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TLDR: talking and ranking mash, obvious spoilers for the episodes mentioned.
As anyone who knows me probably is aware by now that I'm obsessed with the show mash. I'm gonna start a diary talking about the episodes I watch, doing a little commentary on each of them. I really really enjoy this show and if this gets people to watch it, then all the better.
A bit of an intro is that I actually started it on s4 because it's what I saw recommended, which was a good choice but I wanted to watch s1 as well after finishing s4 so that's what I'm doing now. Essentially: I've fully watched s4, am on s5 as well as halfway through s1. It's probably a demented way to watch it but oh well.
Let's start with some episodes I've watched lately. I've been on a s1 kick (mainly cus I'm watching the rest with my brother and he's barely available). 1x04 "Chief surgeon who", 1x05 "the moose", 1x06 "yankee doodle doctor", 1x07 "bananas, crackers and nuts", 1x08 "cowboy", 1x09 "henry, please come home", 1x10 "I hate a mystery", 1x11 "germ warfare", 1x12 "dear dad", and today I watched 1x13 "edwina".
A little ranking based on my personal liking: 7, 6, 11, 8, 4, 13, 9, 10, 12, 5. From these, the ones I think are really good tv are 6 and 7, as of now they stand as probably the best from the show.
I am also rating the episodes based on HAWKEYE INDEX (how
important was his role in the episode, did he slay super hard?),
BISEXUALITY INDEX (how bisexual was it? Was Hawkeye the only one serving
or were the other ones too?), KLINGER INDEX (did he appear? I don't ask
if he serves cause he always does), ANTI-WAR INDEX (self explanatory,
but also is the criticism actually good or does it fall dangerously
under the white-saviorism realm?), GENDER INDEX (as we know, mash sometimes can be extremely gendery, so this applies as well), GENERAL LIKEABILITY (like the previous ranking, did I like the episode without basing myself on objective concers, but rather if it was entertaining?), GOOD TELEVISION (opposite to the previous one, was it good television? was it objetively good and properly made? the writing, direction, etc, all fall under this).
With this out of the way, I'm gonna comment each of them. BTW this is my blog and i WILL talk about which characters I think are gay cus I care about that. Not necessarily shipping but that as well (I prefer to see it more as which dynamics I like more rather than "shipping" cause most of the time I don't think about them as just plain romantic/sexual, sometimes I like the weird tension between two guys).
- 1X04 - Chief surgeon who: this is very much centered around Hawkeye, as it is the episode when Henry names him chief surgeon despite Frank's grievances about him. Ok gotta get this outta the way: i love hawkeye. He's the main character and I love him. It's actually surprising to see him as a main character cause he has the vibes of lovable side character. He's snarky and cute BUT I must say, since I met him on s4, I do like him better on s4 onwards, but I suppose that also has to do with character development. This episode is great for HAWNK girlies (hawk and frank...). Also I am unable to dislike Frank, I think it's because of the actor. He gives him this sort of pathetic nature that's impossible to hate. Like yes, he's a terrible person, but there is something so so broken and sad about him I need to, as the kids say, study him in a lab. I also need to study Hawk in a lab but for different reasons. Now for ratings. HAWKEYE INDEX: 10/10 as they gave us bi-coded cape and him being super cute so. yeah. BISEXUALITY INDEX: 6/10, no proper bisexual scenes iirc but the vibes were there. KLINGER INDEX: 8/10, we get Klinger in a super cute outfit with a skirt that reaches the thighs, he's serving as usual, but he only has one single scene, which is very sad. ANTI-WAR INDEX: 7/10, there have been better anti-war episodes, but this one has some fun commentary, so I enjoyed it. GENDER INDEX: 5/10, there weren't any big gendery moments, except maybe Radar wearing those flower things and smoking the cigar, but overall pretty tame. GENERAL LIKABILITY: 8.5/10, laughed and cheered, very nice episode honestly, a fun time. GOOD TELEVISION: 6/10, I feel like here is where I'll be the harshest. This was a very normal episode and unless you enjoy things like bisexual Hawk or Klinger, you won't get much out of it. Still, GOOD TV. Overall rating: 7.2.
- 1x05 - The Moose: what a tricky one. It's enjoyable, but probably my least favorite ones due to the... well, racism. Now I know, this was made in the 70s, and it is extremely forward, but of course you have some occasions when episodes like these happen. I feel like it is good intentioned, but the criticism falls flat. This episode follows the term "moose" as applied to korean girls that have been sold to american men as servants or sex partners. In this case, a korean girl was bought by a soldier, and Hawkeye and the rest try to free her as they obviously think buying humans is immoral. This is all good. My problem is how the girl was portrayed. She appears as extremely naive, constantly trying to get back to the moose work as if it's the only thing she knows. Once she's out, the mash tries to teach her english and manners, and it is very much in tune with the notion of how people of color are "savages" or "uncivilized" and the white man can come in and "save them". As I said, it's a very good intentioned episode. The girl ends up free, is shown as smart, and the guy who bought her is constantly protrayed as a disgusting man, as the villain. I suppose it's the times. HAWKEYE INDEX: 8/10, he was in every scene and looked very cute, but the scene where he actually allows the girl to shave his beard was weird. BISEXUALITY INDEX: 4/10, this episode was focused on the girl rather than Hawk or the rest so this index is quite low, but I'm not mad about it. KLINGER INDEX: 0/10, sadly no Klinger. He would have improved the episode. ANTI-WAR INDEX: 4/10, for all the reasons mentioned above. GENDER INDEX: 5/10, again, doesn't focus on this, not entirely mad about it. GENERAL LIKABILITY: 8/10, ok yeah it is actually enjoyable, especially when Radar is helping Hawkeye cheat at poker. GOOD TELEVISION: 5/10, technically it is good, I'm very happy that AT LEAST they didn't sexualize the girl (they probably wouldn't have been able to do that anyway) so there's that but... oh well. Overall rating: 4.8.
Ok since I did a lot of introduction in this post (and I don't have a lot of time now) I will continue with the other episodes on a following post. If anyone reads this hi I love you tell me your thoughts.
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