Hell House

[Fireland]

Same here, though Canada is largely english-speaking, the province of Québec's official language is French. It's my mother tongue. But I must say, it took me about 11 years in school (6 in elementary school, 5 in high school) to be ''good'' in english. What really helped me was my father asking me to watch TV in english, 30 minutes per day. With subtitles. I would write down words I didn't understand so I could improve my vocabulary. And you know what else was really helpful ?

AoS fandom. I'm not kidding. At 15 I was on the Steam Forum, but I was also reading fics from Merlin and Calvin's website. I also started chatting on a website, maybe some of you will remember this, it was called ThePalace. Anyway, I ended up chatting with people from all around the world, in english. My first cyberfriend was from Malaysia. I improved my english really fast, though it wasn't always ''correct'' english (I also learned slangs and bad grammar). But part of my learning, just like you're doing, Ban, was self-learning.

Today, I mostly watch TV in english. When I buy DVDs, movies I've seen dozens of times in french, I watch them in english. And most of the time, I never switch back to french when I re-watch them. Same for the series I watch or buy on DVD. Always in english. Especially comedies. The dubbing kills the jokes. I prefer to watch them in their original version.

[banmaixanh]

I hadn't listened to anything in English until I was 19. I didn't want to hear what I didn't understand. And it's my problem. But then a teacher (not english teacher), he told me that "don't be intelligent when you study English." He meant I shouldn't try to understand the language I had never heard. It was impossible, no one could do that. He told me to watch TV in English and do whatever i want (don't care about what happen on the TV), and my listening skill would improve in the way I couldn't imagine. And he is right.
And like you, I like to watch and read English things in English instead of the translated version. The translation sometime isn't as good as the original one. And I often translate the text in other languages into English instead of into Vietnamese when I want to understand it. But I don't write and speak English. Hehe. My boss told me to write an English email to send to my colleague in Denmark and all I did is copy the old email and changed some detail. when someone asks me something by English, I often don't answer but ask another colleague for help even I understand what he asks me but not confident enough to speak my answer out loud. Oh, how shame it is.
And I agree with you that AoS fandom really helps a lot.

[Bryn]

Does anyone else agree that this episode is all around well put together?

[Doubar]

*raises hand* I definitely do!

[Rongar]

I do too, but that sounded like an off the wall comment...but maybe I missed something?

[Bryn]

Rongar: ha ha nah,I was just watching it last night and I forgot how good it actually was

[Doubar]

It's indeed an awesome ep. Very well-rounded, with a lot of insight into the characters and of course brilliant in its reference to S1 (just sayin' that because I missed the continuity in S2).

[manche]

This was a great episode.

It was good to see Scratch again, the villians were weaker in the second season and Scratch improved their reputation.

As a big fan of the first season I was glad, that the plot with Scratch was finished (something was told us about the meeting Sinbad and Doubar with Scratch in Conundrum) and that Maeve was mentioned. It was a big shame, that this episode did not end her finding. This would be a great end of the whole series. It is true that the motif with Maeve looked a bit as created by force, because with the exception of Sacrifice and a small mention in The return of the Ronin it looked that the whole crew forgot to Maeve in this season. But I am the big fan of Maeve, so it did not matter me.

I like the way that Sinbad expressed his feelings towards Maeve. He did not say it directly, but he was willing to give up his soul for her rescue. It means something. Her loss was showed as one of the things, from which Sinbad blames himself the most, along with the loss of Dim-Dym and Mustapha. His talk with Mala "when you love someone" was great.

It was nice to see the memory of Mustapha also. I always thought, that Mustapha could have been a valuable member of the crew. He was not completely forgotten.

A lot of emotions were here. I missed it in the whole season.

[Doubar]

Agree with everything you said, manche!

This ep is definitely one of my top favourites - and that's counting both seasons!

Scratch's return was such a great move. The villains in S2 were indeed all a bit ... well, weaker as you put it so well. They were just all less interesting and not growing on the viewer at all (or not on me that is). I really missed Rumina, and of course Scratch, too. That dark Council and the Devil who were introduced in "Voyage to Hell" were just so clichéd and overdone somehow. Scratch on the other hand, as much as we hate him for his evilness, kinda easily grows on the watcher so yeah I, too, was actually happy to see him again.

