Macguffin plot in HIMYM

What exactly is the Macguffin plot device?

It is a plot vehicle adopted by several writers to advance or propel a story forward, a fulcrum in certain cases but which is of secondary importance to the developments in the main story. The use of this plot device was mainly popularized by the famous filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, who used it in multiple creations of his. This device is mostly used in thrillers, detective fiction and suspense stories where the Macguffin is revealed at a critical moment. The same device has been used in several TV seriates where usually the Macguffins are restricted to one episode or to one season. But there are shows like HIMYM who use the Macguffin for the entire set of seasons as a single thread.



How does the TV series How I Met Your Mother overuse this plot device?
The entire set up of the show is based on Ted Moseby searching for his perfect soul mate, the mother of his two kids to whom he is shown to be telling stories in every single episode about how he met their mother. The show is a sitcom and is amongst the very few in the genre which use the Macguffin plot device for the entire stretch of its origin, from the very first episode to almost the last.
The show has reached it’s ninth (and hopefully final) season and it is only in the final episode of the eighth season that the eagerly waiting audience and perhaps the very bored Moseby kids get to actually know about their real mother after hearing hundreds of tales about Ted and his awesome friends. The thrill of waiting to know how Ted meets his soul mate has slowly faded with time as viewers slowly have started to get frustrated by hopelessly waiting for the mystery woman to be unveiled.



The whole suspense element of the arrival of the mother has been stretched so much over the years that many loyal viewers have done multiple speculations about the mother and how Ted met her. The mother’s identity has been lightly suggested and hinted about with small shots of her boots and her yellow umbrella being shows occasionally to keep the audience hooked on to the mystery but never before the season finale of the eight installment did we really get to see her in entirety. Many have speculated that the mother doesn’t origin and Ted might reveal at the end of the series that the kids were adopted and all he wanted to tell them were stories about the fabulous uncles, Barney and Marshall and aunts, Robin and Lily.



The whole mystery behind “the woman” of Ted’s life has been taken so far that people have almost left the hope of even getting to know who she is. It is interesting to notice that the whole idea of the mother provides a mere backdrop, a reason for Ted to tell the tales. It does not add anything to the real show for it is entertaining with the endless antics Barney keeps coming up with, embarrassing tales from everybody’s past, the unexpected Barney-Robin love twist and the ever so cute Marshall and Lily. Finally, as the curtain is raised, we all eagerly wait to see how actually Ted gets to make her his children’s mother.

Swarnali Das

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Is there a Walter White in all of us?

A boring Sunday afternoon and the TV remote in my hand. What do I do? I start flipping channels. And I flip channels with no interest I see an advertisement of an upcoming TV Sitcom “Breaking Bad”. The advertisement posed questions about the sins we commit in our lives. These sins may not be seen as major sins but little sins that we commit such as bucking a class or cheating on an exam but what happens when this sin becomes your alter ego?


The captivating concept of sin and our ability to accept it is what framed the male protagonist Walter White. A High school chemistry teacher who could reach the heights of his academic pursuits was not seen worthy of the accolades and appreciation. And he spent his life in teaching kids right from wrong. How can a chemist trained in crystallography make it big in a short time? He cooks and sells the purest meth in the world. Being diagnosed of stage IIIA lung cancer Walter chooses the road that seems profitable to him. To keep his family secured and provide financial support, he turns into a drug lord.


“La Famalia Es Todo”, don’t turn against your family no matter what. This is one of Walter White’s most famous quotes. Every one is very prompt at pointing fingers and reasoning their actions. Walter White’s reason was his family. But as the series progresses he starts to do it for himself, because he likes it. He confesses to his wife that he kept on with the drug business because he felt alive. The cancer that spread in his lungs made him feel alive and finally when he received acclaim from being a drug lord that what he chose to be.

Certain experiences in our lives change us, sometimes we have to take such decisions and sometimes these decisions take us. Either ways we are influenced by an entity that demands to change us. The change might be minor and slow or major and drastic, but we choose, we choose whether or not to associate with it. A person who feels neglected can often have an alter ego which he/she chooses to hide behind. The façade of being something your not is not an unfamiliar concept.

We all at some point make decisions which affect us, maybe to make extra money, maybe to gain false appreciation or to saved a loved one but in the end we do it for ourselves. Under dire circumstances we all turn to unfair means because they guarantee you easy results, and that is where we loose ourselves. The society binds us in chains of lawfulness and righteousness but when the going get tough, we break these chains and we do what is not expected out of us by the society. White did what he could do best, cook meth. But cooking meth is illegal, so even if we excel in a field are suppose to turn it down because the society doesn’t approve it? So what if we break bad and do something that society doesn’t really agree to? Most of us tend to look for answers in the faces of others and try to reason our actions. To prove that we did it for a reason.


Walter White had his reasons but what’s you’re threshold for breaking bad?

