"I fell into the pool of acid eyes-first."
Last week was fairly crappy on several different levels, but at least there was good TV to get me through Friday and Saturday.
The Office 6.06 - The Lover
I'm glad that Dwight's plot to spy on Jim--which had that typically Dwight mixture of feral cunning and coarse ineptitude--provided a little levity, because this was otherwise, under the surface funniness of the situation, a really dire episode. When Jim finds out about Michael and Pam's mother, he is genuinely freaked out; there is bleeped-out cursing; and his immediate reaction is to try to protect Pam from this terrible, terrible, life-changing news. When he goes with Pam into Michael's office with that bottle of rum, he wears the look of a man walking to his execution. And he does so because he knows Pam, and he knows Michael, and he knows the fragile balance he and Pam are able to maintain with Michael, which is to tolerate and ameliorate his behavior as much as possible while carving out their own private life away from the office. In dating Pam's mother, Michael broke through that defensive barrier. Pam runs screaming from the office; she never stops screaming inside.
Michael, of course, doesn't get it, because he doesn't understand how Jim and Pam have erected a barrier to protect themselves. He thinks they're all friends without reservations. He expects Pam to be a little upset; but in removing the one mechanism that allowed her to put up with him, he ripped the bandage off their relationship. It's really ugly when Pam stops trying; she's petty and stubborn and unreasonable; and the worst part is that she can't articulate just what is so wrong with him that she'd react this strongly. Nobody can. It's an answer that would require a book, and that Michael wouldn't understand anyway, and in the end it boils down to the fact that Jim and Pam, but especially Pam, have developed this coping mechanism without ever consciously realizing what they were doing, and are lost when it's taken away from them.
In other words, I'm not as sure as Jim is that Dwight picked the wrong day to bug Jim's office with a wooden mallard.
And 30 Rock was a much stronger episode than the premiere, and basically made me clap my hands and squee throughout. There was a brief stint during Season 1 where I sort of shipped Jack and Liz, but more and more, I have come to adore their weirdly functional and unlikely friendship. Liz seriously asked Jack to look for her high school retainer. And he did, and he brought it back to her! And neither of them thought there was anything remotely insane about any of it.
* * * * *
Babylon 5 5.11 - "Phoenix Rising"
This episode attempts to drop a whole bunch of Byron's backstory on us, and to manufacture a long-running relationship between Bester and Byron, and it was at this point that I realized that Byron has the Riley problem. He was dropped into the fifth season with an enormous, important story arc; but I had no emotional investment in him when he was a new character, and the way the writing has undercut the show's own themes by making his group of telepaths come across as a creepy cult and him come across as a ridiculously ineffective leader have made me unable to get invested in the arc as a whole. So the last-minute backstory falls flat, and I don't care about his epic showdown with Bester. Plus, they've been telegraphing his heroic, sacrificial death for about four episodes now.
On the other hand, I care a great deal about Garibaldi's history with Bester, and the way it still haunts him--the way Bester is still in his head. Oh Michael. It's a long fall once you tip off that wagon.
Babylon 5 5.12 - "The Ragged Edge"
Sadly, it is all too apparent that Garibaldi doesn't want Stephen going on the mission to the Drazi homeworld with him because Garibaldi doesn't want Stephen to see him drinking. And it is even more apparent that if Stephen had been along, Garibaldi wouldn't have been passed out through the fight with his informant, and might have made the rendezvous with the pilot. Oh Michael!
(As a side note, I actually made a crack about how ridiculously huge the balcony in Garibaldi's hotel room was--and then the show explained it as a cultural tradition of the Drazi! Well done, show.)
I'm probably overreacting, but I am horrified that Ta'lon stole his draft writing and published it. It's a writer's worst nightmare! G'Kar already turned down the role of political leader of the Narns, but finds that he can take on the spiritual leadership. In making his peace with Londo, he has already undergone a personal journey that the Narns as a whole still need to undergo as a people. Plus, I suspect he'll have some fun with it.
I was having a hard time getting invested in the rebel telepath arc because of the Byron issue, so it's nice to have a new arc move to the forefront: the mystery of who is attacking Alliance shipping, and who it was that Londo and G'Kar saw on Centauri Prime, manipulating the Regent, and how those things are all connected. And I am especially pleased that G'Kar did something that characters on television so rarely do--shared the information he had with others, so that they could try to put the pieces together. I think G'Kar underestimates Londo's ability to keep a secret if his own life is on the line, but it's interesting how protective G'Kar has become of him; he's really functioning as his bodyguard now.
