"I'm not gay. I'm Kevin."
The Office 6.04 - Niagara
I can't help it; I feel like this episode just knocked it out of the park. Jim and Pam's wedding was an extension of the rest of their lives: they know they are a part of this big, dysfunctional organization, and they know it well enough to predict it (the dancing down the aisle) even if sometimes it can surprise them (Andy's torn scrotum). It is a force of nature, and they have carved out their own private space in its midst. They chose not to let anybody ruin their wedding by having it somewhere else, just the two of them. And then they let their family and friends have the party. Aw. I especially like that it wasn't just the DM folks who were making it difficult--Jim's brothers are assholes, and Pam's parents are putting her in the middle of their issues. This show just delights me; I can't think of a better word.
There was a lot of awesome, including (but not limited to!):
* * * * *
Babylon 5 5.05 - "Learning Curve"
Of the two plots in this episode, I found the B plot--Garibaldi's distrust of Lochley based on what side she'd taken in the civil war, and the way half the cafeteria cheered her on when she answered--much more interesting than the A plot about a Ranger facing his fear by besting the convenient thug who'd beaten him to a pulp. And because I've watched television before, I guessed right away that Sherridan and Lochley had been romantically involved in the past, and was super annoyed with Sheridan for not feeling like he could just tell Delenn, who does not strike me as the type to freak out about the appearance of a long-ago ex-girlfriend.
Babylon 5 5.06 - "Strange Relations"
As I guessed, Delenn is totally fine with Sheridan and Lochley's past relationship, and his reasoning for choosing Lochley is sound. There are people you can work with, and people you can trust, and they aren't always the same people. Bester is one of the former; Lochley feels like he plays by the rules, because he hasn't screwed her over before. (Garibaldi has a very different reaction.) Bester clearly feels like he can work with Lochley too, since he accepts her thin excuse of quarantine, and expects her to hold onto the rogue telepaths until he returns. It's not a bad judgment call; she's pledged to work within the rules.
In the meantime, Delenn's idea to make G'Kar Londo's bodyguard falls firmly into "so crazy it just might work" territory, because G'Kar and Londo have learned to not only work together but also trust each other.
Babylon 5 5.07 - "Secrets of the Soul"
I am a little flummoxed by the relationship between the A plot and the B plot in this episode, unless it's a lesson about interdependency. But mostly, I am seriously fucking disturbed by Lyta and Byron's romance, and by the rogue telepaths in general. This is a case where what the show is trying to tell me and what I'm seeing are very different things. On paper, Byron's cause is noble, and Byron's determination to pursue it through nonviolent means is admirable; the telepaths are a woefully abused and oppressed group. In execution, Byron is sanctimonious and overwhelmingly unlikable, and the telepaths act like a creepy cult, and seriously, y'all, what is up with their hair?!? Lyta's outburst to Zack is pretty much a textbook example of the problem: she's right that Zack probably is jealous, and that other people have wanted her to use her abilities to help them but haven't done much for her in return, and yet she sounds like a 15-year-old girl making excuses for returning to an abusive boyfriend. And you know what doesn't help? When one of the pivotal reveals of the entire series--the fact that the Vorlons engineered telepaths in species across the galaxy to help them with their future war with the Shadows--is shown as a vision at the climactic moment of an unnecessarily graphic sex scene between two characters with no chemistry while THE ENTIRE CREEPY TELEPATH CULT GATHERS AROUND THEM LIKE IT ISN'T A PRIVATE MOMENT OR ANYTHING. AAAAAAAAH!
What I'm saying is, there are parts of this episode I would very much like to unsee.
Babylon 5 5.08 - "Day of the Dead"
I am so, so glad that this episode came along when it did, because it's wonderful, and ended the a run of several very dodgy episodes. Well played, Neil Gaiman. The Penn and Teller guest spots are totally random, but I like that it provides an excuse for showing that there's pop culture in the future, something that sci fi shows tend not to do very well. It's a nice character episode, too, both in the sense that we learn more about some of the characters (Lochley's wayward past) and that the characters themselves get a night to make their peace with some of the people they've lost, and to have some fun while doing so. Of course, as usual, poor Lennier totally gets the short end of the stick. Everybody else gets to spend the night with old friends or past loves, and he gets Morden.
Of course, Lochley should have been a little more suspicious of the terms of the lease, but that wouldn't have served the plot, and it was worth it to see her and Garibaldi hack the communications. G'Kar sleeping in the command center like a crotchety hobo with his blankie was also pretty funny; of all the people to miss out on a spiritual experience.