Tanya

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Why we still laugh at F.R.I.E.N.D.S

On a lonesome Saturday evening I sat on my couch with a big bowl of popcorn and my favourite soda to catch up on the daily soaps. As I flipped the channels, I switched to Romedy Now, in hope of a rom-com showing, sadly they weren't instead there was an rerun of the season 1 of the sitcom Friends. I was never a Friends junkie and had never caught a single show on air but i decided to give it a go since it has been the "IT SHOW" among many I know. With the laptop on my side and the Half Baked Voices's email open, there was a deadline screaming at me and I was still indecisive about which topic to choose, so I did what I do best, I procrastinated.

 About four episodes later I realized why people love this sitcom, because we identify ourself with them, be it the warm hearted Casanova Joey, Monica with her OCD complex, Pheobe's past, an addiction like Chandler, socially awkward Ross and a lost soul like Rachel. I found myself feeling happy, sad, betrayed, stupid and a whirlpool of emotions, I felt like a part of the group. 

I learnt a lot from the cast and story of Friends, Pheobe makes me feel its okay to be a little crazy, Chandler made me realize it's okay to laugh at your own self, Rachel made me realize it's okay to be materialistic if I'm good, Joey made me understand that its okay to show my sensitive side, Ross made me accept my inner nerd and Monica taught me it's okay to want to control certain parts of my life. The show taught me that it's the little things that make the big things matter. The fact that all the characters have their very own back story as well as an ongoing future connects us as viewers to the cast, we feel what they feel, we see ourselves in them, we are them. It is truly an ensemble cast. All the six main characters have their own back story and side story with interlinks all of them together so when ever we watch the show we can never imagine one without the other, it is almost like a vital part goes missing. Can you ever imagine F.R.I.E.N.D.S without Rachel or Pheobe or any other of the main character? I know I can't. 

Bonds. It defines Friends, bonds between the girls or the boys and bonds between them with bind them together. The girls aren't bitchy or jealous, they don't stab each other's back but have each other's back when the need arises. The men share a healthy relation with each other. They maybe nerdy, strong or nervous but they are always ready to step up when the world gets mean. The show's tagline should be 'Where quirky weds craziness to beget lunatic', with Pheobe and her songs about the Smelly Cat and the Pervert Parade, Joey with his 'how you doin' and Ross marrying the lesbian, having a kid with her, getting engaged to another woman, taking Rachel's name in the altar and finally ending up with 3 divorces. When these characters meet with girlfriends/boyfriends/jobs and the coffee the pandemonium created is priceless.

The life shown in New York, is not surrounded around Madame Tussaud's or the Statue of Liberty but the normal life of any other person in the city. It has been created in the most realistic way with hiring and firing, hook up and break up and the aging. Life seems pretty awesome in the big apple. 

The show also saw a great deal of celebrities making appearances in certain episodes during the ten seasons. Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Christina Applegate, Resse Witherspoon, George Clooney and many more have graced the sitcom with their presence.When we talk about comedy shows FRIENDS enter the discussion. The one liners and the situations are priceless and will make you smile for sure. Even the reruns are appealing for you tend to find something you missed out in the previous watches. Some of the one liners are “You can’t just give up. Is that what a dinosaur would do?” , “You don’t own a TV? What’s all your furniture pointed at?”,” Aahh. Unagi.– ‘Aahh. Salmon Skin Roll.” But it hurts my Joey’s Apple. The “how you doin” “We were on a Break” and “Oh.. my…Gwaad”  are trademarked to Joey, Ross and Janice. 

Lastly, what I love about the show is that the cast never gives up on each other and neither do they give up on each other. they are with each other through the thick and thin and always help each other get back on their feet when the world turns mean. The money crisis or girl trouble of joblessness or family loss, the internal fall out, everything is put aside when a friend calls out for help. The one thing due to which the show still airs regularly even today is that it focuses on pure friendship.The series  focuses on the troubles that will come with life. At college level the common belief is that we will meet someone, fall in love and be together happily ever after. The show in its pilot episode had the line, “welcome to the real world, it sucks’ The transition with every relationships be it love or family or friends or roommates or bosses life is shown throwing punches left right and center. 

The adorable thing here is that the gang doesn’t stand tall always, they take the punches, fall down, pull each other up and dust themselves ready for life again. This makes it easier to relate to them for the phoniness is minimum with every character facing trouble one way or the other.
In the end I'd like to quote a few lines from the theme song with gives the sitcom meaning,

Its like you’have always been in second gear.
when it hasn’t been your day, your week, your month
even your year, I ll be there for you…

Your mother warned you there’ll be days like these
But she never told when the world has brought you down on your knees 
Ill be there for you…

Tanya
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Sherlock the show or the movie


Trust me when I say, I’d been as happy as a giddy kid on a school holiday when this topic was to be written upon. Sherlock Holmes- be it the book, the movies or the show, rather shows if you consider Elementary,I’ve always obsessed over them. I’ll admit I haven’t read the entire Sherlock Holmes series, but enough to compare the show and the movies. I’d say I prefer Sherlock the series than the Sherlock movies. 


