Celebrating Friday with some spoilers and a lot of shallowness
So, yes, like the lemming I am, I have set up LJ Talk and will probably be off and on depending on my workload/whether or not I remember to set myself away when I am in meetings. I am extremely shy about IMing people out of the blue, though. Sometimes I frustrate myself. Well, most of the time.
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I will now continue to do my part to make sure that asta77 is way more excited about Stargate than she ever thought she'd be.
Here are links to Gateworld image slide shows for the next 5 episodes.
10.03 "The Pegasus Project" - Daniel finally gets to Atlantis! Vala looks very good in black! Cam and John Sheppard stand on a balcony and look extremely hot! Also, there's some kind of plot.
10.04 "Insiders" - Sam and Vala work together! There's Baal! I repeat-there's Baal! He's probably up to something, but that's not really what's important here.
10.05 "Uninvited" - Teal'c looks pensive, both in and out of the fog! The way Ben Browder looks amazing holding guns should make me uncomfortable but doesn't! I ignore General Landry! Apparently, there's a mission to some planet.
10.06 "200" - I can't believe this show has had 200 episodes! Jack! Amanda Tapping should never become a Rastafarian! I repeat my observation about Ben Browder and guns! Also, something's going on with a goa'uld ship.
10.07 "Counterstrike" - Morena Baccarin looks gorgeous! Also, other stuff probably happens.
* * * * *
I've finally (sort of) caught up on some television. Specifically:
Dead Like Me 1.01 - 1.03
I really enjoyed the way the show opens; it's visually very interesting (in fact, the visuals throughout, the long continuous shots of the Rube Goldberg-esque ends of so many of George's assignments, the focus on mundane but defining details, the gorgeous, ethereal destinations she sends those assignments to, are excellent). (Bryan Fuller was also involved with "Wonderfalls," right? Because if he wasn't, there should be a lawsuit.) It sets up the grim reaper scenario as being about something beyond death, but not in any pat or sentimental way. I am predisposed to like snarky, bitter, underemployed young twenty-somethings, so although George has some hard edges, I like her a lot. Some of the plot elements are pretty cliché-George's first soul being a little girl was very heavy-handed-but I like the way the show establishes that there are things worse than death (like having your soul be trapped in your body during your autopsy yeeeeaaargh!), and quite frankly, the rampaging bear was funny. The bureaucracy, the routine, the way being a grim reaper is a lot like other jobs, and they each have to find their own rhythm and style, is interesting. It's hard enough, being that age and on your own for the first time and trying to make connections in the world, when you aren't dead, and I also like the way George's relationship with her family develops post-mortem, and the way her family is trying to reform around her absence, and her sister's obsession with toilet seats, and George's late-developing admiration for someone she'd never payed attention to before.
One thing I really like is that the other reapers don't automatically gather George to their collective bosom; they're grudgingly willing to tell her how things work, but she really is on her own, and she no longer has the luxury of being as snide as she'd like to be, she's not special and they're all busy. Mason is my kryptonite, a snarky, slightly built, dark-haired guy with a hot English accent, but my Mason fangirling in a given episode seems to gyrate between 90 and 10 because on the one hand, he is all of those things, and on the other, he's often appalling and not very bright (I'm not sure I can fully get behind the attractiveness of anybody who thought it would be a good idea to drill a hole in their own head). Mandy Patinkin is excellent, Jasmine Guy is unexpectedly fun, and Ellen Muth gives George a compelling mixture of sneer and gangliness. One thing the show doesn't seem to have a good handle on is the use of the voiceovers, which are sometimes intrusive and serve to point out the obvious. Hopefully as the show hits its stride it will trust the audience more, ease off on the voiceovers and the sentimental clichés, because this is a promising start.
Life on Mars 1.01
I can see why there has been so much squee about this show; it's really clever and moves quickly. I especially like the fact that Sam has to negotiate a huge gap between his own experience of police work-professional, technology driven, focused on concern for victims-and the police work of the 70s, with its lack of DNA labs and instant fingerprint matching and its dynamic of power wielded brutally and somewhat arbitrarily by an inside group of connected men. And I especially like the Sam and the audience try to make sense of what has happened to him, that a coma seems like the most likely rational explanation, but that while he's there, he needs to live the reality he's in. The supporting characters are really strong, especially Hunt, whose relationship with Sam is nicely complicated by the fact that they're both after the same thing, ultimately, but in ways that seem like they're going to lead to an inevitable and ugly showdown.
