SPN 8.01 and other shows
I've watched a few things lately (as a result to having no time to read fic; at least I work at my oral understanding of English! is my justification). Here are various thoughts, in case anyone is interested.
It's been a few days, so I imagine that everyone is tired of episode reactions, but let's pretend I'm talking to myself.
I found myself engaged by the episode. I'm not passionate about the show like I used to be, but it remains very dear to my heart, and big bang fics during the summer helped rekindle my interest for the fandom. So go SPN fandom, go!
I need to get off my chest my dislike for Sam's hair. Sam's hair is a most serious matter to me - I've alternatively loved and hated his various hairstyles over the years. This one I really, really hate. Seriously, Sam, cut your hair, take care of it, anything. You'd think he was the one in Purgatory for a year! I still love you, though. Sam took a lot of heat during this episode, and while I completely understand why Dean would feel betrayed, I also understand Sam's side of things. Everyone has a breaking point - with no one left, no lead, no direction for his life, well, I can understand while the dude would want to stop fighting... I also like that we weren't presented with the nth edition of hyper-focused, emotionless Sam (not particularly hating on this characterization of Sam, but it's been explored to death already). Besides, I don't think we know everything about Sam's year yet. I bet that it's a lot more complicated than Sam just thinking "oh well, Dean's dead, let's have a life" and looking to settle. During the dog incident, Sam looked too upset for it to be just because he hit a dog with his car. And why is his relationship with Amelia over? Why did he leave at the beginning? Who was watching him when he left his house?
As for Dean, I like how their handling his return to human world so far, better than how they handled his return from Hell. I think a huge part of it is how much more relatable what he went through in Purgatory is from what he went through in Hell. There's how long it lasted (apparently it was one year for him too) and what happened to him (it can easily be translated into real world war experiences, unlike the inimaginable tortures of Hell). And there's some more mystery! I admit to liking mysteries. What happened to Castiel? What did Dean and his new friend Benny do exactly? Will Benny the vampire be a friend or a foe? Although the brothers are at odds again, and Dean is mad at Sam again there seems to be a bit more openess and less bottled up resentment on Dean's part - like, maybe if he voices out his grievances better, maybe they won't fester so much? I don't know, we'll see how it evolves.
Since I know there're a couple of fans on my flist, let's talk about the beginning of season 3 of Haven!
I'm going to sound like a broken record, and a vain person, but what is up with Duke's hair? By episode 3, I'm starting to get used to it, but I liked it better in the previous seasons *pouts* As a Audrey/Nathan/Duke shipper, I'm of course sad at the issues arising between the characters, but it was also time that they deal with the fact that Audrey is supposed to disappear eventually (although I thought it was supposed to have been the Crockers who killed her every time? and now it's the storm making her magically vanish?). But I also think that the hostility between Nathan and Duke is very manufactured. Yes, they've always had a complicated and troubled (ha!) relationship, and that makes it interesting - I like the complex history between them, I like the passion that sometimes manifest violently (and I like that they're kind of obsessed with each other *g*). Here, though, it looks like Nathan has regressed to early season one's levels of hostility (Duke is the scum of the earth! he can't ever be trusted!), and I have a hard time understanding why. It started at the end of last season, and it's supposed to have been triggered by Duke's Trouble, but yeah, I have a hard time buying it. It's annoying because it makes everything that happened between them for the past two seasons not count, and it makes Nathan look like an ass.
I tentitatively like the new characters. I like that Claire is competent, and not just "the annoying shrink who pesters the main character," and that there's apparently some follow up to Audrey dealing with the Troubled. As for Tommy, I liked him for most of episode 3, but at the end of the episode they make it look like there's more to him than we know, so I guess I'll have to wait and see...
On the mystery side of things (mystery!), I like that we're apparently going to know more about the Colorado kid. I've always been intrigued by the Colorado kid. Who was he? Who killed him? How did he fit in all this? I'm looking forward to some answers.
And now, two shows I've mainlined recently, and have thoughts about.
