Lockdown notes & impressions from a newb

[Tenn]

Spoilers for all six parts ahead, natch. And that goes across all sections of notes here -- part 1 notes have spoilers for part 6, etc. <br />
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So like I said in my introduction post, I just recently...

[Tenn]

Replying to my own thread because I've been thinking about this more and I don't think I covered it well enough in the OP...

It's really a tragic thing to me, I've realized, what happens to Chuck in particular. Not because I particularly like the dude (I don't) or because I think he's a good/innocent person (he's a homophobic douche), but because of how his role in the narrative stacks next to Jeremy's.

Chuck is iirc the only character specified to have leapt to Jody's defense when Mark attacked her. Jody wasn't actually doing anything wrong, Mark was hurting her and just generally being unreasonable, and Chuck was the one who tried to do something and save her from him. Ill-advised or not, from a character who's convinced of corruption and callousness in the officers ("they don't give a shit about us"), that's essentially a heroic act, even if he's not overall a heroic character.

Contrast that with how Jeremy handles the Mark-attacked-Jody-and-Chuck-attacked-Mark incident: he uses it as a bargaining point in a promise to "police our own," to try and curry favor with the officers by threatening Chuck. I mean, what a scumbag. Granted, Mark doesn't sound too invested in that promise (and even Chuck is like "wait, what?"), but the fact that Jeremy even said it... He's willing to punish people for making decently valid choices if it gives him any kind of edge.

...So it's eerie to me, of all the "main" characters, that Chuck goes first, in what feels like such a pointless way, while Jeremy makes it to the very end, especially with Jeremy revealed to have this group-loyalty-based revenge motive that suggests a strong personal dogma at least as strong as Chuck's. The two are similar characters in that way, but things turned out very different for them. And that makes it almost an ironic echo that Jeremy's condemnation of Simeon involves a group betrayal, when he himself was willing to throw Chuck under the bus.

[Kc]

This is a pretty great analysis. I could answer a few questions that you had, but I felt like you got most of the story and the minute details of the language of the piece. It was very complicated to write, but it seems like a good majority came across. Cheers Tenn!

[Tenn]

This is a pretty great analysis. I could answer a few questions that you had, but I felt like you got most of the story and the minute details of the language of the piece. It was very complicated to write, but it seems like a good majority came across. Cheers Tenn!

:O well hello! If I was going to hear from anyone, I didn't expect it to be you! Thanks for the stamp of approval :D

Aw c'mon though, I wanna know so badly what happens to the trio. ;-; Where is "home"? Are there other surviving members of the Family? Is not-Jeremy really going to go straight back to his cult with a couple of strangers in tow? I don't imagine those two signing up to join -- wouldn't that be a cause of divided loyalties for him?

And wait-- MOST of the story? Okay, time to relisten another eight times. (nah I'm sure listening to the actual main storyline would help)

[Kc]

:O well hello! If I was going to hear from anyone, I didn't expect it to be you! Thanks for the stamp of approval :D

Aw c'mon though, I wanna know so badly what happens to the trio. ;-; Where is "home"? Are there other surviving members of the Family? Is not-Jeremy really going to go straight back to his cult with a couple of strangers in tow? I don't imagine those two signing up to join -- wouldn't that be a cause of divided loyalties for him?

And wait-- MOST of the story? Okay, time to relisten another eight times. (nah I'm sure listening to the actual main storyline would help)

There are still places to take the story after this, so don't fret about possible open ends. I have a lot of story strings that have yet to be woven in.

Well, there's a few things that are a tad different, but I think once you listen to the main story (which is kinda interesting to have the Lockdown perspective first) you'll pick up on the details of the family more :)

[Tenn]

There are still places to take the story after this, so don't fret about possible open ends. I have a lot of story strings that have yet to be woven in.
I hope this means that I get to see/hear them again.

Also, listening Lockdown first... yeah, definitely makes for its own experience. I've started listening to the main storyline now (gotten to about Ch. 6), which I started with the expectation that there might be some differences in writing and production, and... yep. There's definitely been a ton of improvement there. I gotta say... it took me no more than Part 1 to start getting invested in characters from Lockdown, whereas in the main WA that's not happening as fast. And it's made me appreciate all the more that nobody in Lockdown likes our narrator Simeon in the slightest, now that I'm having to hear everyone fawn over Michael. It also made for a different listen when Burt, Saul, and Lizzie encountered the prison complex, because I was just like "nooooo you gotta break in and save the kids in T-Block, they're trapped in there :(" [redacted rant about Burt's commentary on types of criminals]

Unrelated: I forgot to mention this, but since first listen I've been confused about Chuck calling Mark a dyke. Like, it's established that he's one to use homophobic slurs, but... it's weird hearing that word used on a man. Can't figure it out. When Chuck says, "What part of 'he's a dyke' do you not understand?" and Simeon says "Um.... all of it?" ....I'm with Simeon on that one.

Unrelated 2: Somehow I didn't catch this until recently, because I somehow misinterpreted not-Jeremy's name at the colony as being something that started with an R, but... does CJ refer to him as Oliver at the beginning? Did I hear that right? The character with the big secret, whose wham line is "Jeremy? Who's Jeremy?", who has the whole identity plot twist... Oliver... Oliver Twist... That's horrible. I love it.