* * * * *
I will now continue to do my part to make sure that asta77 is way more excited about Stargate than she ever thought she'd be.
Here are links to Gateworld image slide shows for the next 5 episodes.
10.03 "The Pegasus Project" - Daniel finally gets to Atlantis! Vala looks very good in black! Cam and John Sheppard stand on a balcony and look extremely hot! Also, there's some kind of plot.
10.04 "Insiders" - Sam and Vala work together! There's Baal! I repeat-there's Baal! He's probably up to something, but that's not really what's important here.
10.05 "Uninvited" - Teal'c looks pensive, both in and out of the fog! The way Ben Browder looks amazing holding guns should make me uncomfortable but doesn't! I ignore General Landry! Apparently, there's a mission to some planet.
10.06 "200" - I can't believe this show has had 200 episodes! Jack! Amanda Tapping should never become a Rastafarian! I repeat my observation about Ben Browder and guns! Also, something's going on with a goa'uld ship.
10.07 "Counterstrike" - Morena Baccarin looks gorgeous! Also, other stuff probably happens.
* * * * *
I've finally (sort of) caught up on some television. Specifically:
Dead Like Me 1.01 - 1.03
I really enjoyed the way the show opens; it's visually very interesting (in fact, the visuals throughout, the long continuous shots of the Rube Goldberg-esque ends of so many of George's assignments, the focus on mundane but defining details, the gorgeous, ethereal destinations she sends those assignments to, are excellent). (Bryan Fuller was also involved with "Wonderfalls," right? Because if he wasn't, there should be a lawsuit.) It sets up the grim reaper scenario as being about something beyond death, but not in any pat or sentimental way. I am predisposed to like snarky, bitter, underemployed young twenty-somethings, so although George has some hard edges, I like her a lot. Some of the plot elements are pretty cliché-George's first soul being a little girl was very heavy-handed-but I like the way the show establishes that there are things worse than death (like having your soul be trapped in your body during your autopsy yeeeeaaargh!), and quite frankly, the rampaging bear was funny. The bureaucracy, the routine, the way being a grim reaper is a lot like other jobs, and they each have to find their own rhythm and style, is interesting. It's hard enough, being that age and on your own for the first time and trying to make connections in the world, when you aren't dead, and I also like the way George's relationship with her family develops post-mortem, and the way her family is trying to reform around her absence, and her sister's obsession with toilet seats, and George's late-developing admiration for someone she'd never payed attention to before.
One thing I really like is that the other reapers don't automatically gather George to their collective bosom; they're grudgingly willing to tell her how things work, but she really is on her own, and she no longer has the luxury of being as snide as she'd like to be, she's not special and they're all busy. Mason is my kryptonite, a snarky, slightly built, dark-haired guy with a hot English accent, but my Mason fangirling in a given episode seems to gyrate between 90 and 10 because on the one hand, he is all of those things, and on the other, he's often appalling and not very bright (I'm not sure I can fully get behind the attractiveness of anybody who thought it would be a good idea to drill a hole in their own head). Mandy Patinkin is excellent, Jasmine Guy is unexpectedly fun, and Ellen Muth gives George a compelling mixture of sneer and gangliness. One thing the show doesn't seem to have a good handle on is the use of the voiceovers, which are sometimes intrusive and serve to point out the obvious. Hopefully as the show hits its stride it will trust the audience more, ease off on the voiceovers and the sentimental clichés, because this is a promising start.
Life on Mars 1.01
I can see why there has been so much squee about this show; it's really clever and moves quickly. I especially like the fact that Sam has to negotiate a huge gap between his own experience of police work-professional, technology driven, focused on concern for victims-and the police work of the 70s, with its lack of DNA labs and instant fingerprint matching and its dynamic of power wielded brutally and somewhat arbitrarily by an inside group of connected men. And I especially like the Sam and the audience try to make sense of what has happened to him, that a coma seems like the most likely rational explanation, but that while he's there, he needs to live the reality he's in. The supporting characters are really strong, especially Hunt, whose relationship with Sam is nicely complicated by the fact that they're both after the same thing, ultimately, but in ways that seem like they're going to lead to an inevitable and ugly showdown.