(no subject)
BSG 4.16
I didn't go back and look up the name of this episode. I probably should, since I will want to avoid it in the future. It had all of the hallmarks of a Jane Espenson BSG episode (unrecognizable characterizations, heavily symbolic conversations that don't actually mean anything about themes and developments that the audience already figured out on its own thanks, high-school-level melodrama, and plot points that don't make the remotest bit of sense--armed gangs are roaming the Galactica in response to the sudden food shortage WHATNOW?!?) except it had them in about twenty times the normal recommended dosage. Let us speak of it no more. I'll deal with what it means that racial purity is starting to look like a suicide pact for both sides and that Caprica Six and Tigh lost their baby when I can actually put those things in some context that makes sense, and when Ellen Tigh isn't standing over them hectoring them about their OMGTRUELOVE. Feh.
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TSCC 2.15 - "Desert Cantos"
I'm always curious about the titles they chose for these episodes. Desert Cantos is the name of a set of photographs of the American desert by Richard Misrach dealing with the ways man's presence in the desert upsets existing balances. It seemed fitting for an episode about how SkyNet's presence shaped and then destroyed the small town where the factory worked, in ways both insidious and obvious, from inside the houses and beneath the fields.
Everybody is dealing with grief, but the humans--even stunted humans like Derek--are much better at it than the robots. I think Sarah is starting more and more to use her own life experience to connect with other people, even if the end goal is mostly to gather information. It doesn't feel that transactional when she does it; Lena Heady conveys a degree of empathy that shows Sarah's long-term goal, the survival of all of these people she's dealing with, as an undercurrent of her manipulation. In this case, she's also a sort of widow to a man with a life she didn't understand; she is, as Derek points out, still dealing with that loss, but she's farther along on the trajectory now.
And John befriends Zoe, someone else who seems to have lost a father. I really liked all of those scenes for the quintissential teenagerness--the young people forming their own group, apart from the adults, to have their own conversations; the side trip to the local freaky watering hole; the undercurrents of long history between her and Henry, both of them growing up together in the same small town, and going through the same thing here in different ways. I also liked that Cameron was the one who twigged to the fact that there was something wrong with Zoe and her mother's mourning, but that she wasn't sure enough about her reading of human grief--there might be something about it she doesn't understand--to make a definitive judgment. It took all of them, John and Derek and Cameron, to put it together, because they were experiencing a loss, just not the right kind of loss.
Catherine almost gives herself away too, because she's not counterfeiting grief correctly; but she's precise and perceptive enough to adapt as she goes along. The scene between her and Ellison where she was talking about her husband's death and he was offering consolation was wonderfully creepy, because you could see that Ellison had picked up that something was wrong, but couldn't figure out what; and you could see that Catherine Weaver intends to use Ellison as a template for human behavior as much for herself as John Henry. She realizes that she needs to bring Savannah there; she repeats Ellison's comforting words, which are terribly inadequate and abstract for the context; she asks Savannah questions, and tries to understand, and offers her lap, even though it's cold.
Sarah could feel SkyNet in that town, everywhere, and it has already twisted the lives of everyone they touched; Derek points out how much the place looks like a work camp, with humans watching other humans on behalf of the machines. Sometimes people get caught up in something; other times, they participate willingly, as the videotape of Zoe's father showed. I think it's the first real information we've gotten that links Catherine Weaver to SkyNet; and clearly, whatever they're planning to do is already well underway. [ETA: and by "they're planning," here, I meant SkyNet, since Catherine Weaver is, I think, linked to SkyNet, but not necessarily working with them.]
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Dollhouse 2.02
Done. Now.
The Joss Whedon name kept me watching for about an hour and forty-five minutes after I would have normally given up, but there's a limit to his draw, and I have hit it, because this episode was just excruciating to watch. If I wanted to watch torture porn, I'd rent the Saw movies. (And yes, it was obviously meaningful that Echo saved herself and her handler, rather than being rescued. But how meaningful can it be when Topher pushes the reset button at the end? It's not development, it's a plot point. Echo can't have any character development, because Echo is not a character.)
Yeah, it may improve by episode 6, and if it does, I may pick it up again. Frankly, I doubt it will get the chance, though, and I can't make myself watch it in the meantime.