* * * * *
I was hoping to find White Collar entertaining and fun, and it was both of those things in spades, but it was also just really well made. The location shooting and cinematography were excellent; the sets were beautifully detailed. Giving Neal a missing girlfriend was a canny move on the part of the writers, because it makes him human--he can't get everything he wants. I also loved the rapport between him and Jonesey, which was nuanced and based on a lot of hard-won experienced on both sides; and the relationship between Jonesey and his wife. (Clearly, Tim DeKay made a major impression on me in Carnivale!) I'm a little perturbed by the lack of prominent female characters besides the wife, but this first episode was about establishing the deal with the FBI for Neal, and I think that there will be more setup of the regular players in the episodes to come.
And I'm especially glad I liked it since I'm really not finding that much to watch these days, and even less to be actively fannish about.
New Shows I've Given Up On:
* Eastwick--I suspected it wasn't going to be very good, but it's a particular flavor of not-good that I can't hack.
... and that's pretty much it, since there were very few new shows I was interested enough in to watch the first episode. I will give V a shot when it starts next week.
New Shows I'm Still Watching:
White Collar
Old Shows I'm Really Far Behind On This Season:
None, unless you count The X-Files, which I am either really, really behind on or am catching up on nicely, depending on how you want to define "behind."
Shows I Continue to Watch:
* L&O: SVU (don't judge me!)
* CSI: Original Flavor
* Eureka
* Leverage
* Psych
* Frontline
* The Office
* 30 Rock
* Castle
* Burn Notice
* Doctor Who (whenever it next reappears)
* Sanctuary (did not love the premiere, but thought it picked up a lot after that--lots of Helen Magnus makes everything better)
No wonder my TV schedule doesn't feel crowded right now; half of these are summer/winter shows and the other half are fall/spring. And slightly more than half of them are on cable.
* * * * *
I have finally figured out why I love fall so much: it is my favorite season for vegetables. It is brussels sprout season! And there are also beets and turnips and small, tender kabocha everywhere I look. Delicious. And even though the weather has been crisp and sunny and warm around the edges, I have felt compelled to make vats of soup and stew--long-simmered things with subtle spices.
Yesterday I made red-cooked beef with small, tender turnips and my house smelled amazing all evening. It turned out wonderfully, and only took about 10 minutes to put together--I can't recommend the recipe enough. (N.B. for anyone interested in trying it but new to Chinese cooking: dark soy sauce has a syrupy consistency and caramelized, almost smoky molasses flavor that is essential to this dish; regular soy sauce is not a good substitute.)
This entry was originally posted at http://danceswithwords.dreamwidth.org/142149.html (
comments). Comment at either site.
The Office 6.06 - The Lover
I'm glad that Dwight's plot to spy on Jim--which had that typically Dwight mixture of feral cunning and coarse ineptitude--provided a little levity, because this was otherwise, under the surface funniness of the situation, a really dire episode. When Jim finds out about Michael and Pam's mother, he is genuinely freaked out; there is bleeped-out cursing; and his immediate reaction is to try to protect Pam from this terrible, terrible, life-changing news. When he goes with Pam into Michael's office with that bottle of rum, he wears the look of a man walking to his execution. And he does so because he knows Pam, and he knows Michael, and he knows the fragile balance he and Pam are able to maintain with Michael, which is to tolerate and ameliorate his behavior as much as possible while carving out their own private life away from the office. In dating Pam's mother, Michael broke through that defensive barrier. Pam runs screaming from the office; she never stops screaming inside.
Michael, of course, doesn't get it, because he doesn't understand how Jim and Pam have erected a barrier to protect themselves. He thinks they're all friends without reservations. He expects Pam to be a little upset; but in removing the one mechanism that allowed her to put up with him, he ripped the bandage off their relationship. It's really ugly when Pam stops trying; she's petty and stubborn and unreasonable; and the worst part is that she can't articulate just what is so wrong with him that she'd react this strongly. Nobody can. It's an answer that would require a book, and that Michael wouldn't understand anyway, and in the end it boils down to the fact that Jim and Pam, but especially Pam, have developed this coping mechanism without ever consciously realizing what they were doing, and are lost when it's taken away from them.
In other words, I'm not as sure as Jim is that Dwight picked the wrong day to bug Jim's office with a wooden mallard.
And 30 Rock was a much stronger episode than the premiere, and basically made me clap my hands and squee throughout. There was a brief stint during Season 1 where I sort of shipped Jack and Liz, but more and more, I have come to adore their weirdly functional and unlikely friendship. Liz seriously asked Jack to look for her high school retainer. And he did, and he brought it back to her! And neither of them thought there was anything remotely insane about any of it.