Don’t get me wrong, Robert Downey Jr. surely is worth worshipping but Bennedict Cumberbatch takes the show to an entire different level.

A couple of years ago, there was a series of Sherlock Holmes where the protagonist was played by the late actor Jeremy Brett, it was a complete Sherlock Holmes experience and the portrayal was just as imagined by any SH readers. After that show, came a couple more versions- ‘Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars’ but they failed to bring out that queer and surreal acting that Jeremy Brett had contributed to the series that featured all of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes’ work.

When one talks about the movies, in my opinion, Robert Downey Junior is the USP of the movie; however his character in the movies, be it the first one or A Game of Shadows, is far from the kind of portrayal a Sherlock fan would want to watch on the screen. So my opinion, keeping aside the Sherlock part, the movies are amazing but Sherlock Holmes with all the hyper action and extreme fighting with lesser influence of the brain work,  the kind of passive Moriarty that there were in the movie, take down the real fun of Doyle’s protagonist.



Now let’s talk of the show. Hats off to Bennedict Cumberbatch for pulling off such an amazing acting. And for Andrew Scott for playing my favorite Moriarty. Compared with all other Sherlock Holmes franchise, this one has the best characterization, the cast has been brilliant and the modern twist to the tale that excited the lovers of Doyle is impeccable. Sherlock Holmes was more or less about this intelligence extraordinaire, an amazing chemistry between Holmes and Watson and the consulting criminal that Moriarty was. The best of the SH stories have been picked, modified in a modern day London and picturized with utmost detailing. Anyone who watches the show goes gagas over Sherlock, there are a million fandoms and those who love Sherlock are uncountable. My own wall was full of posters of Sherlock and Moriarty. My friends and I are so crazy for the show, we got identical Sherlock tees :D That’s how obsessions work.

I’d clearly say I prefer the show Sherlock, despite the fact they air 3 epic episodes every season and  leave you at a cliffhanger every Season ending. So this is what I’d say, the show and the movies are not really comparable because they’ve been created very uniquely, but with respect to the fact that both are based on Doyle’s work, Sherlock the show is my preference… what’s yours?

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Why we love Batman

The most human and flawed of all the superhero’s known, the one who struggles who resists himself from killing someone although it might be the most rational thing to do, he saves people but has the urge to hurt them as well, the one who constantly suffers from the conflict between his goodness, his ethics, his morals and his anger, one wrong step one wrong move and he’s the long standing face to prankish mayhem. Yes we’re talking about none other than Batman and how he’s the best superhero among all the other know. Here are 6 of the many reasons that make him the best superhero read on and you’ll know. GOOO BATMAN!!!!



1. He’s just as human as we are

He’s not from krypton, has not been bitten by some radioactive unknown spider species or has not been sent from the sky to save us like Thor he’s worked hard to reach he pinnacle of his potential and that’s what makes him exclusively relatable and if he were to suffer from some incurable disease or slipped from a staircase of significant height he’d die just like any of us. AS SIMPLE AS THAT.
 So the next time someone tells you, you can’t do that  just reply “I’m batman” :P






2. BRAINS:

Bruce Wayne as human as the next guy (just the billionaire version) doesn’t have his superpowers from the sun or some spider species but that does not mean he owns no super powers he owns the greatest superpower known to human race – HUMAN MIND his mind is a deadly combination of a proper genius and mental instability.

 “Tadaaaannnnnnn”

3.   He’s the most versatile tactician:

You’ll keep on wondering how he defeated rogue superman because batman works on angles that are barely noticed, the fact that no matter which battle he is fighting he keeps on adapting makes him unpredictable.
 We know what superman would do against a certain enemy what spidey will do against his; but do we know what batman has planned? Difficult to guess isn’t it?

4.    He’s got such wonderful toys:

It won’t be wrong to call him the gadget master from a simple re-breather to a fully armoured robotic bat suit, this guy has it all. What more do we need? plus the fact that he constantly keeps on engineering more.

5. Code and metaphor:

The code and the metaphor are what makes batman the greatest superhero, the code a proof that it is justice he seeks not revenge. He’s the symbol of human resilience and the proof of the fact that no how much ever worst the circumstance gets murder is not the solution.
 But this nowhere means he won’t skirt close to murder, well just for drama!

6. He’s the god damned batman:





Enough said!!!!
 Batman is the common man superhero, the super hero that is constantly torn between the struggle that he could become a villain at any moment, the struggle we face everday, he is the person we all want to be but are afraid to be, he taught us to FALL SEVEN, RISE EIGHT.












“You could never be Superman, you could never be The Incredible Hulk, but anybody could become Batman –you’d have to inherit a couple billion dollars and have all these gadgets, but nevertheless it’s possible. Like maybe if we tried hard enough, if we worked hard enough, if we trained hard enough, maybe, just maybe, we could become Batman.

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