Carnivale:
Not a recent show but oh my, I was so utterly charmed by that show. The atmosphere, the music, the characters, the plot, not to forget the gorgeous opening credits... The main draw for me, because I enjoy this trope immensely, was the magical realism aspect. The blending of issues from a specific time period (the 30's and the Great Depression), a specific group of people (Carnivale people), and magic and the fight between Good and Evil, made it completely fascinating to me. This was well represented by the supperposition of Ben and Justin's (and Management and Scudder's) problems (acceptance or refusal of one's supernatural nature and destiny), and the problems of the Dreyfus family (loss of a child, infidelity, gambling addiction, mother/daughter rivalry). I can't speak of how realistic it was, but I enjoyed the description of the carnivale life as both a strong community, and a hard, sometimes stiffling environment, with its own set of values.
I appreciated how genuinely creepy it was, sometimes - special mention to Management back when we didn't know if he really existed (and even after), to Babylon and its ghosts (and what happened to Dora Mae, god, I'm still not over how horrible her fate was), and Appolonia's ghost in season 2. I generally watched the show at night before I went to bed and brr. I liked how we kept getting hints to a complex mythology, without ever being privy to the full picture but enough that we could follow the plot.
My main complaint would be, well, a shipper complaint (it's the second in this post, but this is really unusual for me, as I watch most shows without shipping anyone). I thought at the beginning of season one that they were aiming at Ben/Sofie, which was a bit cliché (only girl his age except for Libby and Dora Mae, who were depicted as the "bad" girls to Sofie's "good" girl), but whatever, I didn't care either way. But after a few fights Ben and Sofie kind of ignore each other, and Ben pays more attention to Ruthie, and Sofie to Libby... and I started shipping Ruthie/Ben and Sofie/Libby without real hope, because it's older woman/younger man ship (and not just a little, as Ruthie is at least twice Ben's age!) and f/f ship. Granted, it's HBO, but I didn't want to get my hopes up. And then it actually happens! Both couple sleep together! Ben does everything to save Ruthie's life, even tries to die for her, and Libby's so adorably flustered by Sofie's advances... and then both couples crash and burn. At least Ben and Ruthie interact a bit in season two, and at the end when everyone knows about Ben's powers, there's some hope that they'll be able to be at least friends (loved it when she took his hand and kissed his cheek), but I'm really mad at how they handled Libby/Sofie. Sofie horribly uses Libby, treats her like trash, and she never apologizes to her (but she apologizes to Jonesy) and they don't talk at all after that happens. Any feelings between them, any friendship (I would've been happy with them just being friends) is just discarded, and when Libby mentions Sofie at the end of season two, it's just to allude to Jonesy's past feelings for her, like her own never even existed. And then the show is back to Ben/Sofie and pushes for Jonesy/Libby (which was a puzzling ship to me). After I got resigned that things weren't going to turn out the way I wanted, I was able to enjoy season two more, but it really soured the early episodes for me.
Teen Wolf:
I started this show because I needed something fun and relaxing, and because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I thought all the romances were handled in a way I find annoying, but otherwise I really enjoyed it. Stiles is my favorite, which is apparently unoriginal for the fandom. He's funny! He doesn't have any other powers than his wits and his guts and he just wants to protect his friends and do stuff. And he's a weirdo. But I like most of the other characters too - I like Scott, I like that he tries so hard to do the right thing and wants to save everyone (contrary to Stiles, who wants to save people he likes and others... he'll think about it).
To me the most adorable relationship in the show isn't one of the various romances, but Scott and Stiles' friendship. I have a fondness for friendships, and too often shows don't manage to sell me their characters' friendhips (people are supposed to be friends but don't seem to like each other that much), but I'm sold on this one. I like that they're each other's main cheerleaders, that things that affect one affect the other (this is more obvious on Stiles' side, because plot affects Scott most of all, but I believe it goes both ways), and that they're just such permanent fixtures in each other's lives - I wouldn't mind more focus on their relationship, but I also like it as a background thing, like they don't think about it because they can't imagine a world where it would be different.