* * * * *
Babylon 5 5.11 - "Phoenix Rising"
This episode attempts to drop a whole bunch of Byron's backstory on us, and to manufacture a long-running relationship between Bester and Byron, and it was at this point that I realized that Byron has the Riley problem. He was dropped into the fifth season with an enormous, important story arc; but I had no emotional investment in him when he was a new character, and the way the writing has undercut the show's own themes by making his group of telepaths come across as a creepy cult and him come across as a ridiculously ineffective leader have made me unable to get invested in the arc as a whole. So the last-minute backstory falls flat, and I don't care about his epic showdown with Bester. Plus, they've been telegraphing his heroic, sacrificial death for about four episodes now.
On the other hand, I care a great deal about Garibaldi's history with Bester, and the way it still haunts him--the way Bester is still in his head. Oh Michael. It's a long fall once you tip off that wagon.
Babylon 5 5.12 - "The Ragged Edge"
Sadly, it is all too apparent that Garibaldi doesn't want Stephen going on the mission to the Drazi homeworld with him because Garibaldi doesn't want Stephen to see him drinking. And it is even more apparent that if Stephen had been along, Garibaldi wouldn't have been passed out through the fight with his informant, and might have made the rendezvous with the pilot. Oh Michael!
(As a side note, I actually made a crack about how ridiculously huge the balcony in Garibaldi's hotel room was--and then the show explained it as a cultural tradition of the Drazi! Well done, show.)
I'm probably overreacting, but I am horrified that Ta'lon stole his draft writing and published it. It's a writer's worst nightmare! G'Kar already turned down the role of political leader of the Narns, but finds that he can take on the spiritual leadership. In making his peace with Londo, he has already undergone a personal journey that the Narns as a whole still need to undergo as a people. Plus, I suspect he'll have some fun with it.
I was having a hard time getting invested in the rebel telepath arc because of the Byron issue, so it's nice to have a new arc move to the forefront: the mystery of who is attacking Alliance shipping, and who it was that Londo and G'Kar saw on Centauri Prime, manipulating the Regent, and how those things are all connected. And I am especially pleased that G'Kar did something that characters on television so rarely do--shared the information he had with others, so that they could try to put the pieces together. I think G'Kar underestimates Londo's ability to keep a secret if his own life is on the line, but it's interesting how protective G'Kar has become of him; he's really functioning as his bodyguard now.
* * * * *
I was hoping to find White Collar entertaining and fun, and it was both of those things in spades, but it was also just really well made. The location shooting and cinematography were excellent; the sets were beautifully detailed. Giving Neal a missing girlfriend was a canny move on the part of the writers, because it makes him human--he can't get everything he wants. I also loved the rapport between him and Jonesey, which was nuanced and based on a lot of hard-won experienced on both sides; and the relationship between Jonesey and his wife. (Clearly, Tim DeKay made a major impression on me in Carnivale!) I'm a little perturbed by the lack of prominent female characters besides the wife, but this first episode was about establishing the deal with the FBI for Neal, and I think that there will be more setup of the regular players in the episodes to come.
And I'm especially glad I liked it since I'm really not finding that much to watch these days, and even less to be actively fannish about.
New Shows I've Given Up On:
* Eastwick--I suspected it wasn't going to be very good, but it's a particular flavor of not-good that I can't hack.
... and that's pretty much it, since there were very few new shows I was interested enough in to watch the first episode. I will give V a shot when it starts next week.
New Shows I'm Still Watching:
White Collar
Old Shows I'm Really Far Behind On This Season:
None, unless you count The X-Files, which I am either really, really behind on or am catching up on nicely, depending on how you want to define "behind."
Shows I Continue to Watch:
* L&O: SVU (don't judge me!)
* CSI: Original Flavor
* Eureka
* Leverage
* Psych
* Frontline
* The Office
* 30 Rock
* Castle
* Burn Notice
* Doctor Who (whenever it next reappears)
* Sanctuary (did not love the premiere, but thought it picked up a lot after that--lots of Helen Magnus makes everything better)
No wonder my TV schedule doesn't feel crowded right now; half of these are summer/winter shows and the other half are fall/spring. And slightly more than half of them are on cable.
* * * * *
I have finally figured out why I love fall so much: it is my favorite season for vegetables. It is brussels sprout season! And there are also beets and turnips and small, tender kabocha everywhere I look. Delicious. And even though the weather has been crisp and sunny and warm around the edges, I have felt compelled to make vats of soup and stew--long-simmered things with subtle spices.
Yesterday I made red-cooked beef with small, tender turnips and my house smelled amazing all evening. It turned out wonderfully, and only took about 10 minutes to put together--I can't recommend the recipe enough. (N.B. for anyone interested in trying it but new to Chinese cooking: dark soy sauce has a syrupy consistency and caramelized, almost smoky molasses flavor that is essential to this dish; regular soy sauce is not a good substitute.)
This entry was originally posted at http://danceswithwords.dreamwidth.org/142149.html (
comments). Comment at either site.