When it comes to the crazy, daring and brainless animated American drama "Rick and Morty" (Rick and Morty) , I believe many people have heard of its name. When the second half of the show's S4 season starts, among its creators The animation "Solar Opposites ," co-developed by Justin Roiland and Mike McMahan , also launched on Hulu this month.
Due to the prominent background, familiar style of painting, similar brain holes and other factors, "Alien Refugees" (referred to as SO) will inevitably be compared with "Rick and Morty" (referred to as R&M).
As far as I am concerned, the overall quality and look and feel of "SO" in the first season are somewhat inferior to "R&M" at its peak. In the final analysis, they were originally two works... "SO" is more popular and closer to our earth. life, and try something you haven't tried in R&M.
That's why I'd rather talk about "Alien Refugees" at this moment than "Rick and Morty" that would make me feel stressed and "feared".
[Friendly reminder: There will be spoilers below. 】
Alien/Earth
The story setting of "Alien Refugees" is very simple. In order to prevent you from forgetting, it simply sets the episode as the title OP, and plays each episode for you.
Before their home planet Shrop was destroyed, Corvo and Terry, their clones Yamlek and Jessie, and their "secret tool" and pet Puff fled into space, eventually crashing on Earth. In the United States, they became "refugees" living abroad.
(Perhaps) the aliens, who shoulder the responsibility of restoring the civilization of the ethnic group, began their life on earth as ordinary families.
The story of each episode begins with the protagonist Corvo's "hate the earth" dialogue... So is this a work that "laughs and curses" human society from the perspective of aliens? Yes and no.
In fact, "Aliens and Refugees" is very down-to -earth . Yamlek and Jessie are facing adolescence in school like ordinary teenagers. Lazy Terry is a waste of money no matter what, even Corvo, who hates the earth the most , also has a longing for human culture (for example, in the first episode, out of love for the cartoon character Fenbach, he made a "Finbach" exclusive to him and Terry).
Of course, no matter how human-like this family behaves, they are still aliens with super-powerful technology. If they are not careful, Finbacher, who has lost control of the fusion, will start killing people in the city - don't ask "why is there such a big disaster?" They can still live on Earth.” Aliens can be refugees and neighbors, so do you still care if they kill or bury them?
This paradoxical sense of difference is one of the sources of inspiration for "Aliens and Refugees". In addition to "aliens", you can also regard them as ethnic minorities, LGBTQ groups, disabled social phobias, and so on.
In the atmosphere where they were born and eager to join the WTO , the play has contributed many interesting highlights. For example, in the second episode, in order to be welcomed by the surrounding people, the adult group and the juvenile group rely on technology to cheat. joke.
The most "model essay" is undoubtedly the sixth episode. The key words of this episode are "family gender conflict" and "feminist struggle" .
Corvo and Terry noticed that their neighbor Kevin was carefully decorating his "manc ave" (manc ave) . got one.
Men (especially married men) should understand that this "South Silver Nest" is actually a private place reserved for men . There is no interference from wives, housework, and mundane affairs. There are only games, beer, salty and wet posters and other oddities that they like. Weird stuff.
Corvo and Terry soon discovered that they didn't find happiness in the "South Silver Nest" because they lacked the pressure of ordinary men (strictly speaking, the Shropians did not go to the land to distinguish their genders until they arrived on Earth) - They need a woman who opposes them.
So Corvo made a female robot , Patyusha, based on the "standards" of his wife and mother .
Under Patyusha's scolding and elimination, the two men immediately had the motivation to go to the "South Silver Nest" for fun.
In school, Mr. Perez left a tricky assignment for the girls: fighting sexism and fighting back against patriarchy. Evidence of behavior will be directly linked to semester grades - as for the men's homework, what do you like What's up, you're in EASY mode anyway.
Sound familiar, right? Pastoral feminism is everywhere... Not to mention that this remark is another kind of discrimination against men, and all the struggles related to feminism fall on the word "dou", which itself seems to put the cart before the horse.
The irony is yet to come: in order to complete her homework, Jessie deliberately went to some sports venues rich in machismo to find fault, but she repeatedly ran into obstacles.
I went to the rugby team and asked to be a kicker. I wanted to use this "unkind invitation" to attack society's prejudice against women's participation in male-dominated sports. I found out that girls have been on the middle school rugby team for many years. Don't Speaking of girls, even a dog can be a kicker, which is very equal!
The next one was the hockey team. Jessie specifically emphasized that she didn't know anything about hockey. She thought it would irritate each other, but the hockey team kept praying for girls to join. "The guys on the football team won't laugh at us anymore. Yes," and Jessie was also regarded as a big star.
