March 2025 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - Films in Focus podcast #8: Penda's Fen

Continuing the provincial theme of the last three episodes of the podcast (albeit without the urban component featured alongside the rural in Safe, Trenque Lauquen, and Evil Does Not Exist), Penda's Fen settles with both comfort and disquiet into the village of Pinvin where its teenage protagonist Stephen (Spencer Banks) comes of age. Introduced as an almost comically hidebound reactionary, Stephen slowly opens up to both the world around him and the world within. This film - or, depending how you classify it, play, series episode, or TV movie - engages in a vast array of topics and approaches, including religion, politics, sci-fi, horror, fantasy, musical appreciation, English history, sexual awakening, and adoptive identity. At times I was thrilled by its ambition, at others frustrated by the range of its focus. Discussing the film allowed me to touch on the Jesus biopic Son of Man, the pastoral reverie of The Wind in the Willows, the historical mythologization of pagan King Penda, the subversive nature of the Protestant-to-Catholic Oxford Movement, and the contrast of twentieth century British social conservatism's indifference to an instinctive reactionary strain vs. twenty-first century America's capacity to groom and empower adolescent traditionalism. In addition to this rich topic for the top tier, all patrons were presented with an advance coda to my Twin Peaks character series through versions including (and excluding) the not-yet-previewed top ten. As for Penda's Fen, if you want to hear my thoughts on one of director Alan Clarke's last projects, check out my podcast on his experimental portrait of the Troubles, Elephant.

What is the exclusive March reward?

belated February 2025 Patreon round-up: EXCLUSIVE - Breaking Bad season 2 viewing diary (first part) + Lost in Twin Peaks season 2 illustrated companion advance

Years ago, I launched several months of first season viewing diaries by writing about each episode of Breaking Bad up to that season's finale. Other shows introduced to my site during that period - specifically Mad Men and Veronica Mars - were eventually completed, but others were never resumed (including The Wire, The X-Files, and - considering its subsequent revival - The Kingdom). Of these, the suspense-driven Breaking Bad was one of the hardest siren calls to resist. Although I'm not currently publishing any non-Twin Peaks material publicly, my need for monthly Patreon $5/month tier exclusives provided a good opportunity to finally continue the series. With the first season - presented publicly - having established the premise for Walter White (cancer-stricken chemistry teacher turned meth manufacturer), the second season is keen on worldbuilding, revealing a whole community of criminals (and at least one memorable attorney), and I had a great time exploring that world when I viewed the season last spring. Since then I've kept this viewing diary in my back pocket for the proverbial rainy day - which February proved to be. I published the first seven episodes at the beginning of the month with plans to present the other half of this season (already written) in June, with hopefully more seasons to come after that although I haven't watched them yet. To refresh your memory of what's in those episodes - which I'm not just engaging with but watching for the very first time - I've included some screenshots at the end of this round-up as well as in the image above.

At the other extreme of the preparation spectrum, my work on the illustrated companions for my Lost in Twin Peaks public podcast release - which I advanced to the $1/month tier as their monthly reward - took way, way longer than expected...hence this February cross-post appearing halfway through March. I shouldn't have been surprised; in all its various capacities, from applying images alongside various episode categories to re-editing what was originally recorded for patrons, that public presentation has proved to be my most laborious project ever since it was initiated back in 2021. (At this point, the re-packaging has already taken much longer than the underlying episodes took to create which seems mindboggling.) Now, at least, one more step has been completed. Patrons can enjoy - with or without the audio context - vivid screenshots from each Twin Peaks second season episode, accompanied by in-the-weeds statistics (like which characters have the most screentime in each episode), and images from the historical context of the time: what was in the news, on magazine covers, or on rival channels. (To view the already published - and public - illustrated companions for the first and third seasons as well as Fire Walk With Me, check out this page.)

What are the February rewards?