* * * * *
The X-Files 1.17 - "E.B.E"
* This is supposed to be Iraq, "present day," but the Middle East is a very different place now. Anyway, the Iraqi air force pilot that gets hit by something mysterious can take comfort in the fact that there's no more Iraqi air force now anyway.
* Hey, it's the ashrak who killed Jolinar. Except that now he's driving a semi in the middle of the night in Tennessee, little suspecting that he's on The X-Files and something awful is about to happen to him.
* It is both hilarious and telling that Scully's investigative tools include a notebook and a camera, while Mulder's include a geiger counter and matching stopwatches. On the other hand, Scully asks the truck driver the obvious question--about how long he's had his cough--while Mulder asks the one that gets him to answer--about how long he hasn't been himself.
* The Lone Gunmen make their first appearance! "That's why we like you, Mulder. Your ideas are weirder than ours." Heh. And yet he doesn't seem to take that as a warning sign.
* OMG! Scully doesn't think any of the Lone Gunmen's theories are remotely plausible, but Mulder thinks it's plausible that they could think she's hot. HE IS FLIRTING WITH HER! And anyway, those crazy theories seem more plausible when she finds a bug in her pen.
* Aaaaaaand, all signs point to UFO wreckage.
* Oh Mulder, thanking your inside source as if he's doing it out of altruism, rather than for some murky reason of his own. I love that Scully shares my concern--that people might use his passion and obsession intensity against him. And I love that Mulder listens to her, because she's coming at him from a place of respect.
* Dr. Novak, the hiccuping scientist from "Prometheus Unbound," sells Scully several plane tickets. Scully at least trusts Mulder enough to go chasing across the country after the truck; the surveillance lends weight to the idea that they're onto something.
* Mulder totally shocked me by looking at the evidence and deciding that the abandoned truck was a set-up. He wants the proof so badly, but he's not letting it totally overwhelm his judgment. Good for him.
* If I were thinking more about the conspiracy, I would wonder why the source keeps showing up to have these "As you know, Bob" conversations with Mulder, and to give him little dribs and drabs about government coverups of alien visits. But I am not thinking about the conspiracy!
The X-Files 1.18 - "Miracle Man"
* Ha! This case isn't even an X-file, but it's weird enough to interest Mulder.
* Is exhuming bodies on foggy nights SOP with the FBI? Just wondering. It does lend a creepy atmosphere to the confrontation with the anti-exhumation congregation.
* Interesting! The child with the healing hands, the center of the faith healing ministry, is drinking and smoking because he thinks he killed someone, that his gift was corrupted. That was not what I was expecting.
* Mulder, please, please, please stop haring off after a vision of a little girl who may or may not be your missing sister. One of these days you're going to step in an open manhole or walk off a pier or something.
* Oh wow. The sheriff set the boy up by putting two guys in his cell who wanted to beat the crap out of him. Someone's evil in this town, and it's not the fake preacher running the ministry.
* It turns out that saving a life isn't always enough, I guess.
* Ouch! The local sheriff is in the middle of wondering if he killed the young man who could have healed his crippled wife when a deputy comes to the door looking for him because the local DA has questions about the boy's death. That's non-Alanis Morisette-style irony.
The X-Files 1.19 - "Shapes"
* Aiiieeeee! Doc Cottle shot the beast attacking his son, because apparently he hasn't yet developed his withering sarcasm into the life-stopping force it will one day become.
* Since he's in a court case with the tribe, one of whose members he apparently shot, it's not looking good for Doc Cottle.
* Heh. When Lyle, Son of Cottle asks Scully whether she ever gets the creeps, Mulder looks like he wants to hear her answer too.
* I am somewhat uncomfortable with the show bringing Indian tribes into the mix, but I like the fact that the people on the reservation are resentful of feds and outsiders who only show up when they want something. Especially excellent was the scene where Mulder wanted to know about the Indian legend of a shape shifter and the Indian tribal officer snapped back that he's not a park ranger, there to answer all Mulder's questions about Indians.
* I'm guessing that it's significant that the sister is the only family member left, and that Lyle showed up at the funeral, before he was turned away.
* Donnelly Rhodes sure can smoke. Or he could, before he was attacked by a beast.
* Yep--they find out from the old man that the curse is passed down through the bloodlines. But it's not the sister, it's Lyle!
The X-Files 1.20 - "Darkness Falls"
* Aiiieeeee! What are the loggers running away from? It sort of looks like sinister fireflies, but that seems like an oxymoron.
* Isn't it always the ecoterrorists' fault? Apparently not, since a WPA crew disappeared in the same area in the 30s.