I didn't go back and look up the name of this episode. I probably should, since I will want to avoid it in the future. It had all of the hallmarks of a Jane Espenson BSG episode (unrecognizable characterizations, heavily symbolic conversations that don't actually mean anything about themes and developments that the audience already figured out on its own thanks, high-school-level melodrama, and plot points that don't make the remotest bit of sense--armed gangs are roaming the Galactica in response to the sudden food shortage WHATNOW?!?) except it had them in about twenty times the normal recommended dosage. Let us speak of it no more. I'll deal with what it means that racial purity is starting to look like a suicide pact for both sides and that Caprica Six and Tigh lost their baby when I can actually put those things in some context that makes sense, and when Ellen Tigh isn't standing over them hectoring them about their OMGTRUELOVE. Feh.
* * * * *
TSCC 2.15 - "Desert Cantos"
I'm always curious about the titles they chose for these episodes. Desert Cantos is the name of a set of photographs of the American desert by Richard Misrach dealing with the ways man's presence in the desert upsets existing balances. It seemed fitting for an episode about how SkyNet's presence shaped and then destroyed the small town where the factory worked, in ways both insidious and obvious, from inside the houses and beneath the fields.
Everybody is dealing with grief, but the humans--even stunted humans like Derek--are much better at it than the robots. I think Sarah is starting more and more to use her own life experience to connect with other people, even if the end goal is mostly to gather information. It doesn't feel that transactional when she does it; Lena Heady conveys a degree of empathy that shows Sarah's long-term goal, the survival of all of these people she's dealing with, as an undercurrent of her manipulation. In this case, she's also a sort of widow to a man with a life she didn't understand; she is, as Derek points out, still dealing with that loss, but she's farther along on the trajectory now.
And John befriends Zoe, someone else who seems to have lost a father. I really liked all of those scenes for the quintissential teenagerness--the young people forming their own group, apart from the adults, to have their own conversations; the side trip to the local freaky watering hole; the undercurrents of long history between her and Henry, both of them growing up together in the same small town, and going through the same thing here in different ways. I also liked that Cameron was the one who twigged to the fact that there was something wrong with Zoe and her mother's mourning, but that she wasn't sure enough about her reading of human grief--there might be something about it she doesn't understand--to make a definitive judgment. It took all of them, John and Derek and Cameron, to put it together, because they were experiencing a loss, just not the right kind of loss.
Catherine almost gives herself away too, because she's not counterfeiting grief correctly; but she's precise and perceptive enough to adapt as she goes along. The scene between her and Ellison where she was talking about her husband's death and he was offering consolation was wonderfully creepy, because you could see that Ellison had picked up that something was wrong, but couldn't figure out what; and you could see that Catherine Weaver intends to use Ellison as a template for human behavior as much for herself as John Henry. She realizes that she needs to bring Savannah there; she repeats Ellison's comforting words, which are terribly inadequate and abstract for the context; she asks Savannah questions, and tries to understand, and offers her lap, even though it's cold.
Sarah could feel SkyNet in that town, everywhere, and it has already twisted the lives of everyone they touched; Derek points out how much the place looks like a work camp, with humans watching other humans on behalf of the machines. Sometimes people get caught up in something; other times, they participate willingly, as the videotape of Zoe's father showed. I think it's the first real information we've gotten that links Catherine Weaver to SkyNet; and clearly, whatever they're planning to do is already well underway. [ETA: and by "they're planning," here, I meant SkyNet, since Catherine Weaver is, I think, linked to SkyNet, but not necessarily working with them.]
* * * * *
Dollhouse 2.02
Done. Now.
The Joss Whedon name kept me watching for about an hour and forty-five minutes after I would have normally given up, but there's a limit to his draw, and I have hit it, because this episode was just excruciating to watch. If I wanted to watch torture porn, I'd rent the Saw movies. (And yes, it was obviously meaningful that Echo saved herself and her handler, rather than being rescued. But how meaningful can it be when Topher pushes the reset button at the end? It's not development, it's a plot point. Echo can't have any character development, because Echo is not a character.)
Yeah, it may improve by episode 6, and if it does, I may pick it up again. Frankly, I doubt it will get the chance, though, and I can't make myself watch it in the meantime.