JANUARY 2023

Top Two Video Games

Leo Margil, Head of Graphic Design & Illustration

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is an open-world fantasy role-playing game (RPG) that came out in 2011 and is still popular to this day. Having sold over three million copies and receiving multiple Game of the Year awards, Skyrim is undeniably a classic. The player takes on the role of the Dragonborn, a mortal with a dragon soul who is prophesied to be the only one who can defeat the evil dragon Alduin the World-Eater. However, this prophecy is just one small portion of the massive and intricate world of Skyrim, so players will never run out of things to do. Even though this game came out 12 years ago, it is still wildly popular and widely played. 

Gameplay: Skyrim’s gameplay is simple, and, while lacking in some areas, exciting. The combat is easy and involves very little strategy, but there are many different ways to approach it. This game improves on its predecessor, TES IV: Oblivion, with its lack of a “class system”, allowing the player to choose whatever playstyle they want and change it at will. The dialogue is mediocre, inconsistent, and generally boring. This was in an attempt to let the player project whatever personality they liked onto the Dragonborn, but resulted in a mild-mannered and tame character. Most dialogue options will get players to the same end result, and there isn’t much at stake with what you say. 

Story: What Skyrim lacks in quality of story, it almost makes up for in quantity—and boy does it lack in quality. Almost every questline is ineffectual to both the player and the Dragonborn, both in the sense that it has no in-game impact and that it leaves no lasting impression. One of the only storylines in Skyrim that is well done is the Dark Brotherhood questline; however, even this tear-jerker of a story leaves the player feeling powerless. Additionally, storylines do not interact with each other in any way, and one can be part of multiple conflicting factions at once with no conflict. Despite its lackluster main storytelling, Skyrim is filled to the brim with little interesting tidbits and side-quests that intrigue for hours on end.

Graphics: For a game released over a decade ago, the graphics in Skyrim are up to par, and, at times, breathtaking. The character models are typical of games released in the 2010s and are definitely an improvement from Oblivion, but the real gold is in the landscapes. From snowy, quiet forests to sweeping northern lights, Skyrim will have the player immersed in a beautiful eternal winter that leaves them missing something they may never have had.

2. Subnautica

Released by Unknown Worlds in 2014, Subnautica is a survival-adventure game set on the aquatic planet of 4546B, where the player is the lone survivor of a devastating spaceship crash. As time goes on, the player must collect and interact with the local flora and fauna to survive on the strange planet, and begins to discover more and more about the crash and the history of 4546B. 

Gameplay: Subnautica features four modes: Survival, Freedom, Hardcore, and Creative. In Survival, the player character (PC) has a hunger, thirst, health, and oxygen meter. They begin in a lifepod containing a broken radio system, medkit fabricator, fabricator, and container with a limited amount of food and water. It has little to no combat, and mostly focuses on building and exploring. To fabricate the tools needed for survival, the PC must “scan” scraps or fragments of that tool left over from the crash to earn the blueprint. The PC can develop bases, vehicles, and tools using this system. In Freedom mode, everything is the same as survival, except there are no hunger or thirst meters. In both these modes, if the player runs out of health (caused by damage from wildlife, radiation, starvation, thirst, or asphyxiation), they die and lose some items. In Hardcore mode, if the player dies, they are permadead and the game file is deleted. In creative, all blueprints are unlocked, nothing takes materials to fabricate, and there are no meters (and therefore no death). 

Story: One of the most interesting parts of Subnautica is the introduction of its story. Subnautica does not contain quests or story encouragement in any way except from their PDA tablet, which relays radio information. The game can be played without ever interacting with the storyline in any way, as these radio messages are often inconsequential and easy to miss. Even without the story, the game is fulfilling and fun, and can be played for hours. The story itself, however, is very good and a great commentary on monopolies and capitalism. The ship that crashed, the Aurora, was run by the space monopoly Alterra, the same company that funded the Degasi: another ship that crashed on 4546B years ago. If the PC wants, it’s up to them to find out what Alterra was really doing on this remote planet.

Graphics: Since there are no NPCs in Subnautica, most of the graphic design is focused on the aquatic flora and fauna of planet 4546B. Ranging from cute little Cuddlefish to mysterious and terrifying Ghost Leviathans, this game is a treat for the aspiring xeno-marine biologist. Many of the species of fauna found in this game are downright horrifying, nightmare-inducing fish that will have you screaming out loud. The landscapes do a great job of conveying tone, from the safety of the aptly-named Safe Shallows to the unending Void at the edge of the map. The textures themselves are relatively simple, but the sheer amount of content and structures left over from the crash of the Aurora can make the game’s loading time astronomical, making it a rather large time investment- one that’s worth it.

