Aw man, I know we said this show isn't meant to be interpreted as a straight 1:1 map onto some other story, but I found the beginnings of a R*ddit theory a little too convincing, and now I'm thinking about the show in a whole other way.
_Asher is Jesus, and Whitney is his religion_
- The broken glass in his hands is stigmata
- Asher's last meal is bread and wine
- Dougie is the Judas character, right down the post-betrayal guilt
- Whitney's pregnancy is never explained logistically and portrayed as an immaculate conception
- Whitney says 'You wouldn't do anything good if it wasn't for me'
- Asher has a moment of doubt about Whitney before fully recommitting to her
- Asher is Jewish, and his name can be interpreted as a reference to 'rising from the ashes'
haha once again i need the special edition blu ray to drop asap so i can engage in frame by frame talmudic style analysis of the many resonances and allusions layered into this s**t !!
very late to this but after the ep ended i couldn't stop thinking about the concept of "entering heaven alive", which in the west is mostly used in reference to jesus's ascension into heaven, but in the context of this show that's so cut through with judaism (and because i'm jewish myself) i've been thinking about more as it applies the prophet elijah, who in the old testament is taken up to heaven in a whirlwind and thereafter is expected to return as a harbinger of the messiah. the only way i can think to interpret this is that asher as elijah is returning *immediately* as whitney's baby, but it also makes the whole thing seem more blessed than cursed?
i also read that apparently at the very end of shabbat you're supposed to sing that "eliyahu hanavi" song (that people probably know more from passover) where you ask elijah to return with the messiah, and in the first episode asher and whitney and her parents light the shabbat candles for the *beginning* of shabbat...
Nice, Jonah. This is easily the best summary I've read on the finale. FWIW, I'm Team Doom. And they're both cursed, I think; Asher to obliteration and Whitney to a lifetime with another Asher. Hell, maybe everyone and everything that Asher and Whitney touch is cursed. Even Cara has to suck up a friendly relationship with Whitney for money.
Now, does anyone have any theories for what was up with Dougie waking up in the car and Abshir's eerie visit to the chiro?
I think the woman from the still at the top of the 'sletter is in the final scene where the guy asks "is it for TV?" The scene where she's first shown watching television before breaking the 4th wall and staring directly into the camera was one of the more unsettling moments of the show for me, like I was being made complicit in the voyeurism that's a defining quality of the show (in both its characters and camerawork). Not sure what to make of her inclusion in the final scene. Some sort of restoration of the balance between the watcher and the watched? A reversal of those roles? Anyway, great show worthy of a second viewing.
the neighbors' relative age could have something to do w it - remember when dougie brings up the boy who cried wolf to nala and says it's about a boy who curses a wolf? the plot definitely mirrors boy who cried wolf, with asher doing anything for attention but failing to get it when he truly needed it. perhaps the tiny d energy was so cursed everywhere he went that the universe finally decided to eat him.
back in the pictured scene the woman's already tuning them all out (along with the rest of the village whenever whitney greets them)—but she's still watching tv. insincere pleas for engagement are inescapable. when we're all fed so many images, how do we tell what's real?
I also keep thinking about how Whitney stares into the camera in the last shot that shows her. Then its cuts to 2001 space Asher, but then it cuts back to the hospital, and the camera person or presence that Whitney just looked at has to slowly walk out of the hospital, through the town and back to their house. It feels very important to me that they don't just cut back to the house, the camera has to get there, indicating that it is some actual presence within the show. Other instances in the show where characters look at the camera indicate this, as does the frequent choice of filming scenes from a distance, implying that the camera is hiding the bushes or something. Whitney smiling at the camera in the end gives me this eerie feeling that she is somehow in on it too...
Because the final shot of the show, from the hospital back to the house, is that same weird disembodied camera gaze we’ve seen earlier ... feels connected!!
oh like there's a seemingly subjective camera that follows her around but it's not written into the reality of the show ? probably... there were more and less dramatic cases of this, the one with whitney really sticks out because it goes on so long and follows her all the way from home to the strip mall.. i mighta missed one with Nala... my screener links all expired so I truly need a blu ray to do the kind of close textual rewatch this s**t clearly demands haha
Throughout the series, all of the supposedly charitable acts that Asher and Whitney have directed toward Abshir and his family have been made without any real understanding (or care?) of what they might actually want. They've basically made everything about Abshir's living situation worse by making him accountable to them through a landlord-tenant relationship, and now the state. I loved that he immediately asked about the property taxes. Echoes of the "I'm not a landlord—I'm a housing provider" mantra that has become popular in bourgeoisie circles over the last few years.
Aw man, I know we said this show isn't meant to be interpreted as a straight 1:1 map onto some other story, but I found the beginnings of a R*ddit theory a little too convincing, and now I'm thinking about the show in a whole other way.