* I am so relieved that Mulder and Scully are dressed appropriately for a foray into the wilderness! Usually they go stomping around in the woods in suits and dress shoes. (Although I'm a little surprised that Scully let Mulder talk her into going into the forest with him again, given how lost and captured he got them last time.)
* Aiiieeeeeeeeee! It's a giant hive! With a dessicated corpse in it!
* The belligerent logging company owner goes out into the dark and taunts the bugs. I begin a countdown to his grisly death.
* Aha! Cutting down old growth trees is not only terrible for nature but may result in supernatural infestations. But prehistoric bug eggs thrust up during volcano activity and brought up into the tree from its root system? It's like they're not even trying.
* Oh Mulder. Maybe you shouldn't have let the ecoterrorist leave with so much of the gas, since electricity is the only thing keeping the sinister fireflies at bay.
* This episode is EXTREMELY CREEPY.
* Oh, hey, the ecoterrorist came back for them! But then they stalled out in the road anyway. And WERE SWARMED! AIIIIEEEEEEE!
* They actually got cocoonified! Good thing they were rescued before they got sucked dry. I assume that the show is going to pass over the two years of therapy it will take all of them to come out from under the bed again. And they have TINY SUCK-MARKS ALL OVER THEIR FACES!!! If I were Scully, I would never, ever go into the woods with Mulder again. It's just a bad idea.
* * * * *
My Internet timewaster of the moment: Regretsy. molly_may, this one's for you.
And this sort of puts NBC's latest flailing in perspective. *sigh*
This entry was originally posted at http://danceswithwords.dreamwidth.org/141820.html (
comments). Comment at either site.
I can't help it; I feel like this episode just knocked it out of the park. Jim and Pam's wedding was an extension of the rest of their lives: they know they are a part of this big, dysfunctional organization, and they know it well enough to predict it (the dancing down the aisle) even if sometimes it can surprise them (Andy's torn scrotum). It is a force of nature, and they have carved out their own private space in its midst. They chose not to let anybody ruin their wedding by having it somewhere else, just the two of them. And then they let their family and friends have the party. Aw. I especially like that it wasn't just the DM folks who were making it difficult--Jim's brothers are assholes, and Pam's parents are putting her in the middle of their issues. This show just delights me; I can't think of a better word.
There was a lot of awesome, including (but not limited to!):
- The cold open, and the way Pam wasn't going to take Dwight's bullying with hard-boiled eggs lying down, even though her stand was unfortunate for the innocent bystanders.
- The list of dos and don'ts!!!
- The way Michael repeatedly tried to make it about him, and for once did almost more good than harm--decorating his own car, stepping in at the end of Jim's speech to try to take the heat off Jim, (sort of) mollifying meemaw. Almost.
- Dwight's growing spine. He didn't give Michael his room; instead, he tested him. And basically, Dwight ended up having Michael's dream wedding experience. I also liked the way he tried to turn the children's table against Jim. At Jim's own wedding.
- Oscar. I am trying to figure out if Oscar has always been this awesome, or if his awesomeness has become more pronounced recently. I especially loved how frustrated he was when people thought he was there with Kevin. (Kevin! The effect of his incredibly fake-looking hair was somewhat mitigated by the fact that he was wearing kleenex boxes on his feet. Oh, Kevin.)
- Also, Andy. He was just trying to show off, after all. Although I know that the last thing Pam wanted to do on the night before her wedding was drive him to the hospital for a torn scrotum. I find Andy's hopeful, shy interest in Erin absolutely adorable--and very much in the pattern of Jim and Pam, in a weird way. He was so crushed that he'd been seated next to Erin, but Kevin had switched placecards. And she gave him a scarf to sit on to cushion his torn scrotum. AWWWWWW.
- The fact that Jim was the one to blow the secret of Pam's pregnancy, after all.
- Jim's pep talk to Pam before the wedding, which was lovely.
* * * * *
Babylon 5 5.05 - "Learning Curve"
Of the two plots in this episode, I found the B plot--Garibaldi's distrust of Lochley based on what side she'd taken in the civil war, and the way half the cafeteria cheered her on when she answered--much more interesting than the A plot about a Ranger facing his fear by besting the convenient thug who'd beaten him to a pulp. And because I've watched television before, I guessed right away that Sherridan and Lochley had been romantically involved in the past, and was super annoyed with Sheridan for not feeling like he could just tell Delenn, who does not strike me as the type to freak out about the appearance of a long-ago ex-girlfriend.