And there're so many parents for a teenage show! I love the parents! I love the Sherif and Melissa McCall and Chris Argent. I thought Allison's mom was creepy, but I felt for her when she was preparing to die and all she wanted was to have a talk with her daughter. Which she didn't have (I want to say that Gerard used this to twist her words after her death, but she would probably have agreed with him; except for the part where he was ready to sacrifice Allison, of course). I'm interested in seeing what will change now that Melissa knows about the werewolf thing, and I hope that the Sherif will get on board soon, because he would be terribly useful, and he would stop thinking that his son is just a trouble maker.
One thing I found particularly interesting about this show is how easily crossable with SPN it is. The hunters in Teen Wolf sound remarkably like the hunters in SPN - same rhetoric, and we know that there are hunting families in SPN too (i.e. the Campbells). When it comes to hunting philosophies, Kate, Gerard and Mrs. Argent are a lot like Gordon Walker, and Chris Argent seems closer to the Winchesters. More specifically, Chris Argent seems closer to Dean's views than Sam's: because of his own nature, Sam always showed empathy toward supernatural creatures, and being able to see things from their points of view, he sometimes advocated for mercy. Dean's (and Chris Argent's, I think) moral problems when it comes to hunting are more along the lines of what is the right thing to do, and how doing the wrong thing (as opposed to the right thing) reflect on them as people (the whole becoming a killer/monster thing Dean has going on). Chris Argent doesn't seem to have a lot of compassion for the werewolves, even those who are teenagers, but he seems attached to the Code (he's the one always bringing it up). When he stops his daughter from shooting Boyd again and again, I don't think it's because he feels for Boyd's pain, but because he's horrified by what Allison is turning into (and I'd bet he had similar problems with his father and sister). Later he asks if she'll kill Scott, when he never seemed to have any love for him, it's probably because he fears that crossing that line would be for Allison a sign that she's becoming "one of the things they hunt" (to put it into SPN's terms). In comparison to SPN, where the hunters are the main protagonists, it's interesting to have a show where they're fairly similar, but are mostly antagonists.
It's been a few days, so I imagine that everyone is tired of episode reactions, but let's pretend I'm talking to myself.
I found myself engaged by the episode. I'm not passionate about the show like I used to be, but it remains very dear to my heart, and big bang fics during the summer helped rekindle my interest for the fandom. So go SPN fandom, go!
I need to get off my chest my dislike for Sam's hair. Sam's hair is a most serious matter to me - I've alternatively loved and hated his various hairstyles over the years. This one I really, really hate. Seriously, Sam, cut your hair, take care of it, anything. You'd think he was the one in Purgatory for a year! I still love you, though. Sam took a lot of heat during this episode, and while I completely understand why Dean would feel betrayed, I also understand Sam's side of things. Everyone has a breaking point - with no one left, no lead, no direction for his life, well, I can understand while the dude would want to stop fighting... I also like that we weren't presented with the nth edition of hyper-focused, emotionless Sam (not particularly hating on this characterization of Sam, but it's been explored to death already). Besides, I don't think we know everything about Sam's year yet. I bet that it's a lot more complicated than Sam just thinking "oh well, Dean's dead, let's have a life" and looking to settle. During the dog incident, Sam looked too upset for it to be just because he hit a dog with his car. And why is his relationship with Amelia over? Why did he leave at the beginning? Who was watching him when he left his house?
As for Dean, I like how their handling his return to human world so far, better than how they handled his return from Hell. I think a huge part of it is how much more relatable what he went through in Purgatory is from what he went through in Hell. There's how long it lasted (apparently it was one year for him too) and what happened to him (it can easily be translated into real world war experiences, unlike the inimaginable tortures of Hell). And there's some more mystery! I admit to liking mysteries. What happened to Castiel? What did Dean and his new friend Benny do exactly? Will Benny the vampire be a friend or a foe? Although the brothers are at odds again, and Dean is mad at Sam again there seems to be a bit more openess and less bottled up resentment on Dean's part - like, maybe if he voices out his grievances better, maybe they won't fester so much? I don't know, we'll see how it evolves.
