. And Welsh mythology is full of stories to draw from! I could even have been convinced by a handwaved vaguely-Celtic changeling story! I need to stress to yous that I came into this with extremely low expectations.
But, like, there's nothing here that needs the supernatural, a fact only emphasised by how the angels come out of nowhere halfway through the show, and the way that the supernatural is just. Completely not tied to any character's arc until the last twenty minutes of the final episode is so deeply unsatisfying! I just can't get over the fact that someone really looked at Tara Fitzgerald and Pippa Haywood and said 'no, they can't lead a cult on their own, they need angels'. And that even if there was a need for the supernatural, someone really skipped right over the obvious ghosts - the stories about history and identity and the way time slips in these quiet places simultaneously full of too much life and too much death - in favour of angels that didn't even ... feel particularly angel-y, unless you count the fact that the arcangel keeps saying 'here I am', which - okay, look, I'm just going to quote
In Hebrew, "Hineni" translates to "Here I am", but it's not quite that simple. Hineni is what Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses all say to God when God calls them. To say Hineni means that you are ready and willing to do the work before you, even though it is hard. Perhaps because it is hard. And because of this, it is a great affirmation of presence and faith.
(This comes from the endnotes to her Chilling Adventures of Sabrina fic, which is Zelda/Lilith + Jewish mythology and just astonishingly good)
Follow this to its logical conclusion and the arcangel is here to serve Tilly, to do her work because it is hard and because it believes in her. Maybe Sylvia has even summoned it because sees something in Matilda-Carys - the ability to come home, even if it hurts, reintegration & repairing bonds, which, oh, gives a beautiful extra dimension to Tilly's relationship with Trudy who just wants to leave. How do you return to a home someone stole you from in order to 'rescue' you? How do you love your home and your family and reconcile that with how much more you want - to achieve some of that more without laying waste to what you have? I think of that bit in Kathleen Jamie's Surfacing, where she's talking to the cafe owner on Westray: "It can't go on like this," the lady says, gesturing to the phones and TVs and strip lights and ferries, and yet, when Jamie asks if she'd go back to the auld days she's reminiscing about, the woman's no is instant.
And, again, it's not even that I object to that story! That could've been an interesting story! I fucking love that story, if it is ghosts instead of angels, and like I could even be open to being convinced about the angels. But it's not what we get - we get, instead, very boring angels who are just interested in jumping into human bodies to checks notes eat sheep and stab the people who made their journey into this world possible. The first is understandable, if not my bag, the second just seems counterproductive if you ask me.
Most excellent abstract ship: Following from above, Tilly/Death, which didn't fully occur to me until after I'd finished the show and looked up the 'here I am' reference that had been itching at the back of my head, but, like: death and the maiden except death raises the girl and later possesses/marries/takes over the world with her? A++ dynamic would watch three more seasons of. Tilly/weird conceptions of an eldritch divine, Tilly/being an instrument of murder, possessed-and/or-eldritch-divine!Tilly/prophet!Sylvia, there is a really good show here two steps of the left of the show I watched godsdamnit.
Most unnecessary character: Hal. Largely there to remind us that Tilly's being a bit of an arsehole and that Trudy is very definitely straight, we'd lose absolutely nothing by losing him. Well, we'd lose that bit in episode 5 where he's like 'I care about you and not just your fame' and Tilly's like 'Hm that sounds like a personal problem', but honestly Trudy turning down Ed's proposal serves the same purpose. Toss the lad and give Graves more to do, which, speaking of:
Most underexplored relationship: Trudy/Graves. I love Sian Reese-Williams, and Craith has proved she's more than capable of carrying her own show, but I was only vaguely aware of Calbraith as someone who popped up for bit/supporting parts in anything from Corrie to Vera. But Graves is possibly my favourite of the whole ensemble, a perfect mix of skeptical and trusting and badass, and there's so much unspoken between them that I really, really want to see more of.
Most oddly placed Welsh: Blaidd Carreg, episode 4's titular stone wolf. Carreg-y-Blaidd is a real place in Cerrigydrudion, Denbighshire, though I don't think there's meant to be any real connection between the two. It's just ... a cave? A thin space in the world for the thin ones find temporary mortal homes? Did I miss the wolf motif cropping up elsewhere?
charlottenewtons thought that we were supposed to read Hal (and possibly Sean?) as a werewolf or werewolf-adjacent and though I didn't get that vibe it would at least be some kind of connection. I wanted more Welsh in general - how else am I supposed to practise? - and Trudy and Ed shittalking the English ones in the pub was fun, but this gave me more questions than anything.Most (in)appropriately amusing exchange:
Nick: *Panics over the cult ritual*
Sylvia: Oh, for heaven's sake. Why don't you make yourself useful and put the kettle on.
(I really loved Sylvia, y'all. She's right and she should say it.)
ANYWAY. I don't think I actually rec this, but also, I want everyone to watch it and yell about it with me.
no subject
the way that the supernatural is just. Completely not tied to any character's arc until the last twenty minutes of the final episode is so deeply unsatisfying!
So unsatisfying!! What was their purpose at all? They said nothing interesting about ANYONE.
I'm curious now which parts you liked BETTER than you expected, since this review is mostly about which parts you disliked. (Extremely valid).
no subject
Gods, yeah, it did end up a bit dire, didn't it haha. I think probably because the things that exceeded expectations were a bit more vague - the sense of place, the sense of better stories right there and yet underexplored, so it's hard to try to articulate them without pointing out where the show as-is failed.
I think one of them is Tilly - I actually went back and forth on her a lot, and I think I definitely liked her more than you, and with a little more distance from the show I think I might've come down on her a bit hard here. There's something really interesting about picking the person who's most self-centred to act as the vessel for a creature who's been summoned to serve, and if there'd been a series 2 it might've been the catalyst for a complicated sort of growth. She's imperfectly expanded her circle of care to include her brother (and possibly Trudy? and definitely hurt a lot of people along that way) and possessed by something that is more interested in murder than anything else despite the cult's hopes - idk, I like thinking about it! No guarantee it would've gone well in a series 2 of course, but maybe that's the part of her that wasn't clicking, the part where she gets up to the moment of change and then just stops, it's deeply unsatisfying.
(Also, on a shallow note, all the potential terrible manipulative mentorship for Sylvia/Tilly. They're very pretty and very terrible and I love it.)
I also wasn't expecting such a - genuine friendship among the cult members? Up until the end when the angel's crossed over and Sylvia starts thinking about who's committed enough, they're very invested in caring for each other. Of course, looking too hard at that also raises questions about why they felt the need to summon angels to Fix Things, which brings me back to why the fuck are there angels, Kris, which...
Graves was also a brilliant surprise - she's a lot more competent than a lot of the 'village copper who gets the supernatural thrown at her' types, but it's not paired with the sort of ambition/desire to Get Away that that kind of competence sometimes demands, and she was a lot of fun to watch.
It's a weird little show! Part of me wonders if six was a bad number of episodes - cut the supernatural and give it four, or commit to something supernatural and give it eight, and either way I think it comes out stronger. Most of my low-brain low-commitment horror doesn't leave me with such a 'oh man WHAT IF' feeling haha.
no subject
Part of me wonders if six was a bad number of episodes - cut the supernatural and give it four, or commit to something supernatural and give it eight, and either way I think it comes out stronger.
Huh, I hadn't thought of it that way, but I think you might be onto something. What a weird mix of elements! Why!!