AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE ABOUT THIS BLOG, A.K.A. The State of "State of the Skate"

Me at the rink with my daughter Lexie back in 2012.

NOTE: As explained in this post from September 2021, State of the Skate is now State of the SkateMUSIC and has moved to a new location! Here's the link: 

https://impala-cuboid-xsgf.squarespace.com/stateofskatemusic

I hope to see you there!
 

Hey State of the Skate-ers, 

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? The last skating-related thing I wrote about was 2021 Worlds, and U.S. Nationals ahead of that. Otherwise, this space appears to have been overtaken by a very enthusiastic fan of some couple on some show about a “good” doctor (wink). (Hint-- it was me)

Part of the reason for my lack of skating posts is easy to attribute to COVID and the lockdowns, postponements, and cancellations that have permeated just about every non-essential activity in life. But a bigger part of it came from me taking a harder look at this blog I started way back in 2008 (!) and wondering if I really wanted to keep it going or not. 

(It turns out that I DO, so if that floats your boat, keep reading.)

State of the Skate has been a part of four different Winter Olympic cycles thus far. I’m not sure how many blogs and/or podcasts (and all platforms related to those two) have come and gone in that time! But of those currently active-- including Jackie Wong’s Rocker Skating, Dave Lease’s This and That, and Ryan Stevens’ Skate Guard-- the most interesting ones benefit from the same things as ever: a strong voice, a unique niche, or both.         

So the basic question I’ve pondered is… do I want to continue State of the Skate as what it’s primarily been for the past several years? Competition previews, predictions, and post-mortems? 

I could do that. But like other aspects of present-day figure skating such as coaching dramas, COVID conflicts, and an obscene number of athlete assault and abuse cases (because even one such case is one too many), I know there are plenty of folks who cover these territories and do it much better than I can. 

Meanwhile, over the past couple years my mind has continued to drift back to a post I wrote in early 2018 called “The ‘Carmen Karaoke’ Theory” which sought to explain why skaters continued to skate to excerpts from Bizet’s opera Carmen ad nauseum… and why, even in the advent of vocals being permitted in singles and pairs competitions, Carmen remained a steadfast choice (with vocals or without). 

Fun fact about that post-- I tried to sell it as a stand-alone article to a number of different online publications, hoping that 2018 Olympic fever would propel it to bigger audiences. When I was unsuccessful in that attempt, it ended up on my blog in the midst of all activities Pyeongchang. 

So while I didn’t get where I wanted to with that article, it definitely sparked my interest in writing about the music that drives this sport. For whether programs are created from a coach’s CD collection, an athlete’s favorite film soundtrack, or an engaging-but-obscure cut that began making the rounds a few years ago, every skater uses music.

And… there are often stories behind the music itself. Stories about the composers, the source material, the inspiration-- it depends, of course, on the kind of music involved. 

So much music! So many stories!

Someone who knows a little about skating should try and tell some of them! 

🙋🙋🙋

That’s where I’m going with this…. State of the Skate is becoming… (Should there be a drumroll? Pretend there’s a drumroll)

State of the SkateMusic!

And…

You’ll find State of the SkateMusic on my brand new website… hopefully as soon as next week!

Watch this space for updates on when it goes live… I’ll get into more detail about the new format at that time.

In the meantime, thanks SO MUCH for reading up to now, and I hope you’ll continue to find yourself reading in the future!

UPDATE: State of the SkateMUSIC is now live... check it out at this link:

https://impala-cuboid-xsgf.squarespace.com/stateofskatemusic

 

#Shea Altar-Bound, Part 2: Anatomy of a Season Premiere Promo

NOTE: State of the #Shea has a new home!! Here's the link:

https://impala-cuboid-xsgf.squarespace.com/stateofshea

As of this moment, there are two posts at that link. Click on the picture for either one and you should be able to read... and leave a comment, of course! 

I hope to see you there!

If the link isn't working for you, please let me know and I'll give direct links for each post. 

Thanks, as always, for reading!  

This is a Shea stan account, says the current bio line in The (official) Good Doctor Twitter account. 

That was one of the early signs-- seeing that change simultaneous with the S5 poster reveal, which you see at the top. Then came some “Save the Date” animation from TGD Twitter, featuring images of Shaun and Lea alongside “the date” of September 27-- already tattooed in our memory banks as Season Premiere day. But seeing a digital version of the notification commonplace to many a wedding guest’s mailbox reinforced the notion that the #Shea wedding is going to be the S5 starting point. 