Beartown: A Review

Sarah Cochi

Beartown was written in 2016 by Swedish author Fredrik Backman. Originally published in Swedish under the title Björnstad, the novel was translated into English by Neil Smith. Originally, I thought this was a book about hockey, but I was wrong. It's about a silent town in the woods, the people in that town, and what they would do to protect whatever or whoever they love. 

The novel follows Peter Andersson, General Manager (or “GM”) of Beartown Ice Hockey; his daughter, Maya; and her friend Ana, as well as multiple members of the Beartown Juniors hockey team: underdog Amat, golden boy Kevin, and his loyal friend Benji. 

Beartown Ice Hockey’s Junior team is the best they’ve ever been and have made it to the finals, so close to reaching the town’s dream of having a nationally ranked junior team. Needless to say, the pressure is on. At a party the night after a big hockey game, Kevin Erdahl is dared that he couldn’t get the GM’s daughter to have sex with him. In a desire to win this bet and to prove himself to his teammates, Kevin rapes Maya. As Kevin is the star player, the town’s golden boy, and Beartown’s only hope of winning the finals, Maya is put in an impossible situation. The lives of these characters and their entire town are irreparably changed following this life-altering event. 

If Backman succeeded in one thing in this book, it’s his characters. At every new chapter and with the turn of every page, Backman eloquently delivers a character that relays insight into human nature that I've never thought about, but somehow have always needed. His characters are deep and rich to the point where I don’t hate any of them—even the ones I thought I should've (I'm looking at you, Kevin). Around two pages are spent talking about a man who was intensely homophobic, a generational attitude inherited by his son. In any other situation, I probably would've found myself disliking them both for their hatred, but Backman has a way of making his characters grow and alter my perspective on them in just one or two sentences. The son goes from “shaking all over” and feeling “ashamed and disgusted” seeing a boy he’s been a father figure to for years kissing another boy, to realizing that “there’s no other way to explain how much a grown man must have failed as a person if such a warrior of a boy could believe that his coach would be less proud of him if he were gay. David hates himself for not being better than his dad” (Backman 367, 371). With one line Backman has wholly altered the perception of this character; David goes from someone you think is inheriting his generational hatred with no question, to someone beginning to change his ways. Backman’s characters learn in every line, but never in a way that seems obvious or boring. The writing is developed, and the way the characters are thinking makes you learn the lessons along with them.

Although all the characters carried meaning, there were a lot of them. Because of this, I tended to lose track of them while reading. For example, if the plot is following Peter, then all of a sudden it switches and begins to talk about Peter’s old friend from youth hockey, it’s easy to get confused with who is who, and some characters even fall into the abyss and aren't given names. While it’s a common and popular literary tool to keep an unnamed narrator or protagonist, the unnamed characters of Beartown tend to be side characters who still have a rather significant impact on the book. One of the characters who didn’t get a name was David’s girlfriend. For a book where the main plot and conflict was the story of a woman experiencing sexual assault, the concept of having an unnamed pregnant girlfriend makes her seem like less of a woman in her own right, and more of a remnant of the manic pixie dream girl trope—a woman only in the story to talk to David when he’s freaking out about hockey or fatherhood. 

Despite this large amount of characters, each plotline tended to be wrapped up with each character getting their own redemption or conclusion that made sense for them, even if it may be unsatisfying to the reader to have so many plotlines to tie up. These are characters like Robbie Holts, Ramona, and Jeanette. Their conclusion arcs weren’t vital for the flow of the novel but were given anyway, allowing for a greater understanding of these characters, but making the end of the novel rockier, as opposed to a smooth flow to the ending.

Beartown is a fantastic novel that really makes readers think about friendship, trust, and growth in a way that doesn’t feel like a lecture, nor does it leave readers confused and sent off into the deep end of intrapersonal communication or interpersonal relationships. The novel’s unbridled deliberation of common locker room culture is ever so relevant in our society today, and adds to all the reasons I would recommend it to anyone, hockey fan or not. Every human being has something to benefit from this novel, and I couldn’t recommend it more.

“You Like That? But it’s ‘Just for Kids’!”

Olivier Therien

“Just for kids” is a phrase that everyone has heard at some point or another. It’s often used to dismiss the quality of a piece of content that’s considered “immature” or “inferior” just because it can be watched by people of all ages. Personally, I’m reminded of this phenomenon every time I try to watch classic Christmas movies, like How the Grinch Stole Christmas or The Charlie Brown Christmas, but this phrase isn’t exclusively contained to them. This occurrence even applies to highly acclaimed media like Pixar movies. Ratatouille and The Incredibles are adult projects, but are limited because animation is more typically associated with children. All of these are enormously successful movies, but they’re often looked down upon because they’re “just for kids”.