Also, because thus we finally saw both seasons be tied together. Apart from Tetsu and DimDim's intervention every now and then there was hardly anything at all that let us know S1 indeed existed. Maeve was not mentioned at all which in my eyes was their biggest mistake. You can't just take away a character that was part of a family and pretend nobody really cares for longer than a day (or as it was: the first ep). So with getting Scratch back in and having the demon use just the right spell to lure Sinbad into his trap they finally told us we were indeed still watching the same show. And I for one loved them for that.

Hell House, to me, was a little present to all the fans who've stuck with the show during both seasons, and it serves so wonderfully well as a good-bye-hug to all those who loved to see Sinbad and Maeve together. Although most likely designed as just a closing to that unresolved Sinbad/Maeve issue, it can easily be seen as much more than that. Because the talk the captain has with his mother gives much away and is very meaningful.

And as for Mustapha: now that was a great move, too. It was an odd thing anyway what happened to him. Because the way he's been introduced made you think he would remain with the crew and after all there's also this crew shot existing where he's in. The only hint we had that Mustapha was not going to make it was the fact that he was not in the opening credits.

It was a big shame, that this episode did not end her finding. This would be a great end of the whole series.

Indeed, if developed slightly differently they could have made the series' ending out of this one. However, at the time Hell House was made, according to my knowledge, they still thought a S3 would be granted.

[Bryn]

I agree with you two This is also a favorite, (but not top) episode of mine. I think overall, it has a strong first, middle, and ending to it. My rat, also really enjoys this episode and will sit right through it with me.

[Doubar]

alex: Aye, same here. Not the top ep, but definitely one of my very favourites. Haha, really though. She enjoys watching it? Oh, bless her!

[Bryn]

@doubar, Ya, she is becoming quite fond of the show in general, We watched 2 episodes last night, and she just sat on my lap and ate some seeds and listened the entire time. Bless her!

[Doubar]

Awesome.

[MJ]

I actually remember my first viewing of this episode. I was fourteen or so and AoS was aired on late saturday morning somewhere. I sat on my parents bed, about two feet to my left my little brother and the neighbour kid were playing computer games, watching the show with half and eye. (We weren't allowed any electronics in our rooms, I am so old).
I was still watching AoS though I was upset about Maeve's sudden disappearance. She was my favourite character and I felt she wasn't being done justice, the crew was never talking about her or giving any indication that they were looking for her and Dim-Dim. So when I saw that flash of red hair, heard that music I sat bolt-upright. Was I finally going to see Maeve again? I recognised that the hair wasn't the same colour, I had seen no mention of Jacqueline Collen guest-starring, but I could have missed it right? And she could have changed her hair and... I knew it was not going to be her but I wanted it to be so very much.
I suffered with Sinbad as he had to jump through all those hoops to find her. At least he got some guidance by Mala, I just had my little brother saying: Hey, isn't that the dead chick?
And then they found her, and it couldn't be her, it wasn't her, even with her head down it wasn't her. But they've used weird Maeve-inserts before where it clearly wasn't Maeve but it was supposed to be so please, please, please let it be Maeve.
And then it was a harpy and my hopes were all dashed.

Then Sinbad basically had his soul cleansed and I figured that at least we could have a nicer, kinder Sinbad back than we had had the last season. But the next week when I tuned in again it was the first episode again.

Heh. I was a pretty dramatic teen

[manche]

I agree, I think that they forgot to the promise, which Sinbad gave in the first season, that he will find Dim Dim.

My disappointment that this was not real Maeve was big. It was fine, that was showed that Sinbad still has some feelings for her, but it looked that the rest of the crew completely forgot to her. I expected a conversation or a mention about her at the end of the episode, for example between Sinbad and Doubar, but there was no conversation.

For me, Maeve was also the best character, together with Firouz. And his character was better written in the first season. More funny, more interesting.