Babylon 5 5.06 - "Strange Relations"
As I guessed, Delenn is totally fine with Sheridan and Lochley's past relationship, and his reasoning for choosing Lochley is sound. There are people you can work with, and people you can trust, and they aren't always the same people. Bester is one of the former; Lochley feels like he plays by the rules, because he hasn't screwed her over before. (Garibaldi has a very different reaction.) Bester clearly feels like he can work with Lochley too, since he accepts her thin excuse of quarantine, and expects her to hold onto the rogue telepaths until he returns. It's not a bad judgment call; she's pledged to work within the rules.
In the meantime, Delenn's idea to make G'Kar Londo's bodyguard falls firmly into "so crazy it just might work" territory, because G'Kar and Londo have learned to not only work together but also trust each other.
Babylon 5 5.07 - "Secrets of the Soul"
I am a little flummoxed by the relationship between the A plot and the B plot in this episode, unless it's a lesson about interdependency. But mostly, I am seriously fucking disturbed by Lyta and Byron's romance, and by the rogue telepaths in general. This is a case where what the show is trying to tell me and what I'm seeing are very different things. On paper, Byron's cause is noble, and Byron's determination to pursue it through nonviolent means is admirable; the telepaths are a woefully abused and oppressed group. In execution, Byron is sanctimonious and overwhelmingly unlikable, and the telepaths act like a creepy cult, and seriously, y'all, what is up with their hair?!? Lyta's outburst to Zack is pretty much a textbook example of the problem: she's right that Zack probably is jealous, and that other people have wanted her to use her abilities to help them but haven't done much for her in return, and yet she sounds like a 15-year-old girl making excuses for returning to an abusive boyfriend. And you know what doesn't help? When one of the pivotal reveals of the entire series--the fact that the Vorlons engineered telepaths in species across the galaxy to help them with their future war with the Shadows--is shown as a vision at the climactic moment of an unnecessarily graphic sex scene between two characters with no chemistry while THE ENTIRE CREEPY TELEPATH CULT GATHERS AROUND THEM LIKE IT ISN'T A PRIVATE MOMENT OR ANYTHING. AAAAAAAAH!
What I'm saying is, there are parts of this episode I would very much like to unsee.
Babylon 5 5.08 - "Day of the Dead"
I am so, so glad that this episode came along when it did, because it's wonderful, and ended the a run of several very dodgy episodes. Well played, Neil Gaiman. The Penn and Teller guest spots are totally random, but I like that it provides an excuse for showing that there's pop culture in the future, something that sci fi shows tend not to do very well. It's a nice character episode, too, both in the sense that we learn more about some of the characters (Lochley's wayward past) and that the characters themselves get a night to make their peace with some of the people they've lost, and to have some fun while doing so. Of course, as usual, poor Lennier totally gets the short end of the stick. Everybody else gets to spend the night with old friends or past loves, and he gets Morden.
Of course, Lochley should have been a little more suspicious of the terms of the lease, but that wouldn't have served the plot, and it was worth it to see her and Garibaldi hack the communications. G'Kar sleeping in the command center like a crotchety hobo with his blankie was also pretty funny; of all the people to miss out on a spiritual experience.
* * * * *
The X-Files 1.17 - "E.B.E"
* This is supposed to be Iraq, "present day," but the Middle East is a very different place now. Anyway, the Iraqi air force pilot that gets hit by something mysterious can take comfort in the fact that there's no more Iraqi air force now anyway.
* Hey, it's the ashrak who killed Jolinar. Except that now he's driving a semi in the middle of the night in Tennessee, little suspecting that he's on The X-Files and something awful is about to happen to him.
* It is both hilarious and telling that Scully's investigative tools include a notebook and a camera, while Mulder's include a geiger counter and matching stopwatches. On the other hand, Scully asks the truck driver the obvious question--about how long he's had his cough--while Mulder asks the one that gets him to answer--about how long he hasn't been himself.
* The Lone Gunmen make their first appearance! "That's why we like you, Mulder. Your ideas are weirder than ours." Heh. And yet he doesn't seem to take that as a warning sign.
* OMG! Scully doesn't think any of the Lone Gunmen's theories are remotely plausible, but Mulder thinks it's plausible that they could think she's hot. HE IS FLIRTING WITH HER! And anyway, those crazy theories seem more plausible when she finds a bug in her pen.
* Aaaaaaand, all signs point to UFO wreckage.
* Oh Mulder, thanking your inside source as if he's doing it out of altruism, rather than for some murky reason of his own. I love that Scully shares my concern--that people might use his passion and obsession intensity against him. And I love that Mulder listens to her, because she's coming at him from a place of respect.
* Dr. Novak, the hiccuping scientist from "Prometheus Unbound," sells Scully several plane tickets. Scully at least trusts Mulder enough to go chasing across the country after the truck; the surveillance lends weight to the idea that they're onto something.
