What I'm watching this week
I hope all the daddies - be you one or have one - had a happy Father's Day yesterday. The Spousal Unit just wanted to take it easy, so we did except for a quick sojourn to BJ's, the first warehouse store I've ever joined only because I finally cashed in one of those "two free months" coupons I'm always getting in the mail - and the store happens to be right down the street, so I don't have to drive out of my way. We're members for the next 14 months, and after a couple of trips to said warehouse store to check out the lay of the land, I remembered all the reasons why I never really bothered before now. We should get our membership fee's worth out of it this first year, but after that we probably won't join again.
We did pick up a big package of pork chops since TSU felt like grilling instead of going out for dinner, and they did turn out very tasty, so thumbs up for the quality of the meat. Then The Girl Child showed up last night just as we came back from walking the dogs, and she'll be with us for the next three days before she goes back to start the Summer B session. A visit from TGC is about the best Father's Day pressie TSU can get. Though he also got toys. ;)
Last night we opted to watch live the two-hour premiere of Falling Skies and saved the season finales of Game of Thrones and The Killing for tonight. About half-way through FS it dawned on me that we should have done it the opposite way since everyone on twitter and LJ and such would be talking season finales. D'oh! However, and even though I know no specifics, after seeing how livid viewers were after the finale of The Killing, I'm thinking maybe I made the right call after all. I can easily imagine why folks are pissed, and I assume I will be too. Looking forward to the GoT finale, though.
As for Falling Skies, I admit it didn't immediately suck me in the way I expected or wanted it to. Still, I do think it has the potential to be a slow burn kind of series. The acting is good, the production values are excellent, and the story has a lot of potential even if it is pretty bleak. I even liked Noah Wyle's character, and he's an actor I've always considered to be a lightweight. I mean, I never disliked him or anything - never loved him either. But he really seems to work in this part, so I'm going to stick with it for now.
TSU was a little less impressed than I was, but is going to give it at least a couple of episodes more. The big nit we have is that it relies on the trope of dumping you smack into the middle of the story, well after the big events have happened; so you do feel like you're missing stuff. But they did a better job with it than Outcasts did in the premiere that aired on BBCA on Saturday. We didn't like that one at all, so we won't be keeping up.
queeberquabbler - love the handle - wrote an excellent meta about the problems with the sixth season of SUPERNATURAL, and how it all could have worked a lot better.
She's more optimistic about the show than I am anymore, and has a lot more faith in the showrunners than I do - which is none at this point. So she gives a far more reasoned argument than I would have about where season six failed. My comment to her post is as follows:
Wanted to come back to this and comment, even though I threw out a quick note on THAB, but yeah, I'm going to reference this critique in my own LJ at some point about the many ways season six failed, and how it didn't have to. Sera could have had her "kink" cake and eaten it too if she had any interest in telling a meaty layered story that focused on more than the one actor she's personally besotted with.
Though, as I said on THAB, I don't think it's so much that Dean got lost in the shuffle - though he did, that much is clear. It's that I truly don't believe Gamble meant for Dean to factor in as anything more than a reactive agent; and her interviews about what she and the guys talked about pre-season where Dean's name wasn't even mentioned, coupled with her befuddled "Dean, who?" reaction to Mo Ryan's interview question as to WTF Dean's role was at the half-way point, was enough evidence that Dean was never a consideration for her - just as many fans predicted would happen when they heard she was being given the showrunner spot. I wish those voices hadn't been proved correct.
My personal feeling is that the Lisa-Ben thing was intended solely to sideline Jensen; and again, Ben Edlund even sort of spilled the beans on that point way back at Comic Con with his dismissive attitude about that plot device even then. It was at that point that I already suspected this wasn't going to be explored as a legitimate story, and it wasn't. I think the fact that Lisa's characterization and the relationship with Dean was retconned every time she appeared from the time before that was also evidence that no consideration whatsoever was put into that plot device (I can't call it a "story" since it never was); and that it was, again, only intended to pull Dean out of Sam's limelight, which is exactly what happened every time until the penultimate episode when the two characters were eliminated entirely. I really wouldn't be shocked at all if we never heard their names spoken ever again, as if they never existed in the first place.
Yeah, there were a handful of episodes that were enjoyable enough on their own legs - but a handful of mostly stand-alones does not a season make. I hope for better in S7, but then again, I hoped for S6 to improve dramatically on the end of S5, but it didn't. So I admit I'm not confident at all.
On a happier/slashier Supernatural note, here's a heady D/C line that was cut from an earlier production draft copy of THE END that makes me weak in the knees, and also verklempt as I think without it you lose a very significant point to future!Castiel's decision to go with future!Dean's reckless plan to confront Luci. It proves that not only did Castiel stick around almost solely for Dean (which I'm sure made Kripke and Gamble nervous, and why it was cut) - and is further proof (as if you need it) that Edlund is a big ol' D/C slasher - but that future!Cas knew future!Dean was sending them all to their deaths, and he was on board with that. He wasn't laboring under any false assumptions as to future!Dean's true motivations - and I think that's a pretty freaking crucial point.