The next e-sports team was even more extreme. As soon as Jessie entered the door, she made a group ridicule, and then found that there was only one boy in the whole computer room, and he was very cautious in his words and deeds, living like a female number...
The desperate Jessie resorted to a trump card: secretly put up misogynistic boys party posters in the school.
In order to fight with the expected "enemy", even the fishing law enforcement is at all costs.
When the time came, Jessie jumped into the classroom full of boys, thinking that she would finally be able to fight a misogynistic bastard, but she found that each of them was more like a feminist fighter, and she was worried that she couldn't find a target to attack. , as long as you are a male chauvinist, even if you are a woman, we will follow suit!
It's natural to see such absurd things in reality, but the theme of this episode is absurd, and the irony is just right - besides, reality is sometimes more absurd.
Back on Patyusha's side, because she was so successful as a wife and mother, Corvo and Terry, who were eager to be closer, did something contrary to her basic setting: invited her to " Nanyinwo" to play.
The too abnormal instructions directly caused Patyusha to start the runaway mode. One second, it was a family robot of a good wife and a good mother, and the next second it became a fighting robot that wanted to destroy all the "South Silver Nest".
Corvo and Terry couldn't stop Patyusha's destruction and killing. In the largest "South Silver Nest" amusement park, they happened to meet Jessie Lai and teacher Perez, who worked here, accusing him of "unable to complete". homework"...and then things took a turn for the worse.
Unlike Corvo and Terry, who were identified as "men", Patyusha was unable to determine Jessie's gender (they were not male or female at all), so she suspended the attack, and Jessie confessed her discovery: I am a foreigner. Starman (you don't have to define and prove yourself according to human standards), I can do whatever I want, you are a robot, so can you.
This discovery made Patyusha fall into an even greater cognitive barrier, and Terry took the opportunity to disarm her...
Although the story and theme of this episode are not too new, it can be regarded as a very typical model of "Alien Refugees": using similar character elements to tell anomalous social phenomena, while using different methods to restore familiar daily life .
dystopian country
In addition to the life stories of the Corvo family, there is also a sideline in "Aliens and Refugees". For many viewers, this wonderful sideline has raised their overall evaluation of the show——
It is the miniature human world "Wall Country" located in the room of Yamlek and Jessie .
This idea came from the first episode of Yamlek who used a shrinking beam gun to teach Lydia, the girl who bullied Jessie. Although they put Lydia back, but in order to hide the truth, they also cleaned the school who knew about it. The staff shrunk and closed in a glass cabinet.
Feeling amused, Yamlek decided to continue to expand the sandbox world in the future, and only reduce the size of adults. "No one cares if they disappear anyway", and Jessie's way of expressing her dissatisfaction with this "cruel" behavior is only It was a verbal lesson, and then from time to time I threw candy jerky and other survival supplies and small things into the sandbox— they both enjoyed it.
As a result, a human society was born and grew up in the sandbox.
After the initial primitive jungle, this society gradually formed a set of order, with gangs, trade, religion -to the people here, Yamlek is a ferocious and terrible evil god, and the gods they worship are given to them. Jessie.
The existence of order means the existence of managers, and those who can stand out in the wilderness are often the most skilled people.
The world in the sandbox has gradually become a "wall country". Duke is the overlord who rules this world, and totalitarianism is his best choice.
Injustice inevitably leads to sacrifice, but also to resistance . Tim and Shirley and others were the first reactionaries to sing the opposite.
It's a pity that the Duke's power is too powerful, and the people's hearts are too complicated. As soon as the armed riots started to pick up, they suffered a fatal blow. Shirley was kicked out of the "abyss", and Tim was imprisoned as a prisoner.
Then, we came to the seventh episode with the highest "like rate". Over time, the wall country has become more like a utopian/dystopian world in the eyes of different residents (refer to "The Hunger Games", "Snowpiercer" and other related works).
The Duke emphasizes his "big brother's gaze" all day long, and everyone has long forgotten the life before shrinking, living in layers and performing their own duties in the wall country (for example, Steven, the once distinguished CEO, now lives with the mouse Jasmine. , lived a carefree life selling rat milk).
Everything changed, when Tim met cellmate Pierre - Tim learned that there was a resistance army in the wall country (the surviving Shirley took the lead), and he was their spiritual leader.
Tim, who has rekindled his fighting spirit, is no longer confused. He begins to record his ideas of resistance and struggle program. The riot gradually turned into a revolution.