Why do we instinctively turn our nose at something simply because it’s available to all age groups? In the case of shows like Dora the Explorer and Thomas the Tank Engine, this makes sense. These programs intentionally target infant viewers by talking down to their audiences, like asking them where the map is even though anyone over three years old knows where it is. These can be painful to watch because no one wants to feel like they’re being talked down to.

However, there’s a distinct and very important difference between shows like Thomas the Tank Engine and The Charlie Brown Christmas Special. Charlie Brown never talks down to its audience. It never feels like the directors of the show thought “maybe we should simplify this for the kids.” They never limit their creativity based on the limited understanding of a kid. They just want to make a short film that appeals to ALL age groups, which happens to include small children.

Yes, there’s a lot of physical comedy that a lot of young children happen to enjoy, but it’s not the only humor the creators include. The kids in Charlie Brown don’t talk about frivolous school-related issues, like what Sally said to Harry and vice versa. They discuss really relatable problems, like love, loss, not understanding why you’re sad, or being the outsider in a group. These problems don’t feel like they’re exclusive to kids. They’re what many people experience as daily life.

The music in all Charlie Brown specials reflect this as well. Vince Guaraldi, the composer for every Peanuts short, didn’t simplify any of his jazz music so that it would be better appreciated by the children he knew would be watching his short. If you look at the chord structures and melodies in the music of Charlie Brown, they feel just as intricate and complex as most jazz standards made at the time. It’s not as if those jazz standards were dismissed as being “just for kids”.

Pixar is similarly famous for refusing to compromise their creative vision just because they know kids will watch their films. The best example of this, in my opinion, is The Incredibles. In reality, The Incredibles is not just a superhero movie. The superhero movie is masquerading behind a complicated family drama about a man who is no longer happy with his life. It’s a perfectly interwoven story that just happens to appeal to children as well. It’s clear that the writers intended to make a story that would be good, regardless of the age group that would be watching it. And yet, for all the accolades and praise this movie got, a lot of people discredit it as being for kids because the intricacies are lost in the superhero backdrop. If anything, The Incredibles is more of a story for adults, but that’s a conversation for another day.

Even if the argument is that The Incredibles is for kids, what’s so wrong with that? What makes kid content so repulsive that no one wants to watch it? My theory? It’s pride. There’s an unconscious phenomenon that all of these pieces of media are a victim of: people want to move away from what they did in the past. Since humans change so drastically over long periods of time, it creates a constant feeling that we have to move away from the things we’ve done in the past. From the beginning of a lifetime all the way to the end, humans change in almost every possible way. Because of this, it’s only natural that people want to move away from the things that defined their childhoods; they consider themselves completely different people now. 

Although this makes sense psychologically, I want to challenge that perspective. Knowing that this bias exists is precisely the reason why everyone should ignore it, because it has nothing to do with the actual quality of the content. There’s obviously nothing wrong with not liking The Charlie Brown Christmas Special or The Incredibles or even Lego, but the excuse that they’re just for kids doesn’t hold any water. Even if someone truly believes that a piece of media was specifically made for children, it’s not a valid excuse because they’re not judging the content. They’re simply saying that it’s made for kids and therefore inferior, which is a weak argument. So the next time you watch something that’s supposedly “just for kids”, remind yourself that you don’t have to exclusively watch content that’s “just for adults” either. Just watch what you enjoy.

Not many empowering shows also include kidnapping and fantasies of murder. 9 to 5, however, strikes that balance perfectly. 

From its feminist messaging to its well-thought-out acting, choreography, music, and set to its opportunities for growth, Natick High School Theatre’s production of 9 to 5 promises to be spectacular. 

9 to 5: The Musical follows Judy, Violet, and Doralee, three very different women who are friends because they work at the same office. The office is run by Franklin Hart, a misogynistic boss who mistreats his female staff. The three women band together to build up the company and make it a better place for its workers (after dreaming up ways to murder Hart, of course). 

9 to 5’s clear message of female empowerment drew Marly Rotenberg ’23, the student director, to the show. She said, “What makes this show different from other shows with female leads is that it’s all about women coming together and bringing each other up and doing something positive and making a lasting change.” Even though the movie version of 9 to 5 (off which the musical is based) was written in 1980, its feminist message is still relevant and necessary over 40 years later. Further, 9 to 5 allows audiences to connect the topics discussed in the show with modern issues by themselves without feeling singled out for their lack of knowledge about sexism. Marly said, “The message that [9 to 5] spreads—and it deals with heavy topics of sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the workplace—is told through as comedic of a lens as humanly possible when dealing with those subjects to try and make it seem less confrontational.” 