And on the same theme, If I was a single gal I would totally buy these! Hee! ;D
We did pick up a big package of pork chops since TSU felt like grilling instead of going out for dinner, and they did turn out very tasty, so thumbs up for the quality of the meat. Then The Girl Child showed up last night just as we came back from walking the dogs, and she'll be with us for the next three days before she goes back to start the Summer B session. A visit from TGC is about the best Father's Day pressie TSU can get. Though he also got toys. ;)
Last night we opted to watch live the two-hour premiere of Falling Skies and saved the season finales of Game of Thrones and The Killing for tonight. About half-way through FS it dawned on me that we should have done it the opposite way since everyone on twitter and LJ and such would be talking season finales. D'oh! However, and even though I know no specifics, after seeing how livid viewers were after the finale of The Killing, I'm thinking maybe I made the right call after all. I can easily imagine why folks are pissed, and I assume I will be too. Looking forward to the GoT finale, though.
As for Falling Skies, I admit it didn't immediately suck me in the way I expected or wanted it to. Still, I do think it has the potential to be a slow burn kind of series. The acting is good, the production values are excellent, and the story has a lot of potential even if it is pretty bleak. I even liked Noah Wyle's character, and he's an actor I've always considered to be a lightweight. I mean, I never disliked him or anything - never loved him either. But he really seems to work in this part, so I'm going to stick with it for now.
TSU was a little less impressed than I was, but is going to give it at least a couple of episodes more. The big nit we have is that it relies on the trope of dumping you smack into the middle of the story, well after the big events have happened; so you do feel like you're missing stuff. But they did a better job with it than Outcasts did in the premiere that aired on BBCA on Saturday. We didn't like that one at all, so we won't be keeping up.
queeberquabbler - love the handle - wrote an excellent meta about the problems with the sixth season of SUPERNATURAL, and how it all could have worked a lot better.
She's more optimistic about the show than I am anymore, and has a lot more faith in the showrunners than I do - which is none at this point. So she gives a far more reasoned argument than I would have about where season six failed. My comment to her post is as follows:
Wanted to come back to this and comment, even though I threw out a quick note on THAB, but yeah, I'm going to reference this critique in my own LJ at some point about the many ways season six failed, and how it didn't have to. Sera could have had her "kink" cake and eaten it too if she had any interest in telling a meaty layered story that focused on more than the one actor she's personally besotted with.
Though, as I said on THAB, I don't think it's so much that Dean got lost in the shuffle - though he did, that much is clear. It's that I truly don't believe Gamble meant for Dean to factor in as anything more than a reactive agent; and her interviews about what she and the guys talked about pre-season where Dean's name wasn't even mentioned, coupled with her befuddled "Dean, who?" reaction to Mo Ryan's interview question as to WTF Dean's role was at the half-way point, was enough evidence that Dean was never a consideration for her - just as many fans predicted would happen when they heard she was being given the showrunner spot. I wish those voices hadn't been proved correct.
My personal feeling is that the Lisa-Ben thing was intended solely to sideline Jensen; and again, Ben Edlund even sort of spilled the beans on that point way back at Comic Con with his dismissive attitude about that plot device even then. It was at that point that I already suspected this wasn't going to be explored as a legitimate story, and it wasn't. I think the fact that Lisa's characterization and the relationship with Dean was retconned every time she appeared from the time before that was also evidence that no consideration whatsoever was put into that plot device (I can't call it a "story" since it never was); and that it was, again, only intended to pull Dean out of Sam's limelight, which is exactly what happened every time until the penultimate episode when the two characters were eliminated entirely. I really wouldn't be shocked at all if we never heard their names spoken ever again, as if they never existed in the first place.
Yeah, there were a handful of episodes that were enjoyable enough on their own legs - but a handful of mostly stand-alones does not a season make. I hope for better in S7, but then again, I hoped for S6 to improve dramatically on the end of S5, but it didn't. So I admit I'm not confident at all.
On a happier/slashier Supernatural note, here's a heady D/C line that was cut from an earlier production draft copy of THE END that makes me weak in the knees, and also verklempt as I think without it you lose a very significant point to future!Castiel's decision to go with future!Dean's reckless plan to confront Luci. It proves that not only did Castiel stick around almost solely for Dean (which I'm sure made Kripke and Gamble nervous, and why it was cut) - and is further proof (as if you need it) that Edlund is a big ol' D/C slasher - but that future!Cas knew future!Dean was sending them all to their deaths, and he was on board with that. He wasn't laboring under any false assumptions as to future!Dean's true motivations - and I think that's a pretty freaking crucial point.
And on the same theme, If I was a single gal I would totally buy these! Hee! ;D