Watchin' some tv...
Augh!!! I fear they just killed Lancelot for good, damn them. And Damn you, Santiago Cabrera, you are far too pretty, especially walking out of a lake, naked and with the water running down your torso and... sorry, lost a moment there. Where were we?
Is it just me or did they play up the Merlin/Lancelot here? Not to mention that that lake seems to be collecting all of Merlin's dead potential lovers platonic friends. Was that last spell supposed to be Merlin releasing Lancelot's soul or something?
Ooooh, Arthur. Very interesting the scene between him and Gwen, and all the rage and despair they managed to project. The show, though, once again went for the lets-add-unnecessary-angst... I'll just let this fancomic speak for me because, yeesh, seriously. And where was Elyan when his sister was leaving town at the crack of dawn?? The siblings get one meaningful look in all this mess and that's it? Really? Really??
I've been cheering myself up with Up All Night; if you haven't heard of it it's a sitcom about two new parents, the guy is a lawyer and the gal is a producer on a talkshow that is the nemesis of Ellen, and it's just so clever. This is what I point to as the exact antithesis of "contrived conflict": there's nothing here that isn't real or unnecessarily complicated For The Sake Of The Plot. In fact, ten episodes in and there is yet to be a single Plot Said So moment. Perhaps it's not much, but I really feel the writing is superb.
Oh, and I forgot to mention... it's created, written and produced by women. And most of the characters are women. And, despite their foibles, there is not one single character who falls into the usual "women" character tropes. Bechedel test? Passes with flying colors.
Oh, and did I mention that the dad quits his job to be with the baby and there are no hilarious man-at-home gags? That he's as capable as you'd expect a normally-functioning adult human being to be?
I'm really in love with the show; it's a bit of an odd duck, because the characters are much better drawn than you'd expect form a sitcom, but that leads to a certain lack of laugh-a-minute stuff (you need stereotypes to sustain that kind of writing for any long period of time), and yet it isn't so serious that you'd lump it with drama. You can pretty much jump into any episode without needing to know what happened before since there's no overarching story except for the set-up (parents, baby, working). Give it a try, really. The first few episodes are ok, and then it just keeps getting better and better!
Is it just me or did they play up the Merlin/Lancelot here? Not to mention that that lake seems to be collecting all of Merlin's dead potential lovers platonic friends. Was that last spell supposed to be Merlin releasing Lancelot's soul or something?
Ooooh, Arthur. Very interesting the scene between him and Gwen, and all the rage and despair they managed to project. The show, though, once again went for the lets-add-unnecessary-angst... I'll just let this fancomic speak for me because, yeesh, seriously. And where was Elyan when his sister was leaving town at the crack of dawn?? The siblings get one meaningful look in all this mess and that's it? Really? Really??
I've been cheering myself up with Up All Night; if you haven't heard of it it's a sitcom about two new parents, the guy is a lawyer and the gal is a producer on a talkshow that is the nemesis of Ellen, and it's just so clever. This is what I point to as the exact antithesis of "contrived conflict": there's nothing here that isn't real or unnecessarily complicated For The Sake Of The Plot. In fact, ten episodes in and there is yet to be a single Plot Said So moment. Perhaps it's not much, but I really feel the writing is superb.
Oh, and I forgot to mention... it's created, written and produced by women. And most of the characters are women. And, despite their foibles, there is not one single character who falls into the usual "women" character tropes. Bechedel test? Passes with flying colors.
Oh, and did I mention that the dad quits his job to be with the baby and there are no hilarious man-at-home gags? That he's as capable as you'd expect a normally-functioning adult human being to be?
I'm really in love with the show; it's a bit of an odd duck, because the characters are much better drawn than you'd expect form a sitcom, but that leads to a certain lack of laugh-a-minute stuff (you need stereotypes to sustain that kind of writing for any long period of time), and yet it isn't so serious that you'd lump it with drama. You can pretty much jump into any episode without needing to know what happened before since there's no overarching story except for the set-up (parents, baby, working). Give it a try, really. The first few episodes are ok, and then it just keeps getting better and better!