Since I know there're a couple of fans on my flist, let's talk about the beginning of season 3 of Haven!
I'm going to sound like a broken record, and a vain person, but what is up with Duke's hair? By episode 3, I'm starting to get used to it, but I liked it better in the previous seasons *pouts* As a Audrey/Nathan/Duke shipper, I'm of course sad at the issues arising between the characters, but it was also time that they deal with the fact that Audrey is supposed to disappear eventually (although I thought it was supposed to have been the Crockers who killed her every time? and now it's the storm making her magically vanish?). But I also think that the hostility between Nathan and Duke is very manufactured. Yes, they've always had a complicated and troubled (ha!) relationship, and that makes it interesting - I like the complex history between them, I like the passion that sometimes manifest violently (and I like that they're kind of obsessed with each other *g*). Here, though, it looks like Nathan has regressed to early season one's levels of hostility (Duke is the scum of the earth! he can't ever be trusted!), and I have a hard time understanding why. It started at the end of last season, and it's supposed to have been triggered by Duke's Trouble, but yeah, I have a hard time buying it. It's annoying because it makes everything that happened between them for the past two seasons not count, and it makes Nathan look like an ass.
I tentitatively like the new characters. I like that Claire is competent, and not just "the annoying shrink who pesters the main character," and that there's apparently some follow up to Audrey dealing with the Troubled. As for Tommy, I liked him for most of episode 3, but at the end of the episode they make it look like there's more to him than we know, so I guess I'll have to wait and see...
On the mystery side of things (mystery!), I like that we're apparently going to know more about the Colorado kid. I've always been intrigued by the Colorado kid. Who was he? Who killed him? How did he fit in all this? I'm looking forward to some answers.
And now, two shows I've mainlined recently, and have thoughts about.
Carnivale:
Not a recent show but oh my, I was so utterly charmed by that show. The atmosphere, the music, the characters, the plot, not to forget the gorgeous opening credits... The main draw for me, because I enjoy this trope immensely, was the magical realism aspect. The blending of issues from a specific time period (the 30's and the Great Depression), a specific group of people (Carnivale people), and magic and the fight between Good and Evil, made it completely fascinating to me. This was well represented by the supperposition of Ben and Justin's (and Management and Scudder's) problems (acceptance or refusal of one's supernatural nature and destiny), and the problems of the Dreyfus family (loss of a child, infidelity, gambling addiction, mother/daughter rivalry). I can't speak of how realistic it was, but I enjoyed the description of the carnivale life as both a strong community, and a hard, sometimes stiffling environment, with its own set of values.
I appreciated how genuinely creepy it was, sometimes - special mention to Management back when we didn't know if he really existed (and even after), to Babylon and its ghosts (and what happened to Dora Mae, god, I'm still not over how horrible her fate was), and Appolonia's ghost in season 2. I generally watched the show at night before I went to bed and brr. I liked how we kept getting hints to a complex mythology, without ever being privy to the full picture but enough that we could follow the plot.
My main complaint would be, well, a shipper complaint (it's the second in this post, but this is really unusual for me, as I watch most shows without shipping anyone). I thought at the beginning of season one that they were aiming at Ben/Sofie, which was a bit cliché (only girl his age except for Libby and Dora Mae, who were depicted as the "bad" girls to Sofie's "good" girl), but whatever, I didn't care either way. But after a few fights Ben and Sofie kind of ignore each other, and Ben pays more attention to Ruthie, and Sofie to Libby... and I started shipping Ruthie/Ben and Sofie/Libby without real hope, because it's older woman/younger man ship (and not just a little, as Ruthie is at least twice Ben's age!) and f/f ship. Granted, it's HBO, but I didn't want to get my hopes up. And then it actually happens! Both couple sleep together! Ben does everything to save Ruthie's life, even tries to die for her, and Libby's so adorably flustered by Sofie's advances... and then both couples crash and burn. At least Ben and Ruthie interact a bit in season two, and at the end when everyone knows about Ben's powers, there's some hope that they'll be able to be at least friends (loved it when she took his hand and kissed his cheek), but I'm really mad at how they handled Libby/Sofie. Sofie horribly uses Libby, treats her like trash, and she never apologizes to her (but she apologizes to Jonesy) and they don't talk at all after that happens. Any feelings between them, any friendship (I would've been happy with them just being friends) is just discarded, and when Libby mentions Sofie at the end of season two, it's just to allude to Jonesy's past feelings for her, like her own never even existed. And then the show is back to Ben/Sofie and pushes for Jonesy/Libby (which was a puzzling ship to me). After I got resigned that things weren't going to turn out the way I wanted, I was able to enjoy season two more, but it really soured the early episodes for me.