THEN came this TV Line Exclusive which provided:

• A TGD article featuring quotes from showrunner David Shore

• Five promotional stills, all of which appear to be from the engagement party

• A 30 second ABC promo ...

• With 18 shots from the show

• Who knows if they’re all from “New Beginnings” (episode 1)...?

• David Shore knows, but won’t tell us

• Some fans are freaking out after seeing this peek into the new season...

• … and others are more chill.

                                   

Things are likely to start snowballing with every day closer to the 9/27 season premiere-- they’ll probably release a “sneak peek” scene within 48 hours of my posting this, for instance-- so I’ll jump in here while I can so we can do what we looooove to do while awaiting a new episode…

LET'S ANALYZE!!!!

And we begin this with a friendly reminder that TGD promos, particularly the ones assembled for U.S. television by ABC, are often itty bitty, 30-second carnival rides for the strong-yet-delicate emotions of #Shea-shippers. Sure, they lure us in with the eye candy that is, say, Shaun and Lea sharing an affectionate moment in the kitchen of their loft. But several out-of-sequence clips and sound bytes later, we’re quite likely to grumble I don’t really know what the hell’s going to happen there, but I definitely don’t want to wait three long weeks to find out. 

Add some decidedly ambiguous commentary from showrunner David Shore-- as was the case with the TVLine article-- and ta-da! We’re putty in the producers’ hands all over again. 

Here’s the promo that was released September 2nd:

Now let’s break that down into the 18 different shots that went into those 30 seconds: 

#Shea paradise

1. Lea squeezing Shaun’s arm and kissing his cheek while he makes pancakes for two

1. All looks well in #Shea Land… at a glance, anyway.

2. OR shot #1 where we pick up Lim’s line “Planning a wedding is a big undertaking”...

3. OR shot #2-- Dr. Shaun Murphy saying  “All that matters to me is marrying Lea”

1. NOTE: I originally wrote this as Shaun responding to Lim’s statement with those words, but then thought better, remembering what we hear in these promos is often as disjointed as what we see.

4. 
   Lea in bed, gasping as if she’s just awoken from a
   nightmare.

5. Shaun asking “Are you okay?” to Lea, sitting up in bed, again looking as if she’s recovering from a nightmare...but wearing something different than in the previous shot (as many eagle-eyed viewers noticed), prompting the question DAMN, GIRL..? 

   

1. NOTE: I do realize that DAMN, GIRL is not actually a question. And that I might have been the only one “asking” that. 

6. Lea says “I just want this wedding to be perfect,” appearing to say it to Jordan.

1. Heh. That sentence. I just want this wedding to be perfect. We’ll get back to that.

7. 
   Jordan says (presumably to Lea), “If you aren’t willing to
   risk little things…” 

8. Quick shot of Shaun looking anxious in the doctor’s lounge

   

   (This may or may not have a thing 
   to do with the wedding.)

   
   

9. Quick shot of Lea at what looks to be the #Shea engagement party, turning away from someone (Looks like Lim?) and wincing

(See previous caption.)

10. Quick hospital shot of Jordan, Morgan, Andrews (holding a clipboard), and Wolke

Probably nothing to do with #Shea

11. Quick shot of a weary-looking Glassman, dressed but with tie hanging off shoulders in his bedroom, bed unmade, pizza box alongside him… (aside from the #Shea shots, this was the most interesting shot in the promo for me. Even if we can presume this is just Glassy in breakup mode.)

Most definitely nothing to do with #Shea

12. Quick shot of Park alongside a whiteboard of different recovery timelines (for a patient), looking like he’s on the edge of an unfortunate realization

Still has not a dang thing to do with #Shea

13. Jordan again, same scene as before: “... You’ll never get the chance to have the big things go right.”

14. Shot of Shaun and Lea at that #Shea
    engagement party, looking content

15. What appears to be a shot of Shaun
    and Lea’s wedding, taking place outdoors

16.  As the clergyman (or whoever that guy is; we’ve never seen him before) says “Shaun, to you take Lea to be your wife…” we see a shot of Shaun with head held high, gazing at Lea…  

17. Then a close-up of Lea, looking… um, I want to say “pained” but that seems wrong. More like she’s stressed but trying to smile through it?

18. 
    Finally a close-up of Shaun appearing to hang his head as we hear (in voice-over) him saying “I’m sorry.” (That VO actually starts while we’re on the Lea CU.)