_Asher is Jesus, and Whitney is his religion_
- The broken glass in his hands is stigmata
- Asher's last meal is bread and wine
- Dougie is the Judas character, right down the post-betrayal guilt
- Whitney's pregnancy is never explained logistically and portrayed as an immaculate conception
- Whitney says 'You wouldn't do anything good if it wasn't for me'
- Asher has a moment of doubt about Whitney before fully recommitting to her
- Asher is Jewish, and his name can be interpreted as a reference to 'rising from the ashes'
Is this legit or am I grasping here
haha once again i need the special edition blu ray to drop asap so i can engage in frame by frame talmudic style analysis of the many resonances and allusions layered into this s**t !!
increasingly convinced it's one of the greatest shows of all-time, a true five point exploding heart technique experience
it's a top 5 televisual achievement
very late to this but after the ep ended i couldn't stop thinking about the concept of "entering heaven alive", which in the west is mostly used in reference to jesus's ascension into heaven, but in the context of this show that's so cut through with judaism (and because i'm jewish myself) i've been thinking about more as it applies the prophet elijah, who in the old testament is taken up to heaven in a whirlwind and thereafter is expected to return as a harbinger of the messiah. the only way i can think to interpret this is that asher as elijah is returning *immediately* as whitney's baby, but it also makes the whole thing seem more blessed than cursed?
i also read that apparently at the very end of shabbat you're supposed to sing that "eliyahu hanavi" song (that people probably know more from passover) where you ask elijah to return with the messiah, and in the first episode asher and whitney and her parents light the shabbat candles for the *beginning* of shabbat...
this is some compelling s**t !!
Nice, Jonah. This is easily the best summary I've read on the finale. FWIW, I'm Team Doom. And they're both cursed, I think; Asher to obliteration and Whitney to a lifetime with another Asher. Hell, maybe everyone and everything that Asher and Whitney touch is cursed. Even Cara has to suck up a friendly relationship with Whitney for money.
Now, does anyone have any theories for what was up with Dougie waking up in the car and Abshir's eerie visit to the chiro?
I think the woman from the still at the top of the 'sletter is in the final scene where the guy asks "is it for TV?" The scene where she's first shown watching television before breaking the 4th wall and staring directly into the camera was one of the more unsettling moments of the show for me, like I was being made complicit in the voyeurism that's a defining quality of the show (in both its characters and camerawork). Not sure what to make of her inclusion in the final scene. Some sort of restoration of the balance between the watcher and the watched? A reversal of those roles? Anyway, great show worthy of a second viewing.
the neighbors' relative age could have something to do w it - remember when dougie brings up the boy who cried wolf to nala and says it's about a boy who curses a wolf? the plot definitely mirrors boy who cried wolf, with asher doing anything for attention but failing to get it when he truly needed it. perhaps the tiny d energy was so cursed everywhere he went that the universe finally decided to eat him.
back in the pictured scene the woman's already tuning them all out (along with the rest of the village whenever whitney greets them)—but she's still watching tv. insincere pleas for engagement are inescapable. when we're all fed so many images, how do we tell what's real?
Wow, I just checked and it is her!
I also keep thinking about how Whitney stares into the camera in the last shot that shows her. Then its cuts to 2001 space Asher, but then it cuts back to the hospital, and the camera person or presence that Whitney just looked at has to slowly walk out of the hospital, through the town and back to their house. It feels very important to me that they don't just cut back to the house, the camera has to get there, indicating that it is some actual presence within the show. Other instances in the show where characters look at the camera indicate this, as does the frequent choice of filming scenes from a distance, implying that the camera is hiding the bushes or something. Whitney smiling at the camera in the end gives me this eerie feeling that she is somehow in on it too...
IDK what this adds up to, just thinking...
Oh damn I need to do the frame by frame forensic rewatch asap
Because the final shot of the show, from the hospital back to the house, is that same weird disembodied camera gaze we’ve seen earlier ... feels connected!!
Am I making this up or does Nala do the same thing at one point in the earlier episodes?
!
do what same thing ?
The disembodied camera gaze!
oh like there's a seemingly subjective camera that follows her around but it's not written into the reality of the show ? probably... there were more and less dramatic cases of this, the one with whitney really sticks out because it goes on so long and follows her all the way from home to the strip mall.. i mighta missed one with Nala... my screener links all expired so I truly need a blu ray to do the kind of close textual rewatch this s**t clearly demands haha
Throughout the series, all of the supposedly charitable acts that Asher and Whitney have directed toward Abshir and his family have been made without any real understanding (or care?) of what they might actually want. They've basically made everything about Abshir's living situation worse by making him accountable to them through a landlord-tenant relationship, and now the state. I loved that he immediately asked about the property taxes. Echoes of the "I'm not a landlord—I'm a housing provider" mantra that has become popular in bourgeoisie circles over the last few years.