Teen Wolf:
I started this show because I needed something fun and relaxing, and because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I thought all the romances were handled in a way I find annoying, but otherwise I really enjoyed it. Stiles is my favorite, which is apparently unoriginal for the fandom. He's funny! He doesn't have any other powers than his wits and his guts and he just wants to protect his friends and do stuff. And he's a weirdo. But I like most of the other characters too - I like Scott, I like that he tries so hard to do the right thing and wants to save everyone (contrary to Stiles, who wants to save people he likes and others... he'll think about it).
To me the most adorable relationship in the show isn't one of the various romances, but Scott and Stiles' friendship. I have a fondness for friendships, and too often shows don't manage to sell me their characters' friendhips (people are supposed to be friends but don't seem to like each other that much), but I'm sold on this one. I like that they're each other's main cheerleaders, that things that affect one affect the other (this is more obvious on Stiles' side, because plot affects Scott most of all, but I believe it goes both ways), and that they're just such permanent fixtures in each other's lives - I wouldn't mind more focus on their relationship, but I also like it as a background thing, like they don't think about it because they can't imagine a world where it would be different.
And there're so many parents for a teenage show! I love the parents! I love the Sherif and Melissa McCall and Chris Argent. I thought Allison's mom was creepy, but I felt for her when she was preparing to die and all she wanted was to have a talk with her daughter. Which she didn't have (I want to say that Gerard used this to twist her words after her death, but she would probably have agreed with him; except for the part where he was ready to sacrifice Allison, of course). I'm interested in seeing what will change now that Melissa knows about the werewolf thing, and I hope that the Sherif will get on board soon, because he would be terribly useful, and he would stop thinking that his son is just a trouble maker.
One thing I found particularly interesting about this show is how easily crossable with SPN it is. The hunters in Teen Wolf sound remarkably like the hunters in SPN - same rhetoric, and we know that there are hunting families in SPN too (i.e. the Campbells). When it comes to hunting philosophies, Kate, Gerard and Mrs. Argent are a lot like Gordon Walker, and Chris Argent seems closer to the Winchesters. More specifically, Chris Argent seems closer to Dean's views than Sam's: because of his own nature, Sam always showed empathy toward supernatural creatures, and being able to see things from their points of view, he sometimes advocated for mercy. Dean's (and Chris Argent's, I think) moral problems when it comes to hunting are more along the lines of what is the right thing to do, and how doing the wrong thing (as opposed to the right thing) reflect on them as people (the whole becoming a killer/monster thing Dean has going on). Chris Argent doesn't seem to have a lot of compassion for the werewolves, even those who are teenagers, but he seems attached to the Code (he's the one always bringing it up). When he stops his daughter from shooting Boyd again and again, I don't think it's because he feels for Boyd's pain, but because he's horrified by what Allison is turning into (and I'd bet he had similar problems with his father and sister). Later he asks if she'll kill Scott, when he never seemed to have any love for him, it's probably because he fears that crossing that line would be for Allison a sign that she's becoming "one of the things they hunt" (to put it into SPN's terms). In comparison to SPN, where the hunters are the main protagonists, it's interesting to have a show where they're fairly similar, but are mostly antagonists.