And then,

if you are anything like me, you may have heard yourself laughing and/or groaning…

With your eyes rolling back into your head…

Saying “Really, ABC? You’re trying to sell us on the notion of Dr. Shaun Murphy getting cold feet at the altar as he stands there with the love of his life? REALLY?!”

Thanks, Amy and Seth

I guess promos are just gonna keep on promo-ing. So rather than harp on the silly stuff, let’s do a quick game of WHAT ARE THE FACTS AS THEY PERTAIN TO SHAUN AND LEA?

Fact #1: We’ll be witnessing an engagement party. That, in and of itself, hints at the timeline picking up not long after Lea’s marriage proposal in Guatemala. 

Fact #2: Lea is having difficulty sleeping. (I’ll go ahead and speculate “nightmares” like the rest of y’all.)

Fact #3: Lea is on the impossible mission of many a bride-to-be… a “perfect” wedding. And Shore’s comments in the TV Line article indicate a deeper dive into what constitutes “perfect” awaits. (If you read my previous post about a #Shea Wedding Wish List-- and/or if you’ve been elbow-deep in wedding planning yourself at some point and time-- you may have chuckled at Lea’s confession as well.)

Fact #4: All Shaun cares about is marrying Lea. AWWWWW. (Yeah, from that we can interpolate that Shaun couldn’t care less about the details-- which may or may not drive Lea bonkers-- but all we really have to go with right now are Shaun’s exact words.)

Fact #5: There is a wedding scene.

Is it THE wedding scene? Or is it part of Lea’s nightmares? Is it a nightmare because she dreams that Shaun leaves her at the altar with “I’m sorry”? Or is it more circumstantial (she’s dreaming of an outdoor wedding but a thunderstorm takes them by surprise)? 

Fact #6: Jordan gets to deliver the line of wisdom upon which this early-season drama may or may not hinge… depending on what actually goes down in the season opener. 

Oh, and it’s not a particularly pertinent fact, but they found a way to get every member of the principal cast into the promo except for Dr. Mateo Rendon Osma (Osvaldo Benavides). Considering what we’ve seen thus far is a standard 30-second promo as opposed to a nearly 2-minute “official trailer” spanning the first 3 episodes (like this one they produced last year), that’s kind of impressive.

Oh, and Dr. Rendon was among those featured in the promo
stills… see?

 

Now, back to that good old speculation…

Are they getting married right away or not?

Here’s what happened when I posed a similar question on Twitter last week:

We talked about this at length last time (before all these promo materials came out), and it seemed many of us were in agreement that it would seem a shame to skip the buildup drama that weddings bring to a script. On the other hand, we’ve seen not just the “promo wedding” but photos from various IG stories that make a viewer wonder if they’d have spent THAT much time dolled up for a location shoot if it wasn’t the real deal. (Paige Spara’s photo captioned “the one where they get married” certainly fuels that fire.)

On yet another hand, we have Shore dropping trademark teases like “We are working towards (the wedding)... I can’t say [exactly] when it will happen, but we are working towards it.”

That’s three “hands,” isn’t it? Hmmmm. Let’s not overcomplicate this.

My answer, for now, is

SEASON OPENER, aka 5:1 (“New Beginnings”)-- unlikely.

EPISODE 5:2 (“Piece of Cake”)-- possible. Less unlikely. Guess we can’t rule it out.

EPISODE 5:3 or later-- Still hopeful it’s this one. 

A few other mental notes I took in watching this early look at season 5:

• If the show is staging a full-on engagement party (and possibly a full-on “nightmare” wedding), will the real #Shea wedding ultimately be a quieter, more intimate affair?

• And if we’re starting the season with an engagement party, would they really jump to a wedding (intimate or otherwise) in the following episode? Seems like there’d have to be at least a minor time-lapse for that to happen-- which isn’t unprecedented, I guess (there must’ve been at least a small jump between “Frontline Pt.2” and “Newbies” last season), but would still be unusual.

• This particular promo marks the first time that a season premiere of TGD is showcased primarily from Lea’s perspective rather than Shaun’s. Yeah, he’s right there in the thick of things, but she’s the one with the (probably) nightmares, she’s the one wanting things perfect, and she’s the one (supposedly) in jeopardy of rejection via Shaun. If they DO issue a longer S5 trailer, I suspect the big-picture focus will be back on Dr. Murphy. But what we’ve seen so far sends an interesting message about The Good Doctor five years from where it started: not just a “he” journey now, but a “he” and “she” becoming a long-term “we” journey.

New beginnings, indeed!

No wonder the official TGD Twitter account changed its bio.