perceiving each painting a disaster.
Watched Major Crimes, of course, but I really don't have anything new to say. SYKES. RAYDOR. AMY. SHARON. ♥
And - I blame my mother for this - I watched the pilot episode of Revolution. And I know I am always saying I need to give shows more than a pilot to work themselves out, but that was SO BAD. D:
From the previews alone, I knew this show was going to annoy the crap out of me in at least a couple small ways, but MY GOD. The premise in and of itself frustrates me deeply - how the fuck is it even possible to render electricity useless over an entire planet and a span of years??? In what way could you prevent any kind of electrical anything from functioning - including wind turbines? hand cranks? - when sparks are still possible (they're able to light candles) and, you know, people's brains still work? How can you have sparks and yet insist there are no functioning combustion engines? (I may have to take that last back if there are old-fashioned cars that still function, they're just exceptionally rare - but if that's the case, I'd expect Monroe's guys to have some, and they don't seem to.)
And the world, oh my god. The show is so married to shots of overgrown airplanes and tumbled columns - people can still lift shit, can't they? Who would not have taken those airplanes apart for seats and windows, bolts and scrap metal? "The last bottle of single malt in Chicago" - BULLSHIT. People have been making whisky WAY longer than there has been electricity, and if you try to tell me people didn't start growing barley and making stills in fifteen fucking years I will not ever believe you. I love a good post-apocalyptic dystopia, but this is, like - people lost access to electricity, they did not all get amnesia. Honestly, I think they might have been better off setting this like seventy years after a global disaster that killed everybody over the age of sixteen.
But I would let that stuff go - or, like, try to - for a story I liked. And I want to like Charlie, I really do. This episode was just crammed with tropetastic bullshit. The dead mom, the kid itching to go see the outside world even though they're told it's dangerous, the dad hanging on just long enough to send the kid on a quest before kicking it. Mysterious guy who helps save Charlie from being raped (BLEGH) and might be evil! Or maybe not! Scruffy-looking nerf-herder cynical older guy who doesn't want to help but then changes his mind! It was almost impossible to see the characters through the clouds of cliché shrapnel.
And Monroe's militia, oh my god. More black men in one frame than at any other point during that episode, and they're the threatening, violent group that Charlie is warned may "lynch" her? (Yes, that is the word that was used.) There is not enough D: in the world. (And yet, of course, they are still subordinate to the real antagonist, who's a white guy.)
I want to be fair, here. I liked the small flashes of tension between Charlie and Maggie, in the sense that I'm hoping they'll have some complicated one-on-one conversations and have to figure out how they fit together. I liked Maggie's poisoned booze. Maybe we'll learn that Charlie's mom is still alive. Maybe we'll get to know Tom Neville and he'll turn out to have a complex backstory and really deep characterization. Maybe Grace will keep showing up and be really important and awesome (I hope so, considering she's got a pendant and she's apparently credited in the next five episodes). Maybe there will be an Asian woman onscreen who gets actual dialogue instead of just picking corn or whatever in the background. But I have to say that my hopes aren't super high, considering that IMDb has Eric Kripke credited not only as creator and producer but also as writer. D:
And now it might be time for me to go back to sleep. Why do I always get sick right when I'm starting to actually be productive for once?
[crossposted; original at Dreamwidth]
And - I blame my mother for this - I watched the pilot episode of Revolution. And I know I am always saying I need to give shows more than a pilot to work themselves out, but that was SO BAD. D:
From the previews alone, I knew this show was going to annoy the crap out of me in at least a couple small ways, but MY GOD. The premise in and of itself frustrates me deeply - how the fuck is it even possible to render electricity useless over an entire planet and a span of years??? In what way could you prevent any kind of electrical anything from functioning - including wind turbines? hand cranks? - when sparks are still possible (they're able to light candles) and, you know, people's brains still work? How can you have sparks and yet insist there are no functioning combustion engines? (I may have to take that last back if there are old-fashioned cars that still function, they're just exceptionally rare - but if that's the case, I'd expect Monroe's guys to have some, and they don't seem to.)
And the world, oh my god. The show is so married to shots of overgrown airplanes and tumbled columns - people can still lift shit, can't they? Who would not have taken those airplanes apart for seats and windows, bolts and scrap metal? "The last bottle of single malt in Chicago" - BULLSHIT. People have been making whisky WAY longer than there has been electricity, and if you try to tell me people didn't start growing barley and making stills in fifteen fucking years I will not ever believe you. I love a good post-apocalyptic dystopia, but this is, like - people lost access to electricity, they did not all get amnesia. Honestly, I think they might have been better off setting this like seventy years after a global disaster that killed everybody over the age of sixteen.
But I would let that stuff go - or, like, try to - for a story I liked. And I want to like Charlie, I really do. This episode was just crammed with tropetastic bullshit. The dead mom, the kid itching to go see the outside world even though they're told it's dangerous, the dad hanging on just long enough to send the kid on a quest before kicking it. Mysterious guy who helps save Charlie from being raped (BLEGH) and might be evil! Or maybe not! Scruffy-looking nerf-herder cynical older guy who doesn't want to help but then changes his mind! It was almost impossible to see the characters through the clouds of cliché shrapnel.
And Monroe's militia, oh my god. More black men in one frame than at any other point during that episode, and they're the threatening, violent group that Charlie is warned may "lynch" her? (Yes, that is the word that was used.) There is not enough D: in the world. (And yet, of course, they are still subordinate to the real antagonist, who's a white guy.)
I want to be fair, here. I liked the small flashes of tension between Charlie and Maggie, in the sense that I'm hoping they'll have some complicated one-on-one conversations and have to figure out how they fit together. I liked Maggie's poisoned booze. Maybe we'll learn that Charlie's mom is still alive. Maybe we'll get to know Tom Neville and he'll turn out to have a complex backstory and really deep characterization. Maybe Grace will keep showing up and be really important and awesome (I hope so, considering she's got a pendant and she's apparently credited in the next five episodes). Maybe there will be an Asian woman onscreen who gets actual dialogue instead of just picking corn or whatever in the background. But I have to say that my hopes aren't super high, considering that IMDb has Eric Kripke credited not only as creator and producer but also as writer. D:
And now it might be time for me to go back to sleep. Why do I always get sick right when I'm starting to actually be productive for once?
[crossposted; original at Dreamwidth]