Recap Notes: MAGP 10 “Saturday Night”
Spoiler Warning: this is a purely selfish exercise in remembering what the hell happened last season (from someone caught up thru MAGP32, 3/6/2025 & all of The Magnus Archives). No promises I’ll keep up with it.
Summary: Somewhere, Annabelle Cane is saying ‘I told you so’ to the naysayers of her children’s show pitch.
Casement: CAT1RB2275-06082021-09032024
With the hype surrounding his entrance, this episode absolutely nailed the landing with Mr. Blobby turned flesh horror Mr. Bonzo.
But I’ve something to admit [ducks and covers from thrown choco leibniz].
I didn’t like Mr. Bonzo.
At first!
I know he was an early fave in the ARG, and while conceptually he’s always had a great design (really excellent job toeing the line between something conceivably nostalgic and terrifying in the way so many 90’s staples were) I was afraid he was a little too… kitschy to mesh with the monsters I’d come to expect from TMA. But to be fair, the versions in my head have always been a little more muted than some of the takes I’ve seen online. For example: I love the creativity in the kaleidoscope-coloured Michaels/Helens I’ve seen, but for me my favourite designs are normal humans stretched to spine-chillingly impossible proportions. Able to sit across from you in a coffee shop then arrest you with terror when you catch them out of the corner of your eye being anything but. Even Monster Pig, arguably the most (affectionately) absurd from the OG cast of monsters, just looked like a rather large farm animal. Till you got close.
In the case of Bonzo, I’m so happy to be proven wrong.
Couple interesting things in the timeline with this one (relying on quite a hefty bit of supplemental info from the ARG, so feel free to discard if you only want to engage with show canon). I’m not implying correlation, but just in case there was something happening in the world-at-large that multiple players were tapping into, putting concurrent events here to do with as you will.
- 1994 Nigel Dickerson’s appointed the frontman of Saturdays on Six around the same time the OAIR’s modified NT 4.0 workstations are installed.
- Two years later Mr. Bonzo debuts, a year after OAIR announces their affiliation with Rightforce International.
- 1998 the treasurer of The Magnus Institute mentions plans for the turn of the millennium. Sam is tested along with a plethora of other “gifted” kids. Shows and attractions are closed at Bonzoland after a series of incidents.
- 12/24/1999 the Magnus Institute is burned down by Starkwall.
- 12/31/1999 on the cusp of the millennium, Mr. Bonzo’s New Years eve bonanza is cancelled.
- 1/03/2000 The OAIR cuts ties with Starkwall
- 3/03/2000 Bonzoland closes for good
Now we know Bonzo is affiliated with the OAIR. He’s a confirmed external, much to Gwen’s future delight. What hasn’t been confirmed is if the OAIR ever worked with The Institute. And someone please correct me if that’s wrong. I don’t have the answer, but we do know (thanks to Helen’s use of the word “quango” when she pops up later) that while TMI worked outside the civil service, they at some point received financial support from it. Were the two organizations’ goals aligned for some time? Was Leonardo Kennings successful in convincing the Institute’s higher-ups of the Millennium Dome’s unsuitability for their transmutative needs? Was Bonzoland plan B? Did the burning of the Institute somehow make what was planned for its grounds unable to pop off, so the OAIR cut off ties with the people responsible for flubbing it? Sheer conjecture at this point, but I’m having fun in the playground.
Also, “[HIS TEETH ARE NOT SOFT.]” deserves a shout for most awfully wonderful script addition.
And Sam and Alice visit the ruins! Break a seal. Free an Archivist (to the scent of sulphur in the air if the cesspit comments hold any weight). All in a day’s work.
Little disappointed (for as much as I love them as bonus content) that I feel like the transcripts did the heavy lifting with [ERROR]’s release at the end here. Spoken to a few friends who’ve agreed they would have had no idea what was going on had they not read along, and that feels slightly wrong to me for an audio medium. It’s a trend I’ve noticed more with Protocol than Archives. The transcripts are almost mandatory reading instead of supplemental if you want to get the whole story. Not upset with it, just…
Would hate to alienate folks who weren’t raised in the culture of the discord where we pick apart every detail.
[shrugs]
In more lighthearted news, Alice has a joke on page 16 of the transcript I can’t believe they got away with including. Kudos for the chutzpah.