After being released from prison, Tim was elected as the leader. After a bloody incident, Tim and most of the residents of the Wall Country finally firmed up their revolutionary will to overthrow the Duke's rule.
Conventional weapons such as toothpicks and paper walls could not stop the vast ocean of the people. The frightened Duke decided to use a big killer in an attempt to drown all the middle and lower class residents with flood water.
This move completely made the dukes betray their relatives. The survivors broke through the last line of defense with great grief and fearlessness. When Tim and Shirley rushed into the duke's room, they found that the other party had escaped to the outside world along the secret hole in the wall.
The two immediately understood that the duke's totalitarian rule and this secret access channel complement each other. If people knew the existence of this wall hole, then the wall country would cease to exist.
At this moment, killing the duke or not is secondary, and everyone has gained something more valuable than the "fairness" of redistributing resources: "freedom" to resolve conflicts and create more possibilities.
It's a pity that Shirley can't see the infinite future of hope...
The duke can easily get freedom, why should he stay in the wall country? As Shirley said, the duke may have been just a nobody, but here he is the emperor. Tim clearly understands the duke's mind. He used to be just an ordinary restaurant waiter, but now he has the right to choose. , either completely destroy the wall country, or become the next "duke".
Of course, Tim will not be as "disgusting" as the Duke, and he is confident that he will do better than the Duke: as a selfless revolutionary leader, he announces the amnesty of the world, and also solemnly commemorates Shirley, his comrade-in-arms and lover who "sacrifices for the revolution".
If the story ends here, it's just a good "Dragon Slayer Becomes a Dragon" adaptation, but the last few shots of Episode 7 elevate the thematic spirit of this branch , from shouting Tim's throne room, To the top floor of the glass case where the people of the wall country are gathered, to the room of the aliens, to the whole earth.
Don't simply think that this is just a stalk similar to the ending of the movie "Men in Black", let alone satirize the dying wall country and human beings. The title of the seventh episode is "Terry and Korvo Steal a Bear". The episode tells the story of Terry and Corvo stealing a bear, and this story only appears in a few background shots (from the end, Terry is ready to steal a shark again) - that is, the bloody revolution in the wall country, To outsiders it means nothing at all.
In the same way, the universe is so vast, why do human beings insist on killing each other on a small earth? You know, there are no walls outside the atmosphere.
have fun
At first glance, "Alien Refugees" is a "everyday fan" that lacks a core story line and can continue to be filmed, but in fact it still has a looming main line, which is the evolution of Pupa. .
This little pet who is usually responsible for selling cuteness, its true identity is an important tool to revive the Shrop star civilization. According to the alien family, Pupu will continue to evolve to its true form, and then destroy the earth, but I don't know. How long is this evolutionary period - as for the significance of destroying the planet, that is the suspense left by the show (and possibly meaningless).
Pupu has had a lot of one-man shows this season. It has high intelligence, strong survivability, and special abilities such as manipulating the human spirit.
However, Corvo, Terry, Yamlek, and Jessie don't know anything about it, and they only feel weird about Pupu's state from time to time... Well, they don't know how far Pupu has evolved.
From this point, we can once again recognize the difference between "Alien Refugees" and "Rick and Morty" - the setting of "Story Train" in "R&M" S4E6 not long ago, is still constantly exploring the narrative ( dazzling skills). ), in order to try more fanciful ideas, I would rather sacrifice part of the popular visibility.
This reflects the difference in philosophy between "R&M" creator Dan Harmon and Justin, Mike and others. The latter are not so "serious" when upholding a geek attitude , so they are more free than "R&M". "S.0".
I often sigh about the complexity of free will and the hardships of literary and artistic creation. "Rick and Morty" has only been filmed for its fourth season, and various voices have already appeared in the fan base. The halo of "God Drama" is an honor, Also shackles ... I'm starting to think that Refugees from Aliens, which forms some sort of complementary relationship with Rick and Morty, might go further.
Because "Alien Refugees" takes a more relaxed way of entertainment, there is nothing wrong with "entertainment" itself, as long as you are fun and interesting enough——
It's like "Rick and Morty" is often on the air when playing memes . Even if the audience sees a word, it will first throw a formula/ riddle for you to guess, calculate, and associate;
And "Alien Refugees" will openly move the word out: Hulu, right? Not only did I play tricks by name in the main drama , but at the end, I made Pupu repeatedly say, "Have you seen enough?"
[You are also welcome to pay attention to my official account "You Love Comment Area". 】
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