* Mulder totally shocked me by looking at the evidence and deciding that the abandoned truck was a set-up. He wants the proof so badly, but he's not letting it totally overwhelm his judgment. Good for him.
* If I were thinking more about the conspiracy, I would wonder why the source keeps showing up to have these "As you know, Bob" conversations with Mulder, and to give him little dribs and drabs about government coverups of alien visits. But I am not thinking about the conspiracy!
The X-Files 1.18 - "Miracle Man"
* Ha! This case isn't even an X-file, but it's weird enough to interest Mulder.
* Is exhuming bodies on foggy nights SOP with the FBI? Just wondering. It does lend a creepy atmosphere to the confrontation with the anti-exhumation congregation.
* Interesting! The child with the healing hands, the center of the faith healing ministry, is drinking and smoking because he thinks he killed someone, that his gift was corrupted. That was not what I was expecting.
* Mulder, please, please, please stop haring off after a vision of a little girl who may or may not be your missing sister. One of these days you're going to step in an open manhole or walk off a pier or something.
* Oh wow. The sheriff set the boy up by putting two guys in his cell who wanted to beat the crap out of him. Someone's evil in this town, and it's not the fake preacher running the ministry.
* It turns out that saving a life isn't always enough, I guess.
* Ouch! The local sheriff is in the middle of wondering if he killed the young man who could have healed his crippled wife when a deputy comes to the door looking for him because the local DA has questions about the boy's death. That's non-Alanis Morisette-style irony.
The X-Files 1.19 - "Shapes"
* Aiiieeeee! Doc Cottle shot the beast attacking his son, because apparently he hasn't yet developed his withering sarcasm into the life-stopping force it will one day become.
* Since he's in a court case with the tribe, one of whose members he apparently shot, it's not looking good for Doc Cottle.
* Heh. When Lyle, Son of Cottle asks Scully whether she ever gets the creeps, Mulder looks like he wants to hear her answer too.
* I am somewhat uncomfortable with the show bringing Indian tribes into the mix, but I like the fact that the people on the reservation are resentful of feds and outsiders who only show up when they want something. Especially excellent was the scene where Mulder wanted to know about the Indian legend of a shape shifter and the Indian tribal officer snapped back that he's not a park ranger, there to answer all Mulder's questions about Indians.
* I'm guessing that it's significant that the sister is the only family member left, and that Lyle showed up at the funeral, before he was turned away.
* Donnelly Rhodes sure can smoke. Or he could, before he was attacked by a beast.
* Yep--they find out from the old man that the curse is passed down through the bloodlines. But it's not the sister, it's Lyle!
The X-Files 1.20 - "Darkness Falls"
* Aiiieeeee! What are the loggers running away from? It sort of looks like sinister fireflies, but that seems like an oxymoron.
* Isn't it always the ecoterrorists' fault? Apparently not, since a WPA crew disappeared in the same area in the 30s.
* I am so relieved that Mulder and Scully are dressed appropriately for a foray into the wilderness! Usually they go stomping around in the woods in suits and dress shoes. (Although I'm a little surprised that Scully let Mulder talk her into going into the forest with him again, given how lost and captured he got them last time.)
* Aiiieeeeeeeeee! It's a giant hive! With a dessicated corpse in it!
* The belligerent logging company owner goes out into the dark and taunts the bugs. I begin a countdown to his grisly death.
* Aha! Cutting down old growth trees is not only terrible for nature but may result in supernatural infestations. But prehistoric bug eggs thrust up during volcano activity and brought up into the tree from its root system? It's like they're not even trying.
* Oh Mulder. Maybe you shouldn't have let the ecoterrorist leave with so much of the gas, since electricity is the only thing keeping the sinister fireflies at bay.
* This episode is EXTREMELY CREEPY.
* Oh, hey, the ecoterrorist came back for them! But then they stalled out in the road anyway. And WERE SWARMED! AIIIIEEEEEEE!
* They actually got cocoonified! Good thing they were rescued before they got sucked dry. I assume that the show is going to pass over the two years of therapy it will take all of them to come out from under the bed again. And they have TINY SUCK-MARKS ALL OVER THEIR FACES!!! If I were Scully, I would never, ever go into the woods with Mulder again. It's just a bad idea.
* * * * *
My Internet timewaster of the moment: Regretsy. molly_may, this one's for you.
And this sort of puts NBC's latest flailing in perspective. *sigh*
This entry was originally posted at http://danceswithwords.dreamwidth.org/141820.html (
comments). Comment at either site.