Doctor Who 5.10
I think last night's Doctor Who was maybe the first episode in Moffat Who I have unreservedly loved. I was sceptical last week because the historical episodes in New Who were traditionally a bit earlier in the series and a bit silly, but after watching, I get it - it wouldn't have worked in that slot this time.
The guy playing Vincent was amazing, and kind of showed up Team TARDIS in most of his scenes - which isn't actually bad; some sort of pun on "guest star" springs to mind. Actually, Vincent himself was also friggin' amazing. He was well-rounded, not whitewashed (in his angry scenes I think he was more threatening than the turkey-monster) and importantly respected, which is always an issue when you show people with mental disorders on TV. I wouldn't call the episode a Very Special Episode, because those to me have connotations of cheesy pep talks and either hilariously tragic or sickly-saccharine endings, and this episode's ending struck a much more elegant balance. Good things don't always cancel out the bad things, bad things don't always cancel out the good things, Amy got her sunflowers, and I cried a little.
Oh, but I'm forgetting the one little exchange that slaughtered me before that:
"Amy. Rory."
"Who?"
Possibly the least subtle angsty part of the episode, and that was pretty good considering how easy it would have been to dwell on it and draw the focus away from the action scene. Also neat and heartbreaking: "Then why are you crying?", Eleven being specially nice to Amy, "I'm not the marrying type". I liked. I cried at bits of that, too. (And still want him back!! ;-;)
I do think it's plausible that Amy is a classics / art geek. We've not seen anything of her that suggests she can't be, we have seen hints of an artistic side from when she was small and cuter (playing dress-up, painting pictures) and it's a characteristically oddball interest for someone in a sleepy little village to have, which could even be why she found it appealing. Fanfic of mini!budding-art-critic!Amelia would have at least one reader. :D?
What did I think was weak? The little we-couldn't-get-Coldplay-so-this-will-have-to-do song was cheesy, but I didn't think it was that bad... Then again, I have no taste in music anyway. And the monster of the week felt slightly tacked on when I watched it, but then I found a reaction post espousing the theory that the monster was meant to parallel Vincent's depression - something terrifying and dangerous that other people can see the effects of but can't really perceive - which I thought was ingenious and made more sense if true. (Although an alternative version of that hypothesis would be that depression is a giant turkey, which seems less sensible.) I don't know if the Confidential mentions anything about this, though, since I haven't been watching them.
The guy playing Vincent was amazing, and kind of showed up Team TARDIS in most of his scenes - which isn't actually bad; some sort of pun on "guest star" springs to mind. Actually, Vincent himself was also friggin' amazing. He was well-rounded, not whitewashed (in his angry scenes I think he was more threatening than the turkey-monster) and importantly respected, which is always an issue when you show people with mental disorders on TV. I wouldn't call the episode a Very Special Episode, because those to me have connotations of cheesy pep talks and either hilariously tragic or sickly-saccharine endings, and this episode's ending struck a much more elegant balance. Good things don't always cancel out the bad things, bad things don't always cancel out the good things, Amy got her sunflowers, and I cried a little.
Oh, but I'm forgetting the one little exchange that slaughtered me before that:
"Amy. Rory."
"Who?"
Possibly the least subtle angsty part of the episode, and that was pretty good considering how easy it would have been to dwell on it and draw the focus away from the action scene. Also neat and heartbreaking: "Then why are you crying?", Eleven being specially nice to Amy, "I'm not the marrying type". I liked. I cried at bits of that, too. (And still want him back!! ;-;)
I do think it's plausible that Amy is a classics / art geek. We've not seen anything of her that suggests she can't be, we have seen hints of an artistic side from when she was small and cuter (playing dress-up, painting pictures) and it's a characteristically oddball interest for someone in a sleepy little village to have, which could even be why she found it appealing. Fanfic of mini!budding-art-critic!Amelia would have at least one reader. :D?
What did I think was weak? The little we-couldn't-get-Coldplay-so-this-will-have-to-do song was cheesy, but I didn't think it was that bad... Then again, I have no taste in music anyway. And the monster of the week felt slightly tacked on when I watched it, but then I found a reaction post espousing the theory that the monster was meant to parallel Vincent's depression - something terrifying and dangerous that other people can see the effects of but can't really perceive - which I thought was ingenious and made more sense if true. (Although an alternative version of that hypothesis would be that depression is a giant turkey, which seems less sensible.) I don't know if the Confidential mentions anything about this, though, since I haven't been watching them.