Auburn: Great Expectations
It’s been weird to see the idea of “Battered Aggie Syndrome” make its way out into wider reaches of CFB fans. Unlike the idea of “Clemsoning” or any other common -isms and inside jokes about the sport, which feel like they came from the outside world, “BAS” felt very internal and private. Now, the idea of the Aggie Football team getting overhyped and falling on its face is far from some weird intimate knowledge within the cult’s circle. But still just in the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen the Head Coach asked to address fans’ fears of potential failure in a press conference as well as national guys like Ari and Andy address “Why it's different this time”.
I get it. I’ve been watching A&M Football for a long time too. I’ve written about the “sleeping giant”. I watched the “It ain’t gonna be like it used to be” clip. I know the feeling of futility that the month of November brings, and I know how quickly a shiny little ranking can disappear. And if/when things go bad this season, I’m sure I’ll be leading the charge of “Typical” and “Of course this happened”. But in the meantime?
Why waste time about the anvil that may never fall? Why shy away from great expectations? Are you really enjoying the season if after every win you are rushing to your corner of the internet to proclaim “Next week is the real test though!” or “We’ve seen this before! Let’s see how they handle this!”
I don’t know. It’s all exhausting in the end, isn’t it? Relentless pessimism or unwavering optimism, even trying to claim to be some level headed fan gets old after a while, waiting for other fans to condescendingly pat you on the head and call you one of the good ones. It all gets old awfully quick.
Like I said in Week 1, I’m going to believe. I’m going to chase that bird. I’ll handle the disappointment when it’s time to, it’s not like we’re not old friends at this point.
Song
On the nose? Yes, but if you’ve been reading my writing for any period of time, that should not surprise you.
“I saw tail lights last night in a dream about my old life.
Everybody leaves, so why, why wouldn't you?”
Stats
You can find my full Fun With Numbers posts on Good Bull Hunting. In the next week or so, I’ll focus on something a little more specific.
Show
It’s been a decent year for TV, big follow up seasons and strong debuts… one of which was Noah Hawley’s FX series Alien: Earth. It’s pretty much a must watch if you’re a fan of any of the movies from the Alien-verse, combining the general creature feature horror of the originals with some of the interesting philosophical aspects that Ridley introduced in later installments.
What does it mean to be human? When is innocence lost? What happens if you turn a Xenomorph loose in a mega-apartment complex?
You can answer all of these and more if you watch the entire season unfold on Hulu.
Full disclosure, speaking of great expectations, myself and many others were fairly disappointed in the way they chose to end Season 1. But again, we cannot let future disappointments color how we enjoy the cavalcade of dread that builds in Episode 5, the constant cyborg battle between Babou Ceesay and Timothy Olyphant, or the brilliant creature design that is a parasitic eyeball from outer space.
Should more shows live in fear of cancellation, and therefore write nice, clean endings that answer more questions than they leave? Yes.
Should more shows strive to be as smart, fun, and aesthetically pleasing as Alien: Earth? Also yes.
BTHO Auburn.