Even though 9 to 5’s feminism was a huge point in favor of the show, the student leaders had to consider various cons when choosing which show to direct. For instance, 9 to 5 is a difficult show with an expansive and challenging score. On top of that, this production is entirely student-run, and the cast, crew, and pit have had a very short time to put everything together. However, the creative team decided that they were up to the challenge. 

Marly said that the biggest obstacle she has faced in shaping the acting of the show has been helping everyone understand the character that they need to portray. “Acting is all about storytelling,” she said, so she wants each character to be three-dimensional and dynamic. To accomplish this, Marly has actors think about what their character is like throughout the show as a whole and how they change from song to song and scene to scene. Marly is especially proud of the way the three female leads portray their characters’ perseverance, growth, and empowerment. This enhances the acting moments about which Marly is most excited: the end of Act I, when the characters finally do something about their frustration, and the end of Act II, when they share their frustration with the world.

Sydney’s choreography would not be complete without the music to which it is set. 9 to 5 features a whopping 18 songs (all written by Dolly Parton!), and they are not easy. Anna Huynh ’23, the music director, said that the biggest challenge for themself and for the cast when it comes to music is the limited rehearsal schedule. She has had to spend days making practice tracks, and the cast has not had much time to master each song, but they have all been pulling their weight and making significant progress on the music. One of Anna’s favorite things about the music in this show is that it is very ensemble-oriented. “Many people have the impression that [the] ensemble isn’t important, but it is in this show. We have all been realizing the importance of the ensemble and how they frame the show and how they really make the show come to life,” they said. 

The pit band is also playing some challenging music in this show. In fact, the creative team was advised to use background tracks rather than a student pit, but they decided that the pit was up to the challenge, and that they would let them play. Isaac Hoffman ’23, the pit conductor, said that the pit has learned to sync their difficult parts and changes, especially in complex songs like “Dance of Death”. Isaac is conducting for the first time for this show, and is enjoying it. He has especially grown as a conductor from slower songs like “Heart to Hart”, which force him to be perfectly in time. Isaac is proudest of the opening number, “9 to 5”, as it has come together well and is a song everyone will know and appreciate. The pit band as a whole is excited to be performing onstage (on a platform built by stage crew) for the first time. 

Despite 9 to 5’s abbreviated time frame, the stage crew has been able to put together an impressive set. Charlotte Gagliardi ’23, the stage manager, said that her only requirement for the show was a stationary set. When the crew does not have to focus on moving large set pieces, they can make the movements of smaller pieces (for this show, the desks and other furniture) more intricate. Further, when the set stays the same throughout the show, the actors can settle in and be confident in moving around the stage and interacting with the set. In this show, the thing Charlotte is most proud of is the other people in stage crew. Earlier this year, Charlotte was one of the only stage crew members left who remembered how things were before Covid, but she and the other crew heads have done a great job teaching their assistants how to run things. They have all loved watching the underclassmen fall in love with crew and become more confident in their abilities. Charlotte is also excited about having a working elevator onstage, as its opening and closing doors allow the actors to interact with it realistically.  

9 to 5’s creative team has had to learn new skills for the show too, whether that is allocating money, teaching high schoolers, or finding the balance between director and friend amongst a group of their peers. It has been a challenge, but has taught them life skills, such as communication, teaching, and leadership.

The creative team is made up of Marly Rotenberg ’23, the director; Anna Huynh ’23, the music director; Charlotte Gagliardi ’23, the stage manager; Sydney Carner ’24, the choreographer; Naomi Zwelling ’23, the producer; and Isaac Hoffman ’23, the pit band conductor.

With all of these differing roles, there is the potential for overstepping, but this is not the case for this group. One of the greatest strengths of 9 to 5’s creative team has been giving each other the space to excel in their area of expertise, and trusting each other to do their thing well. Charlotte said, “These guys don’t bother me at all, and I love it…They gave me specific things they wanted for the set and then they let me do what I’m already good at.” 

In addition to preventing conflict, this trust has given each member of the creative team significant influence over an area of the show, making them more confident in their abilities. “Once you’ve done something before and once you feel like you’ve learned enough to be confident in your perspective on it, it becomes a lot easier to make your voice heard,” Charlotte said. 

This confidence is one of the things the creative team as a whole is most excited for in the final production. It has been a privilege for them to help the cast, pit, and crew learn their roles and build trust in their own talent. They cannot wait to see even more confidence shine through as all the pieces of the show start to fit together and they head into show weekend. 

9 to 5 will be playing in the Natick High School auditorium at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, February 3 and at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 4 and Sunday, February 5. Tickets can be preordered at this link or bought at the door. 

The creative team encourages residents of the Natick area to come see the show because it is bursting with talent from the cast, pit, and crew, and is a great way to support local artists and get a good couple hours of entertainment. Or because, as Charlotte said, “I love Dolly